But a surprising number of its residents are in the rock and roll business.
The bands associated with this urban village edge towards the quirky and British.
Ray and Dave Davies of The Kinks, Viv Stanshall the charismatic frontman of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and Simon Nicol, co-founder of folk band Fairport Convention were all residents.
Sixties legend Ray Davies who grew up in Muswell Hill. The musical about his life Sunny Afternoon is running at Alexandra Palace until January 31. (Image: Phil Tragen)
And rocker Adam Ant, Jess Glynne, and Mercury Prize winner Michael Kiwanuka also grew up in Muswell Hill.
Stanshall, who was MC on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and once sang on the Paul McCartney produced ‘I’m The Urban Spaceman’ died at his flat in Hillfield Park following an electrical fire.
While Nicol named his famous folk rock band after his childhood home Fairport.
In the late 60s it housed his father’s GP surgery on the ground floor and Nicol and his band used to rehearse upstairs.
Ray and Dave Davies attended William Grimshaw Secondary Modern – now Fortismere School – where they met future Kinks member Pete Quaife.
But one fellow pupil was another future rock star – Rod Stewart – who lived above his parents’ newsagent shop in Archway Road, Highgate, but left school at 15 to pursue his dream of being a footballer.
Rod Stewart (Image: PA)
The Davies brothers are associated with The Clissold Arms pub whose front room is a shrine of memorabilia to the Kinks. They grew up opposite in Denmark Terrace and a plaque by the front door records that the band played their first gig there in 1960.
They went on to achieve stardom with their debut 1964 hit You Really Got Me and put their old neighbourhood on the map with their 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies.
The area takes its name from a ‘mossy well’ that has now vanished into history but is remembered in the name of a Wetherspoons pub.
Fairport is an eight-bedroom house built around 1908 (Image: Andrew Whitehead)
It’s on the site of what was once an Express Dairy and Milk depot dating back to 1900.
Funnily enough The Furlong in Colney Hatch Lane was the first in the Wetherspoons chain.
Sir Tim Martin came across it in 1979 when he was in his 20s and living in Wood Green.
His business partner Andrew Marler had converted a small betting shop into a pub called Marlers and he was so taken by the place that he bought it, and initially named it Martin’s Free House.
He later rechristened it Wetherspoon, but in a nod to the building’s original use, it became the Furlong in 2017.
Other famous Muswell Hill residents include Pink Panther actor Peter Sellers who grew up in Muswell Hill Road and attended St Aloysius School. After achieving fame he moved to an Art Deco house in Tetherdown with his first wife Anne and baby son.
On a more grisly note, Muswell Hill was also home to serial killer Denis Nilsen who was arrested in 1983 in connection with human remains in a manhole outside his home in Cranley Gardens.
Ex-spy and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in a London hotel, also lived there with his family, and is buried in a lead-lined coffin in Highgate Cemetery.
And political activist and lifelong friend of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, lived for many years in Alexandra Park Road while in exile.
While living there he became president of the ANC and the house was a centre for organising opposition to the racist apartheid regime.
Muswell Hill also has the entertainment hub of Alexandra Palace, and a range of cafes, restaurants and shops including Grade II listed grocers Martyn’s which has been selling tea, coffee and fine foods from Queens Parade since 1897.