Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Hell that is Wood Green
Yesterday, I had the misfortune to find myself in the shopping mall. Walking out the big automatic doors and into the crowd of Star Wars pub extras who were smoking, spitting and squabbling on the footpath I witnessed what for me sums up the whole carbuncle on the arse of Haringey that is Wood Green High Road. One of the characters stormed through the crowd with his status dog in tow. I was reflecting on the fact that ‘status’ dogs don't seem to work (as the people who have them only ever seem to be what everyone else in society would consider low status). Everything suddenly went quiet except the ever present sirens. The status dog had stopped and released its copious bowels all over the footpath. It was like turning on the light in an HMO; the cockroaches screamed and scattered. The dog owner laughed and walked on. It was probably one of the most disgusting things I have seen or smelt in London. Eventually the crowd returned and watched the next horde trample the mess up and down the road. There was no-one to turn to, no-one to clean up and more importantly no-one with the authority to challenge and/or shoot the dog owner. Things just returned to normal.
The whole experience made me think how the council, local police and traders believe that we're all animals if they are happy for us to have to deal with this every time we go to the High Road. It's easy enough for me to hop on a bus and head off to Crouch End or Islington or even Enfield to shop but if you're older or disabled and have trouble getting around or not enough money for the bus it must be pretty grim to face it every day. Imagine how the standard little old lady dreads heading out into the crowds, litter, phlegm, smoke and anti-social behaviour of Wood Green every morning to get the milk.
Short of manning water cannons at each end of the High Road and employing some mercenaries with batons to control the crowds, I don’t know what can be done. Are there any clever ‘nudges’ or interventions that could improve Wood Green? Is it a matter of tarting the place up and hoping that the crowds respect their new surroundings? Is it signage to remind, and in many instances educate, people that spitting, littering and barging into other people is just not the done thing? Or do we just give up, bulldoze the lot and install a waterhole in the middle and let the law of the jungle and the status dog owners prevail?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sharon on
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Dreadful inarticulate social housing dwellers breathing and spitting, smoking and taking clothes out of recycling bins V organic ciabbatta and 10 quid a jar local honey addicts.
Tough Call.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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♪♫
Wood Green folks should stick together
Wood Green folks should all be pals
Eloi dance with the Morlock's daughters
Morlocks dance with the Eloi gals
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Ha! I'm both working class AND poor and live in 'social' housing. I don't like bad manners either but can tolerate them. God!...the middle classes and their fondness for public farting! I was being ironic...I think, apart from the ciabbatta bit. :-)
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I think this has got to the stage where you should define " middle class "
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I'm serious. If you ( and others ) are going to sneer at " middle class " people, it would be interesting to know how you define them. I personally thought that class distinctions were meaningless nowadays but you obviously don't. Is a middle-class person just someone who holds different opinions to you ?
I think we should be told
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John D, There's plenty of sneering at 'low status' people on this thread and definitions to boot, also assumptions about their intelligence 'less articulate'. I didn't define them though, nor have I mentioned the M word. As Phil pointed out, bad manners cross all social groups. Class is how we identify ourselves, not for others to do so.
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Really ? I thought you did - " the middle classes and their fondness for public farting! "
I would still like to hear your definition of " middle class "
Maybe James Kellow could contribute too.
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Oh, yeah, so I did. I won't define the M word though, we all know that such a definition is complicated, personal and very much to do with self identification and status, but I will say that the gentle ribbing toward the proud public farters seems to be a direct response to the vile fantasy and definitions of 'low status' which opened and contributed to this thread.
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Permalink Reply by Albert Ross on
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