The name derives from an oak tree, under which parishioners gathered to hear an annual gospel reading when the area was still rural. Lords Mansfield, Southampton and Lisburne were the local landowners when development began in the mid-19th century. Plans were drawn up for elegant streets radiating from Lismore Circus but after two railway lines were extended across the area the first buildings were two- and three-story cottages for "navvies and quarrelsome shoemakers." Later the neighbourhood became more respectable and solidly residential - although in 1909 when John Betjeman's family moved to West Hill, Highgate they obviously felt that they were a cut above Gospel Oak:
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