In an effort to help win World War One clock factories like the one on the left, which belonged to S. Smith and son in Cricklewood, near London, stopped making clocks and instead made fuses. Clock factories, throughout the world, started making military hardware. Subsequently, the Smiths, who were the biggest maker of clocks and jeweled watches, in the UK, no longer made watches.

There was a small settlement at the junction of Cricklewood Lane and the Edgware Road by 1294, which by 1321 was being called Cricklewood. By the 1750s the Crown (rebuilt in 1889), was providing for coach travelers and by the 1800s it had a handful of cottages and Cricklewood House as neighbors, and was known for its “pleasure gardens”. By the 1860s there were a number of substantial villas along the Edgware Road starting with Rockhall Lodge and culminating in Rockhall Terrace.