Highgate Literary walk

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In order to enhance our staycation, I’ve bought a couple of walking guides – one was ‘Walking Literary London’. I suggested to Mark we would do a walk in Highgate on the 1^st Bank Holiday. Weather forecast on the 1^st Bank Holiday wasn’t promising; so we decided to do on Sunday, 2^nd May.



We started the walk from Parkland Walk at Muswell Hill and walked towards Highgate Wood. We had a picnic lunch at Highgate Wood before starting the trekking course around Highgate village.



Quite a few shops and were opened up on Highgate High Street as of 2^nd May. After leaving Highgate Station, we turned right and walked uphill on Jackson Lane. I noticed that there were a number of beautiful, stylish red-brick houses and modernist houses in Highgate. This charming residential suburban residential area seemed to have attracted a number of literary figures – J. B. Priestly, John Betjeman and Samuel Taylor Coleridge – and we found these people’s blue plaques while strolling through the Highgate village. We also found a very distinguished architectural church building, Highgate School where famous literary figures like Gerald Manley Hopkins and John Betjeman attended. On top of that, we were shown famous buildings around Pond Square – Highgate Literary Scientific Institute, Old Hall where novelist Rumer Goddon lived; St Michael Church where Coleridge was buried.

We then walked down on Highgate West and found No.31 the childhood home of John Betjeman. Just opposite the celebrity’s childhood home, we found the gated residential street, Oakeshot Avenue. We thought this residential street was shut while seeing a number of official signs in conjunction with Covid 19. Oakeshot Avenue had a number of well-designed, mock tudor houses and residential flats. By standing on the top of the hill, all residents are deserved to have breathtaking views of the central London. Oakeshot Avenue led us to Highgate Cemetery. I didn’t expect that we would be asked to pay for the entry to the cemetery; Mark had brought his debit card and paid for the entrance fees for me. The East Cemetery looked similar to Jewish Cemetery in Prague, which we visited a few years ago. We saw some famous people’s graves like Karl Marx and William Foyle, the founder of Charing Cross Bookshop, Foyles.

Finally, we ambled through Waterlow Park and were blessed with lovely ponds, water birds and beautiful flowerbeds and trees and shrubs and historic house, Lauderdale House. Afterwards, we walked down Highgate Hill towards Archway Station. We took the No.41 bus to Wood Green.

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Photos

St Michael Church
This is where Coleridge was buried

Highgate East Cemetery
We were asked to pay for the entry to the cemetery where a lot of important people's ashes were buried.

Waterlow Park
This beautiful park was adjacent to the Highgate Cemetery.