Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey's Warehouse Districts Under Threat?
An item at tonight's Council Cabinet meeting has thrown into question the future survival of Haringey's two warehouse districts and the artistic communities who live in them.
Both the Harringay Warehouse District and the Fountayne Road community now face an uncertain future following the publication of a Haringey Council report, "Tackling Unauthorised Living in Industrial Areas". (Report attached)
The report, which was discussed at the full cabinet of the Council today, recommends a two-year project costing £600,000 which will seek to deal with "the growing problem of unauthorised residential and live work uses in and around (the) Industrial Sites" in Haringey. The recommended process is "to establish a special multi-disciplinary team to fully investigate and address the problem through a combination of regulation, improvement, enforcement and, where necessary, prosecution".
The alarm bells were ringing for me since earlier in the week I had discovered that these areas are earmarked as being amongst those that will "will accommodate the majority of development in the borough over the next 20 years".
In Facebook and Twitter conversations this afternoon, warehouse residents shared their fears that the vibrancy their communities bring to the borough will be overlooked and their communities sanitised and destroyed.
In response to my Twitter requests to Council Leader Claire Kober this evening to protect these communities, Cllr Kober sought to offer some reassurance:
@harringayonline some people in unacceptable conditions. My concern is for safe, decent properties. No intention to undermine communities
@harringayonline no intention to damage what's good. Priority is to go after rogue landlords just as we do elsewhere in borough
When I asked if she would ensure that warehouse residents will be involved, the Council Leader replied:
@harringayonline don't see any problem involving residents. Will ask officers to consider how best to achieve
I very much hope that the approach the Council takes in this project will support these communities rather than beginning the process of whittling them away.
Tags for Forum Posts: local plan, local plan 2014, site allocation plan, warehouse district
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Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on
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I agree with you Alan and Sharon. I lived a few doors away from these buildings until last year. The change of use crept up on us without the usual required consultation, invitation or explanation. The first we knew was the constant stream of hipsters rolling samsonite luggage down our road looking lost and rather scared. We watched as commercial units changed to residential without required infrastructure like a giant shanty town. Then the parties started happening, very noisy, professionally organised with doormen who would not allow any of us lot near it. A professional recording studio opened 10 feet from my bedroom window, without effective soundproofing and proceeded to work all day and night. The owner finally stopped after I made a years worth of complaints to him and the council. He told me that this was one of the few areas he could open a studio and he didn't need any planning permission. While I am sure there are pockets of loveliness, I and my neighbours never saw or were invited to witness it . It is not the groovey "warehouse arts community" championed here but a place for cold commercial interests to win over the forgotten community.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks for putting the other side, Takaokagiejin. I hadn't realised you'd had such troubles. Is that what took you to the other side of the tracks?
I think perhaps it's different up in Fountayne Road, where the premises are in a hardcore industrial area.
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It certainly didn't encourage me to stick around. I was amazed that it was allowed to happen and sorry to say rather miffed that this site encouraged it. It felt like being part of some hideous property developers dream. In my view this proposal is well overdue as it addresses the illegal and dangerous conversion of a significant area of harringay. It is a lovely little enclave with an established, friendly community. The sweet factory next to the new river is beautiful and I'm sure that's what the developers have thier eyes on, it's screaming "loft apartment gated community in zone 2". but the community should be given it's chance to decide what happens rather than have this false "warehouse district" thing foisted onto it. There are quite a lot of long established businesses and charities operating in the units which provide employment. They too should get a say.
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Agreed - all should get a say.
I've certainly highlighted the positive side of the warehouse community on a number of occasions (though I'd be surprised if we had much influence in encouraging it with the particular demographic who live there). It's quite proper now that you and others share the flip side.
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I think this is why we are objecting to the renaming of the area the "warehouse district" by this site and on the Harringay Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harringay.
Enthusiastically followed by the estate agents
http://www.winkworth.co.uk/estate-agents/harringay/our-area
It's gives credibility to the illegal and, as Sharon and I have outlined, problematic change of use which is happening. It also doesn't recognise there has long been a much bigger community in the area who think they live in Manor House
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Takaokagiejin you're right to point out the way this has happened.
In some circumstances the landlord has simply handed over an empty space to one tenant, who has then converted so it can take in more tenants. The first tenant charges the others which pays for his rent as well as covering the landlord.
So successful has this been that the tenant doing the conversion takes another space and does this again. Landlord is very happy to see so many people coming in and raises the rent.
But an area converted for 4 people sometimes ends up with 2 or 3 times that many people. Mezzanines tend to be built into some empty spaces to increase tenant numbers. It has been known however for someone to fall off from a mezzanine to the floor below because a railing wasn't installed.
A major landlord in the area is now carrying out adjustments to layouts and providing fire equipment to meet fire regs, influenced by the recent fire in one unit. Families live in these areas too and not all the singletons are artists!
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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So, is this just rival party propaganda or is this actually happening?
http://haringeylibdems.mycouncillor.org.uk/2014/01/17/labour-counci...
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I haven't had time to view the webcast but I've read the report. And on the face of it the multi-disciplinary team proposed seems a reasonable approach to a set of problems without clear win-win solutions.
Does that mean the Kober Kabal are getting the balance right? Perhaps in this instance they might be. It is certainly not quite the Blame-All "news" reported on the LibDem website.
I was looking back through Onora O'Neill's Reith Lectures "A Question of Trust" and noticed that topics over recent years included as well: "Climate of Fear" ; and "Speaking Truth To Power".
Then there's Grayson Perry's useful classification.The political parties know they all have a very serious problem of trust. Until May I'm a councillor and I don't trust either local party's public statements. How do other Haringey residents find needles of sharp truth from the decaying haystack of PR and spin? And not just the websites and leaflets but the words of "leading" politicians who, it seems, no longer value truth; or perhaps have lost the ability to distinguish it from the made-up stories they want to believe.
These days I rely on evidence I can check; plus individuals I know personally who have a track record of at least trying to find out and tell the truth.
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No surprise there about the party machine spin. I loathe the negative spinning of stories and the claiming of achievements where input has been minimal.
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These "warehouses" are illegally converted HMOs housing well over 1,000 people in a small area. This far outstrips the HMO issue on the ladder which has been so well documented and opposed elsewhere on HOL.
The council report which Hugh has posted states:
• 26 such sites have been identified;
• Containing 322 units, with up to 20 people living in each unit;
• 727 bedrooms have been identified;The rental income must be huge and therefore it is no surprise that the landlord is seeking to make them safe. The issue however is that these dwellings should not be there at all. Aside from the impact on the general environment from noise, rubbish etc. the local infrastructure is not equipped to support this number of unauthorised homes, for example the sewerage pipes in Vale Road became totally overwhelmed some months ago and raw sewage rose up into people's gardens
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Permalink Reply by Ruth on
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All this is so shocking. I live on the other side of the railway tracks and had no idea all of this stuff was going on at all. You people have had a lot to put up with for a long time. Sounds like a lot of illegal HMOs noise and rubbish etc. but being represented as a thriving artists community.
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