Luke Howard was born in 1772. He spent much of his life he worked as a retail chemist in London, part of that time in partnership with William Allen.

Luke moved to Tottenham in 1812. He lived in a large house built by William Forster on the corner of what is now Philip Lane and Arnold Road East

Luke Howard is best known as the founder of modern meteorology. He spent many years studying weather and cloud formations. Many of his studies were carried out in his garden in Tottenham. As he was away a lot, Mariabella, his wife took many of the readings from the instruments in the garden.