Every local school child learns that Muswell Hill was created in the last Ice Age when the glaciers retreated dumping all the debris they had collected on their journey in one massive pile. The technical term is something like ‘Pleistocene Terminal Moraine’, but you get the idea. It means there’s a great view from here, the air feels fresher, the woods are greener and people are generally content.
Ray Davies of The Kinks was brought up here and in 1971 gave the community its very own pop album – Muswell Hillbillies: that’s why you will often see Kinks tribute bands playing locally. The new social space St James Square is also alive with music, as the Mayor said in his inaugural speech: ‘It is the Jewel in the Muswell Hill Crown, dedicated to the purposes which we see here today: buying and selling, billing and cooing, brass band music, festivals and fun and also, not in evidence today, the gathering of pupils from Fortismere school to communicate with each other, by telephone, over a bag of the Best Chips in Town.’
