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Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Spaniards Tollhouse


The Spaniards Tollhouse

The Spaniards Inn was built in 1585 at the entrance to the Bishop of London’s estate.  The small building across – and notoriously narrowing - the road is usually known as the Tollhouse, although there is apparently no direct evidence that it was actually used for the collection of tolls.  It dates from the middle of the  eighteenth century.

Today the inn is in the borough of Barnet and the tollhouse in Camden, but both are in the parish of St Jude-on-the-Hill.  The south and east walls of the tollhouse actually mark the parish boundary as it crosses the road for a short distance to include Kenwood Farm and West Lodge.

The Tollhouse was listed Grade II in 1974 following a 1961 proposal to have it demolished.