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Please note: this event is in the past
Discover fascinating stories from Highgate's past, and the diverse history of the communities that make up North London.
Come and chat to over 20 people who are interested in and knowledgeable about the history of our local area, including representatives from local museums, historic houses and local history societies at this FREE fair! Alongside Jacksons Lane, we will also be hosting a 'memory stall' this year, and collecting photos from the community that show the venues or Waterlow Park. Have any images from the past that you'd like to share? Bring them along!
Confirmed attendees for this year's Heritage fair include:
The Arts Society Hampstead Heath
We are a friendly society which brings people together through a shared curiosity for the arts. Our members contribute to and preserve our artistic heritage through volunteering and grants. We meet each month at Kenwood House, and we organise visits to historical and cultural venues in and around London. Do consider joining us.
Bruce Castle Museum & Archive
Bruce Castle Museum & Archive has been collecting and caring for the heritage of Haringey and its communities for over 115 years. Housed in a magnificent 16th century manor house, the museum and archive is the borough’s key historical resource sharing its museum and archive collections through a range of exhibitions, events, educational learning programmes – to include school workshops and reminiscence sessions - and research facilities. We work with heritage and community organisations as well as creatives from all over Haringey on projects and initiatives that tell the history of the borough and stories of its communities, innovation, migration, radicalism and resilience.
Camden History Society
The Society research the social and architectural history of an area that stretches from Highgate to Holborn and Kilburn to King's Cross. They have discovered stories of growth, struggle, invention and inspiration.
Camden Tour Guides Association
Camden Guides entertain and inform visitors to Camden, offering guided walking tours of all areas inside the borough, including Highgate. We offer scheduled and customized tours for businesses, groups and individuals. We also offer an accredited course to train new guides every year.
Channing School
Channing School was founded in 1885 by the Reverend Robert Spears and two sisters, Miss Emily and Miss Matilda Sharpe, for the daughters of Unitarian Ministers and others. The Channing archives offer a window into the lives of girls, young women and the Highgate community from the nineteenth century to the present day. We would love to hear from anyone about artefacts they might have pertaining to the School and/or its founders.
The Coleridge Trust
The Coleridge Trust exists to renovate and refurbish the crypt beneath St Michael's Church, Highgate, where the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and members of his family are interred.
Friends of Kenwood
The Friends work to promote and preserve the special qualities of Kenwood House, its estate and its world class collection of paintings.
Friends of Waterlow Park
Waterlow Park occupies a 26-acre site on a steep hillside in Highgate, North London, with spectacular views over the city. The Park was once the site of a several town houses and gardens long before Sir Sydney Waterlow moved to Fairseat in 1856. So, over the years various treasures have been added, many of which are now heritage listed. These will be the focus of the Friends of Waterlow Park’s stall at 2024’s Heritage Weekend. Photographs will be displayed of a diverse selection of these, and a Treasure Trail handout will help you find them on your next walk around the park. Pam Cooper’s excellent history - Waterlow Park, A Garden for the Gardenless - will be on sale and the author herself will be on hand to chat about the treasures on display. And to further honour this year’s theme of diversity our Biodiversity experts will be there to talk about the ambitious biodiversity survey of the plants in the park that the Friends have undertaken and are now half way through completing.
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is one of the most famous in the UK, and includes a number of well-known residents... They are also our next-door neighbours!
The Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution Archive
The HLSI archive houses documents of all kinds relating to Highgate and its residents since the early C17th - photographs, postcards, newspaper cuttings, memoirs, books and maps. It holds the records of a number of Highgate organisations including the early 18th century almshouses in Southwood Lane, the Mothercraft Training Society and the Mary Feilding Guild.
The Highgate Roman Kiln Project
Led by Hornsey and Wood Green MP Catherine West, FOHRK are working with the Museum of London, Bruce Castle Museum and the City of London Corporation to return a well-preserved Roman kiln, currently unseen in store rooms, for exhibition in Highgate Wood where it was discovered over 50 years ago.
Highgate School Museum and Archive
Highgate School Museum tells the story of Highgate School though documents, artefacts, photographs and paintings. It opens a window on the past, showing school life though the centuries, our relationship with Highgate Village, and how we endured two world wars. Housed in The Highgate Tabernacle on Southwood Lane and open by appointment, exhibits include a Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I, an 1860s slate used by Head Master John Dyne for taking the register of attendance, World War I letters, photographs documenting the School’s evacuation to Devon during World War II, shrapnel from the V-1 flying bomb which landed on the school field in 1944 and art by Sir Kyffin Williams RA and Anthony Green RA.
The Highgate Society
The Highgate Society was founded in 1966 by local people who had successfully fought Government plans to route heavy traffic through the heart of Highgate. We aim to make Highgate a better place to live and work. Among our objectives, we aim to educate the public in the geography, history, natural history and architecture of the area; and secure the preservation, protection and enhancement of features of historic or public interest.
Hornsey Historical Society
The HHS celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2021. We are committed to protecting our local heritage and promoting local history studies and conservation work within the parliamentary constituency of Hornsey and Wood Green. A small, well-regarded charity, we are totally dependent on volunteers and are currently recruiting more members and volunteers to work with us, especially the younger generations.
Jacksons Lane
Originally founded by local residents in 1975, for almost 50 years Jacksons Lane has served its communities, celebrated culture and creativity, and grown to become a world leader in contemporary circus, now welcoming 65000 visitors, participants and local residents through the doors every year. 2025 will be Jacksons Lane’s 50th Anniversary and as part of our celebrations we are building an archive of memories and stories from across our history. Maybe you’ve seen a show at Jacksons Lane, taken part in a class or made your stage debut. Maybe you’ve volunteered with us, been a part of our Christmas Day project, or you’re a regular in our café? Visit our stall at the Heritage Weekend and share your memory for our collection.
Kenwood House
On the edge of Hampstead Heath lies Kenwood, an 18th century villa and landscape that hosts breath-taking interiors and a world-class art collection, which includes Rembrandt's 'Self-Portrait with Two Circles' and Vermeer’s Guitar Player. It is one of English Heritage’s most important sites and one of London's hidden gems. Kenwood is free-to-enter and offers something for everyone. Come and meet the Volunteer Manager and discover what is happening at Kenwood this year and exciting opportunities to get involved.
Lady Gould's Charity
Lady Gould’s Charity was founded in 1691 by Elizabeth Gould, who was a resident of Highgate in North London. The charity first came into operation on the death of her husband in 1728. Every year since then, the Trust’s income has been distributed as grants to “inhabitants of the town and village of Highgate” who are in need.
Lauderdale House
Come and check out the Victorian bottle we found during the renovations harking back to our time as a convalescence home to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and collection of 1950’s milk bottles discovered in the courtyard excavations.
North London U3A
Lauderdale House has hosted U3A's Shape of London group for nearly 30 years! The group studies London in all its aspects, from architecture to green spaces throughout history. Many of the members volunteer to give talks and lead walks on London related topics.
Memories Stall
Lauderdale House and Jacksons Lane are creating social history archives of the wide range of people who have visited over the years. If you have any anecdotes, photographs, objects, letters or other memories regarding Lauderdale House or Jacksons Lane, we’d love to hear from you.
Pink Plaques Project
Discover the lives of some of the most remarkable women from Highgate and unearth information about movers and shakers from our area’s past and present through this visual art project that commemorates the moments and memories of everyday people. By marking their existence with a plaque, the Pink Plaques Project hopes to draw attention to the famous, notorious and hidden women of our community.
Discover more about the rest of the Heritage Weekend here.