WEST HOUSE

Where is it? West House is in West End Lane, Pinner, in the London Borough of Harrow. It stands in the beautiful Pinner Memorial Park overlooking an ornamental lake and opposite Pinner’s 12th Century church on the rise at the top of the medieval High Street.

What is it? It is one of the few old houses in the area still standing in its own grounds, now the Memorial Park. There has been a house on the site for 500 years. It was once the home of the grandson of Admiral Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton.

Who owns it? The house and grounds were purchased by the people of Pinner after the Second World War and given in trust to the then Council as a war memorial to the dead of the two world wars. A condition of the Trust was that the Pinner Book of Remembrance should be kept there. Used from that time for community activities sadly the house fell into disrepair and Harrow Council closed it in the early nineties.

Access. West House is in the centre of Pinner and is easily accessible by tube and bus. There is a large car park adjacent to the Memorial Park.

The Future. The Pinner Association (the amenity society founded in 1932 which had originally raised the money to purchase West House), with the backing of the Council, took on the task of saving it for the public for the second time. While the Pinner Association is still a major driving force, this task has now passed to The West House & Heath Robinson Museum Trust.