Welcome to Muswell Hill

With vertiginous views over London, leafy streets with great period homes, ancient green spaces, elegant Edwardian shopping parades and good schools, Muswell Hill wants for nothing. 

About Muswell Hill 

It is hard to pick one stand-alone landmark here – there’s the hill itself, of course, with its quirky bus-park roundabout at the top, the spire of St James Church, the Art Deco cinema, the beautiful rhythm of the Edwardian facades and the brand new fun place to be, St James Square. 

Every local school child learns that Muswell Hill was created in the last Ice Age when the glaciers retreated dumping all the debris they had collected on their journey in one massive pile. The technical term is something like ‘Pleistocene Terminal Moraine’, but you get the idea. It means there’s a great view from here, the air feels fresher, the woods are greener and people are generally content. 

Ray Davies of The Kinks was brought up here and in 1971 gave the community its very own pop album – Muswell Hillbillies: that’s why you will often see Kinks tribute bands playing locally. The new social space St James Square is also alive with music, as the Mayor said in his inaugural speech: ‘It is the Jewel in the Muswell Hill Crown, dedicated to the purposes which we see here today: buying and selling, billing and cooing, brass band music, festivals and fun.

The grander Edwardian styles can be experienced in Wellfield & Elms Avenues, just a few yards from the Broadway. Above is a fine example in Elms Avenue, and some typically decorative art enhancing a gable can be found in nearby Cranbourne Road (below). 

The view from the junction of Leinster, Linden and Ellington roads epitomises the airy mix of styles including; neo-Tudor style Connaught Gardens and modern Shepherds Hill beyond.