High Road was formerly Betstyle Road.
Between 1867 and 1896 New Southgate underwent a growth spurt. The area between High Road and Station Road had been completely developed, and workmen’s housing was beginning to appear in the shadow of the gasworks. Late Victorian and Edwardian lower middle-class housing was under construction in Springfield Road, Palmers Road, and The Limes Avenue.
Betstyle Road, once a country lane leading to Wood Green, had become New Southgate’s High Road and boasted in excess of ninety shops. High Road is now merely an insignificant backstreet. Until a phase of redevelopment began in 1974, it was the main road from Betstyle Circus, the large roundabout, through to Bounds Green Road and the North Circular Road. Victorian shopping parades, virtually all of which have now gone, lined both sides of the road.
The Northern Star opened in the 1860s and last century boasted a skittles alley, which was removed when the pub was refurbished in 1898. The Sir John Lawrence, another pub, once stood on the junction of High Road (now Station Road) and the North Circular Road, but was rebuilt on a different site as part of the comprehensive redevelopment scheme.
The Coronation cinema stood on the corner of High Road and Upper Park Road from 1911.
