About Us & More

 

About Us………

 

Burghleys are a totally independent Estate Agency located in Fortess Road bordering Kentish Town, Tufnell Park and Dartmouth Park with Archway, Holloway & Highgate all within close proximity.   The Agency is owned and run by Howard Bloohn and Ashley Gendler, who collectively have in excess of 50 years agency experience in the London and Home Counties residential property market.   Howard and Ashley opened Burghleys in August 2006 having recognised that the local area, and Tufnell Park in particular, did not possess a good quality Independent Estate Agent located on its prime shopping parade.   The office is situated in a prominent corner position only 50 meters from Tufnell Park underground station (Northern Line) and within a short walk of Kentish Town underground station (Northern Line) and overground station.   Starting from scratch, Burghleys quickly started to establish itself in the local market place and within a short space of time became the most prominent Independent Estate Agent in the local area recognised for its overriding commitment to the highest standards of service.   Burghleys were not only assisting local homeowners, but began to attract a number of high profile major corporate clients, multi landlords, developers and investors keen to use their services.   Burghleys have since gone from strength to strength, continuing to have a major presence in the local (and not so local) market place for residential sales, lettings and property management.   Howard and Ashley continue to be at the forefront of the business as fully working full- time partners and now have a team of negotiators and administrators working alongside them to drive the business forward.   Burghleys continue to offer an unrivalled personal service, whilst maintaining a high standard of competence and professionalism. This is backed up by the many testimonials received by satisfied buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants alike.

To reassure clients, Burghleys are voluntary members of The Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme and are also members of The Deposit Protection Service.

........& More!

The Origins of Tufnell Park | The Origins of Holloway | The Origins of Archway
The Origins of Kentish Town | The Origins of Dartmouth Park | The Origins of Highgate

The Origins of Tufnell Park

Tufnell Park Road runs along the line of an old Roman road which stretches from the Roman camp beneath Barclays Bank and Batten's Carpets on the Holloway Road up Dartmouth Hill and over Hampstead Heath. For centuries the area was renowned for its dairy farms which kept London to the south supplied with milk.

It kept a rural air well into the 19th Century in its important role as a base for a number of dairies supplying the capital. In 1753 the area became the property of William Tufnell who was granted the manor of Barnsbury by his father in law. The manor (now demolished) stood on the site of the Holloway Odeon. The manor's gateposts can still be seen however on Tufnell Park Road. Tufnell petitioned parliament for permission to develop his estate but the leases he was granted were left unused.

The estate passed to his brother George who married into a fortune owned by Mary Carleton in 1804, hence her maiden name appearing as two street names in N7. Serious building began in the 1845 with a scheme sponsored by Henry Tufnell and designed by John Shaw Jun - who had laid out the Eton Estate in Chalk Farm. This initial work was largely limited to the area around Carleton Road. In 1865 the scheme was taken up by George Truefitt who developed most of the local villas and St. George's Church (1865) - built for Anglican secessionists. The housing stock was of a solid nature, and Tufnell Park kept its good name until the end of the century. Charles Booth in his survey of London Life and Labour reported that the older streets (Anson Road and Carleton Road) housed a mixture of retired merchants and music hall artistes who were rich enough holiday abroad over winter. He believed that second wave of building around Hugo, Corinne, Huddleston and Archibald Roads threatened to create a metropolis "from which the rich would soon be going". The private girl’s school established at the corner of Carleton and Brecknock Road was closed in 1878 after many of its pupils drowned in the Princess Alice disaster.

Tufnell Park was more fortunate than several of its neighbours. Whereas roads and railway lines were sliced through Kentish Town and Camden in the 19th century, they mostly passed through Tufnell Park in tunnel, and Junction Road railway station provided a direct link with central London. The shabby genteel reputation of Tufnell Park made it a standard comic reference in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. George and Weedon Grossmith locate their aspirational Mr Pooter in Tufnell Park (Upper Holloway) in Diary of a Nobody. Julian and Sandy the camp BBC home service comedians frequently referenced Tufnell Park as did the Guardian Newspaper's Biff cartoon in the 1980s. Between 1999 and 2001, Tufnell Park was the location for Channel 4's comedy drama, Spaced.

Want to know what’s going on in Tufnell Park? ...click here!

The Origins of Holloway

 The origins of the name are disputed; some believe that it derives from Hollow or Hollow Way, due to a dip in the road caused by the passage of animals and water erosion, as this was the main cattle driving route from the North into Smithfield. In Lower Holloway, the former Back Road, now Liverpool Road was used to rest and graze the cattle before entering London. Others believe the name derives from Hallow and refers to the road's historic significance as part of the pilgrimage route to Walsingham. No documentary evidence can be found to support either derivation; and by 1307, the name Holwey was applied to the district around the road. The main stretch of Holloway Road runs through the site of the former villages of Tollington and Stroud. The exact time of their founding is not known, but the earliest record of them dates from the Doomsday Book. The names ceased to be used by the late 17th Century, but are still preserved in the local place names Tollington Park and Stroud Green. The original route, from London, led through Tollington Lane, but such was the state of this road by the 14th century, that the Bishop of London built a new road up Highgate Hill, and was claiming tolls by 1318. This was the origins of the Great North Road, now the A1, which passes through Holloway.

Until the 19th century the area was predominantly rural, but as London expanded in the second half of the 19th century it became extremely built-up. Holloway, like much of inner North London, experienced rapid growth around the very early 1900s and quickly became an important local shopping centre. This was aided by the importance of the road junction at Nag's Head which became an important hub for trolleybus services up their withdrawal in the 1950s. The London and North Eastern Railway opened a station here, which had a significant impact on the residential and commercial development of the neighbourhood in the latter part of the 19th century. The station, now closed, was at the same spot as the current Holloway Road tube station, on the Picadilly Line.

In the late 1930s, the Odeon cinema on the junction of Tufnell Park Road and Holloway Road was built as a Gaumont but was severely damaged by a doodlebug during the Second World War. It has recently undergone extensive refurbishment but retains its impressive foyer and staircase.

During the Second World War, parts of Holloway experienced intense bombing due to its proximity to Kings Cross railway station.

Holloway is also home to HMP Holloway in Parkhurst Road, which was first built in 1852, originally housing both male and female prisoners, but since 1902 it has housed only women and is the UK's major female prison.

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The Origins of Archway

The name derives from the arch built between Highgate and Hornsey in 1896. A tunnel was originally planned for the Highgate bypass (to join the Great North Road by avoiding the steep Highgate Hill road and narrow roads of Highgate village) but this failed due to repeated collapses. Instead, a large cutting was recommended by John Rennie and a high, multi-arched road bridge constructed across this. The first bridge, constructed in the early nineteenth century, was designed by John Nash. The original 1813 bridge was demolished in 1901; the current bridge, known locally as ‘Suicide Bridge’', dates from 1897. The road over the bridge is Hornsey Lane and it connects the villages of Highgate and Crouch End.

Until quite recently, Archway did not designate a specific area. Most people referred either to Highgate, Islington or Upper Holloway, a name that is now used for little besides the nearby railway station and the post office. The term Archway became popularised as a result of Londoners' tendency to indicate their local area by reference to the nearest Underground Station, even though the latter was called Highgate station until 1939 (and subsequently Highgate (Archway) and Archway (Highgate)).

Prominent buildings in the area include the Whittington Hospital, at Highgate Hill, named after Richard Whittington; the Archway Tavern, a notable music venue, where the photograph for the cover of The Kinks’' 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies was taken; and the Archway Tower, which forms the most visible landmark in the area. Outside the hospital is a small statue of Whittington’s Cat.

Although considered a built-up urban area, Archway has a number of parks and green spaces, no fewer than nine within a mile of the tube station: Archway Park, Hillrise Park, Dartmouth Park, Elthorne Park, Sunnyside Gardens, Waterlow Park, Whittington Park and Foxham Gardens. Various green spaces are also afforded by the Girdlestone, Miranda, Cardinals Way and Elthorne Estates.

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The Origins of Kentish Town

The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'. Kentish Town was originally a settlement along the River Fleet which flowed through the area, and today runs underground.

Kentish Town is first recorded during the reign of King John (1207) as kentisston. By 1456 Kentish Town was recognised as a thriving hamlet, and in this period a Chapel of Ease is recorded as being built for the inhabitants.

The early 19th century brought modernisation, causing much of the area's rural charm, the River Fleet and the 18th century buildings to vanish, although pockets still remain, for example Little Green Street. Between the availability of public transport to it from London, and its urbanisation, it was a popular resort.

Large amounts of land were purchased to build the railway, which can still be seen today. Kentish Town was a prime site for development as the Kentish Town Road was a major route from London northwards. Probably its most famous resident was Karl Marx who lived at 9 Grafton Terrace from 1856.
1877 saw the beginning of mission work in the area as it was then poor. The mission first held their services outside but as their funding increased they built a mission house, chapel, and vicarage. One mission house of the area was Lyndhurst Hall, which remained in use before being taken over by the Council. The Council wished it to sell it for residential use, and the hall was demolished in 2006.

During the 19th century and early 20th century the area of Kentish Town became for many years the home of many famous piano and organ manufacturers, and was described by The Piano Journal in 1901 as "...that healthful suburb dear to the heart of the piano maker".

A network of streets in the East of Kentish Town has streets named after places or persons connected with Christ Church, Oxford viz: Oseney, Busby, Gaisford, Caversham, Islip, Wolsey, Frideswide, Peckwater & Hammond. All these streets lay behind the Oxford Arms. Some of the freehold of these streets is still in the name of Christ Church Oxford.

A network of streets in the north of Kentish Town was formerly part of a large estate owned by St John’s College, Cambridge. Lady Margaret Road is named after Lady Margaret Beaufort, founder of St John's College. Burghley Road is named for Lord Burghley, Chancellor to Elizabeth 1 and benefactor of St John's. Similarly, College Lane, Evangelist Road and Lady Somerset Road are street names linked to the estate of St John's College.

In 1912 the Church of St. Silas the Martyr was finally erected and consecrated, and by December of that year it became a parish in its own right. It can still be seen today along with the church of St Luke with St Paul and the Church of St. Barnabas (handed over to the Greek Orthodox Church in 1957).
Kentish Town Road contains one of London's many disused Tube stations. South Kentish Town tube station was closed in June 1924 after strike action at the Lots Road power station meant the lift could not be used. It never reopened. The distinctive building is now occupied by a 'Cash Converters' pawn shop at the corner of Kentish Town Road and Castle Road although there have been proposals to rebuild the station.

Kentish Town was to see further modernisation in the post-World War II period. However, the residential parts of Kentish Town, dating back to the mid-19th century have survived and are much admired architecturally.

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The Origins of Dartmouth Park

Dartmouth Park is named after the Earl of Dartmouth who bought the land in the middle of the 18th century. The 5th Earl of Dartmouth instigated some major house building in the late 19th century, and the area has continued to undergo development since that time.
The street named York Rise, which runs through the centre of Dartmouth Park, is in a slight valley which follows the course of the River Fleet, now underground. At the foot of York Rise the river crosses the railway tracks in a large iron pipe.
Most of the area consists of late nineteenth century terraced and semi-detached houses, with a few more recent buildings. The local church is St Mary Brookfield, designed by William Butterfield and opened in 1875. It is red brick with contrasting yellow and blue brick patterns.

Although the name designates a district and not a park per se, there is a small but attractive park off Dartmouth Park Hill, now named 'Dartmouth Park'. Although much of it is taken up by a reservoir tank, there is also a children's playground and a green bank with spectacular views of Central and East London.
Dartmouth Park is a quiet residential area with a mixture of residents, from young professionals and families through to retired couples. To the north lay the Holly Lodge Estate and then Highgate. Dartmouth Park is separated from Kentish Town to the south by the Gospel Oak to Barking railway line. The former park on the area covered what is now Waterlow Park and Highgate Cemetary.

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The Origins of Highgate

Historically, Highgate adjoined the Bishop of London’s hunting estate. The Bishop kept a toll-house where one of the main northward roads out of London entered his land. A number of pubs sprang up along the route, one of which, the Gatehouse, commemorates the toll-house.

In later centuries Highgate was associated with the highwayman Dick Turpin.

Hampstead Lane and Highgate Hill contain the red brick Victorian buildings of Highgate School and its adjacent Chapel of St Michael. The school has played a paramount role in the life of the village and has existed on its site since its founding was permitted by letters from Queen Elizabeth I in 1565.

The area north of the High Street and Hampstead Lane was part of Hornsey parish and also later the Municipal Borough of Hornsey and the seat of that borough's governing body for many years.

Highgate Hill, the steep street linking Archway and Highgate village, was the route of the first cable car to be built in Europe. It operated between 1884 and 1909.

The area is characterised by many green expanses including three ancient woods, a Park and a famous cemetery. At its centre is Highgate village, a collection of largely Georgian shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets,[ interspersed with diverse landmarks such as Highgate School (1565), the Gatehouse inn dating from 1670 and Berthold Lubetkin’s 1930s Highpoint buildings.

The village sits atop a hill which provides views across London, climbing 375 feet (114 m) above sea level at its highest point.

Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character.

The area is divided between three London boroughs: Haringey in the north, Camden in the south and west, and Islington in the south and east.

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Burghleys Independent Residential Sales and Lettings Agent specialising in Sales and Letting of houses, flats, apartments and new build properties and covering Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, Dartmouth Park, Upper Holloway, Lower Holloway, Archway, Whitehall Park, Highgate, Islington, Camden, Gospel Oak, Stroud Green, Finsbury Park and surrounding areas in North London & North West London.