The Hyde

The Hyde
The Hyde
	The big switching centre buildings of the BT Colindale telephone exchange in The Hyde
	The Hyde Location within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ213885
London borough	Barnet;
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW9
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Hendon;
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden;
	List of places UK England London 51°34′56″N 0°14′52″W / 51.5822°N 0.2478°W

The Hyde is a locality in the London Borough of Barnet in London, England, and is also the name of its accompanying main road on the A5. It is located to the east of Kingsbury, west of Hendon and south of Colindale. The area contains Hyde House (a large building partly used as a hotel), Hendon Magistrates' Court, a large Sainsbury's supermarket, Silkbridge Retail Park, and BT Colindale House telephone exchange.

History

The name is first recorded in 1281 as la Hyde meaning "the hide of land", the amount of land considered enough to support a family, equal to around 120 acres (0.49 km²).^[1] The Hendon Brewery was built here in 1855.

The Hyde was home to the offices of Airco (until the company's closure in 1920), and also to the Head Office of furniture retailer MFI between 1989 and 2006, the greater part of that company's existence.^[2]

Colindale Telephone Exchange was extended in the 1960s by British Telecom behind the 1930s vintage exchange building. Business activity at the site has decreased dramatically. In 2017 Barnet Council backed a regeneration scheme for new housing and converting the office units to residential ones.^[3]

A public house called the Red Lion was at the corner of the A5 and Kingsbury Road. It closed in 2005 and the building was demolished in 2009.^[4]

New apartments were built in 2017 at the site of a former Homebase store and used car dealership, on the eastern side of the A5.^[5]^[6]

In 2020, plans were approved by Barnet Council to demolish the existing Hendon Sainsbury's supermarket on The Hyde and replace it with a new Sainsbury's along with 1,309 homes, despite strong opposition.^[7]