The long maligned Finchley Road has an unlikely champion in Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
Built in the 1820s to bypass Hampstead, the four-mile road has something of an image problem and is now best known for its gyratory, six lanes of traffic and many a journalists’ favourite watering hole Ye Olde Swiss Cottage pub.
It is not, however, a destination for the arts.
But as the Finchley Road’s newest addition, the JW3 cultural and community centre, opened last week, Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks gushed: “I never knew that the Finchley Road could feel so cultural, so Jewish, so everything!
“We really have taken the Finchley Road somewhere else,” he added.
The ringing endorsement came after an audience member described his late wife’s wish never to buy a house on the road again after estate agents blamed the “Finchley Road factor” for a struggle to sell the couple’s former property.
JW3 founder and philanthropist Dame Vivien Duffield protested: “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the Finchley Road!”
“If Boris [Johnson] was here, I would tell him what good we’re doing for it,” she said.
Fancy a visit, Boris?
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here