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London Flying/Country Club Golf Club, Hendon. (1920s)
The article below is taken from London Flying Club’s Golf Course at Hendon (Author Neil Crafter.) I would like to thank Neil of the Alister Mackenzie Society of the UK for allowing me to reproduce an extract from his brilliant article.
“The creation of the London Flying Club at the Hendon Aerodrome was the dream of pioneer aviator Claude Grahame-White (1879-1959) who, in 1909, became the first Englishman to gain an internationally recognized aviator's certificate and the first British pilot to fly at night. In 1910 he optioned 207 acres of pastureland between Hendon and Colindale for use as an aerodrome.
His dream of establishing a gentleman’s flying club at Hendon came to fruition in 1919 when he established the London Flying Club with its own separate airfield on the southern side of Aerodrome Road with a flying school, a lavish sixty-room red brick clubhouse with London’s best ballroom and fifty accommodation rooms, thirty tennis courts, two polo fields and plans for an 18-hole golf course.
Grahame-White sought out none other than Leeds based golf architect Dr. Alister Mackenzie to design the golf course for the London Flying Club. By this time, Mackenzie had left the Royal Engineers following the end of the Great War, and he had just entered into a partnership with Harry Colt and Charles Alison - the firm of Colt, Mackenzie and Alison being the pre-eminent design partnership in the country. How the London Flying Club commission came to be Mackenzie’s is not known, but it is likely Colt would have been less than pleased as he would have considered London his local territory. No previous record of Mackenzie designing the London Flying Club has been found amongst the authorities of Doak, Scott and Haddock, Fred Hawtree and Cornish & Whitten who have all prepared lists of Mackenzie’s designs, in fact, no reference to the London Flying Club’s golf course could be found in golf architectural history sources."
Report on the new course from January 1920.
Aberdeen Press and Journal Wednesday 7 January 1920. Image © D.C.Thomson & Co. Ltd. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
Below greens transplant from the defunct Acton Golf Club.
From The Sphere 12 June 1920. Image © Illustrated London News Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
Course construction was underway in September 1919. By June 1920 nine holes of the course were ready for play and an all-star exhibition match to mark its official opening took place over the new course on Sunday 20 June 1920, with Harry Vardon, Ted Ray, George Duncan and club professional James B. Batley playing a morning and an afternoon match.
The golf course can be seen at the top of the Britain from Above image (1920.)
In 1920 it was announced that the London Flying Club was changing its name to the London Country Club, presumably to better describe the facilities offered by the fledgling club. This name change further reinforces the golf course’s Mackenzie pedigree, as Mackenzie had listed the “London Country” club as one of the clubs that he had advised in a 1923 brochure and advertisement for his services.
From The Globe 7 September 1920. Image © Illustrated London News Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
It would appear that the second nine was never commenced, and by late 1922 construction had begun on an extension of the Northern Line of the London Underground up to a new Colindale station (which opened in 1924) and the route took the line extension – a surface track – right through the new 9-holes of the London Country Club.
The London Flying Club golf course under construction.
This unfortunate event forced a significant redesign of the course, compressing all 9-holes between the railway line and Aerodrome Road. It is not known if Dr. Mackenzie participated in the redesign or not, however, later aerials of the course from 1926 show many parallel fairways squeezed into the reduced site and it would seem unlikely that Mackenzie would have participated in the neutering of his course.
From The Bystander 11 April 1923. Image © Illustrated London News Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
The competition for the Captain's Prize was played in July 1923 when Captain E Gilligan beat E T Waddington by 1up. Captain Gilligan also won the monthly medal, 85-14-71.
The winner of the monthly bogey in August 1923 was K Nicholson (18) 2down.
In 1924 J. B. Batley departed as club professional and Charles Trapp was appointed in his place. By 1925 Grahame-White had still not been able to resolve the long running dispute with the Government over the return of his aerodrome and he was forced to close the London Country Club, and the clubhouse.
From The Bystander Wednesday 22 April 1925. Image © Illustrated London News Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
From The Bystander Wednesday 6 May 1925. Image © Illustrated London News Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
More than 50 couples took out cards in the "Bystander" competition (above) in May 1925. In this annual event ladies were partnered with a professional, the latter playing of plus 4 and the ladies from their L.G.U handicap. The leaders after the first round; Miss Dampney and George Gadd (Roehampton,) 74; Miss M Crowther and A G Havers (Coombe Hill,) 75; Mrs Amor and Percy Allis (Wanstead,) 77; Mrs Poulton and A J Young (Sonning,) 78; Mrs C S Hurst and H C Jolly (Foxgrove,) 78; Mrs Harris and J J Taylor (Potters Bar,) 78.
In February 1926 it was noted in ‘The Times’ that the tennis courts and polo grounds had been closed, but the golf course was kept open due to the actions of the members and play continued on the course until March that year, when the golf course was taken over by the newly formed Colindale Golf Club Ltd” (see separate entry)
Interesting article on Dr Mackenzie from the Aberdeen Journal Wednesday 7 January 1920.
The centre of the above map shows the area occupied by the “Hendon Aerodrome” unfortunately the golf course is not marked. Reproduced from the {1920} Ordnance Survey Map.
The Google Map below pinpoints the area nowadays.