The North Grove Art Collective is based in a large house in Highgate owned by Nils de Jong. Edie and Josh were living there at the time they created The Ink Black Heart cartoon, and Josh had moved back into his old room not long before he was attacked.

The North Grove Art Collective is obviously a fictional place, but North Grove is a real street in Highgate, and it seems possible that this building on the corner of North Grove served as the inspiration for the description of the house.

“It took Robin half an hour to travel by Tube to Highgate station, and a further fifteen minutes to find the large dirty pink house which stood on the corner of a street that was also called North Grove.” (Chapter 39, The Ink Black Heart)

“The place looked slightly ramshackle: some of its many windows bricked up” … “Robin … walked up the short garden path and entered the art collective.” (Chapter 39, The Ink Black Heart.)

Robin visits the Art Collective on two occasions, both whilst dressed in her Jessica Robins disguise. The first time she visits, she attends a life drawing class and meets Mariam, Bram, Pez Pierce and others. She also visits after meeting Pierce in Highgate Cemetery. On that occasion, she chats with Nils in his study and has an unsettling encounter with Bram, before leaving with Pez for a drink at The Gatehouse.

You can find North Grove on the map here: