Stone worktops in Whetstone

According to Barnet Council's local history notes, the village grew where the Bishop of London's new road from Highgate met the older route north, back in the 12th century. The road was turnpiked as far as Whetstone in 1712, and in 1831 around 130 stage coaches passed the tollgate every day. The tollgate went in 1863, and the railway station opened in 1872.

The stone outside The Griffin is often said to be where soldiers sharpened their swords before the Battle of Barnet in 1471. The council's historians point out that the name Whetstone was in use long before then, so the story can't be right, however good it is.

Plenty of Whetstone kitchens are in flats, above the shops on the High Road or in blocks behind it. Tell us which floor you are on, whether there is a lift and its size, and whether the building has rules about deliveries or working hours. Long worktops sometimes need a join to make the turn on a staircase.

Totteridge was in Hertfordshire until 1965, and it still feels different. The churchyard of St Andrew's has a yew tree thought to be at least a thousand years old, and by the 1930s large detached houses lined Totteridge Common and Barnet Lane. Green Belt rules have kept the valleys either side open since the war, and the Totteridge conservation area takes in around 450 properties.

Big Totteridge kitchens are where islands, waterfall ends and full-height splashbacks come into their own. A conservation area doesn't stop you changing worktops inside the house; listed houses are the exception, so check with the council first if yours is one.

Sweets Way is named after J. Sweet, whose glasshouse nursery here employed around 100 people each summer in the 1890s. His use of large glass panes and hot-water heating earned him the title "father of modern nursery gardening". It is a good reminder that Whetstone has always been a working place, not just a stop on the way north.