Place Name
This was originally a small footpath to St Lawrence’s Church in Little Stanmore which overtime became a rural lane connecting the old Watling Street (Edgware High Road) with Honeypot Lane. However, the arrival of Canons Park Station saw large-scale residential development follow and the lane was built up. According to Ronald S. Brown, in his Histories of Harrow Highways: “St Lawrence’s was originally known as The White Church because of the white stone from which it was built; this name was gradually abbreviated to Whitchurch and both district and lane later adopted this designation… Three churches are thought to have stood on the same site in Whitchurch Lane; the first was probably a Saxon building which replaced an early heathen shrine. A further church was built in the Gothic style, probably during the 14thCentury, when the site was held by the Augustinian Canons of St Bartholomew. Some rebuilding was undertaken in the 16thCentury when the Tudor tower was added, but when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the church became subject to private patronage.” The church was dedicated to St Lawrence after the old church was knocked down and a new one built in the early 18thCentury.
