Borough in London, England
Enfield
The world's first cash machine spat out its first banknotes in Enfield in 1967, and the borough also gave the Lee-Enfield rifle its name.
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Key information
- County
- Greater London
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 330,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- about 82 square kilometres
- Known for
- The first cash machine, the Lee-Enfield rifle, Forty Hall, Enfield Chase
- Famous people
- John Keats, Charles Lamb, Bruce Forsyth
- Football clubs
- Enfield Town, Enfield FC
About Enfield
The day the cash machine was born
On 27 June 1967 a Barclays branch in Enfield Town unveiled something new: a machine that gave out banknotes without a cashier. The first person to use it was Reg Varney, star of the TV sitcom On the Buses. It is widely recognised as the world's first cash machine. It took paper vouchers rather than plastic cards, but the idea of money on demand began on an Enfield high street.
The gunmakers of Enfield Lock
Down by the River Lea, the Royal Small Arms Factory began turning out military firearms in the early 19th century. Its name became a brand: the Enfield rifle-musket of the 1850s, and later the Lee-Enfield, which soldiers carried through both world wars. The Enfield cartridge also played a part in the 1857 uprising in India, when rumours spread about the grease used on the cartridges. The name travelled far beyond Middlesex. Royal Enfield motorcycles were named after the factory, and the marque is still going strong. On the Lea's banks, the old industrial landscape of Enfield Lock has since given way to housing and nature reserves.
A royal hunting ground and a merchant's mansion
For centuries much of the north of the borough was Enfield Chase, a royal hunting ground full of deer. It was broken up and enclosed in 1777, but traces survive in the woods and parks of the area. Forty Hall, a Jacobean house built in the early 1630s for Sir Nicholas Raynton, a Lord Mayor of London, is the best-known survivor. It stands in an estate of parkland with a working farm. Trent Park, in the north of the borough, has its own wartime story: the mansion was used to listen in on conversations between captured German officers.
Poets, comedians and a very good school
John Keats went to school in Enfield, and it was there that he met Charles Cowden Clarke, who introduced him to poetry. The essayist Charles Lamb, author of the Essays of Elia, lived in the area in his later years. Edmonton, the southern part of the borough, was the birthplace of entertainer Bruce Forsyth. It also features in a comic poem about a draper named John Gilpin, whose wild ride ended at the Bell at Edmonton. The borough's best-known supernatural story dates from 1977, when a family on Green Street reported what became known as the Enfield Poltergeist. The case ran for about two years and inspired a film.
Stations like cathedrals, and football with a rebel streak
Southgate has one of the most admired Tube stations in London. Charles Holden designed it in the 1930s, with a round, glass-topped hall and a ceiling light that hangs like a small chandelier. Nearby Arnos Grove is another Holden design. In football, the borough has two clubs with a shared history. In 2001 a group of Enfield FC supporters broke away and formed Enfield Town, so they could keep playing in the town itself. Enfield FC carried on separately. Enfield Town's market has been running since the Middle Ages, and its charter dates from 1303. You can still shop there today.