Highgate walk(s)

 I did this walk three times. On consecutive days. Why? 

Well first time I had arranged to meet my mate Bish after he had an appointment. So I merrily messaged him to say I had arrived at our agreed rendezvous point, only for him to reply that actually we had agreed to meet the next day! Ah well, nothing for it, but having walked over an hour to get there might as well do the walk. At least for the next day I knew the way!

Next day I duly had a great time wandering around with Bish and having general chat about the world, with particular reference to the architecture of Highgate, but being a Thursday, Highgate Cemetery wasn't open. But it was on a Friday. And as Friday happened to be spectacularly bright and sunny, I set off again, and in addition to the cemetery did the walk again this time in better light for photos. So don't be surprised if these photos suggest it was both a heavily overcast and grey day as well as a brilliantly blue sky Spring day. They were different days.

So to get to Highgate I go through the Parkland Walk, if I want the scenic route, and this time managed to photograph a Jay. Not a rare bird to spot (it is not called the Common Jay for nothing) but it is hard to get it still enough to take a shot.

This takes me through Highgate Woods, a genuinely ancient Oak and Hornbeam wood, albeit one slightly spoilt by proximity to traffic and hordes of dog walkers. This is the Victorian Keepers Cottage

Then into Waterlow Park. One of London's nicest parks. While the ornamental lakes are not the best...

..where it really wins is in the architecture of surrounding buildings, the gardens and the views across London as it is really built on a hillside.

Best of the architecture is the much altered Lauderdale House. Originally built in the reign of Elizabeth I it doesn't much look like a Tudor building as it has been so much renovated. That is how things went in the past - little thought for conservation - you just updated your big house to something more convenient and fashionable. This one was at one point supposed to have been the home of Charles I's mistress Nell Gwyn 

The only remaining obviously Tudor elements are the garden walls.

The gardens were especially cheering as they showed Spring was here (well coming soon anyway).

This part of the park also has views of the neighbouring massive Roman Catholic basilica next door.

The park was put together out of the gardens of 5 mansions in the area and donated to the public by the former Lord Mayor Sir Sydney Waterlow whose statue sits below. As I was gazing up at it an old lady passed by and said she said thank you to him every time she passed. Nice. 

As I say, the park does offer great views across the City.

 

From one corner of the park you can exit to Swain's Lane (ie swines lane, where the locals would have driven their pigs), at the top of which one finds Highgate's famous cemeteries, east and west. 

I will do a separate entry for my visit to the cemeteries, but here are some shots just from the gate or through the fence. The East..

And the original, West Cemetery with its impressive gates

The walk back up Highgate Hill is fringed with some impressive Georgian houses on one side

This is  the Holly Village. It is private small clutch of 8 houses surrounding a green, not open to the public so views are from outside. It is just a brilliant neo-Gothic confection. 

This is the entrance to it.

And a glimpse of the green through the gates

On the other side of the road is the Holly Estate, a weird take on suburbia, especially these Tudorbethan mansion flats, essentially Tudor style timber houses on steroids, stretched unnaturally large for their forms.

The little blue plaque you can see below is for Sir John Betjeman who was brought up in this nice house on the hill.

This is a little glimpse of a corner of Witanhurst, reputedly the second largest house in London after Buckingham Palace. It was bought for over £50m a decade ago.

This, number 40 Highgate West Hill, is now a centre for psychological health (my mate suggested that one might like somewhere more discreet to visit if that was your problem), but the terracotta sign to the left of the front door explains it used to be the Fox and Crown Public House.

St Michael's Church, whose unlikely claim to fame is being the highest church in London.  Since it is on a hill, its entrance is actually the same height above sea level as the cross on top of the dome of St Paul's

Below is the Flask pub, which would have been a very nice spot to have a drink in. Called the Flask as they used to serve flasks of local spring water here. It has a number of very famous former patrons - Dick Turpin, Samuel Coleridge, painter William Hogarth and Karl Marx. Yes it has a long history. So sad to see it behind locked gates

This fine restrained building is simply called the Old Hall.

Nearby isa  modernist house, the Lawns, pretty much just a glass box, but which was nominated for the Stirling Prize once.

Now one is approaching the best of the old Highgate Village - some really beautiful historic houses like Moreton House, where the poet Coleridge first came to live

Pond Square is here - more triangular than square but a nice spot to sit and admire the houses. Possibly even get a bite at the Indian street food restaurant, valiantly trying to do business even in these awful times 

If you feel the need for self improvement, where could sound better than the Highgate Literary and |Scientific Institute, founded in 1839?

Highgate School below. In addition to the sort of former pupils you might expect, like Sir John Betjeman, taught there by TS Eliot, the place has a fair smattering of pop stars, like Zac Starr (son of Ringo), Jonny Borrell of Razorlight and John Moss of Culture Club. There are more posh rock stars that they like to admit. The area has been a mecca for pop royalty, Sting and George Michael among them.

Highgate also has associations with Charles Dickens. It features in David Copperfield, and there is a plaque here for the house he lived in, briefly, in his teens, while his father was moving around to avoid his creditors

Down Wood Vale towards the Queens Woods are lots of interesting if not historic houses - this one  a modernist effort below

But I prefer this lovely quirky Victorian house

And The Queens Woods on the way home

Alexandra Palace in late afternoon sun.

And at home , my garden showing first few signs of Spring, notably my white Camelia