The battle to retain the Accident and Emergency department at Edgware Hospital, based in Hendon, badly damaged the Conservatives in this constituency when, in 1997, they lost it to Labour for the first time since 1945.
Hendon is perhaps best-known for its police training college, though it also contains the National Newspaper Library and RAF museum.
The Mill Hill suburb is a well-disposed area, home to aspiring non-manual workers, many of whom come from the seat's sizeable Asian community. With its expensive houses and rural ambience, Mill Hill flanks the vast council estate of Burnt Oak - or Watling - to the south and mimics the Conservative/Labour split in the constituency. Twenty-two percent of the population are non-white and this, combined with a similar proportion of council-rented accommodation, gives Labour the basis for much of its support.
Hendonís MP Andrew Dismore is a solicitor who was elected to Westminster City Council in 1992. He led the attack on Dame Shirley Porterís Ďhomes for votesí scandal when, as leader of the council, she was accused of selling council houses to boost Tory support in key wards.