When the tube station opened in 1907, the area was simply the northern end of Holloway Road and had no specific name. Most people referred either to Highgate, Islington or Upper Holloway, a name that is now used for little besides the nearby railway station and the post office. In the hope of attracting patronage, the terminus was originally named Highgate after the village up the hill.

At the time of the station’s construction the first cable car in Europe operated non-stop up Highgate Hill to the village from outside the Archway Tavern. It operated between 1884 and 1909, was a mile and a half long and powered by two steam engines housed in a building on the east side of Highgate High Street. Representatives of other towns and cities came to see the new method working. As a result Birmingham adopted the system for one of its steep hills.


The station was called Highgate station until 1939, subsequently Highgate (Archway), Archway (Highgate) and finally Archway. So ultimately named after the pub, the station was opened as one of the northern terminals of what was then the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway and, as with other tube stations, soon gave its name to the local area.

The current Archway Bridge, after which the tavern to the south was itself named, was built between Highgate and Hornsey. A tunnel was originally planned for the Highgate bypass (to join the Great North Road by avoiding the steep Highgate Hill road and narrow roads of Highgate village) but this failed due to repeated collapses. Instead, a large cutting was recommended by John Rennie and a high, multi-arched road bridge constructed across this. The first bridge, constructed in the early nineteenth century, was designed by John Nash. The original 1813 bridge was demolished in 1901; the current bridge, known locally as ’Suicide bridge’, dates from 1897. The road over the bridge is Hornsey Lane, which connects Highgate and Crouch End.

From 1813 until 1864, Archway was the site of a toll gate, where travellers had to pay for the next stage of their journey.

It was at Archway that Dick Whittington heard the Bow Bells ringing and returned to London. There is a statue on Highgate Hill to commemorate this. Nearby Pauntley Street takes its name from the village of Pauntley in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, traditionally regarded as Dick Whittington’s birthplace. A plaque on the block of flats at 1 Pauntley Street commemorates the tollgate.



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