According to Thomas Carlyle, he lived âon the brow of Highgate Hill looking down on London and its smoke-tumult, like a sage escaped from the inanity of lifeâs battleâ.The London skyline stretches below you, a vista of tall towers peppered with such notable landmarks as St Paulâs Cathedral, the London Eye, and the BT Tower.Continue down the hill until, on the right, you arrive at Archway Underground Station and the conclusion of your stroll through Highgate village.Anyone of these could have been the little cottage to which David Copperfield brought his child-bride Dora to live. When you arrive at the point where Jackson’s Lane joins from the left, cross over Southwood Lane, and keep walking ahead into the narrow pedestrian path called Park Walk. When you arrive at the point where Jacksonâs Lane joins from the left, cross over Southwood Lane, and keep walking ahead into the narrow pedestrian path called Park Walk.This rambling, part-timbered pub, rebuilt in 1905, is named after the gateway where travellers once paid tolls to cross the Bishop of Londonâs lands.
In David Copperfield, Dickens wrote, âThe church with the slender spire, that stands on top of the hill now, was not there then to tell me the time. Fourteen days after her accession, her carriage was descending the hill, when the horse suddenly bolted. On arrival at Hampstead Lane go over the zebra crossing to enter the Gatehouse.Number 40, set back from the road a little way along, stands on the site of the Fox and Crown inn whose landlord, James Turner, earned the nationâs gratitude in 1837 for saving the life of Queen Victoria. Go left on Highgate High Street and walk down this fun village high street. In fact, it was a style that Dickens immortalized with Alfred Jingle in Pickwick Papers, the first truly comic character he created.Exit the Gatehouse and cross over Highgate West Hill via the pedestrian crossing. It stands on the site of the Highgate home of Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts whose philanthropic endeavours Dickens directed, saying of her charitable giving, âshe saw with kind eyesâ. Not normally on the tour, but possible to visit by special request, are the graves of Dickensâs parents John and Elizabeth, his daughter, Dora Annie Dickens (1850â51) and his elder sister, Fanny (1810â48).These include a range of Dickens tours, ghost walks, the Inns of Court Tour, and the ever popular and original Jack the Ripper Tour.The Holly Lodge Estate through which you are now walking, was once described as âLondonâs loveliest garden colonyâ. Knight praised Dickens publicly as âa writer whose original and brilliant genius is always under the direction of kindly feeling towards his fellow-creaturesâ. I am sorry I cannot offer you a bed because we are so pressed for room that I myself hang out at the Red Lion, but should you be disposed to stay all night I have no doubt you can be provided with a bed at the same Establishment.âThis is believed to have been the âold brick house at Highgate on the very summit of the hillâ, where the Steerforths lived, and to which David Copperfield was invited to stay.