HIGHGATE NEW TOWN PHASE 1, CAMDEN Community-led Conservation Guidance for inclusion in the Dartmouth Park Conservation Area and Application for Grade II* Listing

4.7.6 Tábori’s scheme as described to Sydney Cook demonstrates the mixture of retention and renewal
and Italian influence,
Site 1= Tuscan Hill-town
Site 2= Panhandle joined onto Site 1
Site 3= Chester Road to be worthy of retention. front retained, gutted, back-wall mirror to new built
Site 4= Refurbishment with strategic infill
Site 5= Ditto: difficult topology best related to refurbished adjoining sites, smaller new-built infill
(Swenarton 2017: 114)
4.8 The Hill-town at HNT
4.8.1 A tangible affinity with the Italian hill-town is apparent throughout HNT, seen in the open external
stairs, facing of blocks across the pedestrian-routes and discrete recreational areas comprising the
community spaces, play and recreation-areas and the greens. More detailed consideration of the
hill-town which originated with the Etruscans who occupied central Italy prior to the Romans, reveals
further shared elements incorporated into the design of HNT. The Etruscan hill-town had an axial
layout defined by an east-west street which under the Romans became known as the Decumanus
and a north-south street which became the Cardo. This layout is thought to have had religious
origins relating to the Etruscan’s God Tinia who sat in the North and gazed southward cleaving
each town, which creates the Decumanus. The intersections of these streets became known as
the Mundus under the Romans and typically provided the location for temples. This may reflect
the Etruscans’ conception of them as entrances to the Underworld but more practically the temple
provided the forum for everyday life and community (Barbacci 1987: 6-9). The grid-plan established
under the Etruscans, spread to prevalence under the Romans and remains as the basis of layout for
the hill-towns today (Barbacci 1987: 9-10 & Baron 2008: 5-10).
4.8.2 During the post-Roman period central Italy went into decline which was followed by a revival of
markets and industrial centres started from the 8th Century resulting in a population explosion from
the 10th Century onwards. This boom which lasted until the 13th-14th Centuries, increasing land
values through a scarcity of space in the hill-towns as populace grew and their being fortified with
town-walls restricted growth. This prompted largely unregulated infilling of the already narrow streets
and the creation of irregular piazzas. Inventive solutions sought to get more out of each building plot
creating the interlinking and compact relationships between properties which give the hill-towns their
sense of warmth and intimacy today (Barbacci 1987: 10-13).
4.8.3 The cut-through following the former route of Retcar Street, mimics the Etruscan Cardo, the eastwest
streets the Decumanus and perhaps most significantly the distribution of informal greens,
squares and recreation-spaces several Mundus or Mundi. Together, as part of the overall layout and
urban renewal and community-focused design, these aspects of the hill-town provide HNT with an
exotic ‘otherness’. This extends across the axial layout which situates the community and public-life
of HNT together with the greens, recreation and play-spaces. It combines continuity with Victorian
Highgate with the Etruscan layout and medieval detailing of elevated shared entrances and discrete
routes and stairs, providing neighbourliness which echoes that of the hill-towns today with their
sense of proprietorship over HNT’s streets.
4.9 Life at HNT
4.9.1 Discussions with residents through the WERA working group provided detail about life at Highgate
prior to HNT, during and since its construction. The account in this section is based upon those
recollections and some published sources, starting with life prior to HNT and then proceeding to the
current day. Recollections of Highgate prior to HNT record a mixture of smaller and larger Victorian
and Edwardian houses, with the smaller located around the former Retcar Street within HNT.
Shops at that time included a post-office/dairy, off-licenses, at least one sweetshop, a fish and Chip
shop, butchers, greengrocers, laundry and a working-man’s café, local employment included the
Livingstone Laboratories at Retcar Street and a paint factory at Dartmouth Park Hill and residents
from this time describe a tightknit working-class community of multi-generational families. (Pers.
Comm. Treherne: 2019).
4.9.2 Interviewees recalled the early ‘80s as a period of relative calm with no significant issues,
contrasting with local media who by April 1983 were portraying HNT as a problem estate. One
article ‘A Haven for Hoodlums’ which appeared in the St Pancras Chronicle describes residents
as living “in daily fear of robbery, burglary and vandalism’ and the Estate itself as ‘a warren of
lonely walkways and blind spots”. At the same time council officers described HNT as having a
“large number of potential hiding places for attackers who can then make their escape through
any one of the many entrances to the area”. These accounts contrast with the perceptions
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