Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Very old Harringay-ite new to Harringay Online

Hallo Everybody, I'm Bob-O. I'm new to the Group and would like to introduce myself. I moved into Harringay in 1941, aged five, with my Mum & Dad and left after 22 years with my new wife and baby, when we got visas to move south of the river to Kent!

My family lived in 19 Stanhope Gardens until 1947 when we were evicted (a story for later) and moved into a flat in Grand Parade in Green Lanes, No.63c, over the Jayrose furniture store.

I started school at what was then Woodlands Park Infants School (now Chestnuts Primary School) and have class photos from 1941 and 1942. I moved up into the boys school there around 1943 and went on to Hornsey County Grammar School in Pemberton Road. I left school in the summer of 1952 to go to work. Coincidentally Hornsey County closed for good that summer.

There's much I could relate about growing up in Harringay during the war with adventures on bomb sites and toboganning down the railway embankment at Harringay Park station (the old LT&S railway station). I also remember the sound of the doodlebug whooshing over our house in 1944, before it destroyed the old Ever Ready battery factory at the corner of St Ann's Road and Warwick Gardens - but didn't hear the explosion, despite us losing all our windows!

I could witter on but will leave it there for the time being. I'm interested in the history of Harringay. Jill and I moved to Gravesend in Kent in 1970 after other moves and are still there.

By the way, what's the protocol on real-world names?

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Permalink Reply by Ozbawn on December 22, 2021 at 16:03

Happy Christmas Bob!

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on December 22, 2021 at 17:02

Hi Robert, Thank you for sharing some of your memories. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Protocol on names is that it's very much up to you. Some people do. Some don't.

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Permalink Reply by JonS on December 23, 2021 at 7:53

Hello Robert, one of my kids is still in Chestnuts. Would be great if you could share the old class photos. Jon

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Permalink Reply by Pugface on December 23, 2021 at 10:51

Please keep wittering!

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Permalink Reply by Geraldine on December 24, 2021 at 6:59

Hello Bob. Thanks for this interesting post. Welcome to HOL You came to Harringay aged five in 1941 - the year I was born. I was too small to remember the doodlebugs but my mother used to listen for them and herd us into the space under the stairs when the droning stopped. We were at the bottom of Seymour Road next to Jolly's the grocer. My elder sister went to Hornsey County Grammar. She matriculated around 1949 or 1950. We had one of those long, rolled-up photos of the entire school but it eventually fell apart. In 1952, Hornsey County School became a Secondary Modern School. Not as 'bright' as my elder sister, I failed the 11-plus and was among the first pupils in 1953.