Situated 8.4 miles (13.5 km) north-northeast of Charing Cross, it borders Enfield to the north, Chingford to the east, and Tottenham to the south, with Palmers Green and Winchmore Hill to the west.

Once a rural village, the opening of the railway and tramway in the 19th century, especially the opening of the high-level station at Lower Edmonton, caused the area to expand rapidly, forming part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, similar to much of the county of Middlesex.

The late 19th century saw the establishment of industry on former marshland and movement of a working-class population to the area, encouraging much of this development.

Edmonton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is recorded as Adelmetone—'a farmstead or estate of a man called Ēadhelm' from an Old English personal name and tūn.

[2] Edmonton Hundred was a division of the historic county of Middlesex from Saxon times, an area of some 31,000 acres (130 km2) stretching up the west bank of the Lea from Tottenham to the county boundary south of Waltham Cross, and west into what is now Hertfordshire as far as South Mimms.

Local government in the modern sense began in 1837 with the Edmonton Union, set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.

[4] The crenelated perpendicular Edmonton Town Hall was built in 1884 to the designs of George Eedes Eachus.

As the population mushroomed, smaller areas within Middlesex were used for local government, with a local board being formed for the 3,894 acres (15.76 km2) parish of Edmonton in 1850, which eventually achieved the status of municipal borough (main article Municipal Borough of Edmonton) in 1937.

Cecil was a protege of Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's chief spymaster and he succeeded him as Secretary of State in 1590.

In approximately 1600, a play entitled The Merry Devil of Edmonton was performed in London about a wizard who lived there.

In 1621 the villagers accused an old woman, Elizabeth Sawyer, of witchcraft and she was subsequently executed at Tyburn; her story was told in a pamphlet by Henry Goodcole, and in a 1621 play entitled The Witch of Edmonton.

[10] Edmonton was the home town of Sir James Winter Lake, director of the Hudson's Bay Company.

In his 1782 poem, The Diverting History of John Gilpin, William Cowper relates the comic tale of John Gilpin a linen draper of Cheapside London, who was probably based on a Mr Beyer, a linen draper of the Cheapside corner of Paternoster Row.

[11] Gilpin's spouse decides she and her husband should spend their twentieth wedding anniversary at The Bell Inn, Fore Street, Edmonton.

Gilpin loses control of his horse which carries him on to the town of Ware ten miles (16 km) distant.

Edmonton was home to many industries which included manufacturing of gas appliances, electrical components and furniture.

Household names that produced goods here included MK electric, Ever Ready batteries, British Oxygen, Glover and Main gas appliances.

Due to its close proximity to the River Lee Navigation, timber was transported by barge from the London Docks and stored in riverside wharves.

As the station was badly sited and the trains were slow and expensive, few people used the railway in the early days, preferring the horse buses.

The single-track line from a junction just north of Angel Road to Enfield Town opened on 1 March 1849, with an intermediate single-platform station at Lower Edmonton, located at the edge of the village green.

This, coupled with the train taking the long way round through Stratford to get to the terminus at Bishopsgate, meant that the railway offered little competition to the existing horse coaches and buses.

The £100 million project will include new housing, bus station, clinic and refurbishment of the shopping centre.

Demolition of the original 1970's leisure centre has been completed, that enabled construction to commence of a new Asda supermarket which opened in November 2008.

The then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, visited Edmonton in November 2008 to release his Time For Action plan.

[citation needed] Angel Place A circa 1730 terrace of linked Grade II* Listed Buildings which were altered in the middle of the 19th century.

[34] Charles Lamb Institute The Grade II listed building is located in Church Street.

Designed by Maurice Bingham Adams with bequests provided by the John Passmore Edwards foundation.

(Inside the library by the main entrance were two portrait plaques of Charles Lamb and John Keats by George Frampton, 1908.

[49] The Crescent A terrace of twenty-five Georgian houses, located in the Hertford Road, built between 1826 and 1851 by a London solicitor.

For further details see article Enfield parks and open spaces Edmonton is the home of the Millfield Arts Centre and Face Front Inclusive Theatre Company.