Muswell Hill is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, north London. The hill, which reaches over 100 m (330 ft) above sea level, is situated 5+1⁄2 miles (9 kilometres) north of Charing Cross.
The earliest records of Muswell Hill date from the 12th century. The Bishop of London, who was the Lord of the Manor of Haringey,[1] owned the area and granted 26 ha (64 acres), located to the east of Colney Hatch Lane, to a newly formed order of nuns. The nuns built a chapel on the site and called it Our Lady of Muswell.
The name Muswell is believed to come from a natural spring or well (the "Mossy Well"), said to have miraculous properties. A traditional story tells that Scottish king Malcolm IV was cured of disease after drinking the water. The area became a place of pilgrimage for healing during medieval times.[2] The River Moselle, which has its source in Muswell Hill and Highgate, derives its name from this district; it was originally known as the Mosa or Mosella.[3][4] Until the 1950s, the town's name was often pronounced "Muzzle Hill".[5]
In the 18th century Muswell Hill was a scattered village consisting mainly of detached villas with large gardens.[6] In 1787 one commentator wrote that nowhere within 100 miles (160 km) of London was there a village so pleasant or with such varied views.[7] Little had changed by the middle of the 19th century. One of the houses of the time was The Limes. This house occupied the angle of Muswell Hill Road with Colney Hatch Lane and was a three-storeyed house with portico and two-storeyed wing approached by a double carriage drive through impressive gateways. The large grounds of the house extended to Tetherdown and included a lake.[8] Opposite The Limes was Muswell Hill pond and beyond that the Green Man inn, built of stone.[9]
Further down the hill past the Green Man was The Elms, a squat three-storeyed house later improved by Thomas Cubitt standing in 4.5 ha (11 acres), part of the grounds of which were laid out by Joseph Paxton.[10] A short distance down the north side of Muswell Hill was The Grove, which was three storeys high and had nine bays with pedimented projections at each end.[11] It stood in 3.2 ha (7.9 acres) of grounds which contained a 184 m (201 yd) avenue of oaks. In 1774 the house was occupied by Topham Beauclerk.[12]
19th century
A little farther down the hill stood Grove Lodge, also in wooded grounds.[13] Altogether there were eight properties in Muswell Hill worthy of note in 1817.[14]
Parallel with Muswell Hill was a track known as St James's Lane which ran across a triangle of wasteland. By the middle of the 19th century houses were already dispersed along the lane at the foot of which was Lalla Rookh, a two-storeyed villa with a wide verandah.[15] Other buildings there were apparently cottages or huts, both single and in terraces.[16]
It was not until the end of the 19th century that Muswell Hill began to be developed more densely from a collection of country houses to the London village that it is today. The development was spurred by the opening in 1873 of Alexandra Palace, a massive pleasure pavilion built on the most easterly of north London's gravel hills and intended as the counterpart to the Crystal Palace on Sydenham Hill in south London. Alexandra Palace was served by a branchline railway from Highgate, with an intermediary station at Muswell Hill (see below). The foot of Alexandra Palace was served by another rail network with connecting services to Finsbury Park and Kings Cross stations.
20th century
Most development was initiated in the early 20th century when the current street pattern was set out and elegant Edwardian retail parades were constructed. The shopping centre is based on roads that form three sides of a square: Fortis Green Road, Muswell Hill Broadway and the extension of the Broadway into Colney Hatch Lane. At each node point is a church: United Reformed, Church of England, Methodist, and Roman Catholic. One of the nodes, opposite St James's CoE, was also the site of the Athenaeum music hall (later demolished with the site redeveloped as a supermarket), opposite which a surviving art deco Odeon cinema was built in the 1930s. The site of the Ritz, a cinema formerly at the top of Muswell Hill on the next node to the east, has been redeveloped as offices.
Until the mid-20th century there was a rail branch line, the Muswell Hill Railway, from Highgate which passed through Muswell Hill, terminating at a station at Alexandra Palace. It was intended under the Northern Heights plan to integrate this into the London UndergroundNorthern line; some contemporary tube maps (e.g. the 1948 map) showed the line as being under construction. However, this plan was cancelled after the Second World War, and the railway line was abandoned in 1954. The line was later converted to become the Parkland Walk.
In 1964, three young Muswell Hill residents, the brothers Ray and Dave Davies and Pete Quaife, formed The Kinks. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, the Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock groups of the era. The Davies parents’ home at 6 Denmark Terrace, Fortis Green, remains a magnet for rock music tourists.
In 1950, Paul Andrew Smith, was born in Muswell Hill at 12 Crown Road, and later became a founding member of the band Wednesday, formed in 1967. Their record success included the chart topping hit, Last Kiss followed by a series of top ten records in Canada, Australia and the USA.
They earned several Juno nominations, a Maple Leaf Award, Gold record award and was nominated into the Hall of Fame with a lifetime achievement in 2022.
In November 2016, the shop 'Really British' opened on Muswell Hill broadway.[18] The shop owner was accused of racism, with local residents threatening to stage a protest, with more practising a boycott.[19]
In March 2013 and June 2020 Muswell Hill was named one of the five most desirable places to live in London in the Sunday Times "Best Places To Live" guide.
Administration and representation
The hill was part of the Bishop of London's Manor of Hornsey, an area served from the medieval period by the ancient parish of Hornsey. Parishes were originally ecclesiastic in purpose, but from the Tudor era onwards had a civic as well as ecclesiastical purpose.
Close to Alexandra Park and Highgate Woods, Muswell Hill is a mainly Edwardian north London suburb. Muswell Hill Broadway and Fortis Green Road, the main shopping streets, still maintain their historic character with most of the original facades preserved above street level. The area has a synagogue and six churches, one of which has been converted into a steak house.
Muswell Hill Broadway and Muswell Hill West are both served by London Buses, providing the area with a direct connection to the City of London and the West End. Buses also serve nearby stations.
Highgate is to the south of the district and can be reached via Muswell Hill Road. To the north, Colney Hatch, Friern Barnet and Whetstone can be reached via Colney Hatch Lane. Both routes are numbered B550.
The Muswell Hill Metro Group campaigns to reinstate a historic railway line which ran between Alexandra Palace and Finsbury Park, via Muswell Hill. The group says that the line would relieve congestion on local roads and that an electric railway would improve local air quality.[32]
The 2011 census showed that the N10 postal area (including parts of Friern Barnet} had a population of 27,992 in the 2011 census.[34]
The same census showed that in the much smaller Muswell Hill electoral ward of the London Borough of Haringey, 84% of the population was white (65% British, 16% Other, 3% Irish). 40% were irreligious and Christian each, while the Jewish population stood at 5.3%.[35]
In the war romance film The Americanization of Emily (1964), Emily's mother lives in a house in Dukes Avenue. Exterior shots show Alexandra Palace in the background.
The Yorkshire Television sitcom That's My Boy (1981–1986), starring Mollie Sugden and Christopher Blake, made frequent references to Muswell Hill, as the family lived in the area throughout the first four seasons.
Series one of the 1993 sitcom Sean's Show is set in Muswell Hill.[36]
The Doctor Who episode "The Idiot's Lantern" (2006) is set in Muswell Hill, during Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.
The Madness song "Driving in My Car" includes the line "I've been far, I drive up to Muswell Hill".[37]
Muswell Hill is a 2012 Torben Betts play[38] which "hold[s] a mirror up to middle-class delusion".[39]
John Logie Baird was the first person to transmit moving pictures, now called television. The first public broadcasts were from nearby Alexandra Palace before WW2. His scanning, rotating disc system was later replaced by a more modern electronic system. The former John Baird pub, now the Village Green, in Fortis Green Road was named after him.
Musicians Ray and Dave Davies, founding members of The Kinks, grew up in Muswell Hill, the album title Muswell Hillbillies being an obvious reference to their youth. They allegedly played their first ever gig in the Clissold Arms in Fortis Green.
Former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko lived in Muswell Hill from his exile in 2000 until his assassination in 2006.
The group Fairport Convention started in the Muswell Hill family home of Simon Nicol. The house, Fairport, is on the south side of Fortis Green near the junction with Tetherdown and Fortis Green Road.
The serial killer and necrophile Dennis Nilsen committed his later murders in his Cranley Gardens flat in Muswell Hill and became known as the "Muswell Hill Murderer".
A resident for a short time in Muswell Hill was the Russian-born England Rugby union star Prince Alexander Obolensky, who died in Suffolk in an aircraft accident in 1940 while training as an RAF pilot.
Philip Martell, musical director for Hammer House of Horrors lived in Woodland Gardens
Musician, author, poet, wit and great English eccentric Vivian Stanshall lived his final years in Muswell Hill, dying in a fire in his Hillfield Park flat in 1995.
Poet Michael Wayne Rosen, known for his children's stories and communist roots is currently resident in this area.
^The earliest known description of the river is given by the Tottenham historian Rev William Bedwell (1561 - 1632) who used these two variants in 1631 in William Bedwell, A Briefe Description of the Town of Tottenham Highcrosse in Middlesex, 1631.
^Robbins, Michael. Middlesex (2003 ed.). The History Press. p. 313.
^Brewer, Beauties of Eng. & Wales, x (5), 213; Ambulator (1820)
