North London Culture Wars: Crouch End v Muswell Hill
Poll result Crouch End 35%, Muswell Hill 20%, Sarf London 44%
According to the Sunday Times survey of the best places to live in London, Crouch End N8 is up there. The cultural scene is mentioned as is the presence of an M&S and Waitrose and (rightly) Dunn’s Bakery. Pubs don’t feature but Crouch End with the Railway, the Queens and Small Bar is certainly better although Muswell Hill does have one of the better Wetherspoons, the Mossy Well.
There is of course no tube or rail station (the W7 will take you to Finsbury Park) The same applies to Muswell Hill where the W7 starts. The 41 and W3 will take you from Crouch End to Tottenham but the survey is really about house prices combined with nice places to live. Tottenham where I live is great and house prices are increasing (unfortunately, although I own one). It also has lots of the kind of working people who keep London going (Crouch End has some but less now).
The bigger puzzle though is why Crouch End features and Muswell Hill does not. There is a mention of Alexandra Palace, which is actually mostly in Muswell Hill. What though of the Kinks,Fairport Convention Toffs Fish & Chip restaurant, the presence (again) of an M&S and a Waitrose and some of the very best views in London. Not forgetting W. Martyn on the Broadway which roasts its own coffee and sells preserves, pickles and other interesting edibles.
Crouch End has a Waterstones but Muswell Hill has an independent bookshop and a children’s bookshop. The Sunday Times mentions the two good art focused cinemas in Crouch End but Muswell Hill has an Everyman
Perhaps the issue is the famous people who have resided over time in Crouch End:
Ho Chi Minh the revolutionary with a distinctive beard style was born on 18 May 1890. He was in the UK working in hospitality between 1913 and 1919 including at a Fullers pub in West Ealing. At some point he lived in Crouch End
Between July and October 1967 Young Boris lived in Crouch End as Stanley and Charlotte moved across London.
In neither case of Ho Chi Minh or Johnson is the Crouch End location known, so far. Perhaps a collective blue plaque on the clock tower is in order.
Muswell Hill supporters will no doubt point to the presence of ANC leader Oliver Tambo in Alexandra Park Rd for many years and a statue of him in Albert Rd Rec.
Meanwhile I cant help thinking that the preference for Crouch End over Muswell Hill is some kind of only partly declared class war. Or as the Tories would no doubt say, which is the more Woke?
I think you need to factor-in Hornsey Art School (reputedly the site of the first sit-in) in Crouch End (later the TUC College), as part of its radical chic appeal. And, imho, Muswell Hill’s pubs are pretty woeful.