Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The original Ally Pally
There is an image on the Alexandra Palace website of the original 1873 building taken of the main front aspect - link/image below. I cannot work out what or where the foreground buildings are. Logically they must be somewhere towards the eastern end of Hornsey High Street if we are looking face on to the palace building but in that area we should be able to see St Mary's Church. Can anyone shed any light on what these buildings are?
Tags for Forum Posts: alexandra palace
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Hugh on
-
A bit more on this. Below is a copy of the legend that appeared under the Hassell engraving.
Although it shows "I. Hassell", I assume that it is an old printer's 'J' since I can find no mention of an I. Hassell and the book is certainly by John, who was a well-known artist illustrating this sort of book.
The picture appears in a chapter entitled 'Hornsey And the Seat of Jacob Warner Esq.'. The chapter opens with the following:
The annexed view of Mr Warner’s house is taken from an elevated situation on a spot called Michell’s hills, which commands most extensive views in every direction overlooking a range of rich woody scenery in Essex, where a profusion of picturesque objects traverse in irregular sweeps up to the very horizon.
There is little doubt that the hills are those of Tottenham Wood Farm which is now the site of Ally Pally. The hills almost certainly got their name from Michael Mitchell who bought the estate for £11,400 in 1789. Although Mitchel had died and the estate sold by 1816, it is not difficult to imagine the name sticking for a number of years. (See the second section, The House that Michael Built in my piece on The Elms.)
Whilst that much is interesting, I'm not sure how much further it gets us. We do know that Hassell claims it is a view; which suggests then that the house is more like to be Campsbourne Lodge than it is Warners red-brick house that preceded The Priory. However, we also know that paintings of this type in this era often weren't accurate depictions of what the artist saw. So, it's almost impossible to be certain what we're looking at.
I think each person needs just take a view on the they think it is. But, in my view, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary (and HHS may well have some), what we can now say is that we can't be confident which house is portrayed in the picture.
PS: Unless the version of the picture done by Havell is identical to Hassell's, then we now also know that the HHS book cover is the Hassell version from the first edition.
-
Permalink Reply by Richard Woods on
-
I have that angle now - those houses are still there. In Newlands road (see below). Its a double pair of three storey villas taking advantage of the view across the New River. Ally Pally is off to the right through the tree. By the way i mis identified this as Campsbourne Road in an earlier post. The 'head on' nature of the view must be the result of old long focus bellows cameras.
-
Permalink Reply by Agabus on
-
I came across these houses when walking the dog about a year ago. They now seem very much out of place.
-
-
You surely mean all the new stuff looks out of place?
-
-
Make that four storeys!
-
-
I cannot go with the flipped image idea - it puits these houses back to front... as here:
-
-
If, when you say “these houses” you mean the ones in Newland Road, it can’t be those houses in the 19th century photo. The houses face the palace: those in the photo don’t. If you’re referring to other houses, I’ve no idea which you mean.
-
-
The picture you are looking at is the one you showed but flipped. In an unflipped image they face half toward the Ally Pall. The houses are the one in Newland Road here:
In this image Ally Pally is beyond the houses,to the right behind the trees and just visible.
Here is the original showing the double pair of four storey semi-detached villas in Newland Road.
I think.
-
-
Here's two versions of how the Newland houses relate to the palace, Richard. I'm afarid I just can't see any way to position them so that they're in a relationship to the palace that's even almost equivalent to the 19th century photo.
-
-
I agree the problem but I will bet those are the right houses. I have pulled up rafts of images of Ally Pally trying to see which end of the hill has the steepest drop as that will clarify orientation; so far no luck!
-
Permalink Reply by Ken Stevens on
-
Forgot I had this distant view. It was filed under 'personal' as a reminder of the vista that I gazed at out of the Stationers' school window decades later, wishing that I was over there, not over here ;-) Topography supports the flipping theory
-
-
Hi Ken,
I recall that view from the physics and chem labs! I think we were contemporaries?
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
