Watch Crouch End Culture Code: We reveal why Crouch End is a crossroad of culture for artists, actors, authors and musicians

Watch Crouch End Health Code: why the area attracts those in search of a lifestyle that cares for the body and the soul

ZOMBIES walk the streets of Crouch End. In quiet Edwardi-an cul-de-sacs the living dead lurk, waiting to feast on your flesh. Or at least that’s what they did in the movie Shaun of the Dead, filmed on those semi-suburban streets by one celebrity resident, Simon Pegg.

Pegg has put N8 on the map. Look beyond the reanimated corpses and slapstick horror and you’ll see that Crouch End is actually quite pretty. It’s tucked away in a valley between Highgate, Hornsey and Muswell Hill and seems to have more than its fair share of trees. If it’s an actual park you want, walk over to Alexandra Palace (it has no Tube). Just as Streat-ham has become St Reatham, so Crouch End has become Crouchand. Those who call it Crouchand hope that the Tube never arrives at all. For them it’s all bikes and buses. And buggies.

Related Internet Links

• Borough

• Chelsea

• Crouch End

Related Internet Links

• Hoxton

• Marylebone

• Smithfield

For foodies and clubbers: Cool in your code, Smithfield

Whether you're a foodie or a clubber, this postcode's cool coordinates are firmly fixed

Background

• Smithfield Property Code

• Smithfield Culinary Code

• Smithfield Culture Code

Too cool to be cool: Cool in your code, Spitalfields

Damian Barr on the two latest London neighbourhoods to feature in our web TV series

Background

• Spitalfields Culture Code

• Spitalfields Property Code

• Spitalfields Night Code

Stars shine in the west: Cool in your code, Marylebone

Marylebone, famed for Madonna, Yoko, Patsy and Liam, is the next stop in our web TV series

Background

• Marylebone Culinary Code

• Marylebone Property Code

• Marylebone Shop Code

Follow me to the edge: Cool in your code, Hoxton

Damian Barr kicks off our new web TV series with Hoxton

Background

• Hoxton Property Code

• Hoxton Culture Code

• Hoxton Night Code

Cool for kids and buggies: Cool in your code, Crouch End

Zombies walk the streets of Crouch End. Or at least they did in the movie Shaun of the Dead. But look beyond the reanimated corpses and slapstick horror and you’ll see that Crouch End is actually quite pretty

Background

• Crouch End Culture Code

• Crouch End Health Code

• Crouch End Property Code

Patch with a passion for fashion: Cool in your code, Borough

Borough, the latest star of our web TV series, has become a landmark destination

Background

• Borough Culinary Code

• Borough Culture Code

• Borough Property Code

SE24 isn't a location, it's a lifestyle: Cool in your code, Herne Hill

SE24 isn’t a location – it’s a lifestyle. Damian Barr reports

Background

• Herne Hill Culture Code

• Herne Hill Body Code

• Herne Hill Property Code

The riches of kings: Cool in your code, Chelsea

OK, so it’s expensive - but celebrity-filled Chelsea is still magical, says Damian Barr

• Focus on . . . Kensington & Chelsea

Background

• Chelsea Special - Sir Terence Conran

• Chelsea Property Code

• Chelsea Culture Code

• Chelsea Shop Code

It’s not zombies you have to watch out for here. It’s buggies. At the start and end of the school day a convoy of yummy mummies crowd the pavements with giant three-wheelers. Walking along Broadway, the main street, is like reenacting the chariot scene from Ben-Hur. A buggy congestion charge would make a fortune.

N8 takes family-friendly to a new, almost cultish, level. Informally, every parking space at the nearby Sainsbury’s is a mum and kids space. No restaurant will refuse children. The smoking area at the back of the Californian-style Pick More Daisies café has been turned over to children, so that they can enjoy their organic postyoga treat in peace. Yes, there are good state schools and, of course, a Montessori. All of which makes Crouchand the last word in cool for children (as opposed to “the kids”).

“I’ve watched it grow and change,” says Robert Chalmers, author of Who’s Who in Hell, a novel set in the area. His hero, a failed therapist turned obituary writer, shacks up with his girlfriend in a flat over a colourful local café. “I based that place on Banners, a restaurant where I used to go and write every day. It’s like Crouch End: eclectic and relaxed. I moved here for ever ago, and it was considered the sticks then. It’s still hard to get to and it’s a lot more expensive now, but it’s still got a villagey feel.” The famous clock tower is a focal point.

Chalmers and Pegg aren’t the only creative types around. The writer and comedienne Arabella Weir lives locally, as does the actress Tamzin Outh-waite. Look very hard and you might spot Gollum, alias actor Andy Serkis. The actors James MacAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff are rumoured to be buying here.

One person’s cool is another person’s, well, uncool. You wouldn’t want to bring up a family in Hoxton. So N8 is perfect for parents and parents-to-be. And, of course, zombies.

Times recommends

• Analysis: frustration for everyone - except investors
• Spanish property: why it's crunch time on the Costa del Sol
• Buy-to-let: professional investors cash in on the credit crunch