Crouch End: Past and Present
Named by 1375, Crouch End meant 'cross end' or 'cross border'. The cross itself was a boundary marker between two local estates, one of the Bishop of London and the other Topsfield Estate. Crouch End was the junction of four roads.
In eighteenth and nineteenth century Crouch End village was small and sparse and popular with rich Londoners looking for a country place near their businesses. Until 1850 the village was a sleepy and beautiful backwater away from main routes.
The Clock Tower from Broadway, Crouch End
In the 1860s Campsbourne and Grove House estates were built but Crouch End was still a rural idyll by 1876. Between 1867 and 1885 saw the opening of Stroud Green Station, Stapleton Hall Road Station and Harringey Station. As the stations competed against each other, the fares remained low and office workers began to settle in Crouch End.
Henry Elder, a 'bristle merchant', owned Topsfield Estate and land around Broadway in 1853. When he died in 1882 there was a new phase of building in Crouch End. The village centre of Crouch End survived almost intact until the 1890s when it made way for municipal buildings and shopping parades, sparking the shopping revolution in Crouch End, still a popular draw for shoppers today.
The Broadway, Crouch End
1896 saw the opening of the Crouch End Opera House or the Queens Opera House, an early indication of the arty feel to Crouch End. In 1903 it was converted into a music hall with a social club upstairs. It was then renamed the Crouch End Hippodrome, staging live performances and cinema films until it was bombed in 1942. The theatre met its demise in the 1950s when it was demolished.
By 1920 almost the whole area north of Crouch End playing fields was built over. The author, Thomas Burke, wrote in 1921 that: Crouch End has grown up in tranquillity beyond contact with the gross and noisy world of traffic. Crouch End has: “the impression of busy calm … clean cut and solid”. Of Crouch End playing fields he said: “There is something about tennis that belongs to leisure and affluence … very Crouch End –y” … "Good people still live around Crouch End”.
The Broadway, Crouch End
In 1923 The Rink Cinema in Stroud Green become the first cinema in Britain to give a demonstration of the De Forest Phonofilms 'sound on film' or more simply put, the first ever film with sound. In 1926 Crouch End was the main Shopping Centre for a wide area and remained an important Shopping Centre after the Second World War. In 1935 it was chosen as the site for Hornsey Town Hall on Broadway.
Between 1984 and 1988 demand for young professionals for property prompted observers to describe Crouch End as a 'boom city' and as 'the Chelsea of North London'.
Back to today and Crouch End remains a green and leafy area with large houses, renowned for being cosmopolitan and bohemian. A popular place for arts, media and entertainment professionals with a plethora of trendy restaurants, café's and bars. Because of the mixture of greenery and a clearly defined centre, it has a village feel and considered a neighbourly place to live.
All images were purchased through Memories Picture Library, Framing and Postcards (C.R. Smith)
Click here to learn more about Crouch End
The Clock Tower
Famous Residents
Shopping
Music Scene
Cafe Culture
Going Out in Crouch End
Parks and Green Open Spaces
Transport