Hendon is greener than its traffic suggests, and the green space is the best thing about it. Parks start almost at the front door. There's water within a short walk. There's no protected countryside nearby. A typical home here has more parkland on its doorstep than most of inner London does.
The average home in Hendon is about 200 metres from the nearest public green space, and about 20 green spaces lie within a kilometre. Hendon Park covers the south of the area and Sunny Hill Park the north, with the playing fields of the Copthall complex next to it. A main road separates Sunny Hill from Copthall, so walk from the actual address to the nearest gate and see which side of the traffic you end up on.
Water is close as well. The average home is about 450 metres from the nearest blue space, with about 23 ponds, streams and stretches of river within a kilometre. The River Brent runs through Hendon, which gives the area a riverbank to walk along and a reason to look at its flood map.
Longer rides are harder. The National Cycle Network is about 9 kilometres away on average, and no part of Hendon is close to it. There's no ancient woodland in the area either, so cyclists heading out of London start with a ride across it.
The rated-premises list counts 423 shop premises in Hendon, 28 restaurants and 6 pubs. For about 36,500 residents, that gives the area a busy shopping street and very little to do after dark. With only six pubs, most evenings out end up in a restaurant.
Barnet's average level of fine particles in the air was about 8.5 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024. That figure covers the whole borough. Hendon's busier roads are likely to run higher than its back streets.
The character comes from layers. Church End is the high point, and the land around it falls away, often steeply. Middlesex University gives the area a student population, and the former Hendon Aerodrome to the north, now in Colindale, is the site of the Royal Air Force Museum London. Two of the area's conservation areas, Hendon Church End and Hendon The Burroughs, preserve the old village centre that the suburb grew around. Brent Cross Shopping Centre, the area's main shopping draw, is a bus ride away.
Private gardens add to the parks. Across Hendon's 22 neighbourhood statistical areas, residents have about 49,000 square metres of private garden for every 1,000 people. In an area where most homes are flats, that garden space is shared out unevenly between houses and flats.
The valuation list holds 887 rateable premises in Hendon, which is the count of business properties on the books and may include some that are empty. About 423 of them are shops and about 193 offices, and the rest is a mix of smaller categories. A premises on the list may or may not be trading, so a walk down the actual street is the better guide to what's open.
Food hygiene is mostly good. Of the 218 food outlets inspected, about 57% hold the top hygiene score and about 8% sit at the bottom end. Most places are clean, and a few are worth checking before you book.
No area of outstanding natural beauty, site of special scientific interest or ancient woodland overlaps Hendon. The green space here is parks and playing fields, designed for everyday use. Nobody has tried to preserve it as wilderness.
The surroundings are among the best things about living in Hendon. There's a park within a short walk of nearly every front door, water close by, and enough everyday green space to make up for the busy roads in between.