Nothing wrong with Crouch End when I frequented it (up to 1996). It's not just anywhere that you could bump into the likes of Dylan and Jagger in the local bars - drawn to Crouch End by the recording studio built there by Dave Stewart (one half of the Eurythmics). There was a lively Sunday lunchtime jazz session at the King's Head which attracted a wonderfully cosmopolitan mix of musicians and audience, and still does as far as I know. The same pub was also a platform for stand-up comics. Crouch End was home to Hornsey art college, which was up there with the Slade in setting the cultural and political agenda of the swinging 60s (and 70s). And I haven't even mentioned the Wisteria tea rooms....