Harringay House remained in service. This would have meant building a temporary new curve which I have shown in blue on the attached overlay map. Work on the tunnel would then have been able to start in the original bed of the river just outside the temporary embankment. I have often wondered how much of a cutting was made into the rising land before tunneling proper began. It seems likely that the job was finished before any houses were built nearby. It can be seen from the map that numbers 219 and 221 Wightman Road were built over the original bed of the river and the same applies to several houses in Beresford Road and some in Allison, Hewitt and Seymour. Some other ladder houses were built over the original bed of the Stonebridge brook which is now in a culvert which passes under the New River on its way down to the river Lea.
Wightman201%201894%20overlaid%20on%201870.jpg…
Added by Dick Harris at 13:39 on February 25, 2022
so residents can come and talk about and discuss issues in the ward and what can be done to tackle them.
We were really pleased that residents took us up on our first invitation. We had a long discussion about the rubbish and dumping in the ward, the state of Ducketts Common, and abandoned vehicles on Denmark Road, and the proposed housing development on Hampden Road. We have a list of actions to follow up as a result.
We plan to hold this event on the 4th Saturday of every month and really hope people will come along.
We will, of course, always take up individual cases through surgeries, but this experiment is an effort to extend wider community engagement so we can work with you on issues, sharing ideas to make improvements, and to be accountable. We want to keep up a dialogue and will report back on how things go.
Hope to see some of you at St. Paul's Church. We are really grateful to St. Paul's Church for being supportive in this.
Emine Ibrahim
Zena Brabazon
Councillors, Harringay Ward…
a local businessman. We bumped into one of his clients. Charlie, from Hampden Road, shared with us what to me was almost incredible news. He told us that his downstairs neighbour had just secured an Olympics let of his two bed Hampden Road flat at £1,500 per week. Yes, PER WEEK!
Hard to believe, but apparently true. I introduced myself, explained the reason for my interest and asked Charlie which agency his neighbour had let through. He wasn't sure of the exact one, but assured me that a quick Google would offer a range of agencies.
Sure enough and here's a Google search on 'London olympics lettings'.
Diving into a randomly chosen site seems to suggest that the figure Charlie quoted is pretty realistic. The site I looked at included:
- Mountview Road 5 bed house at £9,995 per week
- Shaftesbury Road, N19, 2 bed flat at £2,000 per week
- Quernmore Road, 2 bed flat at £1,795 per week
Quite something of an Olympics bonanza!
Has anyone else been down this route?
…
myself it usually feels fine-even late at night. An observation i can make personally is that i've had more hassle walking back from crouch end on the 'posh' side of the tracks than i ever had round my road or the tube. Personally i think the 24hr shop culture means a level of people out and about which makes it feel more like you're not on your own.
Regarding property security I have never been burgled but some in my street have been. I don't think it's any worse than most london areas but i don't know the stats - i imagine google can find them for you if it's a concern.
Hampden has taller terraces and i think possibly more flat conversions & i'd have thought therefore a slightly higher concentration of inhabitants than other ladder roads.I don't know whether there are any issues with car spaces for residents living in the street(as in, if its hard to get one when everyone is home). If that is of concern maybe an actual Hampton-ite will be able to tell you.
At certain peak times of the day there is a bit of through traffic on Wightman/Green Lanes and the ladder roads but otherwise evenings weekends etc it's usually fine. I think Hampden also currently gets some heavy traffic from the works going on in the railway yards by Hornsey station. I imagine this will end when the works do but if i were buying in that street i guess i'd check it out.
You would be ideally placed transport and shops wise IMHO and also quite close to various leisure facilities if that's your thing. I'm a member of a local running club and crossfit gym which are about 5 mins walk away from Hampden(on the Hornsey side) and there are various other gyms close by (wood green high st, green lanes and the excellent Tottenham pool leisure centre). There are also loads of green spaces to discover nearby which might not be obvious initially. For example there's a nice bit of canal tow path which starts just by the mosque at the end of Hampden & cuts back up behind the houses on wightman road. It is a lovely detour avoiding the hill and traffic on wightman particularly on a sunny day(can be a bit boggy in parts in winter)-it puts you out somewhere near Hewitt rd which is about middle-ish on the ladder.
If the tubes are up the spout you can pretty much always get a train instead to fin pk at least which i personally find very useful. There are loads of buses to various places too of course but generally tube & trains are quickest & most direct for me as I commute to the city.
There are high street shops an easy walk away (in the admittedly busy and sometimes a bit litter strewn) Wood green but also very many interesting shops if you walk south down green lanes- if you're at all a keen cook you can get pretty much all manner of specialist food items on green lanes.(with the exception of Japanese). There's an oriental grocer just off the high st at Turnpike lane who also do fresh fish and crabs, prawns etc fresh or frozen.
Turnpike lane itself has the amazing double fronted BuytoSave (on the south side just before the passage) which is open 24hrs and has mountains of fresh produce, herbs, groceries - & organic & free range eggs. I think they have sussed out their varied customer base quite well and i can get quite a lot of my supermarket type shopping as well as fresh fruit and veg there. I don't buy meat from them but they do also sell it, so it's quite comprehensive for a local shop. In fact i find apart from occasional pop ins to the tesco by the tube (when i'm being lazy), I often dont have to go to a supermarket at all for anything. Cheap cleaning and household items can be got in local shops or in larger volume from wilkinson in the mall in wood green. (again easy walk)
Entertainment wise if you want to go out locally for live music or comedy there are now at least 2(jam in a jar, bun n bar, jazz at the salisbury) and often more live music venues on weekend evenings on the stretch of restaurants and bars going south down green lanes as well as the wonderful Salisbury pub and tons of amazing restaurants. In the other direction toward wood green the very excellent Big Green bookshop is a short stroll away off wood green high street. In addition to being a great shop and ideal for present buying/browsing etc i've seen some really great comedy there as well as attended some great authors talks. They may be small but are very good and can get you anything you ask for(of a book variety). Not every bookshop has such affable service. A cup of tea and a biscuit is not out of the question, and authors also clearly love them as there have been some fantastic author visits there too from quite big names.
I don't know much about it really but the chocolate factory in wood green has lots of artists studios and live music at the karamel club nearby etc. I've been to the artists open studios days there and have been amazed by what is going on and the variety and quality of artists and small businesses.
Finally, i can confirm the existence of excellent coffee at local venues for a lovely weekend breakfast if that is at all relevant. Closest to Hampden rd for coffee lovers is Blend (recently featured in time out) and further down the ladder on wightman road- by Harringay station is Moka. There are also of course loads of other breakfast venues, but my recommendations tend to be driven by my coffee snobbery hence these 2 particular mentions!
To show i'm not all snob- i have it on good authority from a neighbour that the cabin snack bar on wightman rd(just by the corner of hampden) does an excellent toasted sandwich! Her son is a convert..
So- pretty much, I guess i'm saying its a good area to live people are friendly and presuming you find properties you like to actually live in, i would recommend it. :-)
…
o longer take their early morning prisoner convoy down Wightman.
Yesterday my wife was followed into Lausanne by a very big truck (she said bigger than a skip truck). She stopped in the middle of the road with her hazard lights on, got out and asked the driver if he spotted the 7.5t sign. He said he hadn't, bent over backwards to be polite and reversed out of the street. I am sure that this is how things are done in Muesli Hill.
Tony Kennedy has promised both myself and wifey to get the 7.5t signs at the entrance to Willoughby and Hampden put up but... I notice he put the one at this junction in a really useless spot but perhaps there was not much choice.…
dgements. (alan.stanton@virgin.net)
I've also been following-up a larger issue. Which is the need for cross-department cross-agency reporting arrangements, so that ideally there would be prompt reports as soon as these problems become visible. People doing the reporting need not necessarily be Council or Veolia staff. Those first spotting the problem are just as likely to be staff of nearby shops; or bus or tube workers; or of course members of the public.
Cllr David Schmitz was chasing the Hampden Road "pool" problem. I hope he's had a clear and accurate response by now. This has been recurring too often and for too long. It needs effective collaboration between the various landowners involved, with a lasting "upstream" solution.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)…
not sure where now) there was a grocers shop on the corner. I worked there after school and at weekends as a delivery boy and at Christmas helped with dressing the freshly delivered chickens in the back store room - it wouldn't be allowed today.
…
ourage high-rise. Also, you are right to say that "high density" does not necessarily mean "high-rise". In the case of the proposed Hampden Road development, I am in agreement with those who argue that it is inappropriate and out of scale in an area of 2/3 storey buildings. I also think you are completely right about local authorities and their attitude to planning law. And I applaud those local people who stand up against inappropriate developments, and who stand up for a proper percentage of social housing. I also applaud everything that you and people on this community website do to keep all of us informed, and to allow discussion of community issues. I apologise if any of my posts here seemed combative. That was not my intention.…
- it gets a proper cycle lane along Wightman - the Warham traffic would be solved as lots of it wont be able to turn south - it would also reduce traffic on Fairfax which is another of the top busy roadsPresumably Wightman would have to remain two way from north of Hampden Rd to allow access to the railway yard, so with nothing else all those southbound cars would try to go via the northern Ladder rungs to Willoughby / Frobisher / Green Lanes which doesn't sound much fun. Package 3 does also include "discourage through traffic on Willoughby" though, so maybe there is something to deal with that.…