Five Leaves Publications

Book details

Muswell Hill is a model of the Edwardian middle-class suburb, with its broad streets, regal street names, arts-and-crafts houses and fashionable shopping parades. But look a little harder and you'll find the trace of aristocratic Russian anarchists, God-fearing African revolutionaries and insurrectionary Indian nationalists. Alongside Martyn's, with its mahogany shop fittings and aroma of freshly roasted coffee, Muswell Hill still has a rare cluster of back-to-back cottages.

The Kinks grew up here and made the locality almost cool with their 'Muswell Hillbillies' album. Fairport Convention started rehearsing in a house on Fortis Green from which they took their name. Muswell Hillbilly Brewers use N10 hops, grown in back gardens in Colney Hatch Lane, to add magic to their Tetherdown pale ale and Fortis Green stout. While back in the mid-Victorian era, the Muswell Hill Brigade were early and inspiring advocates of women's rights.

Historian Andrew Whitehead takes an affectionate - and mildly subversive - tour round N10, taking in the Bowls Club and the working men's club, the pumping station and the pioneering Wetherspoon's pub, and seeking out the hidden stories of this architecturally distinguished corner of north London. A detailed map will help readers find their way around Muswell Hill's curiosities and a wealth of photographs and illustrations, ancient and modern.

About the Author

Andrew Whitehead is a historian and journalist with an abiding curiosity about north London where he lives. This is the fifth Curious title which he has written or co-authored. He worked for BBC News as the Editor of BBC World Service News.