Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Local Parties dismiss voters' sense of place

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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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John McMullan on October 8, 2009 at 13:57
Arrggghhhh!!!! @Justin, when in a hole, stop digging!
Permalink Reply by Hugh on October 8, 2009 at 14:16
As much as I'd like to, I can't claim the rights on this Tom. There are many far more qualified academics and practitioners in the fields of community development, urban planning etc, who have developed this line of thinking and a body of evidence to underpin it.

There are a range of books, most of which I'm not intimately familiar with, but you might try:

Cohen, A. P. (1985) The Symbolic Construction of Community, London: Tavistock (now Routledge). Outstanding exploration of 'community' that focuses on it as a cultural phenomenon. Cohen looks at the ways in which the boundaries to communities are symbolically defined and how people become aware of belonging to a community. Chapters examine the 'classical' tradition of community and the contribution of the Chicago tradition; symbolizing boundaries; communities of meaning; and the symbolic construction of community.

Hoggett, P. (ed.) (1997) Contested Communities: experiences, struggles, policies, Bristol: Policy Press ISBN 1 86134 036 2. £15.95. Following introductory essays on contested communities (Hoggett) and neighbours (Crow), this book has sections on community and social diversity; local government and community; and community participation and empowerment. The book uses a set of case studies to examine the sources of community activism, the ways communities define themselves and defined by outsiders, and the room for partnerships with different agencies. Internal conflicts within communities are also examined.

If you're interested, I can ask some folks I work with on this sort of issue for some more accessible references.
Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on October 8, 2009 at 13:14
I thought whatever was just a teenagers' token of dismissal. But then teenagers are just the Deity's revenge on (wo)mankind. Go to the bother of creating the little buggers in your own image and likeness, then they blank you as if you weren't there.

But I'm sure if Hugh had just used 'dismiss' from the outset, we'd never have got to the end of page 13 with this. I must remember that!
Permalink Reply by Hugh on October 8, 2009 at 13:32
I don't agree OAE. I think there was so much content not inspired by the one word that stoked the debate, that it's impossible to link the engagement in the debate to the one word - although as we all know single words can be very important!
Permalink Reply by Hugh on October 12, 2009 at 17:14
Interesting piece from the links I point to on the 10 Most Admired Nations post:

Place Branding Research A successful brand delivers a strong and consistent message and has the ability to set social, economic and cultural processes into motion. Like companies and products, places can also have distinct brand identities. Place Branding encompasses measuring that identity, evaluating its strengths and weaknesses and building and communicating differentiating and winning characteristics.
Permalink Reply by Stephen Middleton on October 5, 2012 at 14:18
Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on October 12, 2012 at 14:24
I've lived in Manor House, South Tottenham,
Hornsey and Harringay, I've only moved eight
blocks in 18 years.

The confusion is Haringey, when they
Merged Horns-ey with Har(r)ing-ay.
When an area has two train stations named after
it it's pretty difficult to ignore, I'm happy with HARRINGAY!,
do they want the wards to merge that would reduce
our influence in the borough, might save them some money,
if they agreed to not to up their wages to deal with the extra
Responsibility.
Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on October 12, 2012 at 14:38
Where have I heard this before?
Is it Istanbul not Constantinople,
Aya Sophia or San Sophia?
Suffolk or South Fork,
Hornsey mug or Hornsea mug?

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