Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate (commonly referred to as Highgate School) is a leading British independent school in Highgate, London, England. Originally a free charity school for local boys, it became during the nineteenth century one of England's leading public schools. It is a member of both the Headmaster's Conference and the Eton Group. Highgate no longer takes boarders and recently moved towards co-education ending over 400 years of single sex education. According to the Good Schools Guide, "Its decision to go co-ed has helped to put its popularity and academic standards on upward trajectories."^[1]

The school was founded as, and still is, a charity, the Free Grammar School of Sir Roger Cholmeley, Knight at Highgate by letters patent of Queen Elizabeth I in 1565. In this period up to 1871 it was known commonly as The Free Grammar School at Highgate, The Highgate Grammar School or the Cholmeley School, when not referred to legally. By the 1870s the school had largely dropped free provision for local parish boys and instead became a boarding-school for boys from the upper and upper middle classes. For this reason the name was changed to Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, which it is still known by today in the charitable status list. In the later part of the 19th Century the school's current title Highgate School developed, as it competed with better-known public schools with area names like Eton College, Harrow School and Winchester College.

Three separate schools now come under the Highgate Foundation, which manages not only the Senior School but also a prep school and a pre-prep school.

History[link]

The school was established in 1565 by a Royal Charter of Elizabeth I giving permission for Sir Roger Cholmeley to erect a free grammar school for boys.

Cholmeley, a former Chief Justice and local landowner, decided to found a charitable school for poor boys from the local parishes, and acquired from the Bishop of London some land on the site of the old gatehouse to the Bishop’s park and hermit’s chapel (opposite the Gatehouse Inn, which still exists). A new chapel and buildings for the school and the local curate, who was expected to be the teacher, were built. The chapel also served as a chapel of ease for Highgate residents.

However by the early nineteenth century a dispute arose because the charity was spending more money, and the curate more time, on the local chapel rather than the pupils. A House of Commons commission visited in 1819 and found the Master, the Rev Samuel Mence, was paying a sexton to teach the boys. In a long and bitter action brought in the High Court against the Trustees it was contended that this was contrary to its founding charitable deed. Lord Chancellor Eldon, in his 1827 judgment, agreed, finding "the charity is for the sustenance and maintenance of a free Grammar school".^[2] The trustees were forced to comply and a separate local church for Highgate, St Michael’s, was built in South Grove after a successful local appeal. Mence struggled on at the school until 1838 when there were only 19 pupils.^[2]

A significant expansion of the school occurred under the next Headmaster The Revd Dr John Bradley Dyne (Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford) between 1838-1874. Under Dyne the school became a boarding school; fees were introduced and academic standards improved. Like other leading public schools, Highgate followed Dr Arnold at Rugby School in introducing the house system. Also like other public schools, Dyne mercilessly flogged the pupils with a birch rod.^[2]

During this period the current chapel and main buildings were erected, designed by Reginald Blomfield (who had also designed Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford). A fragment of the older school building, a gateway with a rusted bell mechanism above between the porter's lodge and the main school building, remained intact until 2006 when the bell was refurbished and the old entrance itself rebuilt in a more modern style.

During the Second World War the school's buildings were commandeered by the British government and the school was evacuated to Westward Ho! in Devon, returning to Highgate in 1943. This return was maybe slightly premature because one afternoon in 1944 a V-1 Doodlebug flying bomb landed and exploded in the field behind the Junior School. Luckily, the only serious casualty was a cricket scorebox.

By 1965 the school occupied a large site in Highgate Village, as well as extensive sports fields and several boarding houses in the surrounding area.

The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was buried in the school chapel, his grandson an Old Cholmeleian. However, in 1965 after a row with the council there was a ceremonial disinterring of Coleridge at which the then Poet Laureate John Masefield spoke and the remains were reburied at St Michael's parish church just a few hundred yards away. There are currently weekly services for pupils and staff in the Chapel, and monthly celebrations of Evensong, which are open to the general public. There are also twice-termly Communion services, which is a relatively new innovation.

Highgate School also has the oldest Public School freemasons lodge, Cholmeley Lodge No 1731, formed in 1878, part of the Public Schools Lodges Council.

In 2003, the school took the decision to become fully co-educational ending over four hundred years of single sex education.

Administration[link]

Due to the Foundation's significant ownership of land and properties around the school, it has been able to invest greatly in the school's facilities; the relatively recent conversion from boarding to day school has increased the space available for this to continue. The Foundation's governing body consists of 12 members; 5 are nominated (one each by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, by the Bishop of London, and by the Lord Chief Justice), and the rest are co-opted. The school is a member of the Eton Group of leading independent schools.

Houses[link]

Chapel Quad, with "Big School" on the left, and the chapel

The school operates a house system like many other public schools and on entering, pupils are placed in a house according to where they live (although the system does appear inaccurate, on occasions). These houses are Northgate, Southgate, Westgate, Eastgate, Queensgate, Kingsgate, Midgate, Fargate, Heathgate, The Lodge, School House and Grindal. Each house has a Housemaster in charge of the pastoral, as well as academic well-being of house-members, and tutors for each year group. This system, which Dyne, like other public school headmasters, copied from Arnold's at Rugby School, was established to create 'house spirit' among the students, allowing for both academic and sporting competitions among the houses. Some of these, like School House, Grindal, Cordell and The Lodge used to be boarding houses. Grindal and Westgate are the only houses to have their own old boys' clubs, the Mitre Club and the Zephyr Club respectively. However, other houses, such as Kingsgate, are newer, having been created by a dissaffected group of Westgateans in the 1970s.

Recent Headmasters[link]

Notable members of staff and governing body[link]

• John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General
• 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law
• T. S. Eliot OM (1888–1965), American-born British poet, dramatist, and literary critic, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.
• The Right Hon Sir Robert Stopford KCVO, CBE, Bishop of London, Chaplain to The Queen
• Rev Kenneth Hunt, footballer who was instrumental in taking Wolverhampton Wanderers to FA Cup victory
• Jon Ingold, author
• Sir Kyffin Williams RA - award-winning Welsh artist
• Dr Andrew (Zbigniew) Szydlo FRSC is a current chemistry lecturer. Dr Szydlo made a name for himself by appearing on the Channel 4 TV Show That'll Teach Them/ BBC FOUR Absolute Zero. Author of Water that does not wet hands: The Alchemy of Michael Sendivogius. He has featured in National Geographic's Big, Bigger, Biggest; Cargo Plane in which he demonstrates how a jet engine works, Highgate School features in the program.
• Albert Knight, England cricketer
• Graham Wallas, socialist and founder of the Fabian Society
• William Grylls Adams FRS, Professor of Astronomy
• Charles Burney FRS, music scholar
• Stephen Cox Newton, Cricketer, Middlesex and Somerset (Captain)
• Charles Marriott, England Rugby Union player
• Alan Palmer, historian and biographer

The Cholmeleian Society[link]

The Cholmeleian Society works to help former pupils of Highgate School, called Cholmeleians (after Sir Roger Cholmeley, who founded the school in 1565), stay in touch with each other, and with the school. To promote this, social events are organised, and a magazine, The Cholmeleian, is published twice a year. Notable Cholmeleians include:

Politics[link]

• The Rt Hon Sir Robert Atkins MEP
• Peter Beazley (politician)
• Frank, Lord Bowles (MP and Deputy Chairman of the Labour Party)
• David Burrowes (politician)
• Sir Robert Andrew Burns KCMG ( British Ambassador to Israel and High Commissioner to Canada. UK's first Envoy for Post Holocaust Issues)
• The Rt Hon Charles Clarke (politician - Secretary of State for Education (2002–2004) Home Secretary (2004–2006)
• Sir John Cockburn (Australian politician - Premier of South Australia)
• The Rt Hon Anthony Crosland (politician- Secretary of State for Education and Science (1965–1967) President of the Board of Trade (1967–1969) Foreign Secretary (1976–1977)
• The Rt Hon Jonathan Hill, Baron Hill of Oareford CBE (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools)
• The Hon Bernard Jenkin (politician and Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party)
• Jeremy Lefroy Conservative MP for Stafford (2010 onwards)
• Rupert Mitford, 6th Baron Redesdale (Liberal Democrats Spokesman)
• Sir Robert Price MP
• The Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare Bt (politician, Chief Whip of the Liberal Party, Private Secretary to David Lloyd George and Minister for Overseas Trade)
• Duncan Taylor CBE (Governor of the Cayman Islands, formerly High Commissioner for Barbados and The Eastern Caribbean))
• Sir Charles Thomas-Stanford Bt. MP (politician and author. Donated Lewes Castle to the Nation)
• Sir Stanley Tubbs Bt MP
• Sir Colin Turner MP
• Laird Thomas Lethbridge

Law[link]

• The Rt. Hon Lord Ackner (Law Lord)
• Sir Richard Arnold (High Court Judge)
• Sir Archibald Bodkin (Director of Public Prosecutions 1920-1930)
• Sir Peter Crane (High Court Judge)
• Professor Sir Roy Goode CBE QC (academic, Professor of English Law, Oxford University)
• Ernest Greenwood (Attorney-General of Northern Nigeria)
• Sir Maurice Gwyer KCB, KCSI (Chief Justice of India and Vice Chancellor of Delhi University)
• Sir Anthony Lincoln (High Court Judge)
• The Rt. Hon Sir Frank Douglas MacKinnon (Court of Appeal Judge)
• Michael Mansfield QC
• Lord Mansfield, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (was a School Governor but not an Old Cholmeleian)
• The Rt. Hon Sir Brian Neill (Court of Appeal Judge)
• Sir Patrick, Lord Neill of Bladen QC (Barrister, Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, Warden of All Souls College, Oxford)
• Sir Anthony Plowman (Vice-Chancellor of the Chancery Division and High Court Judge)
• Sir Walworth Roberts, High Court Judge
• Thomas Sargant OBE (Law Reformer and Human Rights Campaigner)
• Nicholas Strauss QC
• Hugh Wood, International Lawyer at the League of Nations

Popular music[link]

• Johnny Borrell of Razorlight
• John Hassall of The Libertines/Yeti
• John Leyton (Singer and Actor. Appeared in The Great Escape and Von Ryan's Express, well known for the single "Johnny Remember Me")
• Crispian Mills of Kula Shaker
• Jon Moss of (Culture Club)
• Natty
• Aubrey Nunn of Faithless
• Ramadanman
• Christian Smith of Stony Sleep and Razorlight
• Zak Starkey of Oasis and The Who (son of Ringo Starr)
• Orlando Weeks of The Maccabees
• DJ Yoda

Classical music[link]

• Simon Bainbridge (composer and Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music)
• John Blakely (pianist)
• Alan Bush (composer)
• Anthony Camden (oboist and conductor)
• Brian Chapple (composer)
• Gerard Delrez (opera singer)
• Gerard Hoffnung (tubist)
• Daniel Hope (violinist)
• Jan Latham-Koenig (conductor)
• John Rutter CBE (composer)
• Howard Shelley (pianist)
• Sir John Tavener (composer)

Film and television[link]

• Richard Bebb (Actor)
• John Box OBE (Academy Award-winning ("Oscar") production designer and art director)
• Roland Culver OBE, (Actor)
• Robin Ellis (Actor)
• Matthew Garber, (Actor)
• Philip Harben (TV chef)
• Freddie Highmore (Actor)
• Tom Hooper (Oscar winning film director, The King's Speech, The Damned United)
• John Leyton (actor and singer)
• Adrian Lyne (film director, Flashdance, 9½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Jacobs Ladder)
• Christopher Morahan (Theatre, television and film director, directed Clockwise)
• Barry Norman CBE (film critic)
• Robert Nisbet (Europe Correspondent of Sky News)
• Kayvan Novak (actor and comedian, Fonejacker, Facejacker)
• Lloyd Owen (Actor)
• Geoffrey Palmer OBE (actor)
• Robin Ray (broadcaster)
• Paul Rotha (Film maker)
• Harry Thompson (TV writer and television producer)
• Murray Walker OBE (motorsport commentator)
• Vivian White (TV journalist)
• Daniel Morris-Gibbons (Celebrity party planner)

Sport[link]

• Harry Courtney (Oxford Boat Race Crew, 1875 and 1876)
• Gordon Crole-Rees (Davis Cup tennis player)
• Colin Drybrough (Captain of Middlesex CCC)
• David Hays, (cricketer)
• Thomas Hughes (Two FA Cup Winner's Medals for Wanderers FC 1876 and 1877)
• William Knightly-Smith, Cricketer, Cambridge University, Gloucestershire and Middlesex
• Douglas Lowe QC (Olympic athlete, President of the Bar Council)
• Sir Daniel Pettit England Footballer and Industrialist
• Leonard Pike (Cambridge Boat Race Crew, 1876, 1877 and 1878)
• R.D Robertson (Rugby union, Scottish International)
• Walter Robins (Captain of the English Cricket Team)
• William Seagrove (Olympic athlete)
• Phil Tufnell (Middlesex CCC, England cricket team, TV personality)
• R.G. Warton (England cricket team manager)
• William H "Tagge Webster" CBE, President of the MCC and England Amateur Footballer
• Amin Zahir (fencing, Olympic team)

Science[link]

• Professor John Anderson now semi-retired as a writer and medical lecturer, previously with the ILO and WHO
• Sir Christopher Andrewes FRS (isolated the first human influenza virus)
• Alan Blumlein (inventor of stereo and much of the equipment used for the world's first high-definition television service at Alexandra Palace)
• Dr Alex Comfort (author of The Joy of Sex)
• Sir Charles Douglas Fox, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers
• John Ellis, theoretical physicist at CERN
• Thomas Heffernan
• David Keynes Hill FRS (biophysicist)
• Alfred John Jukes-Browne, FRS, Member of Geological Survey.
• Bernard Newmarch, President of the British Medical Association
• D.G. Sadler (inventor of the Magnetic Mine Sweep)
• Warwick W Sawyer, mathematician. Author of Mathematician's Delight
• Sir Clive Sinclair (inventor of the 'slim-line' electronic pocket calculator)
• Sir Arthur George Tansley FRS (botanist, founder of the British Ecological Society)
• Rev John Venn (created Venn diagrams and was President of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge)
• Paul Weindling, Wellcome Trust Research Professor in the History of Medicine at Oxford Brookes University
• Professor John Zarnecki (space scientist)

Arts[link]

• Hussein Chalayan MBE, designer
• Marcus Clarke, author
• Anthony Green RA, artist
• Gerard Hoffnung, cartoonist and musician
• Peter Kingsley, writer on ancient Greek culture
• Mike Ockrent, theatre director
• H. G. Pelissier, actor
• Patrick Procktor, (artist)
• Nicholas Snowman, General Director, Glyndebourne and South Bank Centre
• Ion Trewin, Literary Director of the Man Booker Prize and biographer of Alan Clark MP
• Nigel Williams, author, screenwriter and playwright
• Allan G. Wyon, sculptor

Scholars and poets[link]

• Owen Barfield, influenced both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien
• Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate, taught by T. S. Eliot
• Ernest Hartley Coleridge, literary scholar, grandson of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• John Bradley Dyne, President of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
• Professor Vivian Hunter Galbraith, historian, Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford University
• Sir Martin Gilbert CBE, historian and official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill
• Ernest G Hardy (Principal of Jesus College, Oxford)
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet
• James Augustus Cotter Morison, essayist and historian
• Charles Pollock (Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge)
• Sir Charles Grant Robertson, academic historian, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and Principal and Vice Chancellor of Birmingham University. Tutor to HM King Edward VIII.
• Nicholas Rowe (1674–1718, Poet Laureate and dramatist)
• Howard Hayes Scullard, historian, editor of the Oxford Classical Dictionary
• Martin Seymour-Smith, poet and biographer
• Walter William Skeat, philologist
• Philip Stanhope Worsley (first published translations of the Odyssey and Iliad)
• Edmund Yates (novelist and chose Lewis Carroll as pen name for Charles Dodgson)

Business and commerce[link]

• Piers Adam (nightclub and restaurant owner, KBar, CLICK, Capisce, ROCK, Mahiki)
• Sir Edward Beauchamp (MP and Chairman of Lloyds)
• Sir Malcolm Field (Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority and managing director of WH Smith)
• Sir Arthur Hetherington (Chairman of British Gas)
• Sir James Lindsay (Industrialist and management consultant)
• Sir Percy Mackinnon (Chairman of Lloyds)
• Sir Rob Margetts CBE (Chairman of Legal & General Group Plc and Ensus Ltd)
• Sir Alexander Valentine (Chairman of London Transport Executive and London Transport Board)

The Church[link]

• Stanley Booth-Clibborn (Bishop of Manchester)
• Mgr Ralph Brown (Papal Chamberlain and Canon law expert)
• Edward Bickersteth (Bishop of South Tokyo, Japan)
• Samuel Bickersteth (Chaplain to HM the King and Canon of Canterbury)
• Kenneth Clements (Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn)
• Henry Durrant (Bishop of Lahore)
• Joseph Franklin-Ward OBE (Bishop of Shrewsbury)
• William G Hardie (Archbishop of the West Indies)
• Arthur Kitching (Bishop of Uganda)
• Nile Portal (Archbishop of Mauritius)
• The Very Rev Ernest Thorold CB CBE OBE (Chaplain to Kings George V, Edward VII, and George VI).
• Norman Tubbs (Bishop of Rangoon and Dean of Chester)
• Charles Turner (Bishop of Islington)
• Henry Venn (Canon of Canterbury)
• Edward Waller (Bishop of Madras)

The Armed Forces[link]

• Vice Admiral William Alderson
• Rear Admiral Bob Baylis
• Major-General Neil Carlier CB OBE, Royal Engineers, Commander of British Forces in the Falkland Islands
• General Joyanta N. Chaudhuri, Commander-in-Chief, Indian Army, Military Governor of Hyderabad
• Brigadier General Thomas Cole Porter
• Lieutenant Colonel Peter George Davis DSC (a.k.a. Pug Davis), co-founder of the Special Boat Service (SBS)
• Major General Sir John Donnelly, Permanent Secretary to the Department of Education and Science
• Major General Sir Frederic Gordon
• Brigadier General Sir William Horwood GBE KCB DSO, Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
• General Sir John Leach
• Air Vice Marshal Barry Newton, Gentleman Usher to HM Queen Elizabeth II
• General Sir Edward Pemberton Leach VC KCB KCVO, awarded the Victoria Cross in the 2nd Afghan War
• Brigadier General Harold Pemberton Leach
• Major General John Richardson
• Lieutenant General Sir Michael Rimington, HQ Staff, Indian Cavalry Corps
• Major General Robert Robertson, Indian Mutiny
• Major-General Anthony Rogers, Director of Army Legal Services
• Brigadier General Frank Rowley
• Vice Admiral Sir Guy Sayer
• Air Marshal Sir Anthony Selway
• Rear Admiral Donald Titford
• Major-General Henry Wood

Other[link]

• Richard Attree formerly with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and now a freelance independent composer
• Rufus Barnes (erstwhile Chief Executive of London TravelWatch)
• Christopher Vezey erstwhile BBC music producer
• Stephen Ward (of the Profumo Affair)
• Christopher Wright (founder of Single's Club)
• Sir Martin Furnival Jones KCB (Director General of MI5, 1965–1972)
• Anthony Howard (political journalist)
• Rudolph C Lehmann MP (Editor of The Daily News and Punch. Coached both Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race Crews)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Highgate School website
• The Cholmeleian Society
• Profile at the Good Schools Guide

Coordinates: 51°34′18″N 0°08′57″W / 51.5717°N 0.1493°W / 51.5717; -0.1493

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Coordinates: 51°34′18″N 0°08′41″W / 51.5716°N 0.1448°W / 51.5716; -0.1448

Highgate
Highgate seen from Hampstead Heath
Highgate  Highgate shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ285875
London borough	Camden
	Haringey
	Islington
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	N6
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Holborn and St Pancras
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
	Enfield and Haringey
	North East
List of places: UK • England • London

Highgate ( /ˈhaɪɡeɪt/ or /ˈhaɪɡɨt/) is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.

Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live.^[1] It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character.

Until late Victorian times it was a distinct village outside London, sitting astride the main road to the north. The area retains many green expanses including the eastern part of Hampstead Heath, three ancient woods,^[2] Waterlow Park and the eastern-facing slopes known as Highgate bowl.

At its centre is Highgate village, a collection of largely Georgian shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets,^[3] interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, Highgate School (1565), Jacksons Lane arts centre housed in a Grade II listed former church, the Gatehouse inn dating from 1670^[4] and Berthold Lubetkin's 1930s Highpoint buildings. Highgate is also famous for its atmospheric Victorian cemetery in which the communist philosopher Karl Marx is buried.

The village sits atop a hill which provides views across London, climbing 375 feet (114 m) above sea level at its highest point.

The area is divided between three London boroughs: Haringey in the north, Camden in the south and west, and Islington in the south and east. The postal district is N6.

History[link]

View of Highgate, John Constable, 1st quarter of 19th century.

Historically, Highgate adjoined the Bishop of London's hunting estate. The Bishop kept a toll-house where one of the main northward roads out of London entered his land. A number of pubs sprang up along the route, one of which, the Gatehouse, commemorates the toll-house.

In later centuries Highgate was associated with the highwayman Dick Turpin.

Hampstead Lane and Highgate Hill contain the red brick Victorian buildings of Highgate School and its adjacent Chapel of St Michael. The school has played a paramount role in the life of the village and has existed on its site since its founding was permitted by letters from Queen Elizabeth I in 1565.

The area north of the High Street and Hampstead Lane was part of Hornsey parish and also later the Municipal Borough of Hornsey and the seat of that borough's governing body for many years.

Highgate Hill, the steep street linking Archway and Highgate village, was the route of the first cable car to be built in Europe. It operated between 1884 and 1909.

Notable inhabitants[link]

Recent and current inhabitants of Highgate include Tariq Ali, Julian Barratt, Stanley Baxter, Andy Bell, Arthur Boyd, Sarah Blackwood, Sir Jacob Bronowski, Craig Charles, Sir Clifford Curzon, Ray Davies, Noel Fielding, Roger Fry, Kate Garraway, Stephen Gately, Stella Gibbons, Terry Gilliam, Jeremy Hardy, Freddie Highmore, Bob Hoskins, Terry Jones, Ulrika Jonsson, Judge Jules, Ralf Little, Sienna Miller, Marina Diamandis, Yehudi Menuhin (and later Sting who bought Menuhin's old house), Ewan Mcgregor, George Michael, Piers Morgan, Kate Moss, Chris Moyles, Paul Nicholas, Christopher Nolan, Clive Owen, Cliff Parisi, Tim Pigott-Smith, J. B. Priestley, Jonathan Pryce, Dizzee Rascal, Heath Robinson, John James Sainsbury, Peter Sellers, Mike Skinner, Alison Steadman, Imre Varadi, Rod Stewart, Victoria Wood, Lord Young of Dartington, Toby Young, and Alex Zane.

Highgate Cemetery is the burial place of Karl Marx, Michael Faraday, Douglas Adams, George Eliot, Jacob Bronowski, Sir Ralph Richardson, Christina Rossetti, Sir Sidney Nolan, Alexander Litvinenko, Malcolm McLaren, and Radclyffe Hall.

• Adjacent to the Highgate cemetery is Holly Lodge Estate, one of only two housing-estates built in the UK for single women; formerly, it was the home and grounds of Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts.
• Between 1930 and 1939, the wife and son of Adolf Hitler's half-brother, Alois, lived in Highgate, before moving to the United States. Bridget and Patrick Hitler lived at 26 Priory Gardens.^[5]
• Sadie Frost has an office in the village.^[6]
• Leslie Compton, formerly an Arsenal F.C footballer and a Middlesex cricketer, owned a pub in Highgate after he retired from sports.
• Newcastle United F.C. striker Nile Ranger was born in Highgate.

The MP for the Hampstead and Highgate constituency since 1992 has been Labour's Glenda Jackson. It is now part of the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency, formed at the 2010 general election. Lynne Featherstone is the Liberal Democrat MP for the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, which covers the northern half of Highgate village. The Boundary Commission report of 2003 recommended separating the Camden part of Highgate from the remainder of its present constituency and joining it with Kentish Town and Holborn to the south.

Many notable alumni have passed through Highgate School, either Masters or indeed Old Cholmeleians, the name given to old boys of the school. These include T. S. Eliot, who taught the poet laureate John Betjeman there, Gerard Manley Hopkins the poet, the composers John Taverner and John Rutter, John Venn the inventor of Venn diagrams, actor Geoffrey Palmer, Anthony Crosland MP and Labour reformer, and the cabinet minister Charles Clarke.

Peter Sellers lived as a boy in a cottage in Muswell Hill Road, where his mother had moved in order to send him to the Catholic St Aloysius boys' school in Hornsey Lane.

In Victorian times St Mary Magdalene house of charity in Highgate was a refuge for former prostitutes - "fallen women" - where Christina Rossetti was a volunteer from 1859 to 1870. It may have inspired her best-known poem, Goblin Market.

Siouxsie And The Banshees' bassist Steven Severin was born and brought up there.

Coleridge[link]

In 1817 the poet, aesthetic philosopher and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge came to live in the Highgate home of Dr James Gillman in order to rehabilitate from his desperate opium addiction.^[7] After Dr Gillman built a special wing for the poet, Coleridge lived there for the rest of his life, becoming known as the sage of Highgate. While here some of his most famous poems, though written years earlier, were first published including "Kubla Khan". His literary autobiography, Biographia Literaria, appeared in 1817. His home became a place of pilgrimage for figures such as Carlyle and Emerson. He died there on 25 July 1834 and is buried in the crypt of St Michael's Church.

In popular culture[link]

• Highgate's historic feel - in particular the gothic atmosphere of its cemetery - has provided the backdrop to a considerable number of films, including Hammer Horror movies of the 1970s and, more recently, Shaun of the Dead and Dorian Gray.^[8]
• A famous scene in pantomime is set in Highgate. Dick Whittington and His Cat are characters in an English story adapted to the stage in 1605, which since the 19th century has become one of the most popular pantomime subjects, very loosely based on the historical Richard Whittington, a medieval Lord Mayor of London. Dick, a boy from a poor family in Gloucestershire, walks to London to make his fortune, accompanied by his cat. He meets with little success there. As Dick and cat are making for home, discouraged, by way of Highgate Hill, they hear the Bow Bells from distant London; Dick believes they are sending him a message to "turn again" - and that he will become Lord Mayor of London. They return; Dick makes his fortune and indeed becomes Lord Mayor. The Whittington Hospital on Highgate Hill is named after the story, and a statue of Dick's faithful pet stands nearby.
• "London Song" by Ray Davies: "If you're ever up on Highgate Hill on a clear day, You can see right down to Leicester Square". The cover shoot for the 1971 Kinks album Muswell Hillbillies took place in various locations around Highgate. The back inset on the original album cover showed the band on the traffic island that used to stand on the intersection of Southwood Lane and Castle Yard. The cover for their 1968 album Village Green Preservation Society was photographed on Parliament Hill, with Highgate as the backdrop.
• "Waterlow" by Mott the Hoople, from their 1971 album Wildlife, is a tribute to Highgate's Waterlow Park.
• Rod Stewart sings about his Highgate upbringing in "Highgate Shuffle", from the live album Unplugged... and Seated.
• In the song "Cross-Eyed Mary" by Jethro Tull, the title character is referred to as the "Robin Hood of Highgate".
• The pub tradition of Swearing on the Horns originated in Highgate.
• Nick, a character in Jane Green's "Mr. Maybe" lives in a bedsit in Highgate.
• In Dickens' novel David Copperfield James Steerforth lives in a house at the top of Highgate West Hill.
• In the popular BBC sitcom, Are You Being Served, Mr. Lucas (played by Trevor Bannister) lives in Highgate.
• Un lieu incertain, a book by French novelist Fred Vargas, picks up the urban legend of the "Highgate Vampire".

Transport and locale[link]

Nearest places[link]

• Archway
• Crouch End
• Dartmouth Park
• Finchley
• Hampstead
• Holloway
• Hornsey
• Muswell Hill

Nearest tube stations[link]

• Highgate tube station
• Archway tube station

Places of interest[link]

Highgate is known for its pubs which line the old high street and surrounding streets. Some notable favourites are The Angel, the Flask and the Wrestlers.

• Highgate Cemetery
• Highgate School
• Highgate Wood
• Jacksons Lane
• Kenwood House
• Highpoint I and II
• Athlone House formally known as Caen Wood Towers - (Home of the RAF Intelligence School 1942-1948)
• Archway bridge
• Furnival House

Pronunciation[link]

The name of the village is commonly  /ˈhaɪɡeɪt/, rhyming with "flyweight". An alternative pronunciation, used by the London Underground in announcements at Highgate tube station, is /ˈhaɪɡɨt/, where the final syllable matches the last syllable in "tag it".

Education[link]

For details of education in the Haringey portion of Highgate see the London Borough of Haringey article.

See also[link]

• Hornsey (parish)
• Municipal Borough of Hornsey

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Highgate Society
• Pictures at Wikimedia Commons

v t e London Borough of Haringey Districts Bounds Green Bowes Park Crouch End Finsbury Park Fortis Green Harringay Highgate Hornsey Manor House Muswell Hill Noel Park Northumberland Park St Ann's Seven Sisters South Tottenham Stroud Green Tottenham (incl. Broadwater Farm and Little Russia) Tottenham Hale West Green Wood Green Attractions Alexandra Palace Bruce Castle Jacksons Lane Markfield Beam Engine White Hart Lane (football stadium) Parks and open spaces Alexandra Park Bruce Castle Park Chestnuts Park Coldfall Wood Downhills Park Down Lane Park Finsbury Park Highgate Wood Hollickwood Park Markfield Park Priory Park Queen's Wood Railway Fields Constituencies Hornsey and Wood Green Tottenham Tube and railway stations Alexandra Palace Bounds Green Bowes Park Bruce Grove Harringay Harringay Green Lanes Highgate Hornsey Manor House Northumberland Park Seven Sisters South Tottenham Tottenham Hale Turnpike Lane White Hart Lane Wood Green Other topics People Public art Schools Parks and open spaces in Haringey

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