Stuck Inside Survival Guide – Finance, Fashion & Couples Time
Monday 8th June 8.00 pm
A talk by three North London Entrepreneurs:
The Highgate House Party continues on Boogaloo Radio on Friday evenings.
Tune in online between 5.00 pm and 7.00 pm to hear interviews and music DJ’d by Dan Carrier of Camden New Journal. Go to Boogalooradio.com and click on TUNE IN. Check the Highgate Society Instagram account for updates.
Travellers’ Tales: In Search of the Bedouin
Monday 15th June 7.00 pm
Louise Sibley will talk about leading nine women on a month-long journey, following the story of the modern Bedouin right across the Middle East.
To book click here
The Highgate House Party continues on Boogaloo Radio on Friday evenings.
Tune in online between 5.00 pm and 7.00 pm to hear interviews and music DJ’d by Dan Carrier of Camden New Journal. Go to Boogalooradio.com and click on TUNE IN. Check the Highgate Society Instagram account for updates.
The Great Highgate Bake Off
Saturday 20th June 2020 10.00 am
We have all been baking a lot during lockdown, so The Highgate Society invites you to the Highgate Festival Bake-Off.
Whether you just progressed from banana bread or have impressed neighbours and family with your amazing cakes for a long time, this casual zoom event is for you. Kick off the first Highgate Festival Saturday with your best cake, impress your neighbours, and due to current restrictions: eat it all yourself.
First meeting: 10 am for meet and greet, and some technical tips.
Second meeting: 4 pm for show off, some laughs and tasting – and finally judging by Kate of www.cakeishappening.co.uk
We look forward to seeing you, and your cake!
Choose a category:
2020 Fair in the Square – save the date
Launch event of the local #BuildBackBetter campaign organized by local organizations driving action for climate, social and economic change in our post-COVID world. A range of local speakers will address these themes from a global and local perspective.
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://zoom.us/webinar/
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
“The Shell Collector”
Monday 22nd June 7.00 pm
Local author Robert Lyons will talk about his recently published book – a fictionalised account of a real-life 1970’s financial scandal. Robert is donating all royalties from the book to NHS Charities Together. To book click here.
The Pen Demics Live
The Pen Demics AKA The Highgate Society Poetry Group and friends look back on the Pandemic. What did they find there? Do poets on Lock Down know if anyone in Highgate is alive?
Join the Pen Demics on Zoom to let them know. Contact r.downes@yahoo.co.uk
Thurs 25 June 7.30pm
In this interactive chat Monica Martini will discuss the fundamentals, simple hacks and handy tips and debunk some myths along the way. To book click here
The Highgate House Party continues on Boogaloo Radio on Friday evenings.
Tune in online between 5.00 pm and 7.00 pm to hear interviews and music DJ’d by Dan Carrier of Camden New Journal. Go to Boogalooradio.com and click on TUNE IN. Check the Highgate Society Instagram account for updates.
Highgate’s own boutique distillery, Sacred Gin, will conduct a remote gin tasting, preceded by a reprise of Ruth Hazeldine’s illustrated history of gin delivered last year at 10A.
Gin samples will be available from Sacred Gin’s new premises in Highgate High Street from June 23rd. Samples will cost £29.95 per person for 5 x 50 ml bottles of various different gins (all Sacred) plus a 50ml sample of Sacred English Dry Vermouth for the Martini, plus a bottle of Fever Tree tonic. There will also be a sheet with some instructions.
Hilary Whitney of Sacred Gin explains: “On the night, each person chooses either Pink Grapefruit Gin or Cardamom Gin to make a G&T with – they should put a tiny amount aside for tasting later – so that they have a drink in their hand when we start. Ian [Hart] and I will taste through the samples people have given and we will round off the evening with a Martini.”
Participation in this part of the evening will be limited to the first 30 to buy the sample pack.
The talk will begin at 7.00 pm and the tasting at 8.00 pm. To book for the event (whether or not participating in the tasting) click here.

- Our info@coffeecomputers.org email address is available to answer questions and offer guidance on all matters & issues
- Our Coronavirus Support page provides links to official support services and local voluntary groups
- The weekly emails will continue to keep us all in touch and we will aim to also offer handy tips & advice
- We have compiled a list of useful Resources & Guides, e.g. how to get started with the various communication tools that are available
- We are investigating various technologies whereby one-to-one help could be offered using via online video & audio calls
Monday 13th July 2020 at 7.00 pm
Travellers’ Tales: Vietnam is the next installment in the Travellers’ Tales series. Robert Hatfield leads a snap shot look-through, as he retells his time living in Saigon and traveling through the diverse and exciting country.
This is an online event delivered through Zoom. To book click here.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdetXu2HUd9fqvgo8I6C7DTRmLBq0ghjW38leIE3Jk6LCYfVQ/viewform
Monday 20th July 2020 at 7.00 pm
Claire Norton and Rachel Lock will be giving an informal talk about the Highgate N6 Mutual Aid group, from how it came into being and the way the community has come together, to the way it has worked across Highgate, and beyond. They will be discussing other voluntary initiatives in the area, and inviting you to discuss how you’d like to be involved in the community going forward, with the hope that we can use the positive collective community response to the Covid-19 pandemic to benefit the wider community. We hope you’ll be able to join us!
This is an online meeting delivered by Zoom. To book click here.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfWBDhj0f79wdvt9L_kc27aYrrSbdH6c23fqCh2fv8L3XzPg/viewform
The story of the kitchen garden and the healing of the land
Karen Leason of Omved Gardens in Highgate explains “how we have been putting sustainability at the heart of everything we are doing at Omved Gardens”
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRD4TVjQ9T4b0HXs-_kA-BoF9cPuaztsXRYtZNsrp7d6_2Vg/viewform

- Our info@coffeecomputers.org email address is available to answer questions and offer guidance on all matters & issues
- Our Coronavirus Support page provides links to official support services and local voluntary groups
- The weekly emails will continue to keep us all in touch and we will aim to also offer handy tips & advice
- We have compiled a list of useful Resources & Guides, e.g. how to get started with the various communication tools that are available
- We are investigating various technologies whereby one-to-one help could be offered using via online video & audio calls
Monday 7th September 7.00 pm 2020
A talk by Ruth Hazeldine on the history of ice cream
“There is more to the story of ice cream than just the pleasure of eating it. It has a long social history, as well as a culinary one. The first written record of ice cream being eaten in England is in 1671 at a feast held for Charles II. The first printed recipe was published in 1718 by Mary Eales, Court Confectioner to Queen Anne. Where did this delicacy originate? Well, you’re always safe if you say “China”, and in this case it’s true: records from the T’ang Dynasty in about AD 618 refer to iced milk mixed with flour and camphor being served at court. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it?
Soon afterwards the method made its way to Italy, where it was much improved by the addition of fruits and sugar and by 1672, 90 different flavours were being offered at the Café Procope in Paris. I will show you a picture of me standing outside the shop, with an ice-creamy smile on my face!. In fact, it felt like Eating Winter with a Spoon!”
Ruth Hazeldine
This is an online Zoom event. (Click here for advice on how to participate.)
Pre-booking on Eventbrite is essential – click here. The Zoom meeting link will be sent by email on or before the day of the event.
Monday 14th September 2020 7.00 pm
This is an online Zoom event – booking details below
In conversation with Martha Halford-Fumagalli, local author Robert Lyons will talk about his recently published book, a fictionalised account of a 1970’s financial scandal.
THE SHELL COLLECTOR tells the roller-coaster story of Guy Magnus, an ambitious, unprincipled young share-dealer. The story has a number of threads. One is the personal rivalry between Guy and a stockbroker friend, Harry Griffin. They bet a lunch at Maxim’s in Paris on who will be first to ‘show’ a fortune of £1 million.
During the late 1960s Guy wheels and deals his way towards his fortune. By 1973 he is ready for a major deal. Harry’s route to wealth is his shareholding in an ill-managed conglomerate, Britton Trust.
Britton Trust is an ideal asset-rich target for Guy. He sets up a £100 company, Westchurch, as the vehicle for a £20 million take-over bid. A merchant bank, Ulster & Cayman, provides the finance, conditional on Guy giving his personal guarantee for the repayment of its loan.
The day the take-over is completed, a secondary bank collapses and share and property values plummet. Westchurch is unable to repay its loans and Guy has to meet his personal guarantee. Meanwhile Harry Griffin has achieved the sale of his Britton Trust shares and become a millionaire. But in a final twist, it is he who pays for lunch at Maxim’s.
The author was born in Leeds and is a graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford. He became a director of a large retailing group which itself became the victim of a company take-over. He knew ‘Guy Magnus’ socially, and met a number of the other characters during his business career. He and his wife have lived in Highgate for more than fifty years, enjoying the musical and theatrical life that London has to offer. They have two children and six grandchildren, aged from one to 23.
This is an online Zoom event. (Click here for advice on how to participate.)
Pre-booking on Eventbrite is essential – click here. The Zoom meeting link will be sent by email on or before the day of the event.
Monday 21st September 2020 7.00 pm
Completely landlocked, surrounded by Russia and China, and known as the Land of Blue Skies, Mongolia is noted for its vast rugged expanses that link land and sky and is one of the last few places on the planet where nomadic life is still a living tradition. With the lowest population density among all independent countries in the world, it is this vast and majestic emptiness that is the country’s enduring appeal, bringing the traveller, as it does, into a close communion with nature and its nomadic inhabitants. Join Betty Pires as she takes you on tour, via Zoom, through the fabled land of Genghis Khan, Emperor of the Mongol Empire, who established the largest contiguous empire in history. Betty will take you through the massive Gobi Desert and the shores of Lake Hovsgol, the ruins of Kharakhorum, site of the 13th century capital of the Mongol Empire, the scenic Flaming Cliffs where Roy Chapman Andrews found the first ever dinosaur eggs and listen to traditional “throat singing”
This is an online Zoom event. (Click here for advice on how to participate.)
Pre-booking on Eventbrite is essential – click here. The Zoom meeting link will be sent by email on or before the day of the event.
Monday 9th November 2020 7.30 pm
A talk by Jill and Steve Marston
On 15th December,1859 a circular was issued convening a meeting for the purpose of establishing a society to be called the Highgate Horticultural and Floricultural Society. The first president was the Rev. C.B. Dalton, Mr James Cutbush was the treasurer, Mr J Ward the secretary, and Miss Angela Burdett-Coutts was the Lady Patroness. Born out of the Victorian tradition of philanthropy the object of the society was mainly to encourage cottage gardeners and schoolchildren in horticultural pursuits. The first exhibition was held 27th June 1860: there were 71 entries and prizes amounting to £23/7/0d were awarded.
Up to the first world war the Society’s shows were major events, attracting thousands of visitors to the grounds of Highgate’s great houses. Today the society’s three shows a year in Highgate United Reformed Church continue the tradition as a showcase for gardeners to exhibit their produce.
This is an online Zoom meeting. To book click here. You will be asked to make a small donation to the Highgate Society.
HIGHGATE WATERCOLOUR GROUP ANNUAL EXHIBTION AT LAUDERDALE HOUSE: 11 November – 7 December. Opening hours 11am-4pm on any day not booked for a private function. Please ring LH to check before visiting: 020 8348 8716 or check their website: www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk.
HIGHGATE WATERCOLOUR GROUP ANNUAL EXHIBTION AT LAUDERDALE HOUSE: 11 November – 7 December. Opening hours 11am-4pm on any day not booked for a private function. Please ring LH to check before visiting: 020 8348 8716 or check their website: www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk.
HIGHGATE WATERCOLOUR GROUP ANNUAL EXHIBTION AT LAUDERDALE HOUSE: 11 November – 7 December. Opening hours 11am-4pm on any day not booked for a private function. Please ring LH to check before visiting: 020 8348 8716 or check their website: www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk.
HIGHGATE WATERCOLOUR GROUP ANNUAL EXHIBTION AT LAUDERDALE HOUSE: 11 November – 7 December. Opening hours 11am-4pm on any day not booked for a private function. Please ring LH to check before visiting: 020 8348 8716 or check their website: www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk.
HIGHGATE WATERCOLOUR GROUP ANNUAL EXHIBTION AT LAUDERDALE HOUSE: 11 November – 7 December. Opening hours 11am-4pm on any day not booked for a private function. Please ring LH to check before visiting: 020 8348 8716 or check their website: www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk.
HIGHGATE WATERCOLOUR GROUP ANNUAL EXHIBTION AT LAUDERDALE HOUSE: 11 November – 7 December. Opening hours 11am-4pm on any day not booked for a private function. Please ring LH to check before visiting: 020 8348 8716 or check their website: www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk.
John Caird in conversation with the Highgate Society. John is a freelance director and writer of plays, musicals and operas, not to mention being the Society’ s next door neighbour. He has been an associate director at both the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as working all over the world in a great variety of theatrical disciplines. In conversation with Elspeth Clements, he will talk about the current state of theatre and opera and how he and his collaborators have managed to keep rehearsing, performing and creating new work during the current pandemic. Questions from the audience most welcome.
For more information about John’s life and career, go to:
HIGHGATE WATERCOLOUR GROUP ANNUAL EXHIBTION AT LAUDERDALE HOUSE: 11 November – 7 December. Opening hours 11am-4pm on any day not booked for a private function. Please ring LH to check before visiting: 020 8348 8716 or check their website: www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk.
HIGHGATE WATERCOLOUR GROUP ANNUAL EXHIBTION AT LAUDERDALE HOUSE: 11 November – 7 December. Opening hours 11am-4pm on any day not booked for a private function. Please ring LH to check before visiting: 020 8348 8716 or check their website: www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk.