Head into Waterlow Park and help us search for the Haft-sin eggs!
Celebrated around the spring equinox, Nowruz heralds the transition from winter to spring in the northern hemisphere. This moment of equilibrium between night and day signifies a fresh start. Preparations for Nowruz commence weeks ahead, involving an extensive cleaning of homes— from carpets to windows, with every family member contributing. This thorough spring-cleaning serves as a symbolic act, washing away the remnants of the past year to make room for positive changes in the upcoming one.
During the joyous celebration, families gather around the Haft-sin table, decorated with with seven foods and spices which represent renewal and prosperity. Each item begins with the letter ‘s’ and has a unique meaning which combine to create a tapestry of wishes and aspirations for the year ahead. Other items, such as a mirror, goldfish, painted eggs, candles, are frequently added, as they also represent life, love, health, and prosperity.
Join us in the park and follow the trail to find our hidden eggs, whilst learning about the ingredients for the Haft-sin! Each egg represents an item, and can be discovered by following the clues on the trail map, which will be available online and for pickup at Lauderdale House at the end of February. Good luck!
Join us for our Nowruz Festival, returning for the second year to Lauderdale House! We are hosting a month-long celebration for Nowruz – also known as Persian New Year – with talks from incredible speakers, a ‘Haft-sin’ Trail, a bazaar, art exhibitions and more.
Nowruz is a tradition celebrated by over 300 million people worldwide for more than 3,000 years. It holds significance in Western Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin, the Balkans, and South Asia. A celebration deeply rooted in Iranian culture, Nowruz serves as a vital element of Iranian identity, fostering a sense of pride in one’s heritage while forging connections with both history and the community. Iranians exhibit commendable dedication in preserving and perpetuating this cherished tradition, ensuring its continuous vibrancy and significance throughout generations.
Often compared to a Paradise Garden with its secret enclaves, ponds and myriad of trees (including a Persian Ironwood tree), Waterlow Park has become a key location for families and friends looking to celebrate throughout the period. We are delighted to bring the party back to Lauderdale House this year under the guidance of our Artist/Curator Mehrdad Aref-Adib.
Please find our 2025 events below:
5 March – 31 March
Between Worlds Exhibition
Lower Gallery
Check gallery hours | FreeWritten Wonders Exhibition
Upper Gallery
Check gallery hours | Free8 March – 3 April
Haft-sin Trail
Waterlow Park
Park opening hours | Free11 March – 3 April
Nowruz by the Women of Yaran Exhibition
Courtyard
Check gallery hours | FreeWednesday 12 March
Nowruz Private View & Festival Launch
7.30-9.30pm | FreeThursday 13 March
Jazz in the House: Kourosh Kanani & Matt Davies
Lower Gallery
8pm | £15.50Saturday 15 March
Nowruz Bazaar
Ground Floor
11am – 5pm | FreeNowruz Talk: New Day: Nowruz in Afghanistan
First Floor
11.30am | Free – please bookNowruz Talk: Manuscripts, miniatures and Marketing Through Art
First Floor
2pm | Free – please bookNowruz Talk: A Tale of Two Journeys
First Floor
4pm | Free – please bookSunday 16 March
Nowruz Bazaar
Ground Floor
11am – 5pm | FreeNowruz Family Day
First Floor
11am – 3pm | FreeFriday 28 March
Myths of Shahnam: Storytelling with Zahra Afsah
First Floor
8pm | £12Monday 31 March
An Evening with Rumi
First Floor
7.30pm | £15.50
We are delighted to exhibit paintings and artificial flowers crafted by Yaran Women’s Club members in celebration of Nowruz.
Yaran Women’s Club is a non-profit constituted organisation and is solely established to help women of all ages who are suffering from isolation and loneliness, anxiety and depression or any other kind of mental health issues. It is a safe place for women and their children.
Yaran’s aim is to promote the members’ emotional health and confidence and to encourage them back to the society. Yaran provides a sense of community and helps women develop friendship through social, educational and free courses and activities. It is a registered charity, non-partisan which does not endorse any political or religious group or position.
The collaborative exhibition was created by women of Yaran and their teacher Mitra, a professional textile artist, combining paintings with artificial flowers. Each member contributed by sticking flowers onto the canvas and textile and painting over them, producing unique and amazing works of art.
Widely observed in various regions, including the Middle East, Asia, the Balkans, and East Africa, Nowruz has evolved with diverse traditions centred around the theme of rebirth. Celebrated around the spring equinox, Nowruz announces the transition from winter to spring in the northern hemisphere. These beautiful works represent not only the rebirth heralded in by Nowruz, but also the transformative power that Yaran Women’s Club has on its members.
Please join us at the private view of the exhibitions on Wednesday 12 March from 7.30 to 9.30pm and helps us launch our Nowruz Festival.
It is free to attend, and everyone is welcome. We kindly ask that you RSVP via email if you plan on attending to help us get a sense of numbers.
Nowruz by the Women of Yaran exhibition will be on display in the Courtyard during gallery opening times from Monday 10 March – Thursday 3 April. The Courtyard is an indoor space which is as our community gallery at the heart of the House.
- Monday – Tuesday : 12 – 4pm
- Wednesday : 11am – 3pm
- Thursday – Sunday : 12 – 4pm
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Monday 6 Nov coffee computers 10 30
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
To sea or not to sea
Wednesday 16th April 2025
7.00 for 7.30 pm.
10A South Grove N6 6BS and on Zoom
Entry £7.50 including a glass of wine (£3.00 on Zoom).
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Join us for a night of dizzyingly eclectic music incorporating African, Afro-Cuban, Jazz, improvisation, soul and funk.
Trumpeter Claude Deppa, from Cape Town, South Africa, is well known for playing with the likes of Miriam Makeba, Julian Bahula, Louis Moholo/Viva La Black, Brotherhood of Breath and Art Blakey. He also teaches, leading the brass section of Kinetika Bloco, a band of young musicians from across London playing carnival music.
Clare Hirst is a saxophonist based in London, who has worked with artists such as David Bowie, Grupo Lokito, The Communards, Mica Paris, Maxi Priest, Amazulu and Mervyn Africa. She has worked with Claude for 30 years, before forming their band, Claude Deppa Clare Hirst Band.
The band released their 2nd album “Beyond Bahula” in 2024. It consists of 8 original tracks written by Clare and Claude. Spanning influences from Abdullah Ibrahim and Julian Bahula to Ornette Coleman and beyond, the band creates an inclusive and high energy atmosphere to be enjoyed by all.
Jazzwise: “Bass man Miles Danso made his presence felt similarly in the quintet fronted by Claude Deppa’s trumpet and Clare Hirst’s tenor whose set managed to combine clever timings and cross-rhythms with smoothly grooving tunes.”
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Monday 6 Nov coffee computers 10 30
The Merry Mug Quiz
Tuesday 6th May
7.00 for 7.30 pm
HLSI, 11 South Grove N6 6BS
Free entry, no need to book.
Highgate Society and HLSI members only
The Annual Quiz competition between the Highgate Society and the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Lessons in Diplomacy: Politics, Power and Parties
Wednesday 14th May 2025
7.00 for 7.30 PM
10A South Grove N6 6BS and on Zoom
Entry £7.50 including a glass of wine (£3.00 on Zoom)
How to become an ambassador? Leigh Turner‘s new book Lessons in Diplomacy: Politics, Power and Parties attempts to answer that question.
Leigh Turner CMG is a British writer and retired diplomat. His final role was British Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna from August 2016 to September 2021. He was British Ambassador to Ukraine from 2008 to 2012.
Join us for night celebrating Blue Note Records with QCBA, the explosive jazz group led by trumpeter Quentin Collins and saxophonist Brandon Allen.
QCBA have been wowing audiences globally for over 20 years, performing at prestigious venues including Ronnie Scott’s, Duc des Lombards, Maissons Laffitte Festival (France) and the Detroit & Monterey Jazz Festivals (USA).
Quentin and Brandon have been the frontline of the Kyle Eastwood Band for over 10 years, touring globally. This new project promises to deliver a high energy homage to some of the best known artists from the legendary record label’s golden period of the 1960’s.
Expect to hear classic tunes by Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith, Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock and more!
Backed by the powerhouse rhythm team of hammond organist Ross Stanley & drummer Joel Barford, audiences can expect an evening that will exhilarate and enthral in equal measure.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
We have great pleasure in inviting you to the 58th Annual General Meeting of the Highgate
Society which will be held
On Thursday 22 May 2025 at 7.00pm
at St Michael’s School, North Road, N6 4BG
Griff Rhys Jones will be the guest speaker. A very well-known actor and television
presenter, as President of Civic Voice he has been awarded the OBE for services to the
national civic society movement.
Doors open at 6.30pm, Formal proceedings start at 7pm. Drinks and light refreshments
will be served.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Enjoy an evening of swing, grooves and inventive improvisation with Deirdre Cartwright’s ORGANIK.
ORGANIK is a new organ trio led by guitarist Deirdre Cartwright with Pete Whittaker on Organ and Gary Hammond on Congas/percussion. You’ll be treated to the sounds of the classic jazz organ/guitar trios of the 1960s – Kenny Burrell/Jimmy Smith, Grant Green/Larry Young, Wes Montgomery/Melvin Rhyne, plus some original takes on the Beatles, Doors, Curtis Mayfield and Kate Bush.
Deirdre Cartwright is an award winning guitarist and composer who became well known presenting the BBC TV’s ground-breaking series ‘Rockschool’. She also played with Afro Latin Jazz group The Guest Stars, recording three albums and touring in 17 countries. In 1991 she formed the Deirdre Cartwright Group which recorded five albums and played international festivals from Mexico to Warsaw. She has also written and recorded albums with the groups Emily Remembered and LUND. More recently she has toured and recorded four albums with ARQ who won Best UK jazz group in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and British Jazz Awards in 2018. She won the public vote for Best Guitarist at the 2019 British Jazz Awards and in 2020 was awarded Services to Jazz with Blow the Fuse at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. She also plays with Sea Change, Carol Grimes, PICNIC featuring Annie Whitehead, Electric Landladies and regularly at Ronnie Scott’s in Soho. She has played with legendary guitarist Tal Farlow, studied in America with Mick Goodrick, toured with Jamaican composer Marjorie Whylie, founded Blow the Fuse with Alison Rayner in 1989 and presented on Radio 3.
Pete Whittaker became fascinated with the sound of the Hammond organ after hearing classic 1950s & 60s hard-bop records. Currently involved in projects with some of the UK’s leading musicians including Art Themen and John Etheridge.
Gary Hammond boasts a rich history of performing and recording with The Beautiful South for over a decade. His stellar career includes collaborations with Nina Simone and frequent involvement with various groups across World, Jazz, and Pop genres.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Monday 6 Nov coffee computers 10 30
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Retrofitting Old Buildings
Wednesday 11th June 2025
7.00 for 7.30 pm
10A South Grove N6 6BS and on Zoom
Entry £7.50 including a glass of wine (£3.00 on Zoom).
Join us for a joyous celebration of the blending of Brazilian rhythms, jazz attitude and the majestic compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Donato and Sergio Mendes.
Jazz Samba takes its inspiration and name from Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s ground-breaking 1962 album, the first ever fully-fledged bossa nova album recorded by American jazz musicians which topped the LP charts on its release and produced its own pop hit single – ‘Desafinado’.
Led by John Wilson’s star soloist Mark Crooks on sax and clarinet and the award-winning guitarist Nigel Price (as you’ve never heard him before!), with John Cervantes (piano), Marianne Windham (double bass) and Demi Garcia Sabat (drums/percussion).
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Enjoy an evening on the Tea Lawn with one of the world’s leading harpists and award winning sax: ‘Ukraine meets West Africa’ an evening on the Tea Lawn.
Harpist Alina Bzhezhinska joins tenor saxophonist Tony Kofi in a duo that unites the music styles of the Ukraine and West Africa and celebrates the harmony between the harp and the saxophone.
Undoubtedly one of the leading harpists in the world today, Alina Bzhezhinska (a.k.a. AlinaHipHarp) is a one-woman powerhouse on a mission to bring harp to the forefront of contemporary sound. Bzhezhinska is the creator of HipHarpCollective, who recently won the Parliamentary Jazz Award’s Best Ensemble of the Year 2024. The group’s double LP “Reflections” (BBE Music) won best album of the year 2023 by Preston Music and Alina Bzhezhinska’s Quartet was nominated for Best Live Act of the Year at JazzFM Awards 2017.
Tony Kofi is a multi award winning saxophonists, a recording career that has seen collaborations with Donald Byrd, Eddie Henderson, Abdullah Ibrahim and Ornette Coleman to name a few. Kofi’s solowork, in particular his 2020 album ‘A Different Kind Of Soul’ and his recently reissued ‘Plays Monk’ cement his reputation as one of the UK’s most accomplished saxophonists.
‘…Bzhezhinska shares with Alice (Coltrane) a mastery of the jazz harp.’ ★★★★★ The Times
‘There is so much respect in jazz circles for Tony Kofi.’ Jazzwise
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Monday 6 Nov coffee computers 10 30
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Monday 6 Nov coffee computers 10 30
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.
Do come along to meet your neighbours, enjoy a good cup of coffee and find out what is happening in Highgate.
The planning committee often have someone on hand to answer planning queries.