This neighbourhood area sits in the pleasant and fashionable, but affordable north London suburb of Bounds Green. Separated from the overpriced and bougie Muswell Hill by a train line and a few hundred thousand pounds per house, Bounds Green offers splendid terraces of large Edwardian and interwar buildings, and a few large post-war blocks of flats. The fancy boutiques of nearby towns are few and far between in Bounds Green, in contrast the highstreets are full of community-minded shops that include builders merchants, old-school cafes and Greek and Turkish grocers. Bowes Park Station on the Great Northern Railway and Bounds Green on the Piccadilly line provide easy access to anywhere in the city and even further afield, and its close proximity to the North Circular Road means that the area, unlike much of London, is also convenient for those who drive. The numerous nearby schools make this the perfect location for families, and the green spaces dotted around gives the kids somewhere to play and the adults somewhere to relax. The area remains strong in the face of a north London that is rapidly disappearing, clinging to its proud heritage and multicultural community spirit.

Named after John Le Bounde, who owned the land in the 14th century, the area of Bounds Green was a rural hamlet up until the late 19th century, when it became part of the parish of St. Michael-at-Bowes in 1883. Despite the development of the railways around this time, the town remained a rural retreat for those who wished to purchase ‘Salubrious residences’, until the expansion of Wood Green called for the introduction of an electric tram service, and an opening up of the area to the rest of the city. Suburban transformation was slow, but the building of Bounds Green Underground station for the Piccadilly line extension in 1932 encouraged rapid residential development.

Bounds Green has been an area of sanctuary for many minority ethnic communities since the start of the 20th century, such as those who fled Uganda under Idi Amin in 1972 or from the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. These communities have blossomed over the century and have helped instil the area with a unique heritage and vibrant culture.

The famous English cartoonist and kinetic sculptor, Rowland Emett, was born in Natal Road before moving to Birmingham. Emett is most famous for his Punch cartoons, but also for his designs of elaborate, whimsical inventions for Dick Van Dyke’s character, Caratacus Potts, in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Bounds Green Station is, for some reason, a muse for recent indie musicians. The Feeling’s album Twelve Stops and Home, from 2006, refers to the musicians’ Piccadilly Line journey from Leicester Square to Bounds Green, and is mentioned by name in The Streets’ 2002 hit Has it Come to This?

During the Second World War, Bounds Green Station was used as an air raid shelter. On the 13th October 1940 a bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe fell onto the houses just to the north of the station, causing the platform tunnel to collapse, killing and injuring many who slept in there. A plaque unveiled in 1994, erroneously commemorates the lives of “sixteen Belgian refugees and … three British citizens” when in fact seventeen people died, only three of whom were Belgian.

The area’s proximity to the North Circular Road means that there is often lots of traffic toward the north of Bounds Green either joining or leaving the main road. According to one resident this can make the area noisy and polluted, particularly at peak times. However, they mentioned that the suburban village feel means that you can easily escape the noise in one of the area’s many green spaces or community-centred pubs or cafes.

The rapidly-increasing pressure on schools in the area due to the growing population of London’s inner-city suburbs means that there are many more applications than places available. Haringey Council has pledged that every child in the borough will have a school place, and are completing plans to accommodate more children at Bounds Green Infant and Junior School. They have projected that by 2022 there will be more than 200 extra places available at the school, which will benefit the area at the individual and community level. Aside from this, nearby Alexandra Palace and New Southgate will be greatly affected by the introduction of Crossrail 2 which is planned to pass through both stations and transform the area. Yet despite £1.8 billion being invested in the project in 2020 it is unclear when the project will materialise as plans have been underconsideration in different forms since the 1970s.