Stonebridge, London

Stonebridge is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Brent, and forms the western part of Harlesden. It is also the name of the largest electoral ward in the borough, which includes Stonebridge itself as well as the Stonebridge estate, Park Royal, Brent Park and the St Raphael's Estate. It is the most populated ward in Brent with a population over 17,000 with the majority of Afro-Caribbean heritage.HistoryThe area was named after a stone bridge built over the River Brent to the north.The exclusive Craven Park Estate of large houses was built in the 1860s and later, roughly at the same time as the Midland Railway constructed the Dudding Hill Line, which gave its new residents access to central London. However, the passenger service on the line closed for a second and final time in 1902, but only after a sustained protest campaign by local people.Although other high-quality housing had grown up around the now-closed nearby Harlesden railway station, the area failed to consolidate as an up-market suburb, because of the general expansion of London, increasing industry, and the building of low-quality, cheap housing, in the late nineteenth century. Sub-division of many of the large houses was carried out and Stonebridge became a low-income area, which continued after high-rise comprehensive redevelopment, mostly built in a single architectural style and called the 'Stonebridge Estate', in the 1960s and 1970s.