Contrary to the route that Fortis Green took, other roads in the area largely ran north out of London, dominated by the Great North Road.

Oakleigh Road in Whetstone was an early east-west road with Woodhouse Road - running along the northern boundary of Finchley Common, joining it.

Just west of Colney Hatch, Summers Lane was built in 1754 - a more southerly route across the common from the Great North Road.

On a map of 1754, Cherry Tree Woods (then Dirt House Woods) to the south had been cleared and the land enclosed with at least two large houses.

The only other easterly road was called Park Gate in 1754, Muswell Hill Road in 1814, and Fortis Green Road by 1920 This ran from the Newgate Lane stretch of the Great North Road by High Redings into Hornsey.

More houses were built along the road from the beginning of the 19th century. By the middle part of that century there were about 60 houses, mostly belonging to labourers, which had been erected on the green between the woods and the road.

The National Freehold Land society developed what had been Haswell Park into southern, eastern, and western Roads after 1852, with 180 plots, but development was slow. However, by 1913 the whole of the area south of the road had been developed as we see it today.

In the interwar period, the northern sections were developed at the expense of Coldfall woods, but even by 1936 much of the wood was still standing, with only the remaining northern sections being kept as a recreational area.

From about 1843 until 1888 there was a brewery owned by the Green family, which was latterly taken over by Inn Coop, finally closing in 1902. The police station was opened the same year.