Stone worktops in North Finchley

The area was called North End as early as 1462, but there were few houses until Finchley Common was enclosed in 1816. Tally Ho Corner takes its name from the Tally Ho Coach Company, which kept 16 horses here in the 1820s and 1830s for the first change of horses on the Birmingham coach. Trams arrived in 1905 and 1909 and turned the crossroads into a shopping centre. The 1937 Gaumont cinema was demolished in 1987, and the site became the artsdepot arts centre, which opened in 2004.

Many kitchens near the High Road, Ballards Lane and Tally Ho Corner are in flats, some above shops. For those, the practical questions come first: which floor, whether there is a lift, and how deliveries reach the building. If your street has controlled parking, check what visitor or contractor parking is available on the day. Worktops arrive by van and have to be carried in, so a nearby spot to unload makes fitting day much smoother.

South of Tally Ho Corner, Moss Hall Crescent is a row of twelve Victorian villas set back from Ballards Lane behind a strip of green, and it is one of Barnet's conservation areas. Moss Hall itself, which gave the crescent its name, was demolished in 1927. Changing worktops inside a house in a conservation area doesn't normally need permission; the controls are about the outside.

Lodge Lane takes its name from Finchley Lodge, which was there by 1667. Barnet Council's local history notes that it was home to John Parr, the first British soldier killed in the First World War, and to the actor David Jason. Today it is home to a car park and the Lodge Lane market area.