Kenton Road

Kenton Road is a main road in the London Borough of Harrow and the London Borough of Brent. It lies in the areas of Harrow and Kenton. Its eastern end is the border of Kenton in Middlesex and Kingsbury (in NW9) in London. Kenton Road is the A4006, apart from a short stretch west of Northwick Park Roundabout, which is a small part of the A404. The road east of the Kenton Methodist Church originally followed the route of what is now Woodgrange Avenue and was a continuation of Kenton Lane before being upgraded, re-positioned and re-named in the early 20th century as an eastward extension of the original Kenton Road.

On the north side of the road, almost opposite Kenton station is the Traveller's Rest pub. Approximately a third of a mile further along the A4006, also on the north side of the road, at the junction with St Leonard's Avenue, is the parish church of St Mary-the-Virgin, Kenton, built in 1935-1936 by the architect Harold Gibbons and a local firm of builders, Melsom & Rosier. Approximately a mile further on, on the south side of the Kenton Road is All Saints Catholic Church, built in 1963. About another third of a mile further on is the Greek Orthodox Church of St Panteleimon. Originally a mission church of the Church of England parish, it was acquired in recent years by the Greek community, which intends to replace it with a traditional Greek Basilica complete with gold dome.

As late as 1935 there was a busy blacksmith's forge in Kenton Lane, 200 yards from the junction with Kenton Road (the junction at that time called 'Brockhurst Corner'). On Saturdays the boys - and some girls - of the neighbourhood could be seen clustered round the always-open door, watching the sparks fly as the blacksmith hammered out the red-hot horse shoes on his anvil. The ringing of hammer on anvil, with its repeated ting-ting-ting as he bounced it between actual hits, could be heard half a mile away. Work-horses, un-shafted from their carts, were called by name; the more imaginative of the older boys found the frightening sight of a powerful carthorse's leg hoisted up into the crotch of the leather-aproned blacksmith as he nailed shoe to hoof brought tears to the eyes.