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Archway
Archway Navigator Square.jpg
Archway Navigator Square with Vantage Point, station, the Archway Tavern and Wenzel's bakery
Archway is located in Greater London
Archway
Archway
OS grid reference TQ285875
• Charing Cross 4 mi (6.4 km) N
London borough
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LONDON
Postcode district N19
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
EU Parliament London
UK Parliament
London Assembly
  • North East
List of places
UK
England
London
51°33′58″N 0°08′02″W / 51.566°N 0.1338°W / 51.566; -0.1338

Archway is an area of north London, England, in the London Borough of Islington 3.8 miles (6 km) north of Charing Cross. It straddles the A1 and is named after a local landmark, the high, single-arched Archway Bridge which crossed the road in a cutting to the north. It has a modern commercial hub around Vantage Point (formerly Archway Tower) and Archway tube station.

History

The name derives from the Archway bridge built in part of south Highgate for the minor road between south Highgate and Crouch End, Hornsey in 1896, the predecessor of Hornsey Lane Bridge.

A tunnel was attempted more than once for the Highgate bypass, to join the Great North Road by avoiding the steep Highgate Hill and narrow roads of Highgate village. However, these failed on collapsing. Instead, today's large cutting was recommended by John Rennie and a high, multi-arched road bridge across this. The first bridge of 1813 was designed by John Nash and demolished in 1901; its replacement, dates from 1897. The minor road over is Hornsey Lane.

Archway has come to designate the smaller than 0.4 square miles (1.0 km2) catchment of its underground station relative to all other stations. The official parishes and neighbourhoods within its definition are Highgate and Upper Holloway with a very small part of Islington. Upper Holloway has become in modern use generally restricted to the smaller catchment around its railway station and post office.

Seven Bus routes in London commence or end at 'Archway' and the term became mainstream across most social classes after its tube station abandoned its previous names of Highgate (until 1939) and subsequently Highgate (Archway) and Archway (Highgate).

In today's purely religious ecclesiastical parish system (once having had relief-for-the-poor vestries and highways churchwardens), the area is split between Whitehall Park, Upper Holloway and St John the Evangelist, Upper Holloway.

The Archway Road is part of the A1 or Great North Road, one of the original toll roads. From 1813–1864, Archway was the site of a toll gate, where travellers had to pay for the next stage of their journey. A plaque on the block of flats at 1 Pauntley Street commemorates the gate.

Highgate Hill, the road from Archway to Highgate village, was the route of the first motorised cable car in Europe operating between 1884 and 1909.

It was at Archway that Dick Whittington heard the Bow Bells ringing and returned to London. There is a statue on Highgate Hill to commemorate this (see below). Pauntley Street takes its name from the village of Pauntley in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, traditionally regarded as Dick Whittington's birthplace.

For much of the 20th century, the area had a large Irish population. Although immigration from Ireland slowed as the country became more prosperous, the Irish influence on the area can still be seen in Irish pubs such as The Mother Red Cap and The Crown, and in the supply of most Irish newspapers in local newsagents.

Amenities

Civic

The Whittington hospital on the south-west side of Highgate Hill has many buildings and specialisations, taking up a large minority of the west of the area, named after Richard Whittington.

Archway including its western green buffers has nine parks within a mile of the tube station (albeit only 5 in Archway): Archway Park, Hillrise Park, Dartmouth Park, Elthorne Park, Sunnyside Gardens, Crouch Hill Park, Waterlow Park, Whittington Park, Foxham Gardens, and Tufnell Park Playing Fields. The Parkland Walk is in the New Orleans Walk neighbourhood and half within Crouch End where defined by proximity to rail or tube station. Green spaces are contained between facing blocks of the residential mid rise estates: Girdlestone Walk, Henfield Close and Cardinals Way, varying proportions of which remain social housing.

Commercial

Archway has a very short high street at its centre with a long southern continuation, Junction Road. A tall commercial and residential tower, Vantage Point, next to the tube station, forms the highest structure in Archway.

The Archway Tavern the central pub with weekly music concerts is where the photograph for the cover of The Kinks' 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies was taken. There is a small statue of Whittington's Cat outside the Whittington Stone pub.

The Winchester, a pub at 206 Archway Road, is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.(Note: It is not in Archway N19, Islington but in Highgate, N6, Haringey.) It was built in 1881 as the Winchester Tavern, and it later became the Winchester Hall Hotel. The name derives from Winchester Hall, a nearby late 17th-century mansion.

Transport

Rail and Underground

The nearest London Underground station is Archway tube station on the Northern line. The nearest London Overground station is Upper Holloway.

Bus routes

Archway is served by the following bus routes: 4, 17, 41, 43 (24 hour), 134 (24 hour), 143, 210, 263, 271 (24 hour), 390 (24 hour), C11 and W5. Also Night Bus routes N20 and N41.

Demographics

The demographics of the two wards which Archway falls (predominately in) are as follows:

Ethnic Group Junction Ward Hillrise Ward
White British 48.1% 46.6%
White Irish 5.8% 5.1%
White Other 15.5% 14.5%
Black African 5.3% 6.7%
Black Caribbean 4.1% 5.5%
Black Other 2.1% 3.2%
Indian 1.8% 1.4%
Chinese 2.0% 0.9%
Mixed 7.2% 7.6%
Other 8.1% 8.5
Religion Junction Ward Hillrise Ward
Christian 40.2% 41.5%
Muslim 7.6% 9.6%
Judaism 1.4% 1.6%
Other 3.3% 2.5%
Not stated 16.6% 16.4%
None 30.9% 28.4%

The Hillrise ward has the third highest percentage of Christians in Islington, and the highest percentage of Jews (who live predominately in the Whitehall Park are between Archway, Highgate and Crouch End).

The Junction ward has the 4th highest percentage of White Irish people in wards in London.

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