Recently declassified Government documents revealed not only that Whetstone was home to a Soviet spy base but that discussions on how to get rid of it reached right up to Prime Minister Clement Atlee.

PERCY REBOUL & JOHN HEATHFIELD discuss the history of an unlikely hotbed of espionage.

The recent coverage in this newspaper of the so-called 'spy-ring' in Oakleigh Park North has brought forth as nice a mixture of fact and fiction as we have seen for many a day.

Perhaps it is the large, somewhat eerie houses standing in acres of ground that stimulated some of the more fanciful stories related by local residents. What is beyond dispute, however, is that the Oakleigh Park area itself is one of great interest to local historians.

The coming of mainline and branch railways into the area and the collapse of land values in the 1870s provided the spur to developers to build new houses near to the railway stations in this case Oakleigh Park and Totteridge & Whetstone. The land had originally belonged to the Haughton Clarke family, who had made their money from the slave trade.

The houses were to be of top class, in keeping with the attractive local countryside. More than this, there was a determination to cater for the cultural, sporting and scientific interests of the new residents. The Athenaeum Institute (which gave its own name to the road) opened in 1881 with a grand concert. It had a hall seating 400 people, a billiard room, library and reading room. For the more active, tennis and croquet lawns were laid out. Although initially successful, the project soon collapsed and by 1892 the buildings were being used for industrial purposes.

One of the problems of referring to these old houses is that, under new owners, they often changed names and the numbering system was not straightforward. Number 13, the location of the Russian Tass News Agency, for example, was built in 1871 for Alfred Smith who called it The Cottage. Later, in 1926 it was known as The Lodge. Both names are in a sense misleading, because, in fact, it was a substantial double-fronted detached house with four main bedrooms and servant quarters. It was sold in 1922 for £2,000 and after Tass moved out it reverted to private ownership. It was demolished by 1970 and replaced by two houses.

Number 19 Oakleigh Park North, referred to in the spy articles variously as Tower House and Tower Lodge, was built in 1871 for £1,350 and bought by Benjamin Looker who opened a boys' school there. He almost doubled the size of the structure by building extra rooms on the west end.

The original side entrance then became the central door with a tradesman's entrance at the side which gave access to semi-basement kitchens and servants quarters. It was still a school (St Andrews) in 1939 but in August of that year it was requisitioned by Friern Barnet Council for use as an auxiliary fire station. A row of garages was built at the back of the site to house two light-trailer fire pumps and two lorries to act as tenders. Stationed in the building were a total of 33 firemen one station commander, four watch commanders and 28 firefighters. They worked eight-hour shifts with one shift in reserve.

The ARP was also housed in the building and in 1940 the basement was strengthened, presumably to act as an air raid shelter. Around 1942, parts of the building were taken over by the National Blood Transfusion service, this closed in 1948.

The amount of paperwork they generated was prodigious and there were filing systems and offices throughout the building, including the basement. A small laboratory was also built which was demolished in August 1994 following the opening of a purpose-built blood transfusion centre at Elstree.