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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

We are thinking of moving to Harringay (the ladder near Fins Park) or Stroud Green. This is based on a bit of wandering and having been priced out of East London.

Schools are a key requirement so can anyone recommend good primary schools that are friendly/creative that are near Finsbury Park?

As a more general question, where are nice pockets for families/kids to grow up? ive hear such different things about Harringay versus SGreen (some claiming the former is quite hectic while others say its good and vibrant). We have a  toddler so are up for a safe friendly 'hood and a few nice playgrounds/cafes etc. My partner also runs lots and I swim lots. Oh and Im a printmaker so any art organisations or facilities would be good.

Tags for Forum Posts: education, property, schools, what's harringay like?

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Seven Sisters school has places... you'll need to live right next to one in Harringay in a few years.

I live on Pemberton, 100-150m from Green lanes, and you would hardly know at times it was there. We kick our kids out on to the street at every opportunity (so they do not develop square eyes), and pretty much all the primary schools will find someone with positive experiences, they are all great. 

Take a walk on Pemberton on Sunday afternoon and we should be running our Play Street where we close the road for kids to play for 3 hours. There is a little talk of one being developed at the north end of the Ladder too!

I think Harringay is a great place for families, I have found some great friends (as have my children) and I feel very lucky to have a great local community. Lots of places for the children to play, and for all of us to eat and drink. We've been here 10 years and each year I've noticed more young families moving here.

We live on one of the little streets off St Annes Rd, close to Chestnuts Park and my children go to Chestnuts School which is great. I don't really know the schools closer to Finsbury Park but I do know South and North Harringay Primaries, both of which are good.

Sadly, as John says, you have to live very close to get into these local schools, they are all oversubscribed. I think this year the catchments are about 0.2 miles or less - confusingly the catchments change mainly due to the number of siblings starting school. I'm sure the same is true for schools in Finsbury Park. This page: http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/children-families/education/school... tells you about catchment areas and you can download a PDF giving you previous year's cut offs - but they do change every year!

Good luck with your search.

North Harringay catchment is fairly ok - 2012 was a bit of a freak year! I think it would cover all of the ladder. It's all a fairly stressful time though!

No, cut off distances mean very little. As the council says here, school catchment areas are determined by 'the distance of the last child offered a place at a particular Haringey school' , so it can only serve as some sort of very rough guidance.

What I have heard of is situations where parents living in one of the roads in the middle of the ladder haven't been able to get into either school. Not good!

Yes, of course it changes from year to year, but if you look at the last five years or however many they give you it will give you a pretty good idea of the relative likelihood of getting in somewhere. North Harringay's furthest away child has always been significantly further away than South's, except for in 2012.

St Aidans is really popular and only takes one class per year, so its intake is 30 pupils. I'd imagine with siblings etc that doesn't leave that many. South Harringay is two classes per year (a few years back it was three), I'm not sure about North Harringay or Chestnuts.

If you do buy on Pemberton then you will be right next to South Harringay schools.

Last few years have had higher than average numbers of siblings apparently which put a real squeeze on places.

I've lived in Stroud Green and now live on the ladder. I much prefer the ladder. Like Justin says Green Lanes is there with everything you need but the streets themselves are much quieter. My kids play out all the time with their friends in our street.

Neighbours are great and we all take parcels in for each other and stop to chat. 

Hope that helps...

You might find it worthwhile checking out the discussions linked by the additional tag I've added under your original post.

I've been in Harringay since 2001, but lived in Stroud Green before that and still go there a fair bit. SG feels more affluent than Harringay, though has many of the same problems (HMOs - houses of multiple occupation - being one example). The main shopping road has changed along with the residents, more delis and cafes than I remember. Great transport links, good access to Finsbury Park and Crouch End. Stationers Park is lovely too if you are near it.

But ... housing-wise you get a lot more for your money here I think, and personally I vastly prefer Green Lanes shopping to that on SG road. More choice of schools too (though I'm sure I don't know some of the SG options - just St Aidan's and SG school itself). And my sense is there is more of a feeling of local community here than in SG. I'd not move back myself.

Best of luck with your search!

I've lived in both Stroud Green and Harringay. Love them both. Liked Stroud Green Road pre-kids when I had the chance to eat out lots at the lovely restaurants. Now Harringay definitely suits me better.

We live on the Ladder and have a child starting school this year. We are based between two schools but would have only qualified for one on distance but so far, our experience has been really positive so we were happy with what we got. School is very different from my day so while I can't speak for the creativity available yet, there seems lots of opportunities for imaginative play and so on.

Lots of parks nearby with playgrounds. Harringay also has The Chocolate Factory in Wood Green nearby. There are lots of entrepreneurs based there and studio space etc.

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