Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Hell that is Wood Green
Yesterday, I had the misfortune to find myself in the shopping mall. Walking out the big automatic doors and into the crowd of Star Wars pub extras who were smoking, spitting and squabbling on the footpath I witnessed what for me sums up the whole carbuncle on the arse of Haringey that is Wood Green High Road. One of the characters stormed through the crowd with his status dog in tow. I was reflecting on the fact that ‘status’ dogs don't seem to work (as the people who have them only ever seem to be what everyone else in society would consider low status). Everything suddenly went quiet except the ever present sirens. The status dog had stopped and released its copious bowels all over the footpath. It was like turning on the light in an HMO; the cockroaches screamed and scattered. The dog owner laughed and walked on. It was probably one of the most disgusting things I have seen or smelt in London. Eventually the crowd returned and watched the next horde trample the mess up and down the road. There was no-one to turn to, no-one to clean up and more importantly no-one with the authority to challenge and/or shoot the dog owner. Things just returned to normal.
The whole experience made me think how the council, local police and traders believe that we're all animals if they are happy for us to have to deal with this every time we go to the High Road. It's easy enough for me to hop on a bus and head off to Crouch End or Islington or even Enfield to shop but if you're older or disabled and have trouble getting around or not enough money for the bus it must be pretty grim to face it every day. Imagine how the standard little old lady dreads heading out into the crowds, litter, phlegm, smoke and anti-social behaviour of Wood Green every morning to get the milk.
Short of manning water cannons at each end of the High Road and employing some mercenaries with batons to control the crowds, I don’t know what can be done. Are there any clever ‘nudges’ or interventions that could improve Wood Green? Is it a matter of tarting the place up and hoping that the crowds respect their new surroundings? Is it signage to remind, and in many instances educate, people that spitting, littering and barging into other people is just not the done thing? Or do we just give up, bulldoze the lot and install a waterhole in the middle and let the law of the jungle and the status dog owners prevail?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Remind me where it has been suggested that people from Crouch End should have their homes bulldozed (Shopping City has people living above it) or that the people getting their daily shopping should be controlled with batons and water cannon. Hardly on a par to a couple of jokes about poor behaviour in restaurants and overpriced food and drink.
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Permalink Reply by KP on
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Well if the people from Crouch End were the same types who allowed their kids to urinate in the middle of a shop or their dogs to sh*t all over a street and not clear it up we'd be advocating bulldozing Crouch End too. But as that doesn't tend to be the average experience of a day out in Crouch End we don't need to. Sorry if you feel insulted by these comments but clearly a lot of us feel that Wood Green is letting Haringey down and improvements need to be made.
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I'm amazed at how many people want to bulldoze places they don't live in while negotiating the dog shit and the overflowing wheelie bins in their own neighbourhood.
If the criteria for flattening people's homes is bad dog ownership and a bit of 'hanging about being a pain in the arse', I guess my street is next for the wrecking ball.
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I'd be the first to say that Harringay is no paradise. There is plenty of room for improvement round here. I would be all in favour of a big hose down - even if it involved water canon!
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Permalink Reply by Lauren on
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I think 'bulldoze' was meant tongue in cheek / metaphorically. Nobody actually wants to bulldoze people's homes while they lie in their beds at night.
People who live in Wood Green are getting offended by people saying it's a hellhole, but that doesn't mean it isn't to some extent true. It's nothing personal, it is just fact. I live in Harringay again now, which is also a bit of a hellhole to some people, but I don't take it personally when people express that view because I know it is also true. (There were 'hellhole' aspects of all the places I have lived in in London, I would say Crouch End was the worst, for reasons I'm not going into on here).
I have lived in many places in north London, including Tottenham, Harringay, Palmers Green, Southgate, Muswell Hill, Wood Green, Crouch End, Stroud Green, Islingon, and now Harringay again, so I suppose you can say that Wood Green has been my main 'Town Centre' for the best part of twenty years. However I avoid it like the plague because the shops are rubbish and there is a serious air of dodginess and despair/bleakness about the place. Why put yourself through that experience if you don't have to, or don't get any advantage out of it?
I can understand that people want to believe it is not so bad, because they have invested in homes and a life here, but lets not kid ourselves because if any one of us won the lottery tomorrow we would all move.
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Permalink Reply by doug on
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Laura, please don't feel bad. The main reason people on here knock Wood Green is because they don't live here, they don't see the sense of community that exists off and around the High Road. All they see is the High Road, usually on a Saturday afternoon, and let's face it, it could do with some improvement.
Let's get some perspective here. Someone sees a dog crap on the pavement, and Wood Green becomes some type of Hell. A few minutes browsing this forum, and you'll soon see threads on muggings, drug dealing, fly tipping, general anti-social behaviour, but is Harringay a Hell hole??? Fair enough, it's a Harringay website so they will have bias.
I live in Wood Green and love it, I often visit the Ladder end of Green Lanes and enjoy it, I have been known to drink in the Salisbury, but prefer the Tollgate as it truely reflects the demographic in which I enjoy living. Maybe if I moved to Harringay, or Crouch End, I could enjoy living there just as much, but for the moment I'll stick to Wood Green.
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Too right KP. I live in Wood Green and work off Crouch End Broadway. I never see kids urinating, but what I do see on a daily basis is adults urinating on my forecourt and the occasional adult having a number two. Some people on here nerd to open their eyes.
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My initial reaction to the High Road, is that it is so busy and full of shops I would (mostly) not shop in, baring the usual Wilkos, Big Green Book Shop etc. I do sometimes go to the cinema but get increasingly frustrated at the attitude of people that it is acceptable to talk and throw drinks at the screen.
Having said that I am keen to find out about any more restaurant/pub/other recommendations in the area. I am keen to try The Paramount, now I have heard some favourable reviews- are there any other places I should try?
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Permalink Reply by Phil.A on
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If you don't like wood green just don't go. Suggesting to bulldoze the place sounds very aggressive and considering the same people are crying because they feel wood green is aggressive, surely they are contradicting themselves
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Yeah you're right. I'm not saying I don't still hate going up there (Saturday afternoons) but it's basically about a couple of bus stops and perhaps some narrow pavements. I'm sorry if I offended anyone who lives there.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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It's the hungry lions outside the library which worry me. But it's okay if you slip past quickly while they're still feasting on smelly librarians.
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