Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!


Does anyone know who Helena Fedorowicz was, and why there is a memorial to her in Finsbury Park ?  I've looked online and there is not a lot of information about her, or the Woodstock Road Association mentioned on the memorial.  I remember years ago that there was a lion on top of what now remains of the memorial, but that has now gone.  It would be good to know the background to this.

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I remember it being put there and a large gathering of people. She was a community activist. Woodstock Rd was run down and notorious for prostitution and kerb crawlers around 35 years ago, the Woodstock Rd Association was set up to try and improve things. I guess she had something to do with that. I was told she was also active in the Polish Community. As to why a memorial in the Park; it was also very run down and parks staff were fairly OK with anything even vaguely positive. There are other smaller memorials around a patch of gravel near the dog training area. The Council seem to have settled on park benches as memorials now.

I remember one morning, probably about 15 years ago, when our group of regular dog walkers found the lion statue smashed into pieces. It had clearly been done overnight, as we passed it every day. We told the parks staff, who took the pieces into the yard near the Endymion Road entrance for safe keeping. We pestered them every so often about whether it would be repaired, but it never was. I'd imagine the pieces are long gone now. A shame, as we rather liked Helena's lion and that she mattered to people once.

Picture with lion, taken November 2007 -from Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons licensed).

Thanks, Gordon. I took a photo of that somewhere back in about 2007 that I was going to dig out, but I think the one you found is better than mine.

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