History of Harringay (1880–present)

The advance of late Victorian urbanisation during the last twenty years of the 19th century swept away the eighteenth and early nineteenth century houses, their grounds and the farmland. By 1900 Harringay was completely urbanised.

Urbanisation & change

From 1894, Harringay was spread across the borders of the former urban districts, later municipal boroughs, of Hornsey and Tottenham in Middlesex.

Following the Second World War, Harringay began to change as immigration began to impact the nature of the town. In 1965 it was unified under one local authority with the creation of the London Borough of Haringey.

1880 to 1940

The development of West Harringay

The British Land Company was responsible for the development of the most of West Harringay. The company was established as part of the land reform movement, but by the time it was involved in Harringay’s development it was operating as a purely commercial land company. Its role in Harringay was with the preliminaries of estate development - laying out the estate, building the roads and supplying major services. Once this was complete it auctioned off the land to builders. British Land's earliest activity in the area was the development of the small area between the Tottenham & Hampstead Junction Railway and Finsbury Park - Endymion and Lothair Roads and the three short roads between them. Following the development of Finsbury Park and the construction of Endymion Road c.1875, British Land acquired the area and it was fully developed by 1885.cite book|last = T. F. T. Baker & R.B. Pugh (Editors) |title = A History of the County of Middlesex, Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate|publisher = Accessed online at [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?pubid=88 British History Online] |date = 1976]

Before this development was complete, the company purchased most of the Harringay Park Estate from Edward Chapman's executors in 1880. At the same time the Great Northern Railway Company purchased a large slice of land, about half a mile long by 800 feet wide, at its broadest. The land which ran along the western boundary of the estate was used to construct a large railway sidings.

For development purposes, the area was divided into two halves: the 'Hornsey Station Estate' and the 'Harringay Park Estate'. The former estate was located close to Hornsey Station and included around a half of the total area of the Harringay Park Estate; it ran from Sydney Road to Effingham Road. To the south, the Harringay Park Estate included all the roads from Beresford Road to Atterbury Road.

The development of the railways in the area was critical to the development of housing. By 1880 the area was already well served with Hornsey, Harringay Green Lanes and Finsbury Park Stations. With the opening of Harringay station by the Great Northern Railway on 2 May 1885, the area was amongst the best served in London.

The pattern of housing development started closest to the railway stations. In the case of the 'Hornsey Station Estate' the first roads to be laid out were those nearest to Hornsey Station. Similarly, on the 'Harringay Park Estate', the first roads were those nearest to Finsbury Park and Harringay Green Lanes stations. Subsequent development was for the Hornsey Station Estate to extend gradually southwards whilst the Harringay Park Estate, likewise gradually extended northwards until they both met.

The first mention of development on the estate was made in a report of the Plans Committee of the Hornsey Local Board in October later in the same year, when plans for the 'Hornsey Station Estate' were submitted by the British Land Company. In March 1881 plans were submitted for the 'Harringay Park Estate'.

Most of the auctions for both estates took place in the Auction room adjoining the Queen's Head Tavern, Green Lanes. On 7 July 1881 a local press an advertisement appeared announcing the auction of the first portion of the Station estate. [ "Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", 7 July 1881.] More than a year later, in September 1882, an advertisement announcing the auction of the first portion of the Harringay Park Estate appeared. ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", 9 September 1882.] This delay in the development of the Harringay Park portion was due to problems associated with providing adequate drainage facilities in the more difficult hilly terrain of the Harringay Park part of the estate. There was also the problem of finding a satisfactory way to divert the course of the New River in order to facilitate the provision of more building land. Because of the total size of the estates, it was some time before they were both fully laid out and the individual plots sold.

The first roads to be laid were th Wightman Road, (as far as present day Beresford Road) set out by the Great Northern Railway Company and what is now Effingham Road, by the British Land Company.

The British Land Company took great care to ensure that the type and value of the buildings were of a good quality. With development taking place in successive stages the type of development on one section would naturally affect the saleable value of areas which were yet to be developed and had not yet been put up for auction. Their concern is shown in a plan which was issued in connection with an auction of 119 lots on the Harringay Park Estate on 17 November 1884. Incorporated in the plan are stipulations. The following is an extract:

Once building work started, many builders were at work on both estates. Most of the applicants requesting permission to build were from local addresses, certainly not more than 5 miles away from either estate - some applicants even lived on either one of the estates. In the majority of cases the scale of operations of each builder was not usually large. The Hornsey Local Board minutes show that the biggest single development seems to have been 32 dwellings in Mattison Road for which planning permission was granted in 1895. [Hornsey Urban District Council Minutes, p.154,Vol 28, 22 April 1895.] However, this seems to have been exceptional since most applications were for a dozen houses or less; in some cases for only one or two houses. The evidence of this can be still be seen today. On a first glance most of the houses look the same, but a second look will reveal a bewildering range of styles. With some care, it is possible to discern each small row or pair of houses. The table below shows how each estate developed.

:

* Harringay House

All the roads on both parts of the estate had been fully laid out and all houses built by 1899."Kelly's Hornsey Directory", 1899/1900.]

Although some local residents regarded the changing scene of Hornsey with dismay, it is clear from the local press that the changes were welcomed by the majority. This attitude, no doubt, reflected the Victorian obsession with the magic of size. The excitement with the scale and speed of the area’s development can be discerned form comments made by the Chairman of the Hornsey School Board In 1883 during a visit to assess developments in the light of the possible need to provide a new school:-

Harringay House itself and three acres of ground around it was put up for auction on 29 October 1883. ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", 12 October 1883.] The British Land Company had hoped to sell the house as a viable building. The advertisement announcing its auction described it as being suitable for occupation by a large family or a charitable institution. However, with all the development going on in the immediate area and the whole character of the district changing rapidly, there was no interest in the building itself. In April 1885 there an advertisement appeared in the local press announcing the auction of the first portion of the building materials and fittings of the house; ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", 18 April 1885.] obviously the house had been demolished. At intervals of approximately two months there were three further auctions selling off the remaining building materials and fittings of the house. In September of the following year even the trees were put up for auction for sale to timber merchants. ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", 11 September 1886.]

A community establishes itself

By the turn of the century a strong sense of civic pride had been created and many local residents looked with a sense of achievement at the size which Harringay had reached in such a short space of time. Most of the occupants of both the estates were from middle or lower-middle classes. Many had made the move to the suburbs not just in an attempt to find somewhere more congenial to live, but also, for many, in an attempt to climb the social ladder. Their arrival in Harringay was usually accompanied with a real sense of pride at having attained a certain level in society which was, at that time was prized so highly. Once attained, people would fight hard to retain it.

Any suggestion, however remote, that the lower orders were about to assault the bastion of social exclusiveness produced a quite remarkable reaction. An example of this came when the Hornsey School Board were considering a proposal to erect a Board school either on the Hornsey Station Estate or at nearby Stroud Green. The furore which this proposal caused in both Harringay and Stroud Green was extreme.

In Harringay protest meetings were held, ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", “Report of a Recent School Board Meeting”, 22 February 1890.] letters were sent to the Hornsey and Finsbury Park Journal, deputations bearing memorials of protest were sent to the Board; all of this in an effort to keep the school out of Harringay. At a meeting in Hermitage Road about the issue, a Mr. Cummings mentioned that the neighbourhood of Walthamstow had been utterly ruined by the erection of small houses and Board schools and that if a school were erected on the site proposed he, for one, would leave the district. ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", Report of Protest of Harringay Ratepayers, 22 February 1890.]

Faced with opposition from both Stroud Green and Harringay the School Board was caught between two opposing factions. Throughout 1890 and into 1891, numerous resolutions to build a school at either Stroud Green or Harringay were passed and reversed. In September 1891, they resolved once and for all to build a school in the Hornsey Station Estate purchased in 1883. [Hornsey School Board Minutes, p.475, Vol 6, 22 September 1891.] Tenders were put out, work begun and the school opened to the junior boys and girls on 11 April 1893 and to the infants on 17 April 1893. [Hornsey School Board Minutes, p.93, Vol 7, 11 April 1893.] Not long afterwards, another Board school was erected in Duckett Road, and incidentally in Stroud Green.

Catering for religious needs there were, five churches on the combined estates. The first of these was the temporary St. Paul’s Church of England (Iron Church) on the corner of Green Lanes and Burgoyne Road which opened on 23rd December, 1883. ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", 7 April 1888.] A permanent church at the other end of Burgoyne Road on the junction with Wightman Road opened in the early 1890s. St. Peter's, situated at the corner of Lausanne an Wightman Roads was opened in October 1884. ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", 3 October 1884.] At some time around 1888/1889 a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel opened in Hampden Road and early in 1891 the Primitive Methodists opened a Chapel in Mattison Road. ["Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal", 10 January 1891.] The Emmanuel Union Chapel was built in Duckett Road at about the same time. ["Kelly's Hornsey Directory", 1892/1893.]

These various churches and chapels, as well as ministering to different religions needs, also provided social outlets by creating organisations such as choral and debating societies. Lectures on a wide range of topics, as well as concert entertainments, were also frequently held in some of the church halls. In this way a sense of local identity was created. Reinforcing this were the local residents’ associations which existed on both estates from quite early on.

On the political level, it seems that the residents of the Harringay Park Estate were very politically conscious. In the first District Council election held in 1894, out of the 749 residents entitled to vote in the South Harringay ward, which comprised practically the whole of the Harringay Park Estate, 511 actually did so. As the Chairman of the Council commented afterwards "The highest proportion of voters was in the South Harringay ward." [Hornsey Urban District Council minutes, p.150, Vol 29, 4 September 1896.]

Harringay entered the 20th century a more or less fully developed suburb of London occupied for the most part by middle or lower-class people. For many years to come it was to stay largely unchanged in character.
:Source: This section relied almost in its entirety on the paper by Alan Aris, to whom the author is most grateful."The Urban Development of Hornsey", published by the Hornsey Historical Society.

Harringay during the Second World War

Whilst Harringay was luckier than some areas of London during World War II, it did not survive unscathed. A number of V1 and V2 bombs fell in Harringay, including one on Warwick Gardens which destroyed and damaged a number of houses and completely destroyed the 'Ever Ready' factory which had stood on the corner of St Ann's Road and Warwick Gardens. Some of the Ladder roads were also affected by attempts to bomb the railway around Hornsey station. RAF aerial reconnaissance shows a path of bomb damage across the roads near the station heading towards the railway. [These photos are viewable at [http://www.shockymap.com/timemachine/index1.htm Cities Revealed] .] This included the area at the western end of Fairfax and Falkland Roads where the damaged houses were never rebuilt. The area is now a small park.

1945 to the present day

After the war, Harringay's fortunes began to decline along with its carefully crafted respectability. A photographic survey undertaken in the late 1940s a showed the beginnings of the disappearance of the old shop front facades and the hint of some neglect.

By the 1950s the area was becoming popular with Greek immigrants from Cyprus and it began to take on a distinctly Greek side to its character. This would last till the end of the century.

By the late 1980s the Greek population was beginning to disperse, a number of the houses were converted to flats and a new wave of more affluent middle class residents began to move in. The Cypriot connection remained as Turkish Cypriot and then Turkish began to occupy the shops on Green Lanes. Yet the few Turkish people moved in as residents. [ 2001 Census]

The area retained its original Victorian architectural landscape almost intact. Beyond the few war damaged buildings and a small proportion of post-war infill building, the Electric Cinema on the corner of St Ann's Road was the only Victorian building to be replaced. The commercial frontage on Green Lanes however was not preserved and is now an eclectic mix of late 20th and early 21st century commercial styling.

Entertainment

The Stadium and Arena

Harringay Stadium opened in 1927 as a major greyhound racing venue, the stadium was soon serving a dual purpose, also host to a famous speedway track. Next door the shorter-lived Harringay Arena opened in 1936 between the Stadium and Green Lanes. It was home, amongst many other things, to ice hockey, boxing, circuses, greyhound racing, stock car racing, the Horse of the Year Show (from 1949 to 1959) [ [http://www.hoys.co.uk/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.aspx FAQ, Horse of the Year Show website] ] , classical music and a famous crusade by the American evangelist Billy Graham in 1954. The Arena had closed by 1958, whilst the Stadium continued racing dogs until 1987.

However, things were nearly very different. In 1912, when Arsenal Football Team was seeking to relocate from Woolwich, Harringay was one of three sites shortlisted for the new team's new ground, [Arsenal Football Team official site - [http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=the+club&article=344883&lid=Arsenal+Stadium&Title=Arsenal+Stadium,+Highbury Arsenal Stadium, Highbury] ] presumably on the site where the stadium and arena were built in the 20s and 30s. The other choices were Battersea and Highbury. The rest is history.

Cinemas

In its days as an entertainment centre for London, Harringay in North London also provided more locally directed entertainment in the shape of three cinemas. The earliest was opened in 1910 and was operating as a cinema until January 2003.

Harringay was also home to a film studio operated by George Merino and British Animated Productions which produced the first British technicolour cartoon in the shape of "Bubble & Squeak" (A five long series of cartoons about a Bubble, taxi driver, and Squeak, his sentient car who get into various silly adventures together.) [British Pathe News, 15th November 1948]

Other

Harringay saw the birth of one of the UK's best known wine stores in when Majestic Wine opened their first store in Colina Mews, Harringay in 1981. [Majestic first store was in Colina Mews, Harringay. [http://www.majestic.co.uk/About/MajesticStory Majestic's website] mistakenly refers to this as Wood Green, the boundary of Wood Green is about a half mile further north.]

Transport & communications history

There is little doubt that the history of transport communications through Harringay had a decisive affect on shaping it today.

Roadways

In Roman times, a great roadway to the north was established (see Early history). This roadway endured as a great communication passage to the North and brought much activity through the heart of the area. It also acted as the rough dividing line for land ownership, establishing Harringay’s position on the edge of manorial and subsequently borough boundaries.

During the early 1960s, Harringay was the location for a ground-breaking pedestrian control arrangements instituted by the then Transport Minister Ernest Marples. [Chris's British Road Directory - [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/histories/pedestriancrossings/5.shtml Pedestrian Crossings] ]

Rail

Great Northern Railway

In the mid nineteenth century, the arrival of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) cleaved Harringay from the rest of its ancient borough. The subsequent arrival of the Tottenham and Hampstead Junction Railway (THJR) almost defined its present-day southern boundary. Harringay’s development in the late 19th century was of a markedly different nature than that which occurred to the west of the GNR and so the south of the THJR.

The GNR opened through the area in 1850 when Hornsey was the first stop after London. The station was re-sited in 1866, when the old lines became sidings. [Hornsey, including Highgate: Introduction', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6 (1980)] In response to the growing development in the area, Harringay station was opened on 2 May 1885.

Tottenham & Hampstead Junction Railway

The Tottenham & Hampstead Junction Railway, running East-West towards the south of the area, opened in 1880. Harringay Green Lanes railway station was originally named just 'Green Lanes'. Two years later it was renamed to 'Harringay Park, Green Lanes' . In June 1951 the name changed to 'Harringay Park' and in October 1958 it became 'Harringay Stadium'. Then in May 1990 the name was again changed to reflect the closure of the stadium; the name chosen this time was 'Harringay East'. The station got its present name a year later in May 1991. [ Barking to Gospel Oak Line User Group - [http://www.barking-gospeloak.org.uk/history.htm A Short History of the Line] ]

Palace Gates Line

The short-lived Palace Gates Line running just to the north of Harringay operated from 1878 to 1963. It ran from Liverpool Street through Seven Sisters, West Green, Wood Green (Palace Gates) and North to Hertford.

Great Northern & City Railway

The Great Northern & City Railway was first planned in 1891 to bring commuters into the heart of the city at Moorgate. The Great Northern Railway Company took an obvious interest in the project from the start. They put onerous conditions on the use of Finsbury Park, gained Parliamentary powers to forbid extension of the proposed line north of the station, and eventually managed to get it bottled up in a tube station underneath the mainline one.

The line was eventually opened in 1904 running from Moorgate to Finsbury Park. A few years after the formation of London Transport, the line was transferred to the Northern Line for operational purposes, then being called the "Northern City Line". When the Victoria Line was built, the Great Northern & City Railway services were cut back to Drayton Park, and the tube station at Finsbury Park was rebuilt to allow cross-platform interchange between the Victoria and Piccadilly lines. In March 1970 it was renamed again, to the "Northern Line - Highbury Branch". Eventually London Underground closed the branch in 1975 and transferred ownership to British Rail, who installed new connections to the main line south of Finsbury Park. Finally the route has taken on its original intended purpose of providing a City terminus for suburban services, now run from Moorgate to Hertford, Welwyn, and Letchworth. [ [http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/northern.html Clive's Underground Line Guides] ]

The Tube

The story of a Harringay tube station is one of near-misses. A Harringay Tube station actually made it into plans contained in 1899 Great Northern and Strand Railway (GNSR) Act of Parliament. This gave the go-ahead for a line from Aldwych to Holborn. Stations were to be built at Wood Green, Hornsey, Harringay, Finsbury Park, Holloway, Bingfield Street/York Road, Russell Square, Holborn and Strand. Finance for the new line, however, was problematic and eventually the scheme was taken over by an American sponsor, Charles Tyson Yerkes. Yerkes also owned two other railway companies with plans to build similar routes. He decided that financial viability meant they should be incorporated into one line. [ Subterranea Britannica - [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/a/aldwych-holborn-branch_line/index.shtml Aldwych - Holborn branch (Picadilly Line)] ] The Piccadilly Line opened in 1906; Finsbury Park on 15 December. However, at the eastern end of the line, the Great Northern Railway considered the territory beyond Finsbury Park their own. They vetoed any extension beyond that point. This remained the situation until public opinion became strong enough to reverse the veto. [http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/piccadilly.html Underground Line Guides - Piccadilly Line.] ] In the early 1930s, with the opposition swept aside, plans to extend the Piccadilly Line from Finsbury Park up to Wood Green and beyond were made public. However, the plans no longer included stops at either Harringay or Hornsey. A campaign by the Harringay Ratepayers' Association tried to get a station built near to St Ann's Road. ["In Times Past", Peter Curtis, Hornsey Historical Society, 1995] However the campaign failed because London Underground insisted that an additional stop would increase the journey times to central London above their targets. [ "Hornsey Journal", 30 October 1931] . The section from Finsbury Park to Arnos Grove was opened on 19 September 1932.

ee also

*Municipal Borough of Hornsey for the local government unit of which Harringay was part from 1903 - 1965
*London Borough of Haringey for the local government unit of which Harringay has been part since 1965

References & notes

External links

* [http://www.harringayonline.com/ Harringay online] - Website for Harringay residents with lots of information on Harringay and its history.