The History & Heritage of the Crews Hill Golden Mile

Crews Hills Roots.....

Crews Hill has not always been the way you see it today, it has evolved over a hundred years.

Known affectionately as the Golden Mile, Crews Hill is one of North London’s most distinctive destinations. Today, it is home to garden centres, nurseries, growers, specialist retailers, cafés, craftspeople, animal specialists, outdoor living businesses and family-run enterprises.

But the story of Crews Hill stretches back much further than the visitor destination we know today. Its character has been shaped by open land, horticulture, family businesses, railway links, Green Belt protection and generations of people working with the land.

Long before the garden centres and glasshouses, Crews Hill formed part of the wider landscape of Enfield Chase. This was once a rural area on the northern edge of Enfield, shaped by open land, farming and its position between London and the countryside.

The name Crews Hill is believed to be linked to William Crew, who worked in Enfield Chase in the eighteenth century. Local histories connect him with the protection of the Chase and the disputes around poaching, common rights and land use. For centuries, this part of Enfield remained largely rural, with farmland, orchards, market gardens and nurseries serving London’s growing population.

By the early twentieth century, Crews Hill had become a landscape dominated by glasshouses. It was a production powerhouse, supplying London’s markets with Vegetables, fresh-cut flowers and plants.

A major turning point came on 4 April 1910, when the Cuffley extension of the Hertford Loop Line opened, bringing Crews Hill Station into service. The railway gave local growers a stronger connection to London markets, allowing plants, flowers, produce and supplies to move more easily between the countryside and the capital.

For decades, and through two world wars, Crews Hill played an important role in food and horticultral production for London. With fertile land, glasshouses and skilled growers, the area became part of a wider horticultural landscape that helped feed, supply and beautify the city.

As London expanded, the idea of the Green Belt developed to protect open land, prevent urban sprawl and stop towns from merging into one another. Around London, protection grew through the Green Belt Act of 1938, the post-war planning system and government encouragement in 1955 for local authorities to formally designate Green Belt land.

For Crews Hill, being granted Green Belt protection helped preserve the open, land-based character that made the area so unusual. It allowed nurseries, growers, garden centres, farms and outdoor family businesses to continue on the edge of London, rather than being swallowed by urban expansion.

This matters because Crews Hill is not empty land waiting for a purpose. It is a working landscape with a long history of food production, flower growing, horticulture, family business, outdoor learning and public enjoyment.

By the second half of the twentieth century, the horticultural industry was changing. Dutch glasshouse production, flower auctions and large-scale imports made it harder for smaller British growers to compete, while gardening was becoming a popular leisure activity.

Many Crews Hill growers adapted. Instead of growing only for wholesale markets, they opened their gates to the public. Visitors could browse plants, seek advice, buy supplies and enjoy a day out in the very places where commercial growing had once dominated.

What began as working nurseries gradually evolved into the Crews Hill garden centre landscape we know today. Those original nurseries became customer-facing businesses, where the focus shifted from growing for the trade to helping home gardeners realise their own outdoor dreams.

Visitors might arrive looking for a bag of compost, a rose bush or a few plants, but leave with ideas, advice and inspiration for a transformed garden.

Thompsons of Crews Hill reflects this wider story. Roderick E. Thompson bought the site in 1948 and grew commercial glasshouse crops, including salad crops and flowers, before the business later adapted towards garden supplies, soil, turf, aggregates and landscaping materials then expanding with lifestyle style garden centre branch in recent years.

Woldens offers another example. Established in 1964 as a small family-run nursery, it began with a greenhouse and portable shed, growing alpines before expanding into trees, shrubs, roses and bulbs.

What makes Crews Hill so special today is not simply the number of businesses found here, but the people behind them. Many are independent, family-run or specialist businesses, built on years of hands-on experience and a genuine understanding of their trade.

This is the kind of place where you can still speak directly to people who know their products, know the area and care about giving useful advice. Whether you are choosing plants, planning a garden project, buying animal supplies, looking for a garden building, sourcing materials or searching for something unusual, there is a depth of knowledge here that is increasingly rare.

Across Crews Hill, generations of practical skill sit alongside new ideas and modern businesses. Long-established garden centres and nurseries stand beside cafés, craft businesses, furniture specialists, animal care suppliers, building and landscaping services, outdoor living companies and creative independent retailers.

It is this mix that gives Crews Hill its character. It is not a retail park, and it is not a high street. It is a distinctive local destination shaped by land, family businesses, specialist knowledge and the people who have worked here, traded here and visited here over many years.

Today, Crews Hill is widely recognised as one of the UK’s most distinctive concentrations of garden-related businesses.

The Golden Mile has evolved into much more than a collection of garden centres. It is an eclectic hub for home, garden, outdoor living, animals, food, creativity, practical trades and independent shopping.

Visitors can explore nurseries and plant centres, browse garden buildings and outdoor furniture, find gifts and crafts, visit cafés, discover aquatics and pet specialists, source landscaping materials, meet local service providers and uncover businesses they may never have known were here.

Crews Hill is not only a place for families and visitors; it remains a working destination for people in the trade. Landscapers, gardeners, florists, builders, designers and outdoor professionals travel from far and wide to source plants, materials, garden buildings, aggregates, floristry supplies, animal care products and specialist advice from businesses that understand their craft.

Everything sits within a relatively small and distinctive area, which makes Crews Hill a place to explore rather than simply pass through. You can visit for one thing and leave having discovered something entirely unexpected.

That is part of the magic of Crews Hill. It is practical and personal, traditional and evolving, familiar and surprising.

For generations, Crews Hill has been more than a place to shop. It has been somewhere families visit together, where children see plants growing, explore garden centres, meet animals, discover outdoor spaces and begin to understand the value of gardening, growing and working with the land.

Supported by the area’s close connection with Capel Manor College, Crews Hill has also helped many people discover a love of horticulture, landscaping, floristry, animal care, garden design and other outdoor trades and professions.

These are skills that matter — not only to the character of the area, but to the future of food production, gardening, growing and greener living.

At a time when so much of modern life feels disconnected from the land, places like Crews Hill still have the power to inspire the next generation. If we do not protect, promote and celebrate areas like this, where will future gardeners, growers and outdoor specialists first discover what is possible?

The history of Crews Hill is not something preserved only in old photographs or memories. It can still be seen and felt today in the nurseries, cafés, workshops, garden centres, specialist shops and family businesses that continue to attract visitors year after year.

From plants and ponds to pottery and pets, sheds and summerhouses to cakes and coffee, Crews Hill has become far more than a collection of garden centres. It is a distinctive local destination shaped by farmland, glasshouses, railway links, family enterprise, Green Belt setting and independent spirit.

A trip to Crews Hill is therefore more than a shopping trip. You might arrive looking for a plant, a pot, a shed or a bag of compost, but you are also stepping into a place with more than a century of horticultural history beneath your feet.

As every gardener knows, time never stands still. Weather changes, seasons turn, landscapes evolve and even the most established gardens need care, patience and adaptation.

Crews Hill, too, has had to grow and adapt through changing seasons of its own.

From farmland and market gardens to glasshouses, nurseries, garden centres and the diverse collection of independent businesses found here today, Crews Hill has always grown, changed and adapted with the times.

Once again, the area is weathering another season of uncertainty. The future protection and role of the Green Belt around Crews Hill continues to be questioned and debated, and the next chapter in the area’s story is not yet fully known.

Whether that change is right, necessary or for the better is something many people will understandably question. But what is clear is that Crews Hill remains a living landscape, not an empty space. It is a place of businesses, families, memories, skills, traditions, fresh air, changing seasons and everyday life.

For the landowners, businesses and families who work here, life continues. Visitors still come to enjoy the garden centres, the cafés, the crafts, the animals, the visits to Santa, the choosing of Christmas trees and all the small traditions that have made Crews Hill part of family life for generations.

That is why recording, celebrating and supporting Crews Hill matters. Its legacy is not guaranteed simply because it has existed for generations. It survives because people use it, value it, visit it, talk about it and recognise the role it plays in Enfield’s history, landscape, economy and community.

Welcome to Crews Hill was created to celebrate that history, support local businesses and help more people discover everything this remarkable area has to offer.

Whether you are visiting for the first time or have been coming here for decades, you are becoming part of the continuing story of Crews Hill.