Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Local pillbox survivors
In South Tottenham. off Ermine Road - From flickr.
See location at Google Maps.
Tags for Forum Posts: wwii, wwii defensive architecture
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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A platform for a large static gun perhaps? I would imagine it was used to guard against the possible taking of the Alexandra Palace transmitter
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Permalink Reply by John Shulver on
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I wonder if possibly that may have been an air raid shelter, with the protrusion on the right being the entrance down the steps to underground ? Maybe not.
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I am fascinated by WW1 & 2 pillboxes, so many styles and in some seemingly questionable locations. Now residing in Norfolk we have many scattered along the coast and countryside. I believe they should be preserved.
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Permalink Reply by Ken Stevens on
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I don't know about preserving all of them but certainly a fair and representative sample of the various types of facility, pillbox and other. In a historical sense they are as valid as, say, Martello Towers, Tilbury Fort, Landguard Fort and so on
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I'm curious, John Shulver, why you "believe they should be preserved". That's curiosity not criticism. I tend to agree with you, but am nervous about straying into other people's versions of the past.
I've been rereading Patrick Wright's: "On Living in an Old Country" and thinking again about "heritage". Especially as Rewriting the National history is coming along faster. Has everyone bought their flags yet? How many people have checked the names of their street for connections to colonialism, wars, and rebellions?
The Flickr link above takes you to the game of "Guess Where London". Clues are given and the solution is revealed. Or we assume it's the correct solution. Because nobody would ever post inaccurate information online, would they?
"Once there was a way, to get back homeward
Once there was a way, to get back home" via sheet music on a piano and an Elizabethan poet.
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It's just my personal opinion Alan. I am interested in much war memorabilia. But I do think that structures such as pill boxes may serve as a history lesson to those unaware of just how close WW2 was to our parents/grandparents doorsteps.
"............. do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby"
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Thanks for replying, John Shulver. There's no way I could or would wish to take issue with your impulse to want to teach and not forget what we might see as ordinary people's local history.
Except . . .
As you're very interested in war memorabilia, you'll know all the problems this presents. Problems and competing riches of what might and maybe should be memorialised and conserved.
And maybe not.
One of my brothers died a few months ago. Among the stuff he'd kept from our parents' first flat was a small gas mask - perhaps intended for me. Though just as well, never used.
Maybe what's left and precious from that flat and that street are distant fading memories of people.
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My personal interest is down to the fact that my maternal grandfather was kia Belgium 1915 and one of his sons (my great uncle) kia France 1918. But gas masks...
......we had two in our Harringay Road house which I remember well. One was the standard issue adult black macabre looking thing and the other was an orange "Donald Duck" style childs mask. I was born 49 but played with these masks for years. My older brother however experienced use of the childs one. He scalded himself badly and had to be carried by our dad from home to Prince of Wales hospital for treatment. Enroute an air raid came over and all had to dive behind a brick wall for cover. Quite impossible to imagine.
And like you say..........distant fading memories.
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