Place Name
One of a cluster of streets named after mostly fruit trees, probably indicating the land’s pre-development usage as an orchard. This road formed part of Violet Farm which was sold shortly before the Second World War for development. Maps from the 1940s show some of Pear Tree Avenue, and Cherry Tree Avenue and Birch Avenue already being laid out. The war interrupted building work. According to A History of the County of Middlesex: “The process of urbanization, which almost ceased during the Second World War, accelerated again after 1946. Post-war housing development in Hillingdon was shared almost equally between local authority and speculative schemes. Council building was concentrated on the Violet Farm and Evelyns estates at Colham Green and on the Nine Elms and Cowley Manor estates at Cowley. Between 1945 and 1965 approximately 6,000 council and private dwellings were erected in Hillingdon and Cowley.”
