Seeded sourdough and oatmilk flat white – that’s how Crouch
End is often seen. But there’s so much more to the history of
this proudly independent locality, from radical politics to sport,
music to exceptional public art.
In Curious Crouch End, historian Andrew Whitehead tells the
stories hidden away amid the Victorian villas and Edwardian
terraces of this fashionable corner of North London: from a
pioneering women’s football match organised by the possibly
mythical Nettie Honeyball, to the high point of the 1968
student rebellion. It’s where Bob Dylan got lost on his way to a
local recording studio and where Ray Davies found his ‘working
man’s cafe’. Look out for the spectacular Art Deco in the square
and the sparkling Art Nouveau in the pub.

Andrew Whitehead is the former editor of BBC World Service News and an editor of History Workshop Journal. He is the author of A Mission in Kashmir and runs the website www.londonfictions.com