Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Railway Fields Entrance on Umfreville Road
I live on Pemberton Road and like scores if not hundreds of people who live on the ladder I regularly walk through the passages to get to Finsbury Park. When I hit Umfreville Road the passage stops and I then have to go down to Green Lanes. After going under the railway bridge typically I would go straight back up Lothair Road and cut across to the park, going in the entrance on Endymion Road by the New River.
Why tell us all how you walk to the park you might well ask? Well, in the middle of the route, when you hit Umfreville Road and the passage ends, there is the lovely Railway Fields nature reserve straight in front of you, but with no way in. There is only one way in and out (on Green Lanes), so it's no use as part of a walk from one place to another and hence massively underused. However, there is a disused/possible entrance on Umfreville Road directly opposite the end of the passage, by the old tower in the fields. A project to turn this into an entrance would cost the council peanuts - a nice wrought iron gate to match the one on Green Lanes, a bit of gardening to clear out the passage from Umfreville to the tower and that's about it!
There are really good reasons for doing this: getting better use out of Railway Fields and improving the walk down to Green Lanes for the residents, which could all be done for almost no cost. The only down side I can think of is that the wardens would then have to lock up two gates at the end of the day instead of one - big deal! I asked a warden in Railway Fields about this on Friday and she said something like "oh it would be a bit of a pain to lock up the other gate and we'd have to get more keys cut"! She also said it was always a worry to make sure everyone left at the end of the day before locking it. This would be the same worry if there was one gate or two anyway. Pretty hopeless reasons not to go ahead with a project that would have a very high benifit to cost ratio.
Any thoughts anyone? I'd love to get a head of steam on this and get a proposal to the Council, but it's not something I have any experience in doing. Anyone else interested in this?
Hugo.
P.S. In a more ambitious plan, they would also open the river path between Umfreville and Endymion Roads and build a foot bridge over the railway tracks either on the river path or from within the Railway Fields across to the river path so you could then walk straight over to the park. This quite simple measure would allow you to walk right through to the Endymion road entrance to Finsbury Park from either Hornsey station (along the New River path to Wightman/Hewitt and then down Hewitt, through the passages and then over the bridge and along the last stretch of the new river) or from Turnpike lane, right through the passages and finishing in the same way. However, those plans are much more adventurous and I don't want any grander designs to get in the way of the simple and really cheap plan of simply putting in another gate!
Why tell us all how you walk to the park you might well ask? Well, in the middle of the route, when you hit Umfreville Road and the passage ends, there is the lovely Railway Fields nature reserve straight in front of you, but with no way in. There is only one way in and out (on Green Lanes), so it's no use as part of a walk from one place to another and hence massively underused. However, there is a disused/possible entrance on Umfreville Road directly opposite the end of the passage, by the old tower in the fields. A project to turn this into an entrance would cost the council peanuts - a nice wrought iron gate to match the one on Green Lanes, a bit of gardening to clear out the passage from Umfreville to the tower and that's about it!
There are really good reasons for doing this: getting better use out of Railway Fields and improving the walk down to Green Lanes for the residents, which could all be done for almost no cost. The only down side I can think of is that the wardens would then have to lock up two gates at the end of the day instead of one - big deal! I asked a warden in Railway Fields about this on Friday and she said something like "oh it would be a bit of a pain to lock up the other gate and we'd have to get more keys cut"! She also said it was always a worry to make sure everyone left at the end of the day before locking it. This would be the same worry if there was one gate or two anyway. Pretty hopeless reasons not to go ahead with a project that would have a very high benifit to cost ratio.
Any thoughts anyone? I'd love to get a head of steam on this and get a proposal to the Council, but it's not something I have any experience in doing. Anyone else interested in this?
Hugo.
P.S. In a more ambitious plan, they would also open the river path between Umfreville and Endymion Roads and build a foot bridge over the railway tracks either on the river path or from within the Railway Fields across to the river path so you could then walk straight over to the park. This quite simple measure would allow you to walk right through to the Endymion road entrance to Finsbury Park from either Hornsey station (along the New River path to Wightman/Hewitt and then down Hewitt, through the passages and then over the bridge and along the last stretch of the new river) or from Turnpike lane, right through the passages and finishing in the same way. However, those plans are much more adventurous and I don't want any grander designs to get in the way of the simple and really cheap plan of simply putting in another gate!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Josephine on
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Railway Fields sounds excellent, but how do I find it? Where is the gate? Actually on Green Lanes? Close to Umfreville? Am new to the area and discovering lots of good things from this site.
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Permalink Reply by Bethany Burrow Atherton on
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It's a wrought iron gate just between Umfreville Road and the railway bridge over Green Lanes by Harringay Green Lanes Station. The gate has animals on it, including a fox and there is a notice board up by the gate with info on opening times and events.
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Permalink Reply by Hugo Read on
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The entrance is on Green Lanes very near the railway bridge. It's open 9-5 Monday to Friday only, but it is lovely. A real shame it's not more used.
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin on
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Hi Josephine
Railway Fields entrance is on Green Lanes, just before the bridge. Here is a map and a few blog posts about it.
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Sounds like a candidate for a Making the Difference Grant? http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/council/decisions/areaassemblies/b...
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Personally I think the starting point would be engaging with BCTV about when the site is open, and finding out what sorts of factors are involved - I'd imagine the number of willing volunteers being the key one! They have worked really hard on RF and I can't see much happening unless we work with them on any changes. I would love to see it open one day at the weekend and would be interested in finding out what we as a community could do to help with that.
I don't think the access issue is quite as straightforward. One key difference between this site and (say) the parkland walk is that it needs to be opened and locked at night - so the issue of staff is fairly fundamental. And of course it is a nature conservation site, so that has implications too.
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I totally agree with you Alison about the opening hours but the points you raised about a second gate I still think are minor and surmountable problems. Let's take them in order:
1. The issue of having to lock up. Well, they already have to lock one gate anyway and they told me themselves that as part of their locking-up procedure they have to tour the whole fields to make sure there isn't anyone left in the park. Consequently they already have to go over to where the second gate would be anyway and I don't believe that having to lock a second gate really wouldn't add to the work load in any meaningful way.
2. It's a nature conservation site. OK, people need to be careful, but surely the main thing they want is for people to actually see and use the site!
For me, the key thing about this is there is basically a potentially really nice access point that's already there waiting to be used and it would really improve the usability of the park and would introduce the local wildlife to many more people.
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Permalink Reply by Shem Law on
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Sorry to come to this late, But the 'Passage into Railway fields is not what it seems. It is not owned by the council... It is the way that 4 houses on Umfreville had their coal delivered. All other houses having the 3/4 cellars that had a 'coal hole' in the path, at least that is my understanding. The Right of way to the backs of these houses is owned by the furthest house from the entrance, so the council wouldn't have the right to open it up. Also there would be the 'security' issue as those residents may not want their back gardens to have an 'easy' escape route for our 'behoodied' friends that like to dabble in breaking and entering...
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Hello Shem. That's the kind of useful, but unfortunately idea quashing, response I was hoping for. Damn. Well if the passage isn't owned by the council I guess that's probably the end of it. Thanks for the response anyway! Interesting about the coal deliveries.
Such a shame. By the way, on the point of it being a potential thieves escape route, this is clearly true and would have been a problem that required some thought. However, if the gate was at the street end of the passage and there was fencing down the sides, then it would only be an escape route when the fields were open and even then the thieves would have had to go in the gate from the street and not from the side (if you see what I mean). Also I imagine it's already an escape route (if overgrown) and this plan could have been an opportunity to actually build a more secure gate than the mess that is currently there. Oh well.
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I'm not an expert, but I think Shem's information might warrant a bit of extra digging. Shem only mentions that a "right of way" is owned by the furthest house from the passage, but does not mention who owns the actual land that runs between and behind the houses. It may be that it was transferred to whichever builder bought those plots when the houses were built, but given that the main sewer runs under the Passage (and presumably continues along that path into Railway Fields and then on somewhere else), it may be that the council does own that land, along with the rest of the Passage, but had to give the right of way to allow the coal to be delivered.
Shem - any more info from your direction? Obviously, the right of way would not necessarily be able to be disturbed by Hugo's plan, but then nor would it necessarily need to be.
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Bethany,
I don't know much other than those 4 houses enjoy 24 access to Railway fields, something that I know the previous warden Mr Bevan had mixed feelings about, but was not able to do anything to curtail it. But I know he also felt that, the access allowed those residents to 'police' the area when the main gate is shut, and have in the past turfed out 'raves', drug dealing and other undesirables on a regular basis... The gate is padlocked by the residents and the annual clearing of the weeds and saplings is also done by them. Not sure how happy they would be about it becoming a public right of way. The main sewer does indeed pass under that part of the passageway, and the 'stench stack' that sits at the end of it is no doubt owned by somebody, probably Thames Water who are notoriously reluctant to give people access to anything (The new river canal being an example) So sorry to be an 'idea quasher'... But it has 'can of worms' written all over it...
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