Continuing a journey on the 43 bus with an eye on Christian connections. For other blogs in the series click on the '43 Bus Route' tag.
Leaving Muswell Hill for Highgate the 43 bus joins the A1. Though its numbering may make this seem like an ancient road into London this is not the case - the Great North Road of olden times is now, in London, the A10. That is significant because the current A1 owes its existence to the developing new areas north and west of London and into that area was planted Cholmeley Hall. A fellowship that has had multiple identities, starting as part of the Brethren, and various names - it is today Highgate International Church (much easier to pronounce correctly than Cholmeley [Chumly]).
A striking thing about this church in its heyday - the 1920s (as Highgate and Archway developed) - was its singleness. It was much remarked upon at the time.
Whereas the nearby areas were developed for families where the husband commuted into London, Cholmeley Hall had this astonishing profile: 253 members; 193 single. In an era free of divorce, and a new residential area largely without widows and widowers, that is a phenomenal statistic. Of course it was no doubt somewhat self-perpetuating as a place suited to finding a suitor.
Today there are many University churches with just that profile, but here among the families of North London was an unlikely reflection of that, and possibly an early version of a Christian Dating App.
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