Things you didn't know about... Highgate

On a high in London
Everybody knows Highgate is the highest point in London. The Kinks' Ray Davies summed it up in London Song: "If you're ever up on Highgate Hill on a clear day, you can see right down to Leicester Square."

Highgate Cemetery is not just about Karl Marx
Although the author of Das Kapital is Highgate Cemetery's most famous occupant, there are many other notables buried here, including Douglas Adams (of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame), electricity pioneer Michael Faraday and Charles Cruft, founder of the dog show.

Highgate has a housing estate for single women
It's called Holly Lodge Estate and it was built in 1798. It is one of only two built for this purpose in Britain. (Though the policy of only placing single women there has now lapsed.)

Venn diagrams were thought up in Highgate
At least, their inventor (John Venn) went to school in Highgate.

Highgate has a high point—Highpoint
Modernist architecture reached one of its high points in Highgate. In 1934 Berthold Lubetkin designed Highpoint, a block of flats on the highest point in London. Each flat is heated from the ceiling to give the feeling of being bathed by the sun.

Sting and Yehudi Menuhin lived in the same house in Highgate
But not together. Sting bought Yehudi's old house.

Web cast
Apart from the above-mentioned musicians, the list of famous Highgate residents is even longer than the ones in the cemetery. Whole websites are devoted just to listing them.

A tradition to swear by
Highgate pubs often have real animal horns on their walls, on which visitors are sometimes required to swear an oath. Local tradition insists that if you don't say it properly, you have to make a donation to charity. Byron mentions of these oaths in his poem Childe Harolde.

Europe's first cable car was in Highgate
It operated between Archway and Highgate from 1884 to 1909.

If you go down to Highgate Wood today...
Highgate is very close to classic green spaces such as Hampstead Heath and Highgate Wood. The latter has 70 species of birds and 180 species of moth.

What connects TS Eliot and Johnny Borrell?
Highgate, of course. But specifically Highgate School: Eliot was a master there and the Razorlight singer was a student. Though they weren't quite contemporaries.