North London runs from wild swimming ponds and a 900-year-old graveyard to a market that pulls in six-figure crowds every weekend, and it’s held together by nothing more than a shared refusal to be tidy.
We’ll admit North London is a slippery thing to write about as a single place. It isn’t one. It’s Hampstead‘s heath and ponds, Highgate‘s gothic cemetery, Kentish Town’s kebab shops and Camden‘s market sprawl, all loosely stitched together and all fiercely proud of being different from one another.
What ties it together, if anything does, is a bit of grit under the postcard views. The Beatles crossed a zebra crossing here. Karl Marx is buried here. Some of London’s best Turkish and Chinese cooking is quietly getting on with things a few streets over from a museum built around one man’s couch. It rewards wandering rather than ticking off a checklist, so we’ve tried to give you enough of a reason to linger at each stop, not just a reason to photograph it.
Here’s where we’d send you.
The best things to do in North London
Swim, walk or picnic on Hampstead Heath
Living in London can feel like being stuck in a concrete jungle more often than we’d like, which is exactly why Hampstead Heath matters so much. Its miles of untamed woodland and grassland make for some of the best self-guided walks in the city, and the grass fills with picnickers the moment the sun shows up.
Once the weather warms, the ponds fill too, with wild swimmers queuing for a dip in the men’s, women’s and mixed bathing ponds. Tucked away in one corner there’s also a genuinely lovely hidden garden and pergola most visitors never find, plus a handful of the best skyline views in London if you climb Parliament Hill. Between the walking, the swimming and the views, it’s easy to lose a whole day here without noticing.
Cross the road at Abbey Road Studios
You’ve heard of Abbey Road Studios even if you don’t think you have. This is where the Beatles were photographed crossing the zebra crossing outside, a picture so famous the band named an entire album after it. Oasis, Pink Floyd, Kanye West, Radiohead, Amy Winehouse and Frank Ocean have all turned up since to get their sound right in the same building.
Worth knowing: it’s still a working studio, so there isn’t a huge amount to actually see beyond the gift shop and a wall covered in fan graffiti outside. If you’re a music obsessive, though, standing where all of that happened is usually enough.
Take in the view from Primrose Hill
No trip to London feels complete until you’ve stood at the top of Primrose Hill and taken in one of the better views the city has to offer, a full panorama that runs from Canary Wharf to the City of London and out west towards the towers and rooftops beyond.
It’s free, there’s a little platform at the summit to perch on, and on nights like bonfire night the whole hill turns into an impromptu party. Come with a bottle of something cold on a warm evening and you’ll understand why Londoners keep coming back.
See Freud’s couch at the Freud Museum
The Freud Museum occupies the house Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, moved into after fleeing Vienna in 1938 and lived in for the last year of his life. You can see the study where he worked, kept more or less as he left it, including the couch his patients famously lay on while he sat just out of view.
It’s a small museum rather than a sprawling one, which is part of the appeal, and it runs a regular programme of talks and discussions that range well beyond psychology into art, literature and culture more broadly.
Pay your respects at Highgate Cemetery
Don’t write us off as strange for recommending a cemetery. Highgate Cemetery is one of London’s so-called Magnificent Seven cemeteries and one of the finest garden cemeteries anywhere, which is a fancy way of saying it’s a genuinely beautiful, peaceful place to walk. Karl Marx is buried here, as is George Michael, alongside a long list of writers, philosophers and other notable Londoners.
If you only visit one side, make it the West Cemetery, home to the grandest architecture: the Egyptian Avenue, the Circle of Lebanon and the Terrace Catacombs among them. It’s best seen with a guide, since parts of it are off-limits otherwise, while the East Cemetery, Marx’s side, can be explored on your own. Either way, save it for a clear day. A wet one with low mist rolling through the gravestones is a different, considerably creepier, experience.
Meet 750 species at London Zoo
Zoos aren’t for everyone these days, and we get it. But London Zoo isn’t the animal prison people sometimes picture. It’s run by the Zoological Society of London as a conservation zoo, meaning the work going on behind the scenes is largely about keeping wildlife numbers up, not down.
Politics aside, there’s a genuinely huge amount to see: more than 16,000 animals across roughly 750 species, from lions and tigers to camels and a much-loved colony of penguins. It sits right on the edge of Regent’s Park, so it’s easy to fold into a longer walk through the park itself.
Order the shawarma at E Mono
North London is home to some of the city’s largest Turkish and Middle Eastern communities, and their food has followed them. E Mono, in Kentish Town, is a no-frills kebab joint serving shawarma and grilled dishes straight off the coals, alongside starters like grilled halloumi that are worth ordering in their own right.
This is Middle Eastern cooking done properly, not the trashy end-of-night version most Londoners think of first, and it’s exactly the sort of place worth detouring for if you’re anywhere near Kentish Town.
Find the dim sum at Hong Kong Restaurant
It isn’t true that you need to go to Chinatown for the best Chinese food in the city. Some of it is hiding in far less likely spots, like the plainly named Hong Kong Restaurant in Angel. You could easily walk straight past its unassuming exterior, past the ducks and pork bellies hanging in the window, and think nothing more of it.
You’d be missing out if you did. The dim sum, best eaten before it sells out, ranks among the best in London, and the mains run all day so there’s no risk of turning up too late for a proper meal.
Queue for the ham, egg and chips at Max’s Sandwich Shop
Max’s Sandwich Shop is an institution well beyond Crouch End, let alone North London. The signature order is a ham, egg and chips sandwich built on slow-cooked ham hock and shoestring fries, though there’s genuinely no wrong choice on the short menu.
It’s small, it gets busy, and it doesn’t seem to mind either of those things. Go hungry.
Book a table at Farang
Farang, in Highbury, is the work of chef Sebby Holmes, who fell in love with Thai food and built a career around it. The care shows in the cooking and in the details, right down to the crockery and the room itself, and it’s one of the better dinner bookings in North London if you want something a bit more special than a quick bite.
Get messy with the hot chocolate at Chin Chin
Chin Chin, at Camden Market, is worth a visit for one reason: the hot chocolate. It arrives thick and silky with a crown of toasted marshmallow on top, served in a tray in case things get messy, which they usually do.
The liquid nitrogen ice cream that made Chin Chin’s name in the first place has a good reputation too, though it rarely gets much of a look-in once people clock the hot chocolate on the menu.
Spend a slow afternoon at Camden Market
Camden Market is one of London’s most popular shopping spots, an outdoor sprawl best explored slowly rather than rushed. It didn’t exist in its current form before 1972, when two friends bought a derelict timber yard and set up what became Camden Lock Market, inviting craftspeople and antiques dealers to sell from the stalls. Word spread fast, especially once nearby Dingwalls Dance Hall opened the following year and helped cement the area’s reputation for counterculture and punk.
More than 100,000 people now pass through most weekends, and the stock still leans vintage rather than high street, in keeping with an area long associated with musicians like the Libertines and Amy Winehouse.
Hunt for antiques at Camden Passage Market
Despite the name, Camden Passage Market, in Angel, has nothing to do with the market above, and is a different kind of shopping trip entirely. They may share a name, but Camden is a big place and the two markets are miles apart.
This is a small, genuinely charming run of stalls selling antiques and trinkets, with the best selection out on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Turn up early if you want first pick of the nicest pieces, since the good stuff doesn’t hang around.
