44-485: Athlone House , formerly known as Caen Wood Towers , is a large Victorian house in Highgate , north London , England. Built around 1872, it was designed by Edward Salomons and John Philpot in an intricate style, particularly as to shape and brickwork, blending Dutch and classical influences. It lies on the northern edge of Hampstead Heath , from which it can be seen. It was home to several important industrialists until
88-731: A Justice of the Peace for the County of Middlesex , for the City of London and for the County of Carnarvon . He was also one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Lieutenancy of the City of London. A book published in 1880, entitled A series of picturesque views of seats of the noblemen and gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland , included a colour engraving of Caen Wood Towers and a descriptive article about Edward Brooke and
132-638: A Grade II listed former church, the Gatehouse Inn , dating from 1670, which houses the theatre Upstairs at the Gatehouse and Berthold Lubetkin 's 1930s Highpoint buildings. Pond Square , behind the High Street , is a registered village green , and is the centre of communal activities which take place in the elegant buildings of the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution and Highgate Society facing
176-551: A great deal of money to establish public institutions. For example, in 1897 he paid for the Newland Homes Francis Reckitt House for infants. He also provided the funds to establish a new reference library within an existing library in Hull in 1890. The Reckitt Convalescent Home (now demolished) was built in 1907 with money donated by Francis. Reckitt left Caen Wood Towers in about 1900 and Sir Francis Cory-Wright became
220-511: A number of nearby houses in Highgate, moved into Caen Wood Towers. The site, officially named Royal Air Force Station Highgate, occupied the grounds and outbuildings of the Caen Wood estate. It included accommodation, messing, equipment stores and a medical centre. Because of the sensitivity of intelligence and covert operations during the war, the site's purpose was not made public and it operated under
264-466: Is 136 m (446 ft) above sea level at its highest point. The area is divided among three London boroughs : Haringey in the north and east, Camden in the south and west, and Islington in the south and east. The postal district is N6 . The name of the village is commonly / ˈ h aɪ ɡ eɪ t / . The London Underground in announcements at Highgate tube station uses the alternative pronunciation of / ˈ h aɪ ɡ ɪ t / , where
308-421: Is a landmark on London's northern skyline. Inside, the chancel and choir stalls were done by G. E. Street in 1880. The pulpit dates from 1848. The present bench pews date from 1879, replacing box pews . The present organ is by Hill and Davidson, and was installed in 1885, replacing an earlier instrument of 1842. It was overhauled in 1985. There is a monument to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his family in
352-692: Is a suburban area of London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath , 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (7 kilometres) north-northwest of Charing Cross . Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has three active conservation organisations: the Highgate Society, the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum and the Highgate Conservation Area Advisory Committee, to protect and enhance its character and amenities. Until late Victorian times, it
396-577: Is by William Hill and Sons, and installed in 1945 as a memorial to the local victims of the Second World War. On Friday 26 August 1988, Michael Williams, a 43-year-old father from Highgate who worked for the Home Office in Pimlico , disappeared while travelling back home after an employee social. His body was found at Highgate Wood the next day. The case remains unsolved despite being featured heavily in
440-706: Is now part of the Hampstead and Highgate (UK Parliament constituency) . Highgate is known for its pubs which line the old high street and surrounding streets. Some notable favourites are the Angel, the Flask , the Duke's Head and the Wrestlers. The 2011 census showed that the Highgate ward of Haringey was 82% white (60% British, 19% Other, 3% Irish). 40.9% of the ward were Christian, 7% Jewish and 3.8% Muslim. The Highgate ward of Camden meanwhile
484-707: The High Street was part of Hornsey parish and also later the Municipal Borough of Hornsey , and the seat of that borough's governing body for many years. Highgate Hill , the steep street linking Archway (traditionally called part of Upper Holloway) and Highgate village, was the route of the Highgate Hill Cable Tramway , the first cable car to be built in Europe. It operated between 1884 and 1909. Like much of London, Highgate suffered damage during World War II by German air raids . The local tube station
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#1732855707412528-521: The 1940s and a 1970s extension were demolished, and three new blocks of luxury apartments built in their stead, called Kenwood Place. The original house was sold in 2006 to a Kuwaiti businessman of the Kharafi family for a reported £16 million. Planning permission to build a new house on the site was refused by Camden Council in 2010, and the refusal upheld by the Planning Inspectorate in 2011. In 2014
572-753: The Banshees ' bassist Steven Severin was born and brought up there. In 1817 the poet, aesthetic philosopher and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge came to live at 3, The Grove, Highgate , the home of Dr James Gillman , in order to rehabilitate from his opium addiction. After Dr Gillman built a special wing for the poet, Coleridge lived there for the rest of his life, becoming known as the sage of Highgate. While here some of his most famous poems, though written years earlier, were first published including " Kubla Khan ". His literary autobiography, Biographia Literaria , appeared in 1817. While living there he became friends with his neighbour Joseph Hardman . His home became
616-548: The British services (including dominion and Allied Forces attached to the RAF) attended intelligence training courses at the house. A description of the training given during the war at the house is contained in the book Shot Down and on the Run . In late 1944, the school was hit twice by German V-1 flying bombs causing damage to the buildings and injuring a number of staff. Following the end of
660-451: The Reckitt and Sons company was based and later moved to Hessle . He was twice widowed and had numerous children before he married Eliza Louisa Whitlock in 1877. The 1891 Census shows the family living at Caen Wood Towers and at this time there were four children still living with them. One of them was his son Francis William Reckitt who was an artist. Francis Reckitt became wealthy and donated
704-588: The Square. Highgate is best known for the Victorian Highgate Cemetery , in which the Communist philosopher Karl Marx and the novelist George Eliot are buried, along with many other notable people. Adjoining is Holly Village, the first gated community , built in 1865, which is a Grade II* listed site. The village is at the top of Highgate Hill, which provides views across central London. Highgate
748-561: The United Kingdom and the Channel Islands ; any architecturally notable building which has served as a residence for a significant family or a notable figure in history. The list includes smaller castles, abbeys and priories that were converted into a private residence, and also buildings now within urban areas which retain some of their original character, whether now with or without extensive gardens. Highgate Highgate
792-512: The age of 21. He became Chief of the company in 1888 and was credited with the large development of this firm which followed his appointment. In 1868 he married Mima Owen, the youngest daughter of Sir Hugh Owen. They had two sons and three daughters. Cory-Wright was very interested in local affairs, particularly in the Highgate area. He led the movement to save for public use the area then called Churchyard Bottom, now Queen's Wood Cory-Wright died at Caen Wood Towers in 1909. His widow remained at
836-577: The developers Athlone House Limited again appealed against the decision to the Planning Inspectorate, but this was rejected in June 2015 after objections from The Highgate Society, which raised a 5,000-signature petition to preserve the house. In January 2016, the Evening Standard reported that the house had been sold for about £20 million and that the new owners had contacted Camden Council "to discuss refurbishment plans", which were thought to include keeping
880-659: The early 1940s, when it was acquired by the Royal Air Force . It was later a National Health Service home for people with dementia until 2003, when it was left derelict. In 2016, Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman bought the house and restored it for use as a modern family home. The house was built for Edward Brooke, who was born in Manchester in 1832. He married Jane Emily Alston in 1857; they had many children. He also owned Pabo Hall in Conwy, Wales , which still has his portrait in
924-454: The final syllable matches the last syllable in "frigate". Historically, Highgate adjoined the Bishop of London 's hunting estate. Highgate gets its name from these hunting grounds, as there was a high, deer-proof hedge surrounding the estate: 'the gate in the hedge'. The bishop kept a toll-house where one of the main northward roads out of London entered his land. A number of pubs sprang up along
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#1732855707412968-567: The form of a slate slab in the middle of the church. The church was damaged in the Second World War by enemy air raids and the present stained glass window at the east end was installed in 1954, replacing a window broken in the Blitz. It is one of the last works by Evie Hone and depicts the Last Supper . Further down Highgate Hill is the town's Roman Catholic parish church, St Joseph's . It
1012-485: The guise of an RAF convalescence hospital. A number of different courses were run, teaching Air Intelligence, Escape and Evasion, and Basic Intelligence Analysis for direct entrants to intelligence work. Most of the instruction was given by visiting specialists (from the Air Ministry , MI6 , MI9 , Central Interpretation Unit at RAF Medmenham and Station X at Bletchley Park ). During World War II, over 6,000 officers of
1056-437: The hallway. In 1869, Brooke came from Manchester to London and bought Lord Dufferin’s estate at Highgate . Shortly after, he had the house, originally named Caen Wood Towers, built on this property. The house is chiefly a mixture of classical architecture and neo-Gothic crenular with a tall dutch gable making up the pinnacle of the façade in front of a multi-turreted tower and with long, narrow Tudor-style chimneys on
1100-504: The house and Lady Waley Cohen often allowed the gardens to be used for fetes and parties for girls' clubs, Boy Scouts, and to raise money for charity. Lady Waley Cohen died in 1935 but Sir Robert continued to live at Caen Wood Towers until about 1942 when it was taken over by the RAF. In September 1942, the house was acquired by the Air Ministry. The RAF Intelligence School, formerly housed in
1144-621: The house until 1911 when it was sold to Thomas Frame Thompson, who died two years later in a shooting accident. The property was then sold in 1914 to Charles Henry Watson who also owned a home called Ashmount in Hampstead ; in 1919 he sold Caen Wood Towers to Sir Robert Waley Cohen. Sir Robert Waley Cohen was the Managing Director of the Shell Company. He was the longest and most prominent resident of Caen Wood Towers, living there for more than twenty years between 1919 and 1942. Waley Cohen
1188-526: The house. Brooke left Caen Wood Towers in about 1885 and Francis Reckitt and his family came to live in the house. Francis Reckitt was a partner in the company of Reckitt and Sons. His father Isaac had founded the firm and he and his brother Sir James Reckitt were directors of the company at the time he lived at Caen Wood Towers. Reckitt was born in 1827 in Lincolnshire . He lived for some years in Hull where
1232-574: The left wing. A variety of stone and brick materials is therefore used in appropriate sections and the building is similar to the generally smaller follies of the time. In 1877, Brooke's first wife, Jane, died and in the following year he married Frances Amyand Bellairs, daughter of the Reverend Henry Walford Bellairs. Brooke was a partner in the firm of Brooke, Simpson and Spiller, who were aniline dye manufacturers in London. He became
1276-471: The name given to old boys of the school. These include T.S. Eliot , who taught the poet laureate John Betjeman there, Gerard Manley Hopkins the poet, the composers John Taverner and John Rutter , John Venn the inventor of Venn diagrams , actor Geoffrey Palmer , Anthony Crosland MP and Labour reformer, and the cabinet minister Charles Clarke . A blue plaque on a house at the top of North Hill notes that Charles Dickens stayed there in 1832, when he
1320-563: The national press and on the BBC 's TV programme Crimewatch . Highgate Cemetery is the burial place of Communist philosopher Karl Marx , Michael Faraday , Douglas Adams , George Eliot , Jacob Bronowski , Sir Ralph Richardson , Dawn Foster , Christina Rossetti , Sir Sidney Nolan , Alexander Litvinenko , Malcolm McLaren , Radclyffe Hall , Joseph Wolf and singer-songwriter George Michael . Many notable alumni have passed through Highgate School , either Masters or indeed Old Cholmeleians,
1364-566: The original house and building flats in the large gardens. In April 2016, it was reported in the Sunday Times that the Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman had purchased Athlone House for £65 million. Under Fridman's ownership, extensive restoration work was carried out including roofing works, major structural repairs, restoration of stonework and brickwork, replacement of perished timbers, damp-proofing and replacement of all windows. The restoration
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1408-462: The owner. Sir Francis Cory-Wright was Chief of William Cory and Sons, a large coal distribution firm. He was considered one of the best-known commercial men in the City and a chapter was written about him in "London Leaders" in 1907. Cory-Wright was born in 1839; his father was Lieutenant William Wright of the Rifle Brigade. He was educated privately and entered the firm of William Cory and Sons at
1452-668: The public in the National Archives. The site was acquired by the Ministry of Health in 1951, renamed Athlone House in 1955 as part of the Middlesex Hospital Group, and converted into a pre-convalescent home for those not well enough to go to The Middlesex Hospital's Convalescent Home in Clacton. A new building was added for geriatric care. The hospital was closed in 2003 and the site was sold to Dwyer Investments. The wing added in
1496-433: The route, one of which, the Gatehouse, commemorates the toll-house. Hampstead Lane and Highgate Hill contain the red brick Victorian buildings of Highgate School and its adjacent Chapel of St Michael. The school has played a paramount role in the life of the village and has existed on its site since its founding was permitted by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I in 1565. The area north of Hampstead Lane and east of
1540-583: The south in order to form an enlarged Holborn and St Pancras constituency from the 2010 general election . Since 1983 the northern half of Highgate village was part of the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency. Until 2023 the southern half of Highgate was in the Holborn & St Pancras Parliamentary constituency whose MP is Keir Starmer of the Labour Party , the party's current leader. The whole of Highgate Village
1584-459: The war, training continued at RAF Highgate until 1948 when the Air Ministry decided that the School should move to the Air Ministry building as they were de-requisitioning the property. RAF Highgate (Caen Wood Towers) was handed over to the Ministry of Health in 1951 and its previous role remained an Official Secret until 2005 when files (such as the unit's Form 540) were declassified and made available to
1628-479: Was Lewis Vulliamy , and in 1831 his original drawings for the church were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts . From the late 17th century until 1830 Ashhurst House, the home of former Lord Mayor of London Sir William Ashhurst , stood on the site of the church. The remains of the house's cellar now form part of the church's crypt. The church's spire, built of Bath stone , with a cross of Portland stone ,
1672-678: Was 20 years old. Peter Sellers lived as a boy in a cottage in Muswell Hill Road, where his mother had moved in order to send him to the Catholic St Aloysius Boys' School in Hornsey Lane. In Victorian times St Mary Magdalene House of Charity in Highgate was a refuge for former prostitutes—"fallen women"—where Christina Rossetti was a volunteer from 1859 to 1870. It may have inspired her best-known poem, Goblin Market . Siouxsie and
1716-577: Was 80% white (61% British, 15% Other, 4% Irish), and 3% Black African. 37.5% of the ward were Christian, 5.1% Muslim. and 4.2% Jewish. Highgate's main Church of England parish church, St Michael's , is situated close to the summit of the hill, and is the highest church in Greater London. It was built as one of the Commissioners' churches in 1831 and consecrated and opened on 8 November 1832. The architect
1760-576: Was a distinct village outside London, sitting astride the main road to the north. The area retains many green expanses, including the eastern part of Hampstead Heath , three ancient woods, Waterlow Park and the eastern-facing slopes, known as Highgate bowl. At its centre is Highgate village, largely a collection of Georgian shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets, interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, St. Joseph's Church and its green copper dome, Highgate School (1565), Jacksons Lane arts centre, housed in
1804-434: Was born in London in 1877. His father was Nathaniel Louis Cohen and his mother was Julia Waley, daughter of Jacob Waley, Professor at University College, London. After Waley Cohen left Cambridge University he entered the Shell Company, eventually becoming its Managing Director. In 1904 he married Alice Violet Beddington and the couple had two sons and a daughter. While they lived at Caen Wood they held numerous social events at
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1848-412: Was designed by Albert Vickers, and built in 1888, replacing an earlier, smaller church of 1861. Although St Joseph's Church was opened in 1889 by the Bishop of Liverpool , it was not until 1932, when its debts were cleared, that it was officially consecrated. The church has a distinctive copper dome with a green patina, and the interior of the dome was painted by Nathaniel Westlake in 1891. The organ
1892-558: Was designed by architects SHH. The new roof won an award for Best Use of a Heritage Roof at the Pitched Roofing Awards 2021. 51°34′17″N 0°09′32″W / 51.5714°N 0.1589°W / 51.5714; -0.1589 List of country houses in the United Kingdom This is intended to be as full a list as possible of country houses , castles , palaces , other stately homes , and manor houses in
1936-546: Was used as a bomb shelter. Highgate New Town is a post-war estate adjacent to the cemetery, designed by Camden Council with similarities to the Alexandra Road estate . Between 1983 and 2010 Highgate was part of the Hampstead and Highgate constituency. The Boundary Commission report of 2003 recommended removing the Camden part of Highgate from the remainder of that constituency and joining it with Kentish Town and Holborn to
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