Comedian Ben Miller: Somerset, here I come

This part of Islington wasn't always the most salubrious of areas. I was born in Stoke Newington, just up the road from my current residence in Highbury, and back then it was actually rather grim. Our local walking spot, Clissold Park, was lovingly known as Dog Shit Park. Now, it's like celebrity central. Our near neighbours include Jonny Lee Miller, Clive Anderson and Jimmy Carr.

My family moved to Cheshire when I was young, yet when I returned to London, in 1991, after studying at Cambridge, I naturally gravitated back towards Islington. That was after a brief spell in Mile End, which suited my post-student financial situation.

In 1993 I took up a flatshare just the other side of Highbury Fields with [playwright and screen-writer] Jez Butterworth, who wrote and directed Mojo and Birthday Girl, starring Nicole Kidman. We were there for four years and had quite a time in those days. Every single up-and-coming comedian from that time – the likes of Andy Parsons and Henry Naylor – visited that place at some point. We were all skint and eating potatoes at that time. Following a long night of stand-up gigs we'd all drift back to that flat and play Scrabble. Whoever said comedy is the new rock'n'roll was oh so very right!

After four years, I bought a flat in Canonbury, which, looking back, might have made Tony Blair my neighbour. Then this place came to my attention. Nica Burns, who was head of [theatre group] Stoll Moss, used to live next door to this house before I moved here. One night, when I was still living in the flat-share with Jez, Nica invited me to dinner and the actor and director Simon McBurney was there. He is so incredibly intelligent and I was so overawed that I couldn't think of a single thing to say. So, rather than make polite – and inferior – conversation, I just sat there, mute.

Nica's was just the most beautiful house, and when the place next door, where I now live on Ronalds Road in Highbury, came up for sale in 2000, I snapped it up. She got the shock of her life when I turned up at her door introducing myself as the new neighbour. Oddly enough, she moved out a couple of months later.

For the first three years I lived here on my own, in a five-bedroom house, and spent evenings eating Chinese take-away alone. I'd imagined my family descending from Cheshire to share the space with me, but that wasn't how it turned out. It was a lonely time.

When I found the place it was tactfully described by the estate agent as needing "some refreshment". I spent quite a few months providing rather a lot of refreshment to builders. All the tatty grey carpets had to be ripped out and the wooden floors sanded down.

My then-girlfriend was obsessed with this little boutique on Westbourne Park Grove, and I managed to enrol the same builders who created that shop to sort my place out. When I got together with Belinda, who moved in in 2003, we made lots of alterations, adding a bath to the end of one of the beds upstairs and putting up all sorts of pictures.

Her family are incredibly posh and kept loads of paintings. One of her ancestors was a famous artist and we have lots of his horse portraits around the house, and a big picture of her grandfather in full military attire.

This house just goes up and up and up. There are eight staircases and each room lies on a half-level, so there are either three or six floors, depending on how you look at it. I was immediately drawn to the higgledy-piggledy layout of the house. The best thing about it is how friendly the place is, it's so bright and there's a real sense of space.

The interior could be described as typical Islington-Bohemian style. There are ethnic cushions and fabrics about, but none of it was contrived. It's only when we return from holiday that we look around and realise quite what a "look" we have here. Otherwise, it just seems like home.

My son and I go to swimming baths on Highbury Fields every Friday and the local library has loads of clubs and activities going on. Highbury Barn also has the best cheese shop in Europe, not to mention the organic butcher across the road, and the Turkish restaurants all around us.

We're sad to be leaving this area, but have finally implemented a well-planned move to Somerset, to be near Belinda's family. We will rent a flat in London while we're based there; we realise there's a lot to leave behind.

With two Tube stations, overground trains and bus routes galore, we're connected to the best transport systems in London where we are now, and can get to the West End in about 10 minutes. This area has pretty much everything going for it.

Being so near to the new Emirates stadium, a lot of money has been ploughed into the vicinity recently. Suddenly, at the end of our road, appeared a chichi deli called La Peche Mignon. That says it all really; the gentrification of Upper Street has well and truly reached Ronalds Road.

* Ben Miller has just found a buyer for his home, which went on the market for £1.1m and was reduced to £995,000, through Savills

Comedian and actor, Ben Miller, 42, lives in Highbury Fields, north London, with his wife, the actress Belinda Stewart-Wilson and their 21-month-old son, Sonny. One half of Armstrong and Miller, he stars in Moving Wallpaper, which has just been released on DVD.

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