Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
1915: Anti-German riots in Harringay
It was the sinking of the Lusitania on 7th May 1915, that caused anti-German feeling, which had been bubbling constantly and meant that Germans were subjected to increasing levels of control by the government, to explode into riots and attacks upon German businesses and civilians and which, of course, led to the internment of male Germans in prison camps, such as the one at Ally Pally.
It stood to reason that Green Lanes must have also seen levels of violence directed against German owned businesses.
I have managed to find a tiny paragraph about it from the Tottenham and Edmonton Weekly Herald. The scanned copy is very hard to read but I have tried to decipher it
Green-Lanes, Harringay presented an animated scene. Windows were smashed at the baker's shop of Messrs Hullman Bros of [? not clear] Green Lanes and at Mr Mohlenbrocks, provision merchants, of 565 Green-Lanes.
The report also mentions that
A hostile crowd of 500 persons gathered outside the hairdressers shop of Mr Joseph Metzler at 150[?] St Ann's Road, Harringay and smashed two panes of glass.
The worst affected premises was a fancy goods shop on West Green Road, owned by Wilhelm Jung of 89 West Green Road where a crowd of 3,000 gathered to throw stones at the windows. The crowd was dispersed but not before they had inflicted severe damage on the shop and its neighbours and also struck a local constable with stones.
The report mentions that all the shop owners stayed on the premises during the attacks with the exception of Mrs Jung and her little daughter who was "given the shelter of a friendly neighbour's house". The report also notes that "an Englishman has since re-opened" the Jung's shop.
Presumably Wilhelm Jung and the other shop owners would soon have been sent to an internment camp, thereby destroying their businesses and their family life.
The riots continued all weekend, despite the heavy rain dampening the "patriotism" of some of the rioters, with a lot of the violence carried out on Tottenham High Road. Police presence appeared to have been increased and some military units from the Royal Engineers were paraded in the area but the violence of the Thursday night reported by the Herald above was not repeated, despite small crowds gathering on Green Lanes over the weekend.
Tags for Forum Posts: 1915, riots, world war one, ww1
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ruth on
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How quickly 'people' can become 'a mob' and neighbour turn against others. Very sad.
But fortunately there was a friendly neighbour here to shelter the wife and daughter.
I haven't hear of any mob attacking the residence of a (mostly) German family at a big house in town, I think it's called Buckingham Palace…..
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Permalink Reply by SarahC on
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Assuming the numbers haven't changed Streetview has the West Green Rd shop as Simon Stewart clothing, next to Bom Pecado. The building hasn't changed much.
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Permalink Reply by hob on
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I always felt sorry for Carl Bernard Bartels. He was a naturalised Briton living in Tottenham. He won a competition to design the liver birds on top of "The Liver Building" in Liverpool. He was in Liverpool overseeing his project in 1915. The sinking of The Lusitania caused particular outrage in Liverpool and Bartels was interned on The Isle of Man. After the war he was deported to Germany.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Until WW1, German, Bakers, Butchers & Beer Suppliers were the norm in the U.K.
Even back then, the Brits were good at 'Spin' and certainly won the propaganda war, assuming the moral high ground - pointing out the enemies wrong doings, although never admitting the home grown ones - something that sadly continues until today. The United Kingdom's aims in WW1 were actually not very different to Germany's and it has to be said, 'the Empire' was enlarged as a result of the war by stealing German Colonies. Something that worked negatively against the U.K. in the post WW2 period.
But in the long term, it all worked out well. German companies currently provide 400,000 jobs in the U.K.
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