Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
A Tunnel under the Great Northern Line?
This is the second or third time I've seen this rumour. Anyone know if there's anything to it?
"As a kid growing up in Harringay I remember there being talk of a tunnel under the railway (Kings Cross - Hornsey - Potters Bar) from Wightman Road (very close to the junction with Beresford Road) to Weston Park.
"As I recall there were council depots at either end which could have been the entrances, but at the eastern end there is/was a house with a 'underground' garage which could equally have been an entrance.
"My interest at the time was that it would have saved me a heck of a long walk to school!
"Am I dreaming / did this exist / was a local urban myth?" See also this post.
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Tags for Forum Posts: harringay mysteries, harringay tunnel, new river tower, stonebridge brook, wightman road
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Re: photo I've added. Looking through the steel grill/gate I saw large pipes coming from the ground and going part way up the tower, which is why I think it's New River related. The historical image seems to comfirm this even though it looks as though the original structure has been added to since, increasing its height.
Of course I had originally thought & hoped it was tunnel related, an air vent or something. -
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Any chance of dating the brickwork? Railway related (c.1850s) ? Later ? Or, better still, earlier - say, 1820-'24 ?
Isn't that chimney-tower the southern gable of quite a large building with eight joist slots suggesting two or three upper floors?
The final remains of Mr Gray's boiler house - or one of his more distant forcing houses (pinery, grapery, orangery etc) 550' from the larger boiler but still within 2 degrees of the source temperature ?
All left standing as a curiosity or found folly by his successors, by the Railway, by Wightman Road builders, by the Road depot, by Thames Water, by the grandly named Diagnostic Centre garage . . . . . . Well, maybe a bit romantic - but prove I'm wrong. -
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That sounds like it was a water reservoir to feed into the attic of the big house.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Could be, except if you look at my overlay of the 1880 map on a modern satellite you'll see that back then it stood in the middle of a field with another loop of the river between it and the house. So I'm not so sure.
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Except that the white square your arrow points to is part of the modern map.
How long ago was it that that stretch of the New River was installed? I'd think our tower was part of that construction - reasons however still unknown! I like OAE & Hob's thoughts. Probably was for use by the Harringay Estate. -
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Yes Matt, the structure is on the modern map, but I'm assuming it hasn't moved since it was built. Fair assumption? ;o)
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Point being we still don't know when it was built and therefore what it relates to and ultimately its original function and possibly changing use over time.
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Well, anything it related to, I guess, will be on of one of the two map layers in my picture. So we can see any relation it will have had to any structure that's stood for the last 300 years with those layers.
I'd been picking up on Hob's muse that it might relate to a big house. The only big house round here was Harringay House. I was looking to see whether that interesting possibility was likley; hence the two layered map. -
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Just came across my earlier post on this.
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I may have a clue about this from a conversation the other day. Chatting to a resident of one of the live-work units in Harringay's warehouse district behind Sainsbury's, I learned about a tunnel that used to run under what's now the Overground railway. Apparently, it connected St Ann''s Hospital with land it owned the other side of the tracks.
This certainly stacks up in my 1913 Bartholomew's. This shows a 'Recreation Ground' apparently linked to St Ann's. It makes sense that there'd been a link to the main hospital property. I'm told that the bricked up entrance is still visible. More soon - unless someone else gets there before me.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Never one to resist a challenge, I went along to the hospital for a look. One of the staff told me that yes, there was a tunnel entrance but he didn't know exactly where and it would be overgrown. He was right with the last bit. It's very difficult to get through the dense undergrowth ( with thorns
)and then there is a chain-link fence, after which you are trespassing on Railway Property. So no luck finding it. -
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