Highgate and Muswell Hill

The 240 pictures in this fascinating collection, ranging from the earliest available photographs of the 1860s to those of our own times, give an entirely new insight into the history of two neighbouring north London communities. Outwardly very different - Highgate still a ‘village’ with an ancient High Street and any eighteenth-century and earlier buildings, Musswell Hill a townscape of almost entirely Edwardian houses and shops - they have a lot in common, as the illuminating commentary demonstrates. Both once stood on main trunk routes; both were characterised within living memory by bug houses with several acres of grounds; both evolved with the coming of the railways. Widely-published historians of north London, Joan Schwitzer and Ken Gay have drawn on a wide variety of sources to illustrate particularly significant features of the local scene as well ensure a good coverage coverage of the whole area. These unique historical records will arouse nostalgia for a bygone age, when people walked to work and children played in the street. Many are from private collections and major London archives and are published in book form for the first time.