Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

South Harringay Schools mentioned in Pevsner

Nickolaus Pevsner's perambulations through the architecture of Britain make a brief mention of Harringay which he describes as "unimaginatively laid out by The British Land Company in 1880-81" but he does make mention of the churches and schools as buildings of some note.

He makes particular mention of the work of Hornsey architects, Mitchell and Butler whose Arts and Crafts version of the London School Boards triple decker schools can be seen at Stroud Green Primary built 1894-7.

When the local authorities took over from school boards in 1901 they continued the tradition of building flamboyant buildings, often using the same architects as the School boards and it was Mitchell and Butler who took on the task of building the South Harringay complex, then the Hornsey County School, which required additional facilities to teach Higher Grade pupils, including pupils over 14.

Mitchell and Butler produced the "Free Baroque" complex (1902-5) that we can see today in Mattison Road described by Pevsner as "impressive" ( a verdict with which I have to agree)

Source: The Buildings of England - London 4 North by Bridget Cherry and Nickolaus Pevsner, Yale Uiversity Press 2002

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Colin Marr on November 7, 2014 at 18:32

Another fine example of a school in Haringey by the architects Arnold Mitchell and Alfred Butler is behind the Civic Centre in Wood Green. This was built in 1899 as one of the Tottenham Higher Grade Schools, which later became Trinity Grammar School, which closed in the early 1960s. The building then housed Nightingale Primary School and recently has become Trinity Primary Academy.

The school building is listed by English Heritage as Grade II and is an important element that helps define the character of the Trinity Gardens Conservation Area. The view of the front of the building is now largely obscured by the trees in Trinity Gardens, but can be seen in the attached photos, one from 1904 and a later one that is probably from the 1930s.

Attachments: