Harrow Observer

It was founded in 1855 as the Harrow Monthly Gazette and General Advertiser and enjoyed a monopoly in the area for 40 years until the founding of the rival Wealdstone, Harrow and Wembley Observer in 1895. The two titles merged in 1921 under the editorship of the then independent MP for Harrow, Sir Oswald Mosley. Several changes of owner later saw it taken over by Westminster Press in 1967. It’s been published by Trinity Mirror Southern since 2002.

The editorial offices moved from Harrow to Uxbridge in early 2009 and are shared with other Trinity Mirror titles for West London – including the Observer‘s companion freesheet, the Harrow Leader, until it was absorbed into the Observer in October 2010.

There are two other titles in the group besides the Harrow Observer itself:

• Pinner Observer
• Wembley Observer

There were previously five titles; but the Willesden Observer was absorbed into the Wembley Observer (initially as the Wembley & Willesden Observer) and the Stanmore Observer ceased publication in 2010.

It switched from being a paid-for title to being almost entirely freesheet in October 2010.

It lost its own URL and website at harrowobserver.co.uk in October 2013 when Trinity Mirror Southern created a single overarching website for all its West London newspapers. The link below is to that website’s pages for Harrow.

All editions come out on Thursdays.