Highgate: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Highgate is a place in north London. It is the highest point in the city, and is noteworthy for its Georgian architecture. It is one of the more expensive suburbs to live in, and has an active conservation society to protect its character. It is on the north-eastern edge of Hampstead Heath, one of London's largest open spaces.

It is divided between three London boroughs: Haringey to the north, Camden to the south and west, and Islington to the south and east.

Historically it was part of the Bishop of London's hunting estate. The Bishop kept a toll-house on one of the main northward roads out of London. A number of pubs sprung up along the route, one of which, the Gatehouse, commemorates the toll-house. In later centuries Highgate was associated with the highwayman Dick Turpin.

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

In recent years famous inhabitants have included Samuel Taylor Coleridge, J. B. Priestley, Yehudi Menuhin (and later Sting who bought Menuhin's old house), Sir Jacob Bronowski, Stanley Baxter, and Victoria Wood. Highgate Cemetery is the burial place of Karl Marx and Radclyffe Hall. Adjacent to the cemetery is the Holly Lodge Estate which includes one of the very few housing estates built for single women and formerly the home of Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts.

The current MP for the Hampstead and Highgate constituency is Labour's Glenda Jackson, since 1992. Barbara Roche is the Labour MP for the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, which covers the northern half of Highgate Village. The Boundary Commission report of 2003 recommended separating Highgate from the remainder of its present constituency and joining it with Kentish Town and Holborn to the south.

Nearest places:

• Finchley
• Hampstead
• Muswell Hill
• Tufnell Park
• Kentish Town
• Holloway

Nearest tube stations:

• East Finchley tube station
• Highgate tube station

Places of interest:

• Highgate Cemetery

Highgate is also a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.

Geography and Location

Aerial map