Henleaze

Coordinates: 51°29′24″N 2°35′56″W / 51.4900°N 2.5989°W / 51.4900; -2.5989

Henleaze is a northern suburb of the city of Bristol in South West England.

It is an almost entirely residential inter-war development, with Edwardian streets on its southern fringes. Its main neighbours are Westbury on Trym, Horfield, Bishopston and Redland.

Henleaze is also the name of a ward for Bristol City Council, which includes Golden Hill and Westbury Park as well as Henleaze.

History

The name of Henleaze probably derives from a Robert Henley, who in 1659 bought a property which became known as Henley's House and later as Henleaze Park. The area was a rural part of the parish of Westbury on Trym until 1896, when land between Henleaze Road and Durdham Down was sold for development. Most of the rest of the area was developed in the 1920s.

Politics

Henleaze is in the Bristol North West constituency, and the MP for the area is Charlotte Leslie, a Conservative. There are two seats on Bristol City Council for Henleaze ward both held by Liberal Democrats. Up until the early 1990s, it was a solid Conservative area, however The Liberal Democrats established a more solid position up until 2006, when it began to swing back to the Conservatives. In the 2009 elections, when the Liberal Democrats took control of the City Council, Liz Radford a local campaigner achieved an unprecedented swing in the ward for the Conservatives. Henleaze would have fallen to them if the swing had been just 1.5% higher.