U is for Underhill

LONDON A-Z U is for Underhill As we head towards the awkward end of the alphabet London's suburban pickings get slimmer. I discounted Upney as too well known, Upper Belvedere as too focused and Uxendon as too obscure, instead plumping for a decent-sized U with an ultra-prosaic name. This Barnet neighbourhood is so named for the exceptionally obvious reason that it's under a hill, this hill, hence Underhill. In the stagecoach era Barnet Hill was one of the first major obstacles on the Great North Road, thus a number of coaching inns were established up top as an ideal place to change the horses. In the 1720s another was built at the bottom, this the Old Red Lion, where additional horses known as the 'Hercules Pair' could be hired to assist with the challenging ascent. In 1823 Thomas Telford was charged with making improvements, his solution to bypass the steepest climb by digging up a huge amount of adjacent soil to create the gentler embankment we see today. A small hamlet grew up…