Hawthorn Dene –
Its role in local and national history
Frank Kelsall
2.30 pm Thursday
22 February
The threat to demolish Hawthorn Dene was a stimulus to the formation of the Finchley Society. Frank Kelsall told us something about the history of this unique building and James Frost who built it; the key role of the Society’s founder, Jean Scott, in the campaign to preserve it; and the wider interest to architectural historians of its unusual structure and plan.
Frank has been a member of the Finchley Society since the mid 1980s. From 1964 he worked as an architectural historian for the LCC and then GLC, before moving on to English Heritage as an Historic Buildings Inspector for his native north west of England. In his very active retirement he has served as part-time adviser to the Ancient Monuments Society, President of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain from 2004 to 2008, Chairman of the London Society from 2002 to 2013, and a trustee of Wilton’s Music Hall in East London from 2005 to 2016 when the restoration of Wilton’s won the RIBA London Building of the Year award. He is currently working on a book on speculative building in 17th century London.
The meeting took place at Avenue House, located in Stephens House and Gardens, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. It began at 2.30 pm, with a break for refreshments.