It runs up the hill from an old thirteenth century bridge over Mutton Brook called Hanson’s Bridge. This part of the road has the informal name of Stag Hill (formerly New Gate Lane) running up to Finchley Common. It was ’improved’ in 1712 with a tollbooth set up near the White Lion to pay for the road.

With the arrival of the railway, there was less money to be made with road tolls and these stopped in 1862.

East Finchley station opened in 1868 as part of the Great Northern Railway. At first it was called East End Finchley station, but during the 1880s the name East End became associated with the poorest parts of London, and locals asked the railway company to rename the station. It became East Finchley in 1886.

A Congregational community built a church in 1878 with a 130-foot spire and clock. In 1965 it was demolished and a new modern church built. In 1989 the new church was sold to a Muslim group and after refurbishment it reopened in 1996 as the North London Jamatkhana, an Islamic community centre.

A tramline in 1905 promoted further developments and by 1914 the High Road become East Finchley’s main shopping district, and most of the streets were full of houses. There were two cinemas, the Athenaeum and the Picture Palace, and a temperance inn - The Black Bass Tavern - from the mid 1880s until 1965.