Living in Crouch End: area guide to homes, schools and transport links
Crouch End is only five miles from central London but it is tucked away in a valley between Muswell Hill, Highgate and Archway. Reached mainly by bus, it feels disconnected, remote almost, from the rest of the capital.
This lends character and independence to the area and explains why its town centre has retained its long-standing family firms, including Dunn’s Bakery and Banner’s restaurant, which thrive and prosper alongside high street chains.
Estate agent Barrington Dutton from the local branch of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward says Crouch End is a wonderful place to bring up children, with many buyers coming from nearby Islington in search of family homes. The district’s creative reputation has traditionally attracted actors, writers and journalists. However, Barrington Dutton says more local buyers now work in accountancy and banking.
Property scene
Many of the mainly Victorian and Edwardian terrace houses found in Crouch End have been converted into flats. KFH agent Barrington Dutton says about a third of his sales are houses, and the rest are flats.
What's new?
The largest local development is Smithfield Square, by St James, in Hornsey High Street on the site of a former refrigeration factory. There are 440 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats including 168 affordable homes, plus two one-bedroom live/work units and a large Sainsbury’s branch. The live/work homes will launch soon at £575,000, while six flats in the converted Campsbourne Well Victorian pump house will launch later. The rest of the private sale flats are reserved. The scheme will be finished towards the end of next year. Call 020 3002 9460.
Darcies Mews offers four detached four-bedroom houses in Cecile Park by architects Crawford Partnership. Two are for sale with Winkworth (020 8343 9999) and Lanes (020 8370 3993) at £1.85 million.
Help to Buy is available on six one-, two- and three-bedroom flats at Pembroke Apartments, a Centra Living development in Campsbourne Road off Hornsey High Street. Prices start at £450,000. Call Bairstow Eves on 020 8444 4143.
Centra Living itself is offering 15 one-, two- and three-bedroom shared-ownership flats at the same development. Prices start at £140,000 for a 35 per cent share of a one-bedroom flat with a market value of £400,000. Call 0300 456 1100. The development will be ready in November.
Renting
Nicole Furrer, lettings manager at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, says renters in Crouch End are families and professionals, both singles and couples. “This is a very creative place,” she says. “Most people work in the media, theatre or advertising and a lot of people work from home. There is a lot of laptop working and meetings in the local wifi cafés.”
Most of her landlords are of the “accidental” variety, renting out homes they have previously lived in — either because they have bought elsewhere, or because they have moved temporarily for work.
She adds: “For example, I have recently rented a beautiful house in Cecile Park, which belongs to a creative director, to an A-list British actor.”
Travel
Crouch End isn’t the easiest place to reach — part of its charm, and the reason it attracts a lot of people who aren’t daily commuters. Essentially its main link is the W7 bus which runs between Muswell Hill and Finsbury Park, taking in Crouch End en route.
Finsbury Park is on the Piccadilly and Victoria Tube lines. For those on the eastern side of Crouch End, trains from Hornsey and Harringay stations go to Moorgate via Finsbury Park, Highbury & Islington and Old Street, in 18 minutes from Hornsey and 15 minutes from Harringay.
Crouch Hill station on the Stroud Green side is on the Overground Gospel Oak to Barking line. Crouch End is in Zone 3 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,520.
Staying power
KFH estate agent Barrington Dutton says he has worked in the area for nearly 20 years and he still sees the same faces. “It is a place where people are content to spend their lives.”
Postcode
Crouch End is in the N8 Hornsey postcode.
Best roads
There are large five- and six-bedroom Edwardian semi-detached and terrace houses in the roads off Crouch End Hill including Coleridge Road, Clifton Road and Birchington Road. Cecile Park, off Crouch Hill, is another favourite.
Up and coming
In Hornsey, properties in the roads between Priory Road and Alexandra Park — North View Road, South View Road, Hawthorn Road and Beechwood Road — are cheaper than similar houses in Crouch End near the Broadway.
Council
Haringey council is Labour controlled and Band D council tax for 2016/2017 is £1,484.01.
Lifestyle
Shops and restaurants
Crouch Enders are never far from a cappuccino or a wifi connection in the district’s busy shopping centre, which radiates out from The Broadway and its landmark red-brick clock tower. There are branches of Waitrose, the Co-op and an M&S Simply Food but there’s also an independent fishmonger, a fruiterers, long-standing Dunn’s Bakery, and two butchers. There are coffee chains Starbucks and Costa Coffee, while independents include the new café in Hornsey Town Hall, Coffee Circus, and café-restaurants The Blue Legume, Sable d’Or, Ruby Rose, The Haberdashery and Fifty Five Café, which has a soft play area.
There is a French flavour to interiors shopping with Floral Hall Antiques on the corner of Haringey Park and Hatherley Gardens, and Little Paris for interior accessories from France. Indish is an interiors store with a Scandinavian flavour. Of Special Interest has painted furniture and accessories in a muted palette of whites, creams and greys. The Urban Flower Company is the best local florist.
Soho House has brought in its Chicken Shop and Dirty Burger brands, while independent Burgers@N8 is tucked away in Rose Place.
Locals praise newcomer Beam, a daytime café, with plenty of room for mothers with buggies. Nickel is a new bar serving small plates; Irvin Bar Grill serves Italian food and offers Scottish produce; Heirloom has a seasonal modern British menu and uses produce from its own Buckinghamshire smallholding; Bar Esteban does tapas; Bistro Aix is a French bistro; Monkeynuts specialises in steak; Cannons is a smart fish and chip shop, and local institution Banner’s has been going since 1992.
Open space
Priory Park has a café, paddling pool and tennis courts, and there’s countryside on Crouch End’s doorstep in Queen’s Wood and Highgate Wood. The Parkland Walk is a four-and-a-half-mile green linear park following the old railway line that ran from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace.
Leisure and the arts
Crouch End is no longer short of entertainment. There are two cinemas: ArtHouse in the former Salvation Army Hall and a Picturehouse five-screen multiplex, sitting almost next to each other in Tottenham Lane. The Art Deco town hall is now a temporary arts centre while the council looks for a long-term solution for the building. There is comedy at the King’s Head pub, and the annual Crouch End Festival, a community arts event, takes place for 10 days in June.
The Park Road Leisure Centre in Park Road is the local council-owned swimming pool; it has an indoor pool, outdoor pool, a diving pool and a learner pool. There is also an indoor pool at Virgin Active in Tottenham Lane. Hornsey Cricket Club in Tivoli Road, is one of the oldest in London.
Schools
Primary school
Crouch End’s most sought-after state primary school is Coleridge in Crouch End Hill, which is rated “outstanding” by the Ofsted education watchdog. Almost as popular and rated “good” are Weston Park in Denton Road, Rokesly Infants in Hermiston Avenue and Rokesly Juniors in Rokesly Avenue.
Comprehensive
The local comprehensive school, Highgate Woods (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Montenotte Road is judged “good”. St Aloysius RC College (boys, ages 11 to 18) in Hornsey Lane, Archway is the only “outstanding” local comprehensive school. However, the other nearby comprehensives are all judged “good”. They are: Hornsey School for Girls (ages 11 to 18) in Inderwick Road; Greig City Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Hornsey High Street; Mount Carmel Catholic College (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Holland Walk, Archway; Arts and Media School, Islington (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in Turle Road, Stroud Green, and Skinners’ Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Woodberry Grove.
Private
Avenue Nursery and Pre-Preparatory (co-ed, ages two to eight) is a private early years school in Highgate Avenue; the North London Rudolf Steiner School (co-ed, ages two to seven) in The Campsbourne offers alternative early years provision. There are two top-performing all-through private schools in nearby Highgate: Channing (girls, ages four to 18) and Highgate School (co-ed, aged three to 18).