Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Case for a Harringay Market?
Those of you who've read any of the history stuff here, on Wikipedia, or elsewhere may have read about the street market that existed on Green Lanes up to (and perhaps after) the War.
Shefik Mehmet, Chair of the local traders' association, also told me about a Sunday market that used to be held on the site of the Arena for a number of years after it was demolished.
Then there's also the tantalising old references from the middle of the last century that places a "Harringay Market" just to the south of where the old Arena was (opposite Endymion Road).
So one way or another, there's a history of markets in Harringay.
A newsletter I received today included the following with, sadly, a broken link:
Street markets are key to regeneration - London boroughs have been accused of failing to exploit the regeneration value of markets.
So, I browsed around a little, trying to find the article the link referred to. I had no luck, but did come up with the attached year-old GLA study.
What d'ya reckon? Time to revive a Harringay Market?
Tags for Forum Posts: Local Ideas, Sainsbury's Story, harringay market
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street markets.pdf, 977 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Just about to go out the door down to Borough Market. Show the kids the hustle and bussle of that extraordinary market which in its current form has contributed to the excellent regeneration of the area.
Harringay has a lot to offer towards a market, particularly around cooked food and fresh produce. The key to an excellent market is location. A carpark wouldn't work, nor would a windy side street. So where to locate? But I do think this is a very good idea for Harringay.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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We need to get a couple of the roads down by the Salisbury blocked off at the Green Lanes end, or even on the other side of the road in the gardens. It is a big deal blocking off Green Lanes but not so perhaps Pemberton and Mattison or Kimberley and Chesterfield. Broadway market, Whitecross Street Market, Brick Lane etc... all on roads. I think parks and carparks are way too open - the weather's not this good every day.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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I like markets! Rests on two things - location and products.
Location - would be great to have somewhere under cover but I can't think of anywhere local. Ally Pally??? But John's idea isn't a bad one if it has to be outside.
Products - trying to get the balance right can be hard (over-priced poncy stuff vs cheap tat, at the extremes obviously). Where would we pitch it for Harringay? What sort of things would be on sale? I also stumbled on the not so impressive Finsbury Park one a few years back, and never returned.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony on
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Ally Pally has a farmers mkt once a week on a sunday. Some good stuff, a little expensive (but reflects the quality I supopose) and not too many stalls. I don't know what the clientele is like there but it isn't too busy so questions over demand I suppose.
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Permalink Reply by Birdy_Too on
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I come from a market town and I really couldn’t see where a market would realistically go in Harringay, it also depends on what produce is on sale there. Most markets are lower end products unless you’re on about ‘Farmers’ markets, where it is quite specialised for folk with dosh.
Most of what you find on a normal market can be found in the shops on Green Lanes ie fruit and veg, meat and cheap tat so would there be any need?
The ‘Farmers’ market at the bottom of Ally Pally quenches the organic thirst for such markets.
Do you remember the massive out of town Sunday markets of the eighties?
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Permalink Reply by Caroline on
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What about in the school playgrounds? And limited to food and flowers?
Is the Alexander Palace market every Sunday now - when it started it was only every other, and so an expansion to every week would seem to be proof of demand despite it being rather over priced. There also used to be a small farmers market at the station in Palmers Green and, I believe, one in the school playground on Stoke Newington High Street. It would be interesting to find out how sucessful all of these small local markets are and whether they run every week.
I'm thinking off the top of my head here but it seems to me that the success of Borough market is at least partly because there are a large number of permanent pitches and because the market runs for 2 days every week thus making it worth the traders while to come. We thus might find it difficult to attract traders to come to a small market that maybe didn't even run every weekend. I think that there are two things here:
1. if we got together with other small local markets we could maybe have the group of traders moving from place to place: Palmers Green first Sunday in the month; Harringay 2nd; Stokey 3rd, for example (yes I know that would mean three boroughs co-operating and is therefore beyond the pale) That would give the traders a much bigger catchment area of shoppers and make it more worth their while to schlep down to London every weekend.
2. we have the great benefit of some excellent food shops - our fixed pitches so to speak - and so we wouldn't be trying to get shoppers into a dank car park at the bottom of Alexandra Palace but to an established vibrant shopping area.
I think a market should have the express aim of attracting new shoppers, it would be brilliant for our local traders if we could tempt some of the Crouch Enders over the railway lines and keeping them in business keeps us all out of the supermarkets.
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Using school playgrounds is a possibility. I did look into this with the main organic markets provider here in London but they decided against it in the end. Thought the playground would be too small for parking vans & having stalls on a Saturday. Parking problem could be avoided on Sundays for produce vans and visitors but, they also wanted to start arriving at 8am on a Sunday to set for 10am start. This would have created too much noise for the neighbours. Nothings so easy!
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Permalink Reply by Stuart on
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When Ally Pally is being used for exhibitions (as it was last Sunday) the farmer's market moves. . . to Campsbourne School. It seems to be there sometimes twice a month. I'm not aware of any issue with noise/residents.
And I reckon the play ground at South Haringey infants is at least 30% bigger than the one at Campsbourne.
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Permalink Reply by Danzigger on
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I get down to the farmers market at Ally Pally (or a nearby school) most weeks, and here's what I like about it:
There's some great hot food, ready to eat; sausages, cheese toasties, Brazilian, Portugese, Morrocon, West Indian etc. and a good coffee stall. We sometimes just go to get breakfast. There's also good meat, cheese, fruit and veg, mostly organic, direct from the producers. And it's at the bottom of a park, away from traffic.
I don't really see how a market in Harringay would compete with or complement this existing market. I doubt existing shops would welcome the competition, and its not like we need the extra traffic trying to get down Green Lanes. And closing roads off for on market days creates more problems elsewhere.
And what Caroline describes as a vibrant shopping area could also be described as an untidy, unattractive, overcrowded main road!
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Permalink Reply by Margaret Fowler on
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Maybe we ought to support the excellent work going on on the other side of the Borough through Tottenham Food Coop. Broadwater Farm Community Centre in Adams Road N17 has market days on Saturdays but they are a bit irregular at present. Good for buying, swapping and selling produce. email; tottenhamfoodcoop@yahoo.co.uk http://www.sustainableharingey.org.uk www.foodcoops.org
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