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Highgate
Highgate
Background
Today, Highgate is an up market community sandwiched between vast parks and straddling the boroughs of Haringey and Camden. Its higher elevations afford great views over Hampstead Heath and on to London, and Highgate's pricey properties (although not as dear as those in neighbouring Hampstead) primarily attract affluent homebuyers.
Present day Highgate began as part of the Bishops of London's Hornsey Estate and was used primarily as hunting grounds. By the 13th century a small hamlet had developed, and in the 14th century, the first road over Highgate Hill was built, along with the tollgate. Sir Roger Cholmley founded Highgate School in 1565, where T.S Eliot taught in 1916. Great mansions such as Lauderdale, Fitzroy, and Cromwell houses were erected in the 16th & 17th centuries.
History
Highgate takes its name from the tollgate atop the hill - the highest in London that on the site of today's Gatehouse pub on Highgate High Street. The first settlement grew at the top of Highgate Hill where a toll-gate of that name, near the site of the present Gate House public house, was erected by the 14th century to control passage of traffic to and from Islington Village, Kentish Town and London. Other gates were established at the present sites of the Spaniard's Inn in Hampstead and the White Lion in East Finchley.
In 1832, St Michael's Church, London's highest church, was built on Highgate Hill to accommodate the community's growing population. Seven years later, Highgate Cemetery, Karl Marx's famous resting place, was laid out.
Architecture
Highgate's most famous landmark is Highgate Cemetery, which sits atop Highgate Hill on the former grounds of the Ashurst Estate. The west cemetery was first laid out in 1839 and quickly became a popular final resting place for wealthy Victorians. By the mid-20th century, the cemetery's treasury had run dry and the owners locked its gates. Formed in the late 1970s, the Friends of Highgate Cemetery rescued the cemetery from vandalism and decay and have since returned the cemetery to its original splendor.
Nearby Pond Square was the site of the Highgate Ponds, excavated for road gravel, until they were filled in during 1864. Together with Highgate Green they formed the heart of the original Tudor village. By 1388, the more gradual incline from Holloway Hill had found favour over more arduous routes out of London crossing Muswell Hill and Highgate West Hill. Northward extensions gradually developed into Highgate High Street and the strategic North Road beyond the present Gate House as merchants moved in.
Since the 16th Century the area has enjoyed growing popularity with wealthy and influential figures as a healthy retreat from the pressures of city life and worsening smog. Well into the 19th century Highgate was still a country town, astride the original boundary of the County of Middlesex and Hampstead Heath.
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