Highgate Village In The 1960s

A Memory of Highgate.

What I am most interested in writing about is how Highgate Village has changed so much since my school days, growing up there in the 1960s. Today most of the shops are coffee shops, estate agents & charity shops. But in the 60s there were all sorts of shops. There were 2 newsagents, both on the Haringey (East) side of the High Street, one of them is still a newsagents today. In the 60s it was run as 'Howe & Son' and old broadsheet newspapers lined the shop walls like wallpaper. Also on the east / Haringey side there was Walton Hassel & Port which was and still is a high street mini supermarket but under a different name now. Going further down past the newsagents, you would pass Bailey & Saunders chemist which is still there. Where Cafe Nero is now used to be a large household shop called 'Cromwells'. A bit further down there was an electrical shop called 'Penrose' where you could have your radio repaired, and is now a curtain shop. Further down from that there was a huge haberdashery shop, then past Fischer Antique Bookshop there was a marvelous old watch & clock shop filled with gleaming brass clocks all in various states of repair all ticking away and constantly chiming. Crossing over the road to the Camden side near where the old post office used to be there was a shop called 'The Chocolate Box' run by a couple of old ladies and just full of sweets and chocolate which of course was a favourite shop for young children then. If you went into the Waterlow Park entrance near there, there used to be a huge ancient cedar tree in the little green patch of grass just inside where I remember some pheasants used to live, just walking about in the open. Going back to the High Street on the Camden side, and walking up towards Pond Square turning left by the Angel pub there used to be a bakers called 'Rances' now a restaurant. Next to that was the 'Old Village Tuck Shop' another schoolboy favourite. That closed down in the 70s and is still there but has never been used as a shop since. On the opposite side of the bus stand used to be 'Olivers' fruit & veg shop, now a hairdressers, then past the Prince of Wales, and the Estate Agents was another greengrocers where the dry cleaners is now. Village residents in those days also shopped at the new Sainsbury's in Muswell Hill & the shops in Archway & Kentish Town which offered more choice, but in the 1970s Highgate had a diversity of small, homely & useful shops that were very much rooted in earlier times.