Editing Crouch End (section)

==History==
Crouch End was the junction of four locally important roads. A wooden cross was erected at the junction of these roads, roughly where the Clock Tower now stands, and a small settlement developed around it. Crouch End developed as an early centre of cultivation for Hornsey, and was where the farmsteads seem to have been grouped.<ref>A P Baggs, Diane K Bolton, M A Hicks and R B Pugh, "Hornsey, including Highgate: Growth before the mid 19th century", in ''A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6, Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey With Highgate'', ed. T F T Baker and C R Elrington (London, 1980), pp. 107-111. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol6/pp107-111 [accessed 12 August 2018].</ref>

From the later part of the eighteenth century, Crouch End became home to wealthy London merchants seeking refuge from the City. However, the area remained rural in character until around 1880.<ref>The transcribed 1829–1848 diaries of William Copeland Astbury describe in great detail London life of the period, including walks to Crouch End.{{disputed inline|reason=Astbury website is searchable and not results are returned for either Crouch End or Hornsey|date=February 2023}}</ref> The development of the railway changed the area significantly. By 1887 there were seven railway stations in the area.

Although the first patch of urbanisation along Park Road (Maynard Street until c1870) was distinctly working-class in character, by the end of the 19th century, the large merchants' villas had been replaced by urban middle-class housing and Crouch End had become a comfortable middle-class London suburb with a varied and popular range of shops.

Until 1965 Crouch End was part of the [[Municipal Borough of Hornsey]] and that body's forerunners. In 1965, when local government in London was reorganised, Hornsey merged with the boroughs of [[Municipal Borough of Wood Green|Wood Green]] and [[Municipal Borough of Tottenham|Tottenham]], and Crouch End became part of the [[London Borough of Haringey]].

[[File:Crouch End for Wikipedia.jpg|thumb|Crouch End Broadway and clocktower]]

In the post-war years, the London-wide provision of social housing led to the demolition of the Park Road housing development and its replacement with council homes. Many of the older houses in the area lay empty post-war and many were bought cheaply by speculative landlords who then let them out to the growing student populations of the Mountview and Hornsey Art College. The area became known as [[bedsit]] land into the early 1980s, until rising house prices changed the social profile of the area and progressively wealthier residents moved in.