Harrow & district · Local news you can trust
FIDE confirms the 11-year-old Harrow player is the youngest Woman Grandmaster ever, after scoring 8 from 11 on England's top board at the Samarkand Olympiad.
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Planning
Rising Sun, Sudbury Hill: Fire-Hit Pub Approved for 8 Homes
Harrow's planning committee has approved rebuilding the fire-hit Rising Sun on Greenford Road as a shop, six flats and two houses. The vote was unanimous.
Travel
Rayners Lane Red Route: Double Parking Down 83%
Cabinet votes on 24 September on keeping the Rayners Lane red route. Double parking fell from 668 to 115 on a Friday, and a taxi bay returns at the station.
Data
Harrow Claimant Count: 8,375, Lowest of London Neighbours
8,375 Harrow residents were claiming unemployment-related benefits in August, 4.8% of 16 to 64s. Brent, Barnet, Ealing and Hillingdon are all higher.
Community
St Dominic's students dig up Harrow on the Hill's lost tower
Students at St Dominic's dug for a tower demolished in 1968 and a possible Armada beacon. The Heritage Fund has now spotlighted the free dig.
Remembrance
Harrow Remembrance Sunday: 8 November, Silence at 11am
Harrow's Remembrance Sunday is 8 November 2026. Last year the parade left Greenhill Way at 10.15am for the St Ann's Road memorial; Pinner's began 10.40am.
Christmas
Harrow Santa's Grotto 2026: Headstone Manor From £15
Santa and Mrs Claus are in Headstone Manor's Great Barn on six days from 12 to 23 December 2026. £15 a child with two adults included, and a gift each.
Headstone Manor
Headstone Manor in Winter: Open Thursday to Sunday Only
From 2 November to 14 February, Headstone Manor's free museum opens Thursday to Sunday only, closing at 3pm. Santa, trails and exhibitions to 3 January.
Housing
Harrow HMO Article 4 Rule Faces Permanent Vote 24 Sept
Turning a Harrow house into a 3 to 6 person HMO has needed planning permission since 12 June. Cabinet votes on 24 September on making that permanent.
Community
Harrow's Heroes 2026 winners: all 12 names in full
Ruth Boff and Pinner Rotary took the top prizes at Harrow's Heroes on 16 September. All 12 winners in full, plus how to join the groups that won.
House prices
Harrow house prices July 2026: flats cheaper than 2021
The average Harrow flat sold for £317,917 in July, £8,002 less than five years earlier. Overall prices rose 0.6% on June to £526,493, down 2.8% in a year.
Pinner
Pinner Post Office Closes 14 October, No Consultation Due
Post Office Ltd confirms the Bridge Street branch shuts Wednesday 14 October. It is reviewing applications to replace it, and there is no consultation.
Community
Headstone Manor Award Shortlist: 16 Harrow Groups, £150,000
Headstone Manor is a finalist for a national museum award for Stories of Harrow, which handed £150,000 of a £249,028 Lottery grant straight to 16 local groups.
Harrow is one of the few London boroughs where the borough and the place are the same thing. The name was here long before the council was, up on the Hill with the church and the school, and it now covers Pinner and Hatch End, Stanmore and Harrow Weald, Wealdstone, Kenton, Belmont, Rayners Lane and North, South and West Harrow. Most of it went up as Metroland, and it has stayed that kind of place: houses, gardens, parades of shops, and a tube map that reaches nearly all of it.
One council runs the lot. Harrow Council decides planning, bins, parking, licensing and council tax, and it publishes the evidence for those decisions in registers most people never open. We open them and write down what is in them, and we keep the practical pages accurate for the days you just need an answer.
Every figure links back to the document it came from.