Mill Hill Village is the oldest known inhabited part of the district, a ribbon development along a medieval route called 'The Ridgeway'.

The village is bounded on the north and the south by Green Belt land, and its High Street, at 100 yards, is the shortest in London.

The area's proximity to the city made it popular as a country retreat from the 17th century onwards, and large houses and quaint cottages survive.

William Wilberforce (MP, and abolitionist of the slave trade) and Sir Stamford Raffles (founder of colonial Singapore) both briefly resided here, the former being the patron of Mill Hill's first church, Saint Paul's.

As late as 1960, five shops existed in the Village (Griffin's sub-Post Office, The Blenheim Steps, Cook & Son (sweets and groceries), Hawes Brothers (grocers) and Vincett's (butchers)) but although the buildings survive, they have all since been converted into private houses, as the retail focus in the area shifted to Mill Hill Broadway.

Now converted into a private home, it was originally designed and operated as a secret nuclear bunker to house and protect the 'London North Group' emergency regional government between about 1951 and 1985.

Mill Hill was part of the ancient civil parish of Hendon within the historic county boundaries of Middlesex.

From then, until he lost his seat to the Conservative candidate, Matthew Offord, at the 2010 general election, Hendon was represented in the House of Commons by Andrew Dismore of the Labour Party.

Between The Ridgeway and Folly Brook are Burtonhole Farm, a garden centre called Finchley Nurseries, and several sports grounds.

The National Institute for Medical Research, a landmark building, was demolished in 2018 and the site is being developed for new houses and apartments.

The open fields were originally hay meadows which provided feed for the horses pulling carriages north to Barnet and beyond.

Southwest of Mill Hill Village is a small suburb called "Poets' Corner", and to the north an old estate, now a nature reserve, Moat Mount Open Space.

Parts of the east side of Mill Hill have been redeveloped, with the former gas works replaced by a Waitrose supermarket and housing developments.

The United Kingdom / Carl Zeiss / Bausch & Lomb Optical Works was established at the top of Bittacy Hill in 1912 and demolished about 1990, to be replaced by a large building owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses, to complement their nearby Watchtower House built on the site of the former Bittacy House.

[citation needed] The branch was opened in 1867 as part of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway, which also built Dollis Brook Viaduct east of the station.

[citation needed] Steam freight trains continued to run between Finchley and Edgware until 1964; the track beyond Mill Hill East was lifted the following year.

The dual carriageway passes through Mill Hill, and the routes diverge at Apex Corner (officially Northway Circus).

There is a disused southbound exit slip road which passes under the Watford Way and which covers part of the old railway between Mill Hill East and Edgware Town.

As a result, Barnet Council designated the 'Mill Hill East Area Action Plan' (AAP) and carried out public consultation events.

Representations were made to the Planning Inspectorate to reopen the railway line from Mill Hill East station to the west.

Many of the matters that concern local residents and expressed at the Hearings can be addressed at a later stage.The amended AAP was formally adopted by the council on 27 January 2009.

[22] The lexicographer James Murray started work on the first Oxford English Dictionary in 1879, whilst teaching at Mill Hill School.

British Gas had a large gasworks at Mill Hill East with two gasometers, now replaced with housing and shops including a Waitrose supermarket.