This section contains a wide range of articles about the history of the area.
William Ernest Henley (1849 – 1903) was an English poet, critic and editor of a series of literary magazines and journals. He was able to choose his contributors to these …
Anthony Salvin (1799-1881) was one of the most successful British architects in the first half of Queen Victoria’s reign. The reason why we note Salvin today is because of his …
This month we are starting a 2021 series of articles on Lost Houses of the Hornsey area. We begin with Brick Place, the oldest known substantial house we know of, …
The extension of the Great Northern Railway and the opening of Highgate Station in 1867 caused a rush of development and in the next twenty years streets devoured most of the …
By Elizabethan times Highgate was an established hamlet on the hill that formed a western boundary to the Parish of Hornsey. Residences for City merchants were built on this healthy …
I read with interest David Frith’s story of Grove Lodge in the September Newsletter. In that there is a mention of, ‘the tree-lined strip which is still there and called Grove Lodge Gardens’. I rediscovered this ‘strip’ or path a few years ago.
Mention of Grove Lodge in the last Newsletter brought back memories to me. In 1948 I was a Red Cross Cadet and did voluntary duty there. At that time the Commandant was Mrs Blue when the house was a home for elderly ladies in need of full-time care.
It was quite strange in the late 1980s being uprooted from Cambridge in the middle of the night and being taken to London to go into foster care. I watched from the car and tried not to cry – even in the dark London scared me.
There were three large houses on the eastern side of Muswell Hill until the late 19th century – Bath House, The Grove and Grove Lodge. By far the oldest site was the one which still remains, Grove Lodge.
The virtues of thrift and sobriety were highly prized in Victorian society. Mrs Priscilla Wakefield (1750-1826), born in Tottenham, philanthropist and a Quaker author of children’s books, founded a Penny Bank for children which was to develop into England’s first savings bank.