Living in Highgate

Highgate is a hilltop village in two parts, and the difference matters. The historic village, around Highgate High Street and Pond Square, is a cluster of Georgian houses, old pubs, small shops and a famous school at the top of the hill; the Underground station, on the Northern line's High Barnet branch, sits further down on Archway Road, a busy main road. Walking between them takes about ten minutes and involves a proper climb.

Green space surrounds the area on almost every side. Hampstead Heath and Kenwood are to the west, Waterlow Park with Lauderdale House is on the hillside below the village, and Highgate Wood and Queen's Wood, both ancient woodland, lie to the north. Highgate Cemetery, with its Victorian catacombs and the grave of Karl Marx, is one of London's most atmospheric places and still an active cemetery.

The housing stock is unusually distinguished. Georgian and Victorian houses fill the village and its lanes, there are substantial Edwardian and interwar homes, and Highpoint, a pair of 1930s modernist apartment blocks by Berthold Lubetkin on North Hill, is one of the most celebrated examples of the style in Britain. Rental supply is limited, and much of it is flats in larger houses or mansion blocks.

Daily life is quiet and orderly. The village has pubs, restaurants and cafés but no nightlife to speak of, and bigger shopping trips mean Archway, Muswell Hill or further afield. Highgate sits across the borders of Haringey, Camden and Islington, which can matter for council services and schools. It suits families, established professionals and people who want to feel close to the countryside while keeping a tube line, and who do not mind a steep walk home.