Crouch End

Crouch End
OS grid reference	TQ295885
London borough	Haringey
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	N8
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
London Assembly	Enfield and Haringey

Crouch End is an area of north London, in the London Borough of Haringey. The area is in the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency. Before 1965 it was administratively part of the old Borough of Hornsey, which in 1933-5 built the strikingly modernistic Hornsey Town Hall as a civic focus and community centre.

Geography

Crouch End Broadway, looking north. Park Road branches to the left and Tottenham Lane to the right.

Crouch End is in a valley between Crouch Hill and Highgate to the south and west, Hornsey to the east, and Muswell Hill and Alexandra Park to the north. To the immediate west, it is bounded by Highgate Woods, and the adjacent Queen's Wood, as well as a large expanse of playing fields, and other parks in the area are Stationer's Park, Priory Park, and Alexandra Park. These give the suburb a rather greener character than others in North London. The disused railway line from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace is now a public footpath,'The Parkland Walk', providing the area with yet more green space.

Living in Crouch End

It is seen by many as a desirable area to live in as it has a pleasant town centre with many shops and restaurants. It is on many bus routes, and though it has no Tube station of its own it is not too far from Highgate Tube, Finsbury Park Tube, and from Hornsey, Haringey and Crouch Hill railway stations. Famous residents have included Simon Pegg, Gina McKee, Andy Serkis, Neil Morrisey, Sean Hughes, Dan Stevens, Luke De Woolfson, David Tennant, Matt Willis, Ian Hart, John Simm, writer and former member of Gallon Drunk and the Flaming Stars Max Decharné, Kate Kannibal out of The Priscillas, Rob Britton from the band Luxembourg, Brian Blowup, and members of the band Travis.[1]

There is a thriving local music scene thanks to the large number of professional and amateur musicians who live there. One of the best places to see world class musicians such as Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Robin Wiiliamson, John Renbourn and Jacqui McShee is at The Kalamazoo Klub which meets every second Friday of the month at The King's Head pub. This venue also hosts live comedy, jazz, blues and other kinds of music.

It is also home to Crouch End Festival Chorus, a leading symphonic chorus which has recorded with Lesley Garrett, Bryn Terfel, Alfie Boe, EMI Classics and Classic FM as well as singing on the soundtrack for Dr. Who. They perform four concerts a year and also undertake scores of other professional engagements for concerts and recordings.

Notable Buildings

A brick clock-tower dominates the junction of Crouch End Broadway

A red-brick clock-tower dominates the north end of Crouch End Broadway. Its stone placard reads:

ERECTION BY SUSBSCRIPTION IN APPRECIATION AND RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES RENDERED BY HENRY READER WILLIAMS ESQ SP TO THE DISTRICT OF HORNSEY DURING A PERIOD OF TWENTY FIVE YEARS JUNE 1895

Henry Williams was a local wine-merchant and local councillor who led the campaign to preserve Highgate Wood against threatened development.

Hornsey Town Hall is in the centre of Crouch End

Among its more prominent buildings is Hornsey Town Hall, formerly the headquarters of the Hornsey district council, which governed the area until the creation of the larger Haringey Council. The oldest building in the area, and in Haringey, is the tower of the former Hornsey Parish Church, St. Mary's. Most of the streets in Crouch End were laid out in the late 19th century, and much of the area is now protected as a Conservation Area.

History

Crouch End grew up as a hamlet on the old medieval route from London to the north. It expanded greatly in Victorian times.

In 1880 an Art School was established which in May 1968, as Hornsey College of Art, became the centre of national and even international headlines. As with similar radical protests including the Paris Sorbonne, students and lecturers occupied the building as a protest against the ideology of the teaching methods.

One of the lecturers and leaders of the occupation, Kim Howells, is now a Minister in the current British government.

The Art College contributed to Crouch End's former air of bohemianism, as did the nearby Mountview Theatre School. Crouch End Vampires F.C. are the local football team, a once prestigious amateur side.

Urban legends

• In the 1990s Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics had a recording studio on Crouch Hill. According to legend, he invited Bob Dylan to drop in any time he felt like it. Bob took him up on his offer, but the taxi driver dropped him off on the adjacent Crouch End Hill. Bob knocked on the door of the supposed home of Dave Stewart and asked for Dave. By coincidence, the plumber who lived there was also called Dave. He was told that Dave was out, and would he like to wait and have some tea? Twenty minutes later the plumber returned and asked his wife whether there were any messages. "No", she said, " but Bob Dylan's in the living room having a cup of coffee"[2].

• Artist Richard Hamilton lived on the Highgate side of Crouch End and is said to have taken visitor Marcel Duchamp to the Queen's Pub on the corner of Elder Avenue and Topsfield Parade.

• Horror writer Stephen King once stayed at a friend's (Peter Straub) house in Crouch End. The legend goes that after asking for a good place to go for a walk he was directed towards the old railway line, now called The Parkland Walk. While here he was inspired by the strange unsettling surroundings and the sculpture of a spriggan (a pan-like green man), which was pushing its way out of an old arched wall. King wrote the short story Crouch End, based on his visit to Crouch End, which was later adapted as an episode of Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, which included the spriggan in the introduction.

• It is claimed that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy once performed at the music hall that is now Holmes Place/Virgin Gym and that they stayed at the Queen's Hotel.

Notable residents

• Gillian Anderson lived in Crouch End from the ages of 2 to 11, when she moved to Michigan, USA
• Gem Archer
• Bernard Butler
• Sonia Clarke (Sonique)
• Samantha Fox grew up here
• Nigel Harman
• Fran Healy
• Gwyneth Herbert
• Matt Willis
• Paul Hillier
• Andy Kershaw
• Jose Loach
• James Base
• Gina McKee
• James McAvoy
• Neil Morrissey
• Ardal O'Hanlon
• Tamzin Outhwaite
• Simon Pegg
• Alex de Ville
• Andy Serkis
• John Simm
• Rupen Hargreaves
• Jean Simmons born here
• Peter Straub
• Dan Stevens
• David Tennant

John Turnbull of The Blockheads and Bob Geldolf's band

• Matthew James Sheret
• Jonathon Todd
• Peter A Kemp
• Richard Colley
• Nicholas Rowe

Notable Appearances

• Most of the movie Shaun of the Dead was shot here.
• Stephen King's short story, Crouch End, where Crouch End is an interdimensional portal.
• Nick Hornby's book, High Fidelity
• The introduction sequence to the television programme Peep Show
• Andrew Riddles's urban vampire novel The Papyrus Voice is set in Crouch End
• Part of the first series of A Life of Grime (narrated by the late John Peel) was set in and around Crouch End, featuring the indefatigable Edmund Trebus.
• Will Self's short story The North London book of the dead.
• In Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road, bookseller Frank Doel lives in Crouch End.

Education

For details of education in Crouch End see the London Borough of Haringey article.

Nearest Places

• Archway
• Muswell Hill
• Highgate
• Turnpike Lane
• Harringay
• Finsbury Park
• Stroud Green Road
• Wood Green

External links

• Hornsey Historical Society
• Crouch End on Flickr

References

1. Celebrities who have lived in Crouch End
2. Bob Dylan rumour
3. Travers, Ben. The Book of Crouch End. Buckingham: Barracuda Books, 1990.
4. I see famous people. Blog listing celebrity sightings in Crouch End

51.58049°N 0.13243°W / 51.58049; -0.13243