Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Family Memories of a Green Lanes Sweet Shop
The following was posted on my page by new member Peter Robinson:
My grandfather Robert Robinson had sweetshops in Islington, Highbury, Stoke Newington, possibly Wood Green, and at 497 Green Lanes, Harringay. They were all on tram routes as, not having his own transport, he used the tram to deliver sweets to his shops.
He died in 1926, before I was born. Apparently he would carry a bag of liver in his pocket to feed stray cats as he walked along the street, they would recognise his thin whistling.
My father inherited 497 Green Lanes and, in about 1938, converted it into a cafe/restaurant, partitioning off a corner at the front to form a now smaller sweetshop/tobacconist. His ice cream was very popular locally, and won medals at the food fair at Alexandra Palace.
Many of the lunchtime customers were from the Ever Ready works. The cafe would stay open late to serve customers from the arena & stadium.
While in the army during the War my father, like so many men, resolved to do something different and in 1951 he took up market gardening. The cafe and shop were let and, in the 1970s, sold.
There was a record shop at that time in what had been the sweetshop. Next doors at 495 was Newman's, grocers. They specialised in repackaging dried fruit, as a child I loved the smell.
I can remember the lamp posts and tram poles, along Green Lanes, being wrapped in red, white & blue for the 1937 Coronation.
I have no photo of 497 Green Lanes from my family's time, and would love to see one.
497 today - the most northerly of the Yasir Halim shops.
My grandfather Robert Robinson had sweetshops in Islington, Highbury, Stoke Newington, possibly Wood Green, and at 497 Green Lanes, Harringay. They were all on tram routes as, not having his own transport, he used the tram to deliver sweets to his shops.
He died in 1926, before I was born. Apparently he would carry a bag of liver in his pocket to feed stray cats as he walked along the street, they would recognise his thin whistling.
My father inherited 497 Green Lanes and, in about 1938, converted it into a cafe/restaurant, partitioning off a corner at the front to form a now smaller sweetshop/tobacconist. His ice cream was very popular locally, and won medals at the food fair at Alexandra Palace.
Many of the lunchtime customers were from the Ever Ready works. The cafe would stay open late to serve customers from the arena & stadium.
While in the army during the War my father, like so many men, resolved to do something different and in 1951 he took up market gardening. The cafe and shop were let and, in the 1970s, sold.
There was a record shop at that time in what had been the sweetshop. Next doors at 495 was Newman's, grocers. They specialised in repackaging dried fruit, as a child I loved the smell.
I can remember the lamp posts and tram poles, along Green Lanes, being wrapped in red, white & blue for the 1937 Coronation.
I have no photo of 497 Green Lanes from my family's time, and would love to see one.
497 today - the most northerly of the Yasir Halim shops.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I sent Peter some photos of as close as I could get to his family's shop and the relevant period. Peter commented with the following in reply:
Thanks for the photographs. The one with the open-topped tram may well not be too early, what date would you give it? I do not not know when Robert Robinson opened the shop in 497 Green Lanes, but he was there in the 1914 Kelly's Directory.
You mentioned that in the photograph of 409-414 the street looked hit by the depression. I believe it was, which was one of the reasons my father Jack Robinson felt the need to branch out into catering. As it was, he had not recovered his investment before the War and rationing arrived. The cafe/restaurant stayed open throughout the War and, I believe, served a local need. In the photograph number 411 is clearly a manufactuary of something or other. There were several of these. In all the period I can remember number 499 was the same, in about 1950 producing flowers made of felt.
The problem with Green Lanes Harringay was that it lost out to Wood Green which, being developed later, had more modern shops. There was no demand for two major shopping centres so close together. -
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