Winchmore Hill

Winchmore Hill used to hang highwaymen outside its pub, and the pub disliked the view so much it moved down the road, which is still the most dramatic decision taken here in two centuries. The pub is a supermarket now. The man who gave the clouds their names is buried in the Quaker burial ground off The Green, and in a suburb this composed, watching them drift over Grovelands Park still counts as an afternoon out. People move here once they have stopped pretending they want to live near anything happening, and they pay handsomely for the right to stop pretending.