Place Name
Takes its name from a large hunting park called the Bishops Wood, which got its name from the bishops of London who presided over the Manor of Finchley following a land grant in AD704. Remarkably the church managed to hold on to the lands until 1868 when all the episcopal lands were transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The road itself was constructed sometime around 1887. From the beginning it was intended to be the setting for expensive houses. The area around East Finchley station had already been urbanised with many new inhabitants coming from inner London, but the open spaces of land that is now the Hampstead Heath extension, Hampstead Garden Suburb and the Hampstead Golf Course helped to provide an exceptionally rural setting which has continued to command high house prices. Plots were originally let on 99 year and, more rarely 999 year leases and in 1894 building began. Today only one house on the road is owned by the Church, 46 The Bishops Avenue and a nearby residential home.
