Introduction

Highgate is frequently romanticised as a tranquil, affluent village. However, this 130-metre ridge served as a sanctuary for radicals, rebels, and pioneers who resisted the social, political, and design norms of low-lying London. This tour explores the history of Highgate’s non-conformists and community resilience. Narratives and architectural landmarks are paired with curated scents.
Our journey maps a selection of Highgate’s landmarks, exploring how social resilience and personal rebellion shaped the ridge. We explore the Parkland Walk, a former railway line reclaimed by the community as a green sanctuary, alongside Waterlow Park as a "garden for the gardenless".
The tour tracks how the historic presence of medieval drovers still echoes through local pubs and ancient paths, noting how a key route was later sanitized and renamed to scrub away its muddy agricultural past — a process of urban cleansing directly mirrored by perfumery's historical shift away from dirty notes.
We uncover a rich history of radical philanthropy and social defiance. The route includes the locations connected to Christina Rossetti’s volunteer work with vulnerable women, and the independent billionaire Angela Burdett-Coutts, who collaborated with Charles Dickens on radical housing initiatives. We pay tribute to the Pink Plaques project, which highlights Highgate's non-conformist women, by introducing its olfactory analogue.
We explore George Michael’s enduring legacy of sexual freedom, examine Berthold Lubetkin’s iconic Highpoint complexes and deconstruct the profound human contradictions of the Modernist movement, exploring Lubetkin’s private life hidden behind a flawless concrete facade. We conclude the experience at Peter Tabori’s Highgate New Town, a Mediterranean-inspired triumph of social housing built as a lasting architectural symbol of a better, shared collective life and community resilience.
To ground these narratives, we use olfactory markers ranging from phytoncides and humus ether to deep, smoky notes.

Golden Key Academy

This tour is led by a participant of Open City’s Golden Key Academy – a course training up insightful and engaging guides dedicated to explaining London and bringing its many stories to life. It is part of a wider collection of tours created by Golden Key Academy guides for the Open House Festival celebrating their conclusion of the eight month course.
Further information on the Golden Key Academy can be found here https://open-city.org.uk/golden-key-academy

Meeting point

We meet near The Boogaloo Pub so that those traveling by the underground don't get lost in the complex architecture of Highgate Station, and also to immediately get a sense of the tone of the tour.

Your guide

Kateryna is a Ukrainian design journalist, perfume curator, and an alumna of Open City's Golden Key Academy. In this tour, she combines historical and olfactory narratives to explore the unique smellscape of the area.

Our route

We begin by walking uphill before reaching the atmospheric part called the Village and making a pit stop at Pond Square. Then, we will stroll along High Street, through Waterlow Park, and begin descending by the cemetery along Swains Lane, with its quite brutal gradient, so comfortable shoes will come in handy.