Where to Stay in Harrow, England

What is Harrow known for?

Harrow on the Hill carries St. Mary's above the rest of the town, and the London Borough of Harrow is named for the settlement gathered under that rise. Museums are the surprise. Headstone Manor and Museum occupies a moated manor site, and the Heath Robinson Museum and the Cat Museum give the town two more collections of its own.

Grim's Ditch survives near Blythwood House as an earthwork rather than a building. Earlsmead Stadium covers the sport.

What are the main landmarks in Harrow?

St. Mary's, Harrow on the Hill holds the high ground that the whole town is named after. Headstone Manor and Museum occupies the Headstone Manor moated site, while the Heath Robinson Museum and the Cat Museum add two smaller collections on entirely different subjects. Grim's Ditch is an earthwork.

Parish churches are scattered right across the borough, among them the Church of All Saints, Harrow Weald, St. Andrew's Church, Roxbourne, the Church of St John the Baptist and the Parish Church of St Paul. Earlsmead Stadium and Sweetmans Hall complete the set.

What is the history of Harrow?

Earthwork, then church, then town. Grim's Ditch survives near Blythwood House, a length of bank and ditch that predates the parishes and the manor alike. St. Mary's, Harrow on the Hill took the summit, and the settlement grew on and under that rise, which is how a hill came to name a town, a parish and eventually a London borough.

Headstone Manor held the farmland. Its moated site is still legible in the ground, and the manor buildings became Headstone Manor and Museum, the place where the borough keeps its own record. London arrived by degrees.

Harrow lies about 15 km north-west of Charing Cross and some 9 km south of Watford, close enough that the fields between the old parishes filled with streets and the separate settlements of Harrow Weald and Roxbourne were absorbed into one built-up area. Churches followed the growth, from the Church of All Saints, Harrow Weald and St. Andrew's Church, Roxbourne to the Church of St Peter, the Church of St Alban and a Christian Science Church. The borough took the name of the hill.

Harrow became the principal settlement of the London Borough of Harrow within Greater London, and its eastern edge by Northwick Park Hospital runs straight into the London Borough of Brent.

Where is Harrow?

Greater London reaches this far. Harrow stands about 15 km north-west of Charing Cross and some 9 km south of Watford, its ground rising to the ridge at Harrow on the Hill and falling away toward the newer streets. The eastern part of the town crosses into the London Borough of Brent by Northwick Park Hospital.

Harrow Weald and Roxbourne mark the outer districts. Grim's Ditch cuts the ground near Blythwood House.

What is the climate of Harrow?

The hill feels the weather first. Greater London's built-up mass keeps Harrow a shade milder than open country, though the exposed ground at Harrow on the Hill catches wind that the streets below never notice. Rain spreads through the year without a true wet season, and neither the summer heat nor the winter cold reaches the extremes that give a place a reputation for either.

Snow rarely settles long.

How do you get to Harrow?

Harrow sits about 15 km north-west of Charing Cross, close enough to central London that the town works as a base and far enough that the last stretch home is a real journey. Watford lies about 9 km north. The eastern side of town, by Northwick Park Hospital, runs into the London Borough of Brent, which is the direction most trips into the capital take.

The hill itself is a walk.