Highgate collection of largely Georgian shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets, interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, St. Joseph's Church and its green copper dome, Highgate School (1565), Jacksons Lane arts centre housed in a Grade II listed former church, the Gatehouse Inn dating from 1670 which houses the theatre Upstairs at the Gatehouse and Berthold Lubetkin's 1930s Highpoint buildings. Highgate also contains the Victorian cemetery in which the Communist philosopher Karl Marx is buried, and many other notable people. The village is at the top of North Hill which provides views across London: it is
A1 in London became known as the Old North Road, and is used within London by the current A10. By the 12th century, because of flooding and damage by traffic on Ermine Street, an alternative route out of London was found through Islington and Muswell Hill, and this was the origin of the Great North Road that would become the A1. Until the 14th century the route went up what is now Hornsey Road – the A103 road, but when that became impassable a new route along Holloway Road via Highgate was created in the 14th century. The section through Highgate was bypassed