Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Those of you who've been reading the posts on the site for a while will know that I hold strong views about our sense of place in Harringay..........well in any place really. Our sense of history's part of that, our sense of community is a part and our name is part.

Back in April 2008, Nilgun Canver offered the following:

We've discussed and we have agreed to call the area Harringay Green Lanes and Too much emphasis on Harringay confuses everyone with the borough Haringey and I’m afraid it refers to the Harringay ward and excludes the Gardens and other target areas.

Today Justin Hinchcliffe, Chair of the Tottenham Tories joined in on Twitter with a tweet apparently ridiculing a voter's wish to have her place of residence recognised as Harringay:


What is it with our politicians. Don't they get it. Many of us simply don't wish to have our area chopped up and repackaged to suit their notions of political entities or boundaries. We have the right to choose - not you.

Are there any other representatives from the local blues and reds who'd care to share their views on this issue? And what of the local Liberals. We've heard nothing from you on this. We'd welcome hearing what you think.

Let me leave the last word to Thomas Burke, writing in 1921:

But do you think the inhabitants of those villas will rank themselves with those of Tottenham or Hornsey? Not likely. They are of Harringay. The guide-book was right: it is a suburb with a distinct individuality of its own.
Proud of its lineage, proud of its appearance in thirteenth-century records, it declines to surrender its identity to those who claim lordship over it. Before Tottenham and Hornsey were, Harringay was so often mentioned in ancient documents as to receive the honour of being spelt in six different ways - sure proof of importance. Indeed, the name Hornsey came into currency only through a corruption of Haringhea and Haringey; and it is therefore fit that the stout fellows of Harringay should defend the style and identity of their venerable village from the encroachments of that modern upstart Hornsey.

(See my posting in the history group for more on Burke)

Tags for Forum Posts: harringay name

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The reason they haven't heard of it Paulie is over the last 25 years or so few people talked about the area as Harringay.

As Liz has said later on in this thread, go back pre-1965 and everybody would have known Harringay. It was made famous by the Arena & Stadium and the events held there if nothing else (See my Wikipedia articles for more). Then we had the creation of Haringey Council in 1965 and the subsequent (but unlinked) decline of the stadium and arena. That decline coincided with the council's obsession with renaming the area Green Lanes and so we've never had a chance to remake our name and identity. We're never going to do that as Green Lanes or Harringay Green Lanes. We can redevelop a sense of identity only around Harringay.
Totally agree.
Both accurate, one more specific than the other.
I understand what you are saying, but I don't live in Tottenham I live in Harringay within Haringey. Our constituency is Tottenham but constituencies are not necessarily specific to the places in it.

There's no such place as Stoke North and the people of Burslem and Tunstall would not like to be from Stoke North, no snobbery in that whatsoever. These boundaries will change when the Tories mess with them again in a few years. Constituencies and county lines for that matter have been chopped and changed over the years.
This discussion is becoming very annoying..

The problem seems to be that the area is full of immigrants.. no, not what you think I mean.. I mean people from all over the U.K. but not from norf London..

@paulie... South Tottenham is absolutely correct, N15 is South Tottenham ! N17 Tottenham..

Harringay is of course perfectly correct and of course some people have never heard of it, just like those who've never heard of Charlie Brown's Roundabout at South Woodford or Amen Corner in Tooting ..Figge's Marsh at Mitcham.. Doesn't mean that the name should be consigned to the bin...

@alan.. I don't see why you have a problem with Stoke Newington.. it is part of the LB Hackney, but is a place in it's own right with it's own postcode and maybe a bit upmarket these days..(there was a Borough of Stoke Newington until 1965) but it isn't Hackney just like Stamford Hill and Clapton aren't..

And here's a quiz: anyone know where South Hornsey was?
South Tottenham is the postal district. I'm not sure that's not missing the point. In any event, my comment was clearly a joke. What is annoying is that you seem to have missed that and are telling us to stop the discussion while inviting us to prolong it!

And I for one have a problem with Stoke Newington - it's one of the most depressing places I've ever been in my life.
Clissold park is nice....
Parts are attractive, I agree, the best view of it being ironically from Green Lanes, which I am confident you will agree is outside Stoke Newington! And I take the point about there being two stations called Harringay (an annoyance in itself) but does anyone know where the trains that stop at them take people?
yes I do, I use them all the time. Or am I missing something?
Quickest and most picturesque way to Ally Pally, out to the lovely Hatfield house or into Kings Cross the other way or down on Green Lanes, quickest way to Walthamstow or Archway. Harringay has excellent transport links!

p.s. Good to have a couple of new voices in this thread, Alan and Paulie.
Moorgate!!!!
Kings cross on a Sunday when I use it to go to Camley street and King's Place.
Sorry, I was being obscure. What I meant is, how many people not from this area would know those stations? Actually, given those destinations I suspect the answer may be "more than I thought". Although not as many as will have heard of Arsenal, as most people who use the tube will know Arsenal is just shy of Finsbury Park on the purple line (okay, so it's dark blue, but I always think of it as purple).

Will there be discussions like this on the 21st? It would seriously be fun!

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