How Crouch End is this? an article in the local rag bemoans the slums of Crouch End, that is the poorly kept flats above the boutiques and bijou shops. Its a bit rich seeing as apart from the Church, most of Crouch End is younger than the Crimean War, and most of “Old” crouch end post dates the real heritage (Crouch Hall, the Opera House, the Manor House to name but a few) which seems to have been pulled down to create housing for Victorian shop keepers.
Besides which there are worse examples. On top of Crouch Hill is a Victorian semi that has beautiful stained glass but appears to have been renovated for the last two years judging from the rubble and timber outside. Yet this debris is semi preferment and symptomatic of the general disrepair of the house. I keep spotting it off the W7, one day I’ll get off and get a decent picture.
Before we moved to North Cheshire we lived in an area of Liverpool that was full of lovely Edwardian houses. When we were househunting it was sad to see how many had been ripped apart, knocked through, the sash windows replaced with UPVC, the parquet with laminate flooring.