| Highgate | |
|---|---|
 Highgate seen fromParliament Hill | |
  Highgate Location withinGreater London | |
| Population | 10,955 (2011 Census. Ward)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TQ285875 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | N6 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°34′18″N0°08′41″W / 51.5716°N 0.1448°W /51.5716; -0.1448 | |
Highgate is a suburban area ofnorthLondon in theLondon Boroughs of Camden,Islington andHaringey. The area is at the north-eastern corner ofHampstead Heath, 4.5 miles (7 kilometres) north-northwest ofCharing Cross.
Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live.[2] It has three conservation organisations: the Highgate Society, the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum and the Highgate Conservation Area Advisory Committee, to protect and enhance its character and amenities.
Until late Victorian times, it was a distinct village outside London, sitting astride the main road to the north. The area retains many green expanses, including the eastern part ofHampstead Heath, three ancient woods,[3]Waterlow Park and the eastern-facing slopes, known as Highgate bowl.
At its centre is Highgate village, largely a collection ofGeorgian shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets,[4] interspersed with diverse landmarks such asSt Michael's Church and steeple, St. Joseph's Church and its green copper dome,Highgate School (1565),Jacksons Lane arts centre, housed in a Grade II listed former church, theGatehouse Inn, dating from 1670, which houses the theatreUpstairs at the Gatehouse[5] andBerthold Lubetkin's 1930sHighpoint buildings.Pond Square, behind theHigh Street, is a registeredvillage green, and is the centre of communal activities which take place in the elegant buildings of theHighgate Literary and Scientific Institution and Highgate Society facing the Square.
Highgate is best known for theVictorianHighgate Cemetery, in which theCommunist philosopherKarl Marx and the novelistGeorge Eliot are buried, along with many other notable people.[6] Adjoining is Holly Village, the firstgated community, built in 1865, which is aGrade II* listed site.[7][8]
The village is at the top of Highgate Hill, which provides views across central London. Highgate is 136 m (446 ft) above sea level at its highest point.[9]
The area is divided among threeLondon boroughs:Haringey in the north and east,Camden in the south and west, andIslington in the south and east. Thepostal district isN6.
Historically, Highgate adjoined theBishop of London's hunting estate. Highgate gets its name from these hunting grounds, as there was a high, deer-proof hedge surrounding the estate: 'the gate in the hedge'.[10]
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The bishop kept a toll-house where one of the main northward roads out of London entered his land. A number of pubs sprang up along the route, one of which, the Gatehouse, commemorates the toll-house.
Hampstead Lane and Highgate Hill contain the red brick Victorian buildings ofHighgate School and its adjacent Chapel of St Michael. The school has played a paramount role in the life of the village and has existed on its site since its founding was permitted byletters patent fromQueen Elizabeth I in 1565.
From 1853 to 1940 theLondon Diocesan Penitentiary was sited on North Hill in Highgate. The area north of Hampstead Lane and east of theHigh Street was part ofHornsey parish and also later theMunicipal Borough of Hornsey, and the seat of that borough's governing body for many years.
Highgate Hill, a steep road linkingArchway (traditionally called part of Upper Holloway) and Highgate village, was the route of theHighgate Hill Cable Tramway, the firstcable car to be built in Europe. It operated between 1884 and 1909.
Like much of London, Highgate suffered damage duringWorld War II by Germanair raids. The localtube station was used as a bomb shelter.
Highgate New Town is a post-war estate adjacent to the cemetery, designed by Camden Council with similarities to theAlexandra Road estate.
Between 1983 and 2010 Highgate was part of theHampstead and Highgate constituency. TheBoundary Commission report of 2003 recommended removing the Camden part of Highgate from the remainder of that constituency and joining it withKentish Town andHolborn to the south in order to form an enlargedHolborn and St Pancras constituency from the2010 general election.
Since 1983 the northern half of Highgate village was part of theHornsey and Wood Green constituency. Until 2023 the southern half of Highgate was in the Holborn & St Pancras Parliamentary constituency whose MP isKeir Starmer of theLabour Party, the current Prime Minister. The whole of Highgate Village is now part of theHampstead and Highgate (UK Parliament constituency).
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Highgate is known[by whom?] for its pubs which line the old high street and surrounding streets. Some notable pubs are the Angel, theFlask, the Duke's Head and the Wrestlers.
The 2011 census showed that the Highgate ward of Haringey was 82% white (60% British, 19% Other, 3% Irish). 40.9% of the ward were Christian, 7% Jewish and 3.8% Muslim.[11]
The Highgate ward of Camden meanwhile was 80% white (61% British, 15% Other, 4% Irish), and 3% Black African. 37.5% of the ward were Christian, 5.1% Muslim.[12] and 4.2% Jewish.
Highgate's mainChurch of England parish church,St Michael's, is situated close to the summit of the hill, and is the highest church in Greater London. It was built as one of theCommissioners' churches in 1831 and consecrated and opened on 8 November 1832. The architect wasLewis Vulliamy, and in 1831 his original drawings for the church were exhibited at theRoyal Academy of Arts.[13]
From the late 17th century until 1830 Ashhurst House, the home of formerLord Mayor of London SirWilliam Ashhurst, stood on the site of the church. The remains of the house's cellar now form part of the church's crypt.[13]
The church's spire, built ofBath stone, with a cross ofPortland stone, is a landmark on London's northern skyline.[13]
Inside, thechancel and choir stalls were done byG. E. Street in 1880. Thepulpit dates from 1848. The present bench pews date from 1879, replacingbox pews. The present organ is by Hill and Davidson, and was installed in 1885, replacing an earlier instrument of 1842. It was overhauled in 1985.[13]
There is a monument toSamuel Taylor Coleridge and his family in the form of a slate slab in the middle of the church.[13]
The church was damaged in theSecond World War by enemy air raids and the present stained glass window at the east end was installed in 1954, replacing a window broken in the Blitz. It is one of the last works byEvie Hone and depicts theLast Supper.[13]
Further down Highgate Hill is the town'sRoman Catholic parish church,St Joseph's. It was designed by Albert Vickers, and built in 1888, replacing an earlier, smaller church of 1861. Although St Joseph's Church was opened in 1889 by theBishop of Liverpool, it was not until 1932, when its debts were cleared, that it was officially consecrated.[14]
The church has a distinctive copperdome with a green patina, and the interior of the dome was painted byNathaniel Westlake in 1891. The organ is by William Hill and Sons, and installed in 1945 as a memorial to the local victims of the Second World War.[14]
On Friday 26 August 1988, Michael Williams, a 43-year-old father from Highgate who worked for theHome Office inPimlico, disappeared while travelling back home after an employee social. His body was found atHighgate Wood the next day. The case remains unsolved despite being featured heavily in the national press and on theBBC's TV programmeCrimewatch.[15]
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Highgate Cemetery is the burial place of Communist philosopherKarl Marx,Michael Faraday,Douglas Adams,George Eliot,Jacob Bronowski, SirRalph Richardson,Dawn Foster,Christina Rossetti, SirSidney Nolan,Alexander Litvinenko,Malcolm McLaren,Radclyffe Hall,Joseph Wolf and singer-songwriterGeorge Michael.
Many notable alumni have passed throughHighgate School, either Masters or indeed Old Cholmeleians, the name given to old boys of the school. These includeT.S. Eliot, who taught the poet laureateJohn Betjeman there,Gerard Manley Hopkins the poet, the composersJohn Taverner andJohn Rutter,John Venn the inventor ofVenn diagrams, actorGeoffrey Palmer,Anthony Crosland MP and Labour reformer, and the cabinet ministerCharles Clarke.
A blue plaque on a house at the top of North Hill notes thatCharles Dickens stayed there in 1832, when he was 20 years old.
Peter Sellers lived as a boy in a cottage inMuswell Hill Road, where his mother had moved in order to send him to the Catholic St Aloysius Boys' School in Hornsey Lane.
In Victorian times St Mary Magdalene House of Charity in Highgate was a refuge for former prostitutes—"fallen women"—whereChristina Rossetti was a volunteer from 1859 to 1870. It may have inspired her best-known poem,Goblin Market.
Siouxsie and the Banshees' bassistSteven Severin was born and brought up there.
In 1817 the poet, aesthetic philosopher and criticSamuel Taylor Coleridge came to live at3, The Grove, Highgate, the home of DrJames Gillman, in order to rehabilitate from hisopium addiction.[19] After Dr Gillman built a special wing for the poet, Coleridge lived there for the rest of his life, becoming known as the sage of Highgate.[20]
While here some of his most famous poems, though written years earlier, were first published including "Kubla Khan". His literary autobiography,Biographia Literaria, appeared in 1817. While living there he became friends with his neighbourJoseph Hardman.[21] His home became a place of pilgrimage for figures such asCarlyle andEmerson. He died here on 25 July 1834 and is buried in the crypt of nearbySt Michael's Church. The writerJ. B. Priestley subsequently lived in the same house; a commemorative plaque marks the property.
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