Visit Enfield Town Places

Welcome to Visit Enfield Town Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Enfield Town

  

Enfield Town Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Enfield Town

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Enfield Town history

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In Anglo-Saxon times, the manor of Enfield was held by Ansgar the Staller, a nobleman and staller to Edward the Confessor. The name ‘Enfield’ most likely came from Old English Ēanafeld or similar, meaning “open land belonging to a man called Ēana” The parish was the largest in Middlesex (if excluding from the parish of Harrow on the Hill its north-west corner, which broke away in 1766)

Notable people, places, and events

The parish church, on the north side of the marketplace, is dedicated to St Andrew. There is some masonry surviving from the thirteenth century, but the nave, north aisle, choir and tower are late fourteenth century, built of random rubble and flint. The clerestory dates from the early sixteenth century, and the south aisle was rebuilt in brick in 1824. Adjacent to the church is the old school building of the Tudor period, Enfield Grammar School, which expanded over the years, becoming a large comprehensive school from the late 1960s. A sixteenth century manor house, known since the eighteenth century as Enfield Palace, is remembered in the name of the Palace Gardens Shopping Centre (and the hothouses on the site were once truly notable; see below). It was used as a private school from around 1670 until the late nineteenth century. The last remains of it were demolished in 1928, to make way for an extension to Pearson’s department store, though a panelled room with an elaborate plaster ceiling and a stone fireplace survives, relocated to a house in Gentleman’s Row, a street of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century houses near the town centre. In 1303, Edward I granted a charter to Humphrey de Bohun, and his wife to hold a weekly market in Enfield each Monday, and James I granted another in 1617, to a charitable trust, for a Saturday market. The Market was still prosperous in the early eighteenth century, but fell into decline soon afterwards. There were sporadic attempts to revive it: an unsuccessful one of 1778 is recorded, and in 1826 a stone Gothic market cross was erected, to replace the octagonal wooden market house, demolished sixteen years earlier. In 1858, J. Tuff wrote of the market “several attempts have been made to revive it, the last of which, about twenty years ago, also proved a failure, It has again fallen into desuetude and will probably never be revived”. However the trading resumed in the 1870s. In 1904 a new wooden structure was built to replace the stone cross, by now decayed. The market is still in existence, administered by the Old Enfield Charitable trust. The charter of 1303 also gave the right to hold two annual fairs, one on St Andrew’s Day and the other in September. The latter was suppressed in 1869 at the request of local tradesmen, clergy and other prominent citizens, having become, according to the local historian Pete Eyre, “a source of immorality and disorder, and a growing nuisance to the inhabitants”. The New River, built to supply water to London from Hertfordshire, runs immediately behind the town centre through the Town Park, which is the last remaining public open space of Enfield Old Park. The Enfield Loop of the New River also passes through the playing fields of Enfield Grammar School, and this is the only stretch of the loop without a public footpath on at least one side of it. Enfield was the location of some of the earliest successful hothouses, developed by Dr Robert Uvedale, headmaster of both Enfield Grammar School and the Palace School. He was a Cambridge scholar and renowned horticulturalist; George Simonds Boulger writes of Uvedale in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 58: As a horticulturist Uvedale earned a reputation for his skill in cultivating exotics, being one of the earliest possessors of hothouses in England. In an Account of several Gardens near London written by J. Gibson in 1691 (Archæologia, 1794, xii. 188), the writer says: ‘Dr. Uvedale of Enfield is a great lover of plants, and, having an extraordinary art in managing them, is become master of the greatest and choicest collection of exotic greens that is perhaps anywhere in this land. His greens take up six or seven houses or roomsteads. His orange-trees and largest myrtles fill up his biggest house, and … those more nice and curious plants that need closer keeping are in warmer rooms, and some of them stoved when he thinks fit. His flowers are choice, his stock numerous, and his culture of them very methodical and curious.’ The poet John Keats went to progressive Clarke’s School in Enfield, where he began a translation of the Aeneid. The school’s building later became Enfield Town railway station until it was demolished in 1872. The current building was erected in the 1960s. In 1840 the first section of the Northern and Eastern Railway had been opened from Stratford to Broxbourne. The branch line from Water Lane to Enfield Town station was opened in 1849. The White House in Silver Street – now a doctors’ surgery – was the home of Joseph Whitaker, publisher and founder of Whitaker’s Almanack, who lived there from 1820 until his death in 1895. (Inscription on Blue Plaque on The White House, Silver Street, Enfield.) Enfield Town had the world’s first cash machine or automatic teller machine, invented by John Shepherd-Barron. It was installed at the local branch of Barclays Bank on 27 June 1967 and was opened by the actor and Enfield resident Reg Varney. Enfield Town houses the Civic Centre, the headquarters of the Borough administration, where Council and committee meetings are also held.

You can visit Enfield Town places with Walkfo Enfield Town to hear history at Enfield Town’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Enfield Town has 91 places to visit in our interactive Enfield Town map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Enfield Town, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Enfield Town places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Enfield Town & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 91 audio facts unique to Enfield Town places in an interactive Enfield Town map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Enfield Town Places Map
91 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Enfield Town historic spots	Enfield Town tourist destinations	Enfield Town plaques	Enfield Town geographic features
Walkfo Enfield Town tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Enfield Town

  

Best Enfield Town places to visit

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Enfield Town has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Enfield Town’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Enfield Town’s information audio spots:

Oakwood, London Oakwood is a suburban area of north London, in the London Borough of Enfield. It is situated within the Southgate postal area (London N14)

Visit Enfield Town plaques