Seeded sourdough and oat milk flat white –
that’s how Crouch End is often seen.
This is leafy, liberal North London. There’s a Waitrose, a fishmonger, several butchers and bakers, two cinemas almost side-by-side, and more bookshops, vinyl stores, florists and independent coffee shops per head of population than … well, you get the picture.

There’s a lot more to this proudly independent locality. In Curious Crouch End, historian Andrew Whitehead tells the stories hidden away amid the Victorian villas and Edwardian terraces of this fashionable corner of the capital: from a pioneering women’s football match organised by the wonderfully named Nettie Honeyball, to the high point of the 1968 student rebellion.

It’s where Bob Dylan got lost (perhaps) on his way to a local recording studio and where Ray Davies found his ‘working man’s cafe’.

Look out for the spectacular Art Deco in the square, the sparkling Art Nouveau in the pub.
And Crouch End has its own Cathedral too.

A detailed map designed by Nancy Edwards will help the truly curious navigate their way round historic N8 and there’s a wealth of illustrations, both from the archive and photographs specially taken for Curious Crouch End.