It is predominantly occupied by students at Durham University who favour the area due to its proximity to the university departments in the Elvet and Palace Green areas of the city.

Crossgate boasts two pubs (Ye Olde Elm Tree and The Angel), a working men's club and a pancake cafe, all of which exist as part of a cheerful community housed in pretty late Victorian brick terraced houses.

St Margaret's Church, built in the 12th century, stands on a small bluff at the foot of Crossgate; its churchyard, extending from South Street up to Margery Lane, provides a significant green space in the Crossgate quarter of Durham.

[2] Crossgate was first joined to the main centre of Durham, where the markets were held, when Bishop Flambard built Framwellgate Bridge, about the year 1128.

Crossgate's present largely residential character is at least partly the result of the nineteenth-century construction of North Road as a principal shopping street.