Highgate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is on the London village. For other places see Highgate (disambiguation)

Location
Highgate
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OS grid reference:	TQ285875
Latitude:	51.571669231423435°
Longitude:	-0.14487278519766633°
Administration
London borough:	Camden, Haringey, Islington
County level:	Greater London
Region:	London
Constituent country:	England
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county:	Greater London
Historic county:	Middlesex
Services
Police force:	Metropolitan Police
Fire brigade:	London Fire Brigade
Ambulance service:	London Ambulance
Post office and telephone
Post town:	LONDON
Postal district:	N6
Dialling code:	020
Politics
UK Parliament:	Hampstead and Highgate
London Assembly:	Barnet and Camden Enfield and Haringey North East London
European Parliament:	London
London \| List of places in London

Image:John Constable 003.jpg

Highgate is a village in north London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath. It is divided between three London boroughs: Haringey to the north, Camden to the south and west, and Islington to the south and east. The postal district for Highgate is N6. It is one of the more expensive suburbs to live in and has an active conservation society, The Highgate Society, to protect its character.

As you travel up Hampstead lane from the west and Highgate Hill from the south you will notice 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. Since then many influential men have passed through the school, either Masters or indeed Old Cholmelieans, the name given to old boys of the school. These include T. S. Eliot, who taught the poet laureate John Betjeman there, John Venn the inventor of Venn diagrams, actor Geoffrey Palmer, and most recently the cabinet minister Charles Clarke. These are just a few of a very long list who deserve national recognition.

Highgate is noteworthy for its Cemetery and Georgian architecture. It is also the location of Berthold Lubetkin's two Highpoint apartments.

Historically it was part of the Bishop of London's hunting estate. The Bishop kept a toll-house on one of the main northward roads out of London. A number of pubs sprung up along the route, one of which, the Gatehouse, commemorates the toll-house. In later centuries Highgate was associated with the highwayman Dick Turpin.

Highgate Hill, between Archway and Highgate village, was the route of the first cable car to be built in Europe. It operated between 1884 and 1909.

In recent years famous inhabitants have included J. B. Priestley, Yehudi Menuhin (and later Sting who bought Menuhin's old house), Sir Jacob Bronowski, Stanley Baxter, Terry Gilliam, George Michael, Jonathan Pryce, Jens Lehmann, Tim Pigott-Smith and Victoria Wood. Highgate Cemetery is the burial place of Karl Marx, Faraday, Douglas Adams, George Eliot, Jacob Bronowski, Sir Ralph Richardson, and Radclyffe Hall. Adjacent to the cemetery is the Holly Lodge Estate, one of only two housing estates built in the UK for single women and formerly the home and grounds of Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts.

The MP for the Hampstead and Highgate constituency since 1992 has been Labour's Glenda Jackson. 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.

Nearest places: