The boundary to the north and east is the Dollis Brook and the boundary to the south is that river’s tributary, the Folly Brook. While these rivers define the parish and the area covered by the residents’ association, the southern part of the area (with postcode N12 rather than N20) is generally regarded as being in Woodside Park.
The main road is the A5109, which runs roughly east-west. The western part is called Totteridge Common, the central part by the village green is called Totteridge Village and the eastern part is called Totteridge Lane; the Lane continues into Whetstone, terminating at its junction with High Road Whetstone. At the western end of Totteridge Common is a set of traffic lights; the road to the north from these lights, Hendon Wood Lane, is just to the west of the western boundary.
Totteridge Village itself has many spacious detached properties in a rural setting that are highly valued - some of the most expensive houses in London. Thus its past and present residents include the rich and famous, such as Frankie Vaughan and many top footballers. More modest housing predominates at the eastern end of Totteridge.
A famous person born in Totteridge was Henry Edward Cardinal Manning. His biographer Lytton Strachey lived near the house where he was born.
The name is a corruption of "Tatta’s Ridge", Tatta presumably being a local Anglo-Saxon notable. The ridge is the high ground between the valleys of the Dollis Brook and Folly Brook.
Totteridge & Whetstone station was planned by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway (EH&LR) and was originally opened as Whetstone and Totteridge on 1 April 1872 by the Great Northern Railway (which had taken over the EH&LR). The station was on a branch of a line whose main part ran from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate.
After the 1921 Railways Act created the Big Four railway companies the line was, from 1923, part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). The section of the High Barnet branch north of East Finchley was incorporated into the London Underground network through the "Northern Heights" project which begun in the late 1930s. Totteridge and Whetstone station was first served by Northern line trains on 14 April 1940 and, after a period where the station was serviced by both operators, LNER services ended in 1941