Swains Lane

Highgate, N6.
Leading from the bottom of West Hill by Parliament Hill Fields up to South Grove, Highgate Village. Highgate Cemetery and Waterlow Park bound each side towards the top end.

"This thoroughfare is mentioned as far back as the year 1492 as "Swayneslane," though the less euphonious form usually employed until last century was "Swines Lane." It was one of four parallel routes up the hill to the village, viz. West Hill, Bromwich Walk, Swain's Lane and Dartmouth Hill. Bromwich Walk never developed beyond a footpath and has disappeared. The use of Swain's Lane was mainly to provide access to the adjacent farm lands on either side and there were no dwellings in it except at a few yards from the upper end."
From 'Swain's Lane', Survey of London: volume 17: The parish of St Pancras part 1: The village of Highgate (1936), pp. 39-40. In British History Online