| Crouch End | |
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Crouch End
Crouch End shown within Greater London |
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| 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 |
| EU Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | Hornsey & Wood Green |
| London Assembly | Enfield and Haringey |
| List of places: UK • England • London | |
Crouch End is an area of north London, in the London Borough of Haringey.
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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. Crouch End - the prosaic name is said to come from the Latin 'crux', a cross or crossroads, plus 'End', as it is at the eastern end of a valley. Where the clock tower is was once a local house called Crouch Hall.
To the immediate west, it is bounded by Highgate Wood, and the adjacent Queen's Wood, as well as a large expanse of playing fields. To the north is Alexandra Park and to the south Finsbury Park. The Parkland Walk, a former railway line, connects these two parks. Other parks in the area include Stationers' Park, Priory Park and Crouch Hill Park.
Crouch End grew up as a hamlet on the old medieval route from London to the north. At this time it was governed as part of Hornsey which became a parish in around 1300. This heavily-wooded area contained farms and villas, one of which was Crouch Hall, probably built in 1681 at the crossroads of what came to be known as Crouch End.
Crouch End remained rural until around 1880, probably because of the lack of adequate sewerage. Large parts remained in private ownership, inhibiting development. However, the development of the railway changed the area significantly. By 1887 there were seven railway stations in the area. Crouch End became a prosperous middle-class suburb due to an influx of mainly clerical workers who could easily commute to the city. The large old houses were replaced by comfortable middle-class housing and public parks were opened and a number of new roads and avenues, such as Elder Avenue and Weston Park were laid out.
It expanded greatly in the late Victorian period and most of its present-day streets were built up in the late 19th century.
By the mid-1930s Crouch End had a popular shopping centre that included an Opera House in the middle of Topsfield Parade.
Until 1965 it was administratively part of the Municipal Borough of Hornsey and that body's forerunners. In 1965, when local government in London was reorganised, Hornsey merged with the boroughs of Wood Green and Tottenham and Crouch End became part of the London Borough of Haringey.
In the post war years Crouch End gained a more mixed social grouping and the London-wide provision of social housing saw the growth of council homes in and around Crouch End into Hornsey Vale (known as Abyssinia) and Hornsey itself. Many of the houses in the area lay empty post-war and many were bought cheaply by speculative landlords who then let them out to the growing student populations of the Mountview and Hornsey Art Colleges. The area became known as a student bedsit land for several decades into the early 80's until gentrification of the area changed the social profile and it became progressively more middle class. Eventually many houses became so highly priced that the working class became slowly marginalised and their children unable to afford to live in the area moved away. These social changes could be seen by the changes in the shop types over the period; gentrification brought estate agents en masse until the pace slowed and this was replaced by up-market establishments and pavement-type cafes.
Among its more prominent buildings is the modernistic Hornsey Town Hall, built by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey as their seat of government in 1933-5. The architect was the New Zealand-born Reginald Uren. The interior and exterior have been used several times as a location by the BBC soap Eastenders. The centre of Crouch End is dominated by a red-brick clock-tower, built as a memorial to Henry Reader Williams[1] in 1895.
For details of education in Crouch End see the London Borough of Haringey article.
There are three state secondary schools serving the N8 Crouch End area. Highgate Wood School in Montenotte Road is a nine form entry mixed school with Performing Arts Status reflecting the area's long association with the performing arts. Highgate Wood School was the senior school to the former Crouch End School based on the corner of Wolseley Road and Park Road, opposite the Maynard Arms. Hornsey School for Girls in Inderwick Road is the only single sex school in N8. In Hornsey, there is the Greig City Academy (formerly St David and St Katherines). Further away Heartlands High School which lies between Wood Green and Alexandra Palace was opened by Haringey in 2010; despite not being in Crouch End it is close enough to provide additional provision.
Kestral House is an independent special school for pupils with autistic spectrum conditions and additional learning and behavioural needs. The vast majority of pupils are referred by local authorities in London and the Home Counties who pay the fees. It is housed in the former Mountview Theatre School premises at the north end of Crouch Hill -the end nearest Crouch End Broadway. Also in the independent (fee paying sector) are Highgate School and Channing School, both used by parents in Crouch End but located in Highgate.
There are a number of primary schools in Crouch End and seven in total within the N8 postcode. These include Weston Park, Haringey's newest primary school and Rokesly School. There are several schools on the edges of Crouch End, these include, Coleridge at the top of Crouch End Hill (bordering Islington), St Aidans in Stroud Green (not N8), St Gildas and St Peter-in Chains, Oakington Way, St Mary's in Hornsey. Campsbourne Primary School on Nightingale Lane, North Harringay Primary School on Falkland Road and Ashmount Primary School. Ashmount is at present ( November 2011) on the south side of Hornsey Lane and so is in the N19 postal district and like Coleridge School on the border between Haringey and Islington, but in this case, in Islington. The school is scheduled to move in October 2012 to a new building at Crouch Hill Park adjacent to the Parkland Walk in N8, but still within Islington.
The public library for Crouch End is Hornsey Library located off Haringey Park N8. The library building is on a site adjoining the south side of Hornsey Town Hall. The Library contains a large book stock, DVDs, provides free access to the Internet, meeting rooms for adult education classes, a gallery for exhibitions. There is also a cafe.
A recording studio called KONK was established on Tottenham Lane in nearby Hornsey by Ray Davies, the Muswell Hill-born leader of The Kinks. Later, in the 1990's Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics set up a recording studio in the old church on Crouch Hill (later sold to David Gray) called The Church. In the early 1980's The Church was owned by Bob Bura and John John Hardwick, the animators who worked on Camberwick Green, Captain Pugwash and Trumpton, who had converted part of it as a studio and later rented space to Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox. Previously, they had rehearsed (and worked) in the local record shop the Spanish Moon (now Elysian Fields).
Today Crouch End is home to Crouch End Festival Chorus, a leading symphonic chorus which has recorded with Lesley Garrett, Bryn Terfel, Ray Davies, Alfie Boe, EMI Classics and Classic FM as well as singing on the soundtrack for Doctor Who. They perform four concerts a year and also undertake other professional engagements for concerts and recordings.
Some people claim that Crouch End has long been a popular area for those active in creative trades and professions. In 2011 the self-styled 'Crouch End Creatives' community group was established, The group is seeking to bring together many types of 'creatives' within the Crouch End area. The group [1] is planning a Crouch End Arts Festival in May 2012.
Hornsey Library has a gallery which regularly stages exhibitions by local artists. It is also the a venue for a number of other activities related to creativity, including for example, and as of December 2011, a poetry writing group, a song writing group, a creative writing group, and a learning circle on the Philosophy of Schopenhauer.
The Hornsey Town Hall is to be the new home of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts subject to planning permission. It is expected the move will take place for Autumn 2014 but this timetable is dependent on the planning process. The listed building will also have exhibition space for local artists.
In 1880 an Art School was established which in May 1968, as Hornsey College of Art, was the centre of a protest against the ideology of the school's teaching methods. The Art College was merged with, what was then Middlesex Polytechnic, now University, in the 1970's. Subsequently it was relocated to a Middlesex campus at Cat Hill and the lease of the building taken over by the TUC who used it as their national training centre. In 2005 the TUC surrendered the lease and Haringey Council took it over and decided to extend and convert the building to facilitate the enlargement of Coleridge Primary School in order to provide more school places to meet increased demand caused by an increase in the primary school aged population in Crouch End. Before expansion Coleridge School was located on a single site on Crouch End Hill directly opposite the former Art College building. The School now operates on a split site bisected by Crouch End Hill, the two sites being designated Coleridge East and Coleridge West, with a specially installed traffic light controlled pedestrian crossing linking them. This enabled the school to expand from two form entry, admitting 60 children a year into the reception year, divided into two classes of 30 each, to four form entry, that is admitting 120 children each year. Despite the unusually large size of the intake the school continued to be oversubscribed in common with other schools in Crouch End.
There is a notable sense of pride among some Crouch End residents in its occasional use as a location for film, TV or literature. Examples include:
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Literature |
Film |
Television (mainly using Hornsey Town Hall) |
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