Highgate
Encyclopedia
Highgate is an area of North London
on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath
.
Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character.
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 of Hampstead Heath
, three ancient woods, Waterlow Park
and the eastern-facing slopes known as Highgate bowl.
At its centre is Highgate village, a collection of largely Georgian
shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets, interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, Highgate School
(1565), Jacksons Lane
arts centre housed in a Grade II listed former church, the Gatehouse inn dating from 1670 and Berthold Lubetkin
's 1930s Highpoint
buildings. Highgate is also famous for its atmospheric Victorian
cemetery
in which the communist philosopher Karl Marx
is buried.
The village sits atop a hill which provides views across London, climbing 375 feet (114 m) above sea level at its highest point.
The area is divided between three London borough
s: Haringey
in the north, Camden
in the south and west, and Islington
in the south and east. The postal district
is N6
.
's hunting estate. 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.
In later centuries Highgate was associated with the highwayman Dick Turpin
.
Hampstead Lane and Highgate Hill contain the red brick Victorian buildings of Highgate 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 by letters from Queen Elizabeth I in 1565.
The area north of the High Street and Hampstead Lane was part of Hornsey
parish and also later the Municipal Borough of Hornsey
and the seat of that borough's governing body for many years.
Highgate Hill, the steep street linking Archway and Highgate village, was the route of the first cable car
to be built in Europe. It operated between 1884 and 1909.
, Stanley Baxter
, Andy Bell
, Arthur Boyd
, Sarah Blackwood
, Sir Jacob Bronowski
, Pierce Brosnan
, Sir Clifford Curzon
, Ray Davies
, Roger Fry
, Stephen Gately
, Stella Gibbons
, Terry Gilliam
, Geri Halliwell
, Jeremy Hardy
, Freddie Highmore
, Bob Hoskins
, Terry Jones
, Ulrika Jonsson
, Judge Jules
, David Ryan Jordan (Air Traffic
), Jude Law
and Sienna Miller
, Marina Diamandis, Yehudi Menuhin
(and later Sting who bought Menuhin's old house), Ewan Mcgregor
, George Michael
, Kate Moss
, Chris Moyles
, Paul Nicholas
, Christopher Nolan
, Clive Owen
, Cliff Parisi
, Tim Pigott-Smith
, J. B. Priestley
, Jonathan Pryce
, Dizzee Rascal
, Heath Robinson, John James Sainsbury
, Peter Sellers
, Mike Skinner
, Alison Steadman
, Imre Varadi
, Rod Stewart
, Victoria Wood
, Lord Young of Dartington, Toby Young
, and Alex Zane
.
Highgate Cemetery
is the burial place of Karl Marx
, Michael Faraday
, Douglas Adams
, George Eliot
, Jacob Bronowski
, Sir Ralph Richardson
, Christina Rossetti
, Sir Sidney Nolan
, Alexander Litvinenko
, Malcolm McLaren
, and Radclyffe Hall
.
Adjacent to the Highgate cemetery
is the Holly Lodge Estate
, one of only two housing-estates built in the UK
for single women; formerly, it was the home and grounds of Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts. Between 1930 and 1939, the wife and son of Adolf Hitler
's half brother, Alois, lived in Highgate: Bridget Hitler
and her son, Pat, lived at 26 Priory Gardens. Sadie Frost
has an office in the village. Leslie Compton
, formerly an Arsenal F.C footballer and a Middlesex
cricketer, owned a pub in Highgate after he retired from sports.
Newcastle United F.C.
striker Nile Ranger
was born in Highgate.
The MP
for the Hampstead and Highgate constituency since 1992 has been Labour's Glenda Jackson
. It is now part of the Hampstead and Kilburn
constituency, formed at the 2010 general election. Lynne Featherstone
is the Liberal Democrat MP for the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, which covers the northern half of Highgate village. The Boundary Commission report of 2003 recommended separating the Camden part of Highgate from the remainder of its present constituency and joining it with Kentish Town and Holborn
to the south.
Many notable alumni have passed through Highgate School
, either Masters or indeed Old Cholmeleians, the name given to old boys of the school. These include T. S. Eliot
, who taught the poet laureate John Betjeman
there, Gerard Manley Hopkins
the poet, the composers John Taverner
and John Rutter
, John Venn
the inventor of Venn diagram
s, actor Geoffrey Palmer
, Anthony Crosland
MP and Labour reformer, and the cabinet minister Charles Clarke
.
Peter Sellers lived as a boy in a cottage in Muswell 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" - where Christina Rossetti
was a volunteer from 1859 to 1870. It may have inspired her best-known poem, Goblin Market
.
came to live in the Highgate home of Dr James Gillman in order to rehab from his desperate opium
addiction. 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. 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. His home became a place of pilgrimage for figures such as Carlyle
and Emerson
. He died there on 25 July 1834 and is buried in the crypt of St Michael's Church.
with "flyweight". An alternative pronunciation, used by the London Underground
in announcements at Highgate tube station
, is ˈ, where the final syllable matches the last syllable in "tag it".
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath is a large, ancient London park, covering . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London clay...
.
Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character.
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 of Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath is a large, ancient London park, covering . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London clay...
, three ancient woods, Waterlow Park
Waterlow Park
Waterlow Park is a park in the south east of Highgate Village, in North London, England. It was given to the public by Sir Sydney Waterlow, as "a garden for the gardenless" in 1889....
and the eastern-facing slopes known as Highgate bowl.
At its centre is Highgate village, a collection of largely Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets, interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, Highgate School
Highgate School
-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...
(1565), Jacksons Lane
Jacksons Lane
- Theatre and performance :Jacksons Lane is a multi-arts venue in Highgate, North London. Housed in a striking red-brick gothic church conversion, the building is home to a 160 capacity theatre, a large scale dance and rehearsal studio, a cafe-bar and four other multi-purpose spaces.Jacksons Lane...
arts centre housed in a Grade II listed former church, the Gatehouse inn dating from 1670 and Berthold Lubetkin
Berthold Lubetkin
Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin was a Russian émigré architect who pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint housing complex, London Zoo penguin pool, Finsbury Health Centre and Spa Green Estate.-Early years:Berthold Lubetkin was born in Tiflis into a Jewish...
's 1930s Highpoint
Highpoint I
Highpoint I was the first of two apartment blocks erected in the 1930s on one of the highest points in London, England at Highgate. The architectural design was by Russian-born architect Berthold Lubetkin, the structural design by Danish engineer Ove Arup and the construction by Kier.Highpoint I...
buildings. Highgate is also famous for its atmospheric Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
in which the communist philosopher Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
is buried.
The village sits atop a hill which provides views across London, climbing 375 feet (114 m) above sea level at its highest point.
The area is divided between three London borough
London borough
The administrative area of Greater London contains thirty-two London boroughs. Inner London comprises twelve of these boroughs plus the City of London. Outer London comprises the twenty remaining boroughs of Greater London.-Functions:...
s: Haringey
London Borough of Haringey
The London Borough of Haringey is a London borough, in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of three former boroughs. It shares borders with six other London boroughs...
in the north, Camden
London Borough of Camden
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...
in the south and west, and Islington
London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Islington is a London borough in Inner London. It was formed in 1965 by merging the former metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury. The borough contains two Westminster parliamentary constituencies, Islington North and Islington South & Finsbury...
in the south and east. The postal district
London postal district
The London postal district is the area in England, currently of , to which mail addressed to the LONDON post town is delivered. The area was initially devised in 1856 and throughout its history has been subject to periodic reorganisation, contraction and division into increasingly smaller postal...
is N6
N postcode area
The N postcode area, also known as the London N postcode area, is the part of the London post town covering part of North London, England....
.
History
Historically, Highgate adjoined the Bishop of LondonBishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
's hunting estate. 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.
In later centuries Highgate was associated with the highwayman Dick Turpin
Dick Turpin
Richard "Dick" Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's profession as a butcher early in life, but by the early 1730s he had joined a gang of deer thieves, and later became a poacher,...
.
Hampstead Lane and Highgate Hill contain the red brick Victorian buildings of Highgate School
Highgate School
-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...
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 by letters from Queen Elizabeth I in 1565.
The area north of the High Street and Hampstead Lane was part of Hornsey
Hornsey
Hornsey is a district in London Borough of Haringey in north London in England. Whilst Hornsey was formerly the name of a parish and later a municipal borough of Middlesex, today, the name refers only to the London district. It is an inner-suburban area located north of Charing Cross.-Locale:The ...
parish and also later the Municipal Borough of Hornsey
Municipal Borough of Hornsey
Hornsey was a local government district in east Middlesex from 1867 to 1965.In 1867, a Local Board was formed for part of the civil parish of Hornsey. The rest of the parish was already under South Hornsey Local Board formed in 1865....
and the seat of that borough's governing body for many years.
Highgate Hill, the steep street linking Archway and Highgate village, was the route of the first cable car
Cable car (railway)
A cable car or cable railway is a mass transit system using rail cars that are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required...
to be built in Europe. It operated between 1884 and 1909.
Notable inhabitants
Recent and current inhabitants of Highgate include Tariq AliTariq Ali
Tariq Ali , , is a British Pakistani military historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, public intellectual, political campaigner, activist, and commentator...
, Stanley Baxter
Stanley Baxter
Stanley Baxter is a Scottish comic actor and impressionist, best known for his British television shows. He worked in radio, theatre, television and film.-Early life:...
, Andy Bell
Andy Bell (singer)
Andrew Ivan "Andy" Bell is the lead singer of the English synthpop duo Erasure. He also has a solo career, with the albums Non-Stop and Electric Blue.-Early life:Andy Bell originates from the Dogsthorpe area in Peterborough...
, Arthur Boyd
Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, AC, OBE was one of the leading Australian painters of the late 20th Century. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, his relatives included painters, sculptors, architects or other arts professionals. His sister Mary Boyd married John Perceval,...
, Sarah Blackwood
Sarah Blackwood (British musician)
Sarah Blackwood is an English recording artist. She came to prominence as the lead singer of Dubstar, and then as a singer-songwriter in Client...
, Sir Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski was a Polish-Jewish British mathematician, biologist, historian of science, theatre author, poet and inventor...
, Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
, Sir Clifford Curzon
Clifford Curzon
Sir Clifford Michael Curzon, CBE was an English pianist.-Early life:Clifford Michael Siegenberg was born in London to Michael and Constance Mary Siegenberg...
, Ray Davies
Ray Davies
Ray Davies, CBE is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
, Roger Fry
Roger Fry
Roger Eliot Fry was an English artist and art critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism...
, Stephen Gately
Stephen Gately
Stephen Patrick David Gately was an Irish pop singer–songwriter, actor, dancer, musician and author, who, with Ronan Keating, was one of two lead singers of the pop group Boyzone. All of Boyzone's studio albums hit number one in the United Kingdom, their third being their most successful...
, Stella Gibbons
Stella Gibbons
Stella Dorothea Gibbons was an English novelist, journalist, poet, and short-story writer.Her first novel, Cold Comfort Farm, won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize for 1933...
, Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
, Geri Halliwell
Geri Halliwell
Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...
, Jeremy Hardy
Jeremy Hardy
Jeremy James Hardy is a British alternative comedian who is also known for his socialist politics.-Career:Hardy was born in Farnborough, Hampshire. He attended Farnham College and studied Modern History and Politics at the University of Southampton...
, Freddie Highmore
Freddie Highmore
Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Finding Neverland, Five Children and It, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles, August Rush, The Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Toast.-Early life:Highmore was...
, Bob Hoskins
Bob Hoskins
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
, Terry Jones
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
, Ulrika Jonsson
Ulrika Jonsson
Eva Ulrika Jonsson is a Swedish television presenter in the UK, who became famous as a TV-am weather presenter and moved on to present Gladiators and became a team captain of the show Shooting Stars.-Early life:...
, Judge Jules
Judge Jules
Judge Jules is a British dance music DJ and producer, known for his DJ activities and popular radio show which achieved global success.-Education:...
, David Ryan Jordan (Air Traffic
Air Traffic
Air Traffic was a British alternative rock band from Bournemouth. Formed in 2003, the band consists of Chris Wall , David Ryan Jordan , Tom Pritchard and Jim Maddock ....
), Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...
and Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
, Marina Diamandis, Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
(and later Sting who bought Menuhin's old house), Ewan Mcgregor
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
, George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
, Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
, Chris Moyles
Chris Moyles
Christopher David Moyles is an English radio and television presenter and author, who currently presents The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Channel 4....
, Paul Nicholas
Paul Nicholas
Paul Nicholas is an English actor and singer who has had considerable success on stage, screen and in the pop charts.-Biography:Nicholas was born as Paul Oscar Beuselinck in Peterborough, England...
, Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...
, Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
, Cliff Parisi
Cliff Parisi
Cliff Parisi is an English actor of Italian descent, largely recognised for his performance as Rick 'Minty' Peterson in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders.-Career:...
, Tim Pigott-Smith
Tim Pigott-Smith
Tim Pigott-Smith is an English film and television actor.-Early life:Pigott-Smith was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, the son of Margaret Muriel and Harry Thomas Pigott-Smith, who was a journalist. He was educated at Wyggeston Boys' School, Leicester, King Edward VI School Stratford-upon-Avon, and...
, J. B. Priestley
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...
, Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
, Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills , better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a Ghanaian British rapper, songwriter and record producer. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles...
, Heath Robinson, John James Sainsbury
John James Sainsbury
John James Sainsbury was the founder of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain.-Early and private life:John James Sainsbury was born on 12 June 1844 at 5 Oakley Street, Lambeth, to John Sainsbury , ornament and picture frame maker, and his wife Elizabeth Sarah, née Coombes...
, Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
, Mike Skinner
The Streets
The Streets were a British rap/garage project from Birmingham, United Kingdom, led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner and has included a myriad of other contributors most notably drummer Johnny Drum Machine, vocalist Kevin Mark Trail and the Italian-American beatmaker Leroy.The...
, Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman OBE is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective,...
, Imre Varadi
Imre Varadi
Imre Varadi is an English former professional footballer of Hungarian origin, known as a journeyman forward who appeared for 16 different clubs at all levels of professional football in England.-Playing career:...
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
, Lord Young of Dartington, Toby Young
Toby Young
Toby Young, MA, FRSA is a British journalist and the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his stint in New York as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine...
, and Alex Zane
Alex Zane
Alex Zane is an English television presenter and DJ.-Background:Zane was born in Leeds and attended Boston Spa School before going on to study Medicine at University College London, a course which he left after a year, and then Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College.-Stand-up comedy and...
.
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
is the burial place of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
, Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
, George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
, Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski was a Polish-Jewish British mathematician, biologist, historian of science, theatre author, poet and inventor...
, Sir Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
, Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
, Sir Sidney Nolan
Sidney Nolan
Sir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.-Early life:Nolan was born in Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne, on 22 April 1917. He was the eldest of four children. His family later moved to St Kilda. Nolan attended the Brighton Road State School and...
, Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
, Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
, and Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...
.
Adjacent to the Highgate cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
is the Holly Lodge Estate
Holly Lodge Estate
The Holly Lodge Estate is an estate located on the site and grounds of a villa built in 1798 by Sir Henry Tempest on the south-facing slopes of Highgate, London adjacent to Highgate Rise, now known as Highgate West Hill...
, one of only two housing-estates built in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
for single women; formerly, it was the home and grounds of Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts. Between 1930 and 1939, the wife and son of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's half brother, Alois, lived in Highgate: Bridget Hitler
Bridget Dowling
Bridget Elizabeth Hitler, née Dowling was Adolf Hitler's sister-in-law via her marriage to Alois Hitler, Jr. She was the mother of Alois Hitler's son William Patrick Hitler...
and her son, Pat, lived at 26 Priory Gardens. Sadie Frost
Sadie Frost
Sadie Frost is an English actress, who currently runs fashion label Frost French and has designed the kitchens for a new development in the East End of London.-Biography:Frost was born Sadie Liza Vaughan in London...
has an office in the village. Leslie Compton
Leslie Compton
Leslie Harry Compton was an English footballer and cricketer who played for Arsenal and Middlesex respectively...
, formerly an Arsenal F.C footballer and a Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
cricketer, owned a pub in Highgate after he retired from sports.
Newcastle United F.C.
Newcastle United F.C.
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End, and has played at its current home ground, St James' Park, since the merger...
striker Nile Ranger
Nile Ranger
Nile Ranger is an English footballer who plays for Barnsley on loan from Premier League club Newcastle United as a striker.-Early days:...
was born in Highgate.
The MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for the Hampstead and Highgate constituency since 1992 has been Labour's Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson
Glenda May Jackson, CBE is a British Labour Party politician and former actress. She has been a Member of Parliament since 1992, and currently represents Hampstead and Kilburn. She previously served as MP for Hampstead and Highgate...
. It is now part of the Hampstead and Kilburn
Hampstead and Kilburn (UK Parliament constituency)
Hampstead and Kilburn is a borough constituency electing one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-History:...
constituency, formed at the 2010 general election. Lynne Featherstone
Lynne Featherstone
Lynne Choona Featherstone , is a British Liberal Democrat politician, and the Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green....
is the Liberal Democrat MP for the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, which covers the northern half of Highgate village. The Boundary Commission report of 2003 recommended separating the Camden part of Highgate from the remainder of its present constituency and joining it with Kentish Town and Holborn
Holborn
Holborn is an area of Central London. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running as High Holborn from St Giles's High Street to Gray's Inn Road and then on to Holborn Viaduct...
to the south.
Many notable alumni have passed through Highgate School
Highgate School
-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...
, either Masters or indeed Old Cholmeleians, the name given to old boys of the school. These include T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, who taught the poet laureate John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
there, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
the poet, the composers John Taverner
John Taverner
John Taverner was an English composer and organist, regarded as the most important English composer of his era.- Career :...
and John Rutter
John Rutter
John Milford Rutter CBE is a British composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music.-Biography:Born in London, Rutter was educated at Highgate School, where a fellow pupil was John Tavener. He read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the...
, John Venn
John Venn
Donald A. Venn FRS , was a British logician and philosopher. He is famous for introducing the Venn diagram, which is used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science....
the inventor of Venn diagram
Venn diagram
Venn diagrams or set diagrams are diagrams that show all possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets . Venn diagrams were conceived around 1880 by John Venn...
s, actor Geoffrey Palmer
Geoffrey Palmer (actor)
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE is an English actor, best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Butterflies and As Time Goes By.-Career:...
, Anthony Crosland
Anthony Crosland
Charles Anthony Raven Crosland , otherwise Tony Crosland or C.A.R. Crosland, was a British Labour Party politician and author. He served as Member of Parliament for South Gloucestershire and later for Great Grimsby...
MP and Labour reformer, and the cabinet minister Charles Clarke
Charles Clarke
Charles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006.-Early life:...
.
Peter Sellers lived as a boy in a cottage in Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill is a suburb of north London, mostly in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated about north of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. Muswell Hill is in the N10 postal district and mostly in the Hornsey and Wood Green parliamentary constituency.- History :The...
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" - where Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
was a volunteer from 1859 to 1870. It may have inspired her best-known poem, Goblin Market
Goblin Market
"Goblin Market" is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti. In a letter to her publisher, Rossetti claimed that the poem, which features remarkably sexual imagery, was not meant for children. However, in public Rossetti often stated that the poem was intended for children, and went on to write...
.
Coleridge
In 1817 the poet, aesthetic philosopher and critic Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
came to live in the Highgate home of Dr James Gillman in order to rehab from his desperate opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
addiction. 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. While here some of his most famous poems, though written years earlier, were first published including "Kubla Khan
Kubla Khan
Kubla Khan is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep in 1816...
". His literary autobiography, Biographia Literaria
Biographia Literaria
Biographia Literaria, or in full Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of MY LITERARY LIFE and OPINIONS, is an autobiography in discourse by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which he published in 1817. The work is long and seemingly loosely structured, and although there are autobiographical...
, appeared in 1817. His home became a place of pilgrimage for figures such as Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
and Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
. He died there on 25 July 1834 and is buried in the crypt of St Michael's Church.
In popular culture
- Highgate's historic feel - in particular the gothic atmosphere of its cemetery - has provided the backdrop to a considerable number of films, including Hammer Horror movies of the 1970s and, more recently, Shaun of the DeadShaun of the DeadShaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather...
and Dorian Gray. - A famous scene in pantomimePantomimePantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
is set in Highgate. Dick Whittington and His CatDick Whittington and His CatDick Whittington and His Cat is an English folk tale that has often been used as the basis for stage pantomimes and other adaptations. It tells of a poor boy in the 14th century who becomes a wealthy merchant and eventually the Lord Mayor of London because of the ratting abilities of his cat...
are characters in an EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
story adapted to the stage in 1605, which since the 19th century has become one of the most popular pantomime subjects, very loosely based on the historical Richard WhittingtonRichard WhittingtonSir Richard Whittington was a medieval merchant and politician, and the real-life inspiration for the pantomime character Dick Whittington. Sir Richard Whittington was four times Lord Mayor of London, a Member of Parliament and a sheriff of London...
, a medieval Lord Mayor of LondonLord Mayor of LondonThe Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
. Dick, a boy from a poor family in GloucestershireGloucestershireGloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, walks to London to make his fortune, accompanied by his cat. He meets with little success there. As Dick and cat are making for home, discouraged, by way of Highgate Hill, they hear the Bow Bells from distant London; Dick believes they are sending him a message to "turn again" - and that he will become Lord Mayor of London. They return; Dick makes his fortune and indeed becomes Lord Mayor. The Whittington Hospital on Highgate Hill is named after the story, and a statue of Dick's faithful pet stands nearby. - "London Song" by Ray DaviesRay DaviesRay Davies, CBE is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
: "If you're ever up on Highgate Hill on a clear day, You can see right down to Leicester Square". The cover shoot for the 1971 Kinks album Muswell HillbilliesMuswell HillbilliesMuswell Hillbillies is the ninth studio album by the English rock group The Kinks, released in November 1971. The album is named after the Muswell Hill area of North London, where band leader Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies grew up and the band formed in the early 1960s.The album centred on...
took place in various locations around Highgate. The back inset on the original album cover showed the band on the traffic island that used to stand on the intersection of Southwood Lane and Castle Yard. The cover for their 1968 album Village Green Preservation Society was photographed on Parliament Hill, with Highgate as the backdrop. - "Waterlow" by Mott the HoopleMott the HoopleMott the Hoople were a British rock band with strong R&B roots, popular in the glam rock era of the early to mid 1970s. They are popularly known for the song "All the Young Dudes", written for them by David Bowie and appearing on their 1972 album of the same name.-The early years:Mott The Hoople...
, from their 1971 album Wildlife, is a tribute to Highgate's Waterlow ParkWaterlow ParkWaterlow Park is a park in the south east of Highgate Village, in North London, England. It was given to the public by Sir Sydney Waterlow, as "a garden for the gardenless" in 1889....
. - Rod StewartRod StewartRoderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
sings about his Highgate upbringing in "Highgate Shuffle", from the live album Unplugged... and SeatedUnplugged...and SeatedUnplugged...and Seated is a live album released by Rod Stewart on May 24, 1993 . It is Stewart’s second live album and his first appearance on MTV Unplugged. The album was released by Warner Bros. Records...
. - In the song "Cross-Eyed Mary" by Jethro TullJethro Tull (band)Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
, the title character is referred to as the "Robin Hood of Highgate". - The pub tradition of Swearing on the HornsSwearing on the HornsSwearing on the Horns is a farcical oath that was traditionally given to visitors at various pubs in the London suburb of Highgate during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries...
originated in Highgate. - Nick, a character in Jane Green's "Mr. Maybe" lives in a bedsit in Highgate.
- In Dickens' novel David CopperfieldDavid Copperfield (novel)The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery , commonly referred to as David Copperfield, is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial...
James Steerforth lives in a house at the top of Highgate West Hill. - In the popular BBC sitcom, Are You Being Served, Mr. Lucas (played by Trevor BannisterTrevor BannisterTrevor Gordon Bannister was an English actor best known for playing the womanising junior salesman Mr. Lucas in the sitcom Are You Being Served? from 1972 to 1979, and for his role as Toby Mulberry Smith in the longest-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, from 2003 until it ended its run in 2010...
) lives in Highgate. - Un lieu incertain, a book by French novelist Fred VargasFred VargasFred Vargas is the pseudonym of the French historian, archaeologist and writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau . Her crime fiction policiers have won three International Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers Association, for three successive novels: in 2006, 2008 and 2009. She is the first author to...
, picks up the urban legend of the "Highgate Vampire".
Nearest places
- Archway
- Crouch EndCrouch EndCrouch End is an area of north London, in the London Borough of Haringey.- Location :Crouch End is in a valley between Harringay to the east, Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green to the north, Finsbury Park and Archway to the south and Highgate to the west...
- Dartmouth ParkDartmouth ParkDartmouth Park is a district of north London in the London Borough of Camden, on the slope of the hill that rises up to Highgate from Kentish Town.-History:...
- FinchleyFinchleyFinchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...
- HampsteadHampsteadHampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
- HollowayHolloway, LondonHolloway is an inner-city district in the London Borough of Islington located north of Charing Cross and follows for the most part, the line of the Holloway Road . At the centre of Holloway is the Nag's Head area...
- HornseyHornseyHornsey is a district in London Borough of Haringey in north London in England. Whilst Hornsey was formerly the name of a parish and later a municipal borough of Middlesex, today, the name refers only to the London district. It is an inner-suburban area located north of Charing Cross.-Locale:The ...
- Muswell HillMuswell HillMuswell Hill is a suburb of north London, mostly in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated about north of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. Muswell Hill is in the N10 postal district and mostly in the Hornsey and Wood Green parliamentary constituency.- History :The...
Places of interest
Highgate is known for its pubs which line the old high street and surrounding streets. Some notable favourites are The Angel, the Flask and the Wrestlers.- Highgate CemeteryHighgate CemeteryHighgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
- Highgate SchoolHighgate School-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...
- Highgate WoodHighgate WoodHighgate Wood is a 28 hectare area of ancient woodland in North London, lying between East Finchley, Highgate Village, and Muswell Hill. It was originally part of the ancient Forest of Middlesex which covered much of London, Hertfordshire and Essex and was mentioned in the Domesday Book...
- Jacksons LaneJacksons Lane- Theatre and performance :Jacksons Lane is a multi-arts venue in Highgate, North London. Housed in a striking red-brick gothic church conversion, the building is home to a 160 capacity theatre, a large scale dance and rehearsal studio, a cafe-bar and four other multi-purpose spaces.Jacksons Lane...
- Kenwood HouseKenwood HouseKenwood House is a former stately home, in Hampstead, London, on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath. It is managed by English Heritage.-History:...
- Highpoint IHighpoint IHighpoint I was the first of two apartment blocks erected in the 1930s on one of the highest points in London, England at Highgate. The architectural design was by Russian-born architect Berthold Lubetkin, the structural design by Danish engineer Ove Arup and the construction by Kier.Highpoint I...
and II - Athlone House formally known as Caen Wood Towers - (Home of the RAF IntelligenceRAF IntelligenceIntelligence services in the Royal Air Force is delivered by Officers of the Royal Air Force Operations Support Intelligence Branch and Airmen from the Intelligence Analyst Trade and Intelligence Analyst Trade...
School 1942-1948) - Archway bridge
Pronunciation
The name of the village is commonly icon, rhymingRhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
with "flyweight". An alternative pronunciation, used by the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
in announcements at Highgate tube station
Highgate tube station
Highgate tube station is a London Underground station on Archway Road, Highgate, not far from Highgate Village in north London. It is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line, between Archway and East Finchley, in Travelcard Zone 3....
, is ˈ, where the final syllable matches the last syllable in "tag it".
Education
- For details of education in the Haringey portion of Highgate see the London Borough of Haringey article.