Hornsey, United Kingdom

Hornsey was a much larger original ancient parish than today's electoral ward of the same name. These entities are smaller than the Municipal Borough of Hornsey which co-governed the area with Middlesex County Council from 1889 until 1965, since when the name refers, as a minimum, to the London neighbourhood with a high street at its traditional heart to the west of Hornsey railway station. Its parish ranked sixth in size, of more than forty in Ossulstone, the largest hundred in Middlesex and was a scattered semi-rural community of 2,716 people in 1801. By 1901 the population had risen about eightfold in forty years, reaching 87,626, by which time new localities/districts, mainly Crouch End and Muswell Hill, were popularly becoming considered distinct from Hornsey. The N8 postcode district, the current form of Hornsey ward as devised from time-to-time for equal representation (electorate) across wards of the Borough, and the choice of other railway and tube stations towards, on these definitions, outer parts create conflicting definitions of Hornsey and it is unclear whether since 1965 the term is distinct from Hornsey Village, a term unrecognised by some residents.

The old parish used to have two small detached parts immediately beyond and within Stoke Newington Parish. In the 1840s the parish had 5,937 residents, slightly reduced by the loss of Finsbury Park but comprised 2,362 acres (9.56 km2) taking in besides its own village, the established hamlets of Muswell Hill, Crouch End, Stroud Green, and part of Highgate.

In the later eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, Hornsey became an increasingly popular area for wealthy merchants wanting a comfortable home close to London. With them came the laying out some large estates and subsequently the development of large villas along the principal routes. The arrival of the railway in 1850 made Hornsey a commuter town and accelerated urban development. In the late 1860s, large areas of Hornsey were developed by freehold land societies for working-class housing including Abyssinia (later known as Hornsey Vale) and Campsbourne. Development of a generally much more middle-class nature continued throughout the Victorian and Edwardian eras with the final gaps being filled during interwar period. Most of the early freehold land estates have since been demolished for public housing, or in the case of Abyssinia (Hornsey Vale) to accommodate the Hornsey School for Girls.

The tower of the original parish church still stands in its ancient graveyard in Hornsey High Street, at the centre of the old village. One-time well-known poets buried in the churchyard include English poet Samuel Rogers and Dutch poet Gerrit van de Linde. Thomas Moore's daughter Barbara is buried but the location has been lost.

Other notable places are the former Hornsey Town Hall in Crouch End. On the north side of the High Street was the old public bath and wash house (not to be confused with Hornsey Road Baths & Laundry 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) away on Hornsey Road) which was demolished to make way for a new housing scheme and Sainsbury's. Opened in 1932, it had 33,000 users a year in the 1950s. A small group of residents wished Haringey Council to purchase the site and install arts and crafts studios, with a gallery, primarily for local artists.

For 1978 to 2002 in the borough, having in its initial 13 years no wards mentioning Hornsey, three wards bearing the name existed and so popularised it among bordering, competing areas with newer names, strongly reflecting their historic, shared identity:

In the 1840s a section of a major new railway line from London to the north, the Great Northern Railway (Great Britain), was constructed right through Hornsey near to the centre of the village, and a station - the first out of London on the line - was built to serve it on Tottenham Lane, opened on 8 August 1850. It was successful and sidings on both sides of the line were constructed s well as goods depots, so Hornsey became somewhat of a railway town. This tradition continues: two major maintenance depots for the new electric trains running from Finsbury Park to Brighton have been constructed beside the main line.

In 1870 the first shop of what would become the David Greig national grocery chain, once a rival to Sainsbury's, was opened in 32 Hornsey High Street by Greig's mother.

In 1951 the first Lotus Cars factory was established in stables behind the Railway Hotel (now No5 Dining) on Tottenham Lane. The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd by Colin Chapman. The Railway Hotel pub was owned by Chapman's father. In its early days, Lotus sold cars aimed at private racers and trialists. Its early road cars could be bought as kits, in order to save on purchase tax. Lotus moved to Cheshunt in 1959, and to Hethel in Norfolk in 1966. Adjacent to the pub was the first Lotus showroom. The site is now being developed by Fifth State as the Lotus Buildings and will celebrate the Lotus heritage with a community cafe, new public spaces and housing for students.