These social changes were accompanied by changes in the shop types over the period the change brought a large number of estate agents, hairdressers, restaurants and cafes. The area became known as student bedsit land for several decades into the early 1980s until rising house prices changed the social profile of the area and progressively wealthier residents moved in. Many of the older houses in the area lay empty post-war and many were bought cheaply by speculative landlords who then let them out to the growing student populations of the Mountview and Hornsey Art College as well as to artists and musicians, who flocked to the area because of cheap rents. In the post-war years, the London-wide provision of social housing led to the building of council homes in and around Crouch End, Hornsey Vale and Hornsey itself. In 1965, when local government in London was reorganised, Hornsey merged with the boroughs of Wood Green and Tottenham, and Crouch End became part of the London Borough of Haringey. Until 1965 it was administratively part of the Municipal Borough of Hornsey and that body’s forerunners. By the mid-1930s Crouch End had a popular shopping centre that included a Music Hall in the middle of Topsfield Parade. It expanded greatly in the late Victorian period and most of its present-day streets were built up in the late 19th century. The large old houses were replaced by comfortable middle-class housing, public parks were created, and a number of new roads and avenues, such as Elder Avenue and Weston Park, were laid out. By the end of the 19th century, Crouch End had become a prosperous middle-class suburb due to an influx of mainly clerical workers who could easily commute to the city. By 1887 there were seven railway stations in the area. The development of the railway changed the area significantly. However, the area remained rural in character until around 1880. Crouch End seems to have developed as the early centre of cultivation for Hornsey, and was where the farmsteads seem to have been grouped.įrom the later part of the eighteenth century, Crouch End, along with most of Hornsey, became home to wealthy London merchants seeking a refuge from the City. A wooden cross was erected at the junction of these roads, roughly where the Clock Tower now stands, and a small settlement developed around it. In 1593 it is recorded as “Cruch End”.Ĭrouch End was the junction of four locally important roads. Its name has been recorded as Crouchend (1465), Crowchende (1480), the Crouche Ende (1482), and Crutche Ende (1553). Some think that this refers to the borders of the parish, in other words, the area where the influence of the parish ends. A ‘crouch’ meant cross while an ‘end’ referred to an outlying area. The name Crouch End is derived from Middle English. It is located 4.6 miles north of Charing Cross and 5.1 miles from the City of London. It is within the Hornsey postal district (N8).Ĭrouch End lies between Harringay to the east Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green to the north Stroud Green and Archway to the south and Highgate to the west. Crouch End is an area of North London, approximately 5 miles from the City of London in the western half of the borough of Haringey.