Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Make a Difference and help change Wood Green High Street
I don't think that I have ever disguised my dislike of Wood Green High Street and it’s never ending pound shops, takeaways and betting shops - Tottenham High Road is almost identical. So fed up of sitting and moaning about it, this weekend I decided to take some action.
Many of you will be aware of the current discussions taking place about rejuvenating Britain’s High Streets with Mary Portas even being appointed government advisor to look into how we encourage more independent retailers back into the high St and we revive this great institution.
Yesterday I had a great conversation with Mary Portas and also the lovely chaps at the Big Green Book shop and with the Karamela cafe on Coburg Road to see if we thought there would be interest locally in creating something exciting on our High St.
This could be anything from helping independent retailers to set up shop in Wood Green and in Tottenham, to ask Landlords to let empty shops be used for pop up shops and to charge a nominal rent for them, to encourage more of a 'scene' in Wood Green and in Tottenham, we have some great things already going on at the Big Green Bookshop and at Karamela and at the Chocolate Factory and yet no-one really talks about them.
I am also keen to work with some of the bigger stores already located in the High St to get them to put their hands in their pockets and help us clear up the High St by donating plants etc to create a garden in the sky to rival Crouch End and the new Roof Garden project taking place in Dalston
I am not talking about gentrification here or turning Wood Green into the next Crouch End just about the community coming together and taking ownership of its High Street and the local area and making it a better place for everyone to visit.
I am sure that everyone has a lot of great ideas and if you would like to get involved I will be setting up a community working group it really doesn’t matter what your talent is if you feel that you have something to contribute I would love to hear from you. Karamela have very kindly agreed to host a get together. This is going to be a huge task but if we work together we can make change happen.
Thanks
Tammy
Tags for Forum Posts: festivals, wood green
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Tammy Palmer on
-
well if this one works I would really like to do some work over in Tottenham whose high St is in dire need of help. I am also really keen to encourage someone to do something positive with the listed building in Bruce Grove with the Luke Howard blue Plaque - its seems such a shame that this building is just left to crumble.
I think Harringay is looking ok - its a lot nicer than Lordship lane where I live, I agree that it needs a little more diversity in terms of it shops and resturants but you do have some great pubs like the Sailsbury which we don;t in WG, I know some people where talking about the possibility of using the pub opposutie Turnpike Lane to run creative workshops in change is happening - it just takes a while I think :)
-
Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
-
Tamara WELL DONE YOU! DO NOT LET LET SOME OF THESE PEOPLE GRIND YOU DOWN!!!!! THEY WILL WINGE OVER JUST ABOUT ANYTHING. sometimes me included :)
What you are doing is quite brilliant. Good luck.
-
Permalink Reply by John D on
-
TW - if that is aimed at me, I'm not against Tamara's campaign. That's why I made some concrete suggestions about what I would like to see in the way of small shops / traders.
-
Permalink Reply by Carol Tennant on
-
Hi Tammy. I'm sure you're at work, but you might like to listen to 'You and Yours' on R4 at the moment (not a thing I would normally recommend, yawn) or listen again later. Revitalising our high streets seems to be the topic. Lots of ideas on the Radio 4 Facebook page ( I can't get the link to appear properly, sorry).
-
-
oooh thanks Carol I am at work and not near a radio but I will check out the facebook page! it does seem to be a big topic at the moment and lots of High Streets around the Country are struggling. Reading through Simon at the Big green bookshops blog last night I am hardly surprised when Sainsburys win a big bookseller of the year award!!!!!!
hope to see you WI Ladies later so that you can attempt to teach me knit something!!!
-
-
Hi John, I thought your comments were really helpful! I totally agree about art supplies my husband is undertaking a technical drawing class and always has to go to Muswell hill for art stuff, also agree about Wallpaper etc, as someone who is doing up a property it would be good to avoid the mercy of B & Q on the A10 or Homebase! Wilkinsons I know sell paint and Wallpaper but their range isn't really what I am looking for although its fine for basics. My husband swears by its gardening products!
Please do keep posting everyone, this just the start. Its going to be a long journey but we can do it! I am so heartened by the support here and on Twitter amongst people. Its also good to know there is real drive across London to make these kind of changes. I promise not to mention the burger van again :)
-
Permalink Reply by Alison P on
-
This sounds great Tamara, really interested in seeing how you get on. I do use Wood Green a fair bit, though i find it a pretty horrible experience. Its plus point for me is mainly because it is so handy, and there are some little pearls buried among all the chain stores. The Market space seems to be crying out for a bit of a rethink - lots of space and some very handy stalls (a great haberdashery stall, one that sells fresh yeast..) but seems pretty underused. Suspect lots of people don't even know it exists... Don't know if that comes into your plans at all?
Best of luck.
-
Permalink Reply by aidan on
-
I think anything we can do to improve the High Street is very welcome. But I agree that there is clearly an economic demand for the shops that are there and we can't or perhaps even shouldn't change this. (I say this broadly speaking, and with the caveat that I don't want to open a betting shops debate here.) There are not significant numbers of vacant units. The Burger King is now a Costa.
As others have noted, the tortuous things about visiting Wood Green, and which put me and others off, are largely to do with its infrastructure. Making it a more pleasant place to shop would be the best thing we could do to diversify it (assuming for a moment that's a reasonable aim -- I think there's a case to be made that Wood Green has a more diverse range of shops than any comparable street). But the place is shabby. From the south, you approach past Duckett's Common. The railings there haven't seen paint in years. They look like some sort of experiment in tetanus transmission. And that just about sets the scene for the whole street. The street furniture is variously battered, mangled, filthy or all of these. The pavements are black with chewing gum and covered in litter.
Walk up past the Mall. Its a carbuncle and the ugly bridge makes it worse. The pavements are not wide enough to accommodate the number of visitors, and it takes an age to walk past busy bus stops. It is an all-round unpleasant experience.
Get to Wood Green tube and you'll pass bus shelters lovingly designed to reflect the art deco features of the tube station, where the feature lights on top haven't worked for ages, the ground is filthy, and one of them hasn't been repaired properly since a bus crashed into it years ago.
If you can address these issues, or rather, persuade the Council and others responsible to, then I think you'll see Wood Green's profile improve. People think Wood Green is scummy and they don't want to come here, and that's nearly all because of the shabby High Road.
-
Permalink Reply by matt on
-
Don't know how long you've lived in the area Aidan but believe it or not the High Rd had a significant make over about 7 years ago; pavements were widened, new street furniture put in including excellent bike stands (from Falco), new bus shelters, a few more trees and lots of paving was laid.
I think within about a year the place, particularly the paving started to look shabby. Not sure why but loads of chewing gum didn't help and perhaps a more comprehensive cleaning schedule and more effective cleaning eqipment would have helped. I notice Veolia are now using huge vacuum cleaners manually walked by the operative so they can get at all those cigarette buts etc (an example of better equipment).
There have been some errors made in the layout from several years ago; the positioning of the bus stop outside the Halifax defies logic! The area outside Boots really needs a re-think and overall there's little public space to sit down & rest away from the High Rd. Better use of the space outside the library & by Barclays could be considered.
-
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
-
What little space there is for sitting and resting tends to be used for sleeping, belching, abusing and drinking.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
