Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

When did the term 'Harringay Ladder' Become Common Parlance

Chatting with a former resident of St Ann's Road in the Post Office queue today, I learned that the Ladder has not always been the Ladder.

My interlocutor moved out of Harringay 40 years ago. She said, "They call it the Harringay Ladder now, don't they" and assured me that at the time she moved out, Harringay was just Harringay. She never used to hear the term Harringay Ladder, she told me. I suppose it's likely that the Ladder epithet was not always in place, but it got me wondering about when it first became common parlance.

Any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by Natasha * on July 19, 2017 at 10:47

It has been for at least 20 years, as I remember it from my childhood. I wonder if anyone else can add details about when in the last 20-40 years it was?

As a child I remember looking in the A-z and saying it looks like a ladder, and being told it was known as 'the ladder'

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on July 19, 2017 at 11:49

When we moved here in 84 I don't recall the term The Ladder being used. One of the couple we bought from was born in our house in the 20s and she called the area Harringay

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Permalink Reply by Priya on July 19, 2017 at 11:56

Might it have something to do with when the borough of Haringey was created? People might have wanted to use a different word to differentiate Harringay with Haringey? I know on the corner of Green Lanes and Hermitage Road the road sign says London Borough of Stoke Newington and I (may be wrong here but I think) Haringey is quite a new borough, relatively speaking. Anyway, just a thought ....

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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on July 19, 2017 at 15:07

I am sure a bright estate agent thunk it up to sell the place. Remember in the late 90s everything became a 'village'...

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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on July 19, 2017 at 16:51

Tough job finding a current estate agent to ask who's been on the strip for 20+ years. Certainly our 1980 blurb from the estate agent about the house we're still in (on the Ladder) makes no such reference - and yes I asked, and everyone in their office (Davies & Davies on Stroud Green Rd) is too young to know.

Incidental local footnote - the blurb was on a cyclostyled list on yellow foolscap paper - the duplicating machine would likely have been a Gestetner, and would have been made in their large factory over in Tottenham on Broad Lane, on the site of where B&Q etc now is.

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Permalink Reply by JoeW on July 19, 2017 at 23:07

I seem to remember some estate agents coining "Harringay Heights" to refer to the hillier rungs in the noughties or possibly late 90s. I'm pretty sure it was known as the Harringay Ladder (to distinguish it from Harringay Gardens) in the early nineties though, but possibly both were introduced or at least popularised by estate agents.

I must admit these days I tend to think in terms of ward names - Harringay and St Anns. Not sure whether Harringay Gardens residents self-identify with St Anns though? (Incidentally, I think the boundary of the "St Ann Hanger Lane" parish included most of what is now Harringay ward, before St Paul's church was built - i.e. before Harringay was built).

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Permalink Reply by Glamorgeous on July 21, 2017 at 9:58

When I first lived on the ladder - in 97 - it was the ladder. So at least 20 years.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Woods on July 21, 2017 at 13:35

I lived in Frobisher from 46-64 and it was not called the ladder then BUT - I think it has come about due to aerial pictures. Hereis a link to one taken by the Met Police helicopter at night which gives a good idea of why this may have come about. Additionally I attached a screencap from Google which does ditto.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on July 21, 2017 at 14:38

I've just checked the estate agent's details for our house when we bought it back in 1993. No mention of the 'Ladder'. However our surveyor's report in that year does refer to our house as being "on one of the 'ladder' roads". Does the somewhat coy use of inverted commas suggest that it was an understood term, but not quite yet fully accepted?