About 30 houses on a forgotten road in Hendon which lies tucked behind the Great North Way were finally recognised on Friday when the road was officially named.

Robin Lane, formerly Accommodation Road, and before that The Back Road, has been the bane of delivery people and long-distance visitors since the 1930s, because it was notoriously difficult to find.

Residents who lived in The Back Road, which was essentially a service road, felt forgotten by Barnet Council and by Transport for London, because neither took responsibility for cleaning or maintaining it.

However, all that changed when the road was renamed Robin Lane in April, and residents celebrated its naming ceremony on Friday, at the new Mayor of Barnet Councillor Wendy Prentice's first official engagement.

The council has now officially taken the road on as the main access to the properties, which back on to the A1, Great North Way.

Maureen Blake, of Milland Court in Borehamwood, grew up in the area and remembers when the Great North Way was a lane used by horse and cart drivers. "It was calm in those days," said Mrs Blake, 66. "You didn't hear the roar of the juggernauts, it was absolutely delightful, you could play in the streets.

"It was 1941 and the bombs were dropping, but everyone had their doors open, everyone spoke to one another. When I went to the naming on Friday, it was like I had gone back 50 years in time, all the memories came back. Everything was the same, apart from the road which was full of parked cars. In the early Forties there was maybe one black car, now they are four to a house."

Marion Green, 60, said: "For many years we have had lots of problems getting deliveries and have been on to the council to come and repair the road. About this time last year, Barnet Council offered us a change of name and I took the bull by the horns and made sure it happened. We chose between names such as Foxy Lane, Dolphin Lane and Roman Way, but we have a lot of robins around so we chose that."

Ms Green said she hoped the days of potholes and uncollected rubbish were now over and that Robin Lane which she said would feature in maps in a year to 18 months' time will take its place among Barnet's other roads.