o reproduce the material here together with a little bonus story!
A London Childhood: The Shove Ha'penny Board That Saved My Life
I was born in the Royal Northern Hospital, Holloway at 3.20 in the morning on the 28th December 1944. Being a Thursday that made me a child with ‘far to go’. How true. 11 days later, just after noon on 8th January 1945, I was blown up by a V2 rocket - a Vergeltungswaffen as the Nazi High Command liked to call them.
Of course, I shouldn’t have been London at all. The local Air Raid Precautions officer had arranged for my mother and I to be evacuated to Dunmow in Essex - but with the weather being so terrible and my father at home on embarkation leave before being shipped off to the Middle East, my mother decided to stay put. Taking air raid precautions into her own hands she defied Hitler and his crumbling Reich by placing a shove ha’penny board over the top of my cot. “Just in case” she said. I was not consulted about any of this.
The V2 landed at the top of Sydney Road, about 200 yards from where I was fast asleep, in my cot, under my shove ha’penny board. The blast from 1 ton of Amatol high explosive blew down a row of houses and smartly removed our front door and most of the windows. It also brought the ceiling of my bedroom crashing down on top of me and my shove ha’penny board.
My grandfather who counted himself a bit of an expert on these things said that we were lucky that it wasn’t a V1 ‘doodle bug’ that landed in Sydney Road. Whereas the V2 hit the ground at supersonic speed and buried itself before blowing up, the V1 simply fluttered to earth when it ran out of fuel and blew up on the surface, flattening houses on all sides. My grandfather knew all about V1s having been chased up the Seven Sisters Road by one when he was cycling home from work. During the air raids of the earlier part of the war, instead of joining the family in the Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden, he would sit outside in a deck chair giving a running commentary as the bombers came over…
“It looks like they’re going for the gas works again! Hampden Road has been hit and there’s a nasty fire brewing up at George’s old school … here comes another one now!”
My grandmother said afterwards that she couldn’t decide what was worse. Enemy action or my grandfather carrying on about it…
The V2 rocket that fell onto Sydney Road just after midday on the 8th December 1945 took a number of lives. It was the end of the school Christmas holidays, it was freezing cold and most people were indoors. They were killed. A decorator who had been working on one of the houses in Sydney Road counted himself lucky. He normally went home for his lunch at 1.00 o’clock. On that day he decided to leave at 12.00. He was walking up the street when the rocket hit and he survived… and so did I, underneath half a ton of plaster and lath and my shove ha’penny board.
When I was a little older my grandfather told me later all about the V2 that fell on Sydney Road, Hornsey that morning in January 1945. He said that it was travelling so fast that the first thing he heard was the boom of the explosion. The whistle of it arriving came seconds later. I couldn’t argue with him. He was actually there when it happened. I didn’t see a thing. I was underneath a shove ha’penny board.
— from Martyn Day
Comments
I was 6 years old and lived at No 39 Sydney road when the V2 rocket struck in January 1945…..at the moment of impact I was in the alley that linked Sydney Road to Turnpike Lane…with my friend Stanley Farrant (whose father owned the sweetshop in Turnpike Lane)
Doug Winter at 9 September 2010 5:02 PM
A fellow survivor! I remember that alley that linked the streets to Turnpike Lane. It was - and still is - known as “The Passages” and when I was older I would walk down there to the Co-op on the corner, ration book in my hand and my mother’s ‘divi’ number in my memory. 60 years on I can still remember that 6 digit number.
Martyn Day at 23 September 2010 11:55 AM
To Doug Winter, you mentioned Stanley Farrant, did you know he moved to Southend on Sea with his parents, but was killed by a man who tried to gatecrash his step daughters birthday party, he died a year and a day and 4 hours after the attack, so the attacker got away with murder, or so we thought
Dave Bruce at 15 October 2010 10:22 AM
Additional snippet by email
I lived in Lausanne Road until about 1950 and have some happy memories of my time there - from the old lady who would hoick up her skirt and openly pee in the gutter to Bernard Bresslaw, star of "The Army Game" and many 'Carry On' films who bought an antique shop on Wightman Road. One story that Hugh might be interested in is on the corner of Lausannne Road and the central 'passages' is a house, probably the only in the area, still retaining its original cast iron railings. At the start of the war when the government encouraged people to sacrifice iron railings and gates etc to be used to build Spitfires (oh yeah?) a German woman was living in the house and she refused her railings. Neighbours gave her a hard time during the war and even after when I was a child the woman rarely appeared. Her house looked closed up, with curtains drawn and garden untended. The railings are still there I believe.
With best regards, Martyn
The following picture of the house to which Martyn refers, showing the railings still intact, has been added by me:
(With thanks to Peter Mahnke of the St Margaret's Community website for facilitating permission for us to publish this material)
…
bout how the mosque started and how it runs today.
Harringay's mosque was started in 1983 by Guyanese Indian Abdool Alli long with a small group of Muslims, predominantly from Guyana. The group felt the need to create a welcoming space to bring together its members both religiously and socially. The mosque retains it Guyanese connections today and still has a Guyanese president: apparently, it is known as the Guyanese Mosque. However, it is far from being exclusive: it has a Bangladeshi imam and counts 33 nationalities amongst its community.
For the first few years, the mosque was run in Abdool Alli's home on Willoughby Road. Then in 1985, the group bought a house in Parkview Road, Tottenham. Two years later they acquired the former synagogue on the corner of Wightman and Hampden Roads.
Between 1998 and 2002, the new mosque was built. I was told that the group were determined not to be beholden to any funder and so raised all the funds from their worshippers and other well-wishers. Each item needed for building was costed and then donors gave an amount they could afford sufficient to fund a particular part, for example a window or a section of the huge prayer carpet.
In 2013 two additional floors were added, which included numerous classrooms along with a large function room.
I was completely unaware of the mosque's Guyanese connection. This has a particular resonance for me since I was a child of Empire, born in Georgetown.
Everyone I met at the mosque was most welcoming and very friendly. My visit means that the mosque has gone from being a building of mystery that I walk past, to one which will offer a warm glow as I pass.
Main prayer space.
The Mirhab niche in the qibla wall which indicates the direction of Mecca
Additional men's prayer room to accommodate Friday prayer overflow. I was told that this is the original building of the synagogue.
The ladies prayer space, overlooking the men's space and facing the Mirhab
Looking north along thje New River from the first floor function room.…
ng views over Alexandra Palace and harming a conservation area.
It lost an appeal to build on the site, sandwiched between the residential New River Village and the new Haringey Heartlands scheme, in March last year.
Network Rail then flipped the larger depot to south London and brought the smaller one up to Hornsey, as part of the Thameslink upgrade programme - promising around 120 new jobs.
But the move has angered rail union the RMT as the larger depot had promised 270 jobs.
"Without anyone trying, Haringey has lost 150 jobs,” said John Stanford, Hornsey branch secretary of the RMT union. "It really is important that we get those jobs."
The depot has links with nearby schools and uses local contractors, he said, adding: "It means a lot to the people of the borough, from apprenticeships to numerous job vacancies."
Mr Stanford, who has worked at the 340-employee Hampden Road depot in Harringay for 40 years, added: "From the union’s point of view, and with the unemployment in Haringey, we believe that those new jobs should be here."
Network Rail consulted on the smaller scheme earlier this year, with Thameslink programme director Jim Crawford saying at the time that its benefits "will be felt across London and the south east, with significant opportunities for improvements to services on the line through Hornsey". He added: "The revised plans for Hornsey depot strike a balance between providing for a bigger, better railway and taking into account existing and future neighbours."
But Marcus Ballard, chairman of the Parkside Malvern Residents' Association, warned at the time that any development will have a "grave adverse impact” on their neighbourhood and "should be resisted".
The new planning application was due to be submitted to Haringey Council by March 31 (I Haven't been able to find the application on Haringey's planning website - anyone else found it?). It will require the bridge over Turnpike Lane to be widened. Work could take two years, ready for the new Thameslink trains to come into service by 2015.
It is 45 per cent smaller and two metres lower than the larger depot, accommodating three trains instead of the original six.
The Thameslink programme will see capacity increased on north-south routes through central London between Bedford and Brighton and routes to Peterborough and Cambridge via Finsbury Park.
(From a story in the Hornsey Journal)…
luded in the plan. I understand that situation, but my view is that I welcome any new housing, and in particular affordable housing (which is why I'm such a strong supporter of the StArt project), but this should not be won at any cost.
One can see why there might be a particular need to focus on getting developments like this one through to meet affordable housing targets. It may all be part and parcel of the Council's desperate wish to get their Tottenham regeneration plans through. The Guardian pointed out the following in a recent article:
..Haringey awaits the momentous arrival of Tottenham Hotspur’s new £400m football stadium. This bulbous mothership was promised to bring 200 new homes, half of which would be “affordable”, and an abundance of public benefits to the area. But, once again, the affordable component has been mysteriously waived, replaced with 285 flats for solely private sale, while the Section 106 contribution has been reduced from an agreed £16m to just £477,000 – a token contribution towards transport improvements.
If they've had to miss out on affordable homes in Tottenham to buy the developer's good will, they have to be put somewhere else. So perhaps the Council is willing to sacrifice this site to help meet their target. (Note the use of quotation marks for affordable - more on that just below).
As to to 106 contributions for the Hampden site, the financial contribution to 'the lcoal area' amounts to just £62,000. The Guardian thought half a million a token. We're positively bargain basement.
Of course, many of you will be aware of developer promises to Haringey planning being broken. We're very well aware of the broken promises at the Queen's Head. Countless stories bounce around elsewhere in London about developers wriggling out of affordable housing commitments. One such instance was reported in Southwark earlier this year. So a further question for me hangs over whether all or any of the promised units will materialise.
We also have to consider what type of affordable housing will be built, if it is built. Haringey's local plan recognises three types:
Types of affordable housing include social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing.
The second two of those amount to a 20% discount on rental or purchase market rates. According to the GLA's submission on the application only those second two types would be included with a 60/40 split in favour of affordable rented. So there would be no social rented at all. The question I'm left with is whether the this 20% discount on private rental or purchase is a price worth paying to waive through this development.
The Guardian article referenced above also points up the pressure the officers are under to approve big housing schemes:
any officer who advises against a new development can be conveniently framed as “anti-growth”
Who can say what the situation is in Haringey, but I can certainly imagine at the very least that it can't be discounted as a factor.
With regard to the visual and townscape impact issue on the Hampden Road Development development, in their recommendation the officer's report on the application includes the following:
The visual and townscape assessments accompanying the application demonstrate that the overall bulk and massing of the tallest element of the development, which is most likely to be visible in the views, is animated to a degree so as to add interest to it. As such the less than substantial harm would be outweighed by public benefit associated by the development.
The officers refer to the "less than substantial harm" (let's just speak plainly and say substantial harm) the building will cause to the visual and townscape amenities. They say that they nonetheless recommend approval because "the tallest element of the development, which is most likely to be visible in the views, is animated to a degree so as to add interest to it."
'Animated to a degree so as to add interest to it'. Really? It sounds to me like they're repeating some line fed to them by the developer. How can the development both cause 'less than substantial harm' whilst also 'adding interest'. I assume that this is interest in the 'Chinese' sense.
Here's the developer's take on the way the building would be 'animated to add interest' in their own mock-up view from Ally Pally.
You can imagine what level of 'interest' there will be once viewing it from Harringay. You can see the range of animated interest the building will add in the developer's own mock-ups in the attached pdf. You'll see how it 'animates' the views of Hornsey Church as well as more local views.
I detailed my objections on this comment back in June.…
I came across the two photos above in the less sorted part of my historical photo collection. They began to make sense of it. Both date from around 1905. One is looking at the outside of the station from Tottenham Lane. The other is looking out from one of the platforms.
I wanted to find out if there was a name for that little yard before adding these photos. In doing so, I realised that the old OS maps tell something of the story of the development of the station.
The earliest mention I can find of the station predates its appearance on any map.
Fig. 3: 'Talks of Old London' from, London Evening News, June 21, 1910
Turning to the maps, we start 19 years after the station was opened with the 1869 map. We see a twin-track railway. One track feeds out to the goods depot to the east and another to some sidings to the west. The railway then resumes its twin-track form.
The station is at street level, set back from Tottenham Lane behind green spaces. At its front is a yard area, probably for carriages and carts. The station appears to consist of two buildings, set back behind the Railway Hotel. At the southern end of the yard a track runs east and then is carried over a bridge and on to the Queen's Head on Green Lanes (Before Harringay House was built, the track extended all the way to Hornsey Wood House, in today's Finsbury Park, crossing the winding New River over four bridges before reaching its destination).
Fig 4: Ordnance Survey Map, 1869
Less than a quarter of a century later, the 1893 map, shows that things have developed. The twin-track line has multiplied and Hampden Road had been laid out and extended from Wightman Road to the edge of the railway. The goods shed has been re-sited somewhat to the south. The river and cart track are gone and the many fingers of Ferme Park Sidings have appeared.
At the station, the buildings on Tottenham Lane have been extended and a second platform with waiting rooms has been added. To accommodate the new arrangements, a passenger bridge has be built. But it is not the bridge we know today. It is somewhat to the south of where the current one is and does not yet align with Hampden Road, nor does it include a higher level ticket hall. It looks like at least the foundations are in place for extending the platforms further north.
Fig. 5: Ordnance Survey Map, 1893
On Tottenham Lane, a Royal Mail sorting office has been built, facing the station. There's another building opposite it and a cluster of three small buildings just to the north of the entrance to the station yard. The 1893 Kelly's Directory helps us out with what they might have contained. The listing runs south to north, starting with the Railway Hotel.
Fig. 6: Kelly's Directory, 1893
Around the turn of the century, the station was enlarged. The booking office and waiting room buildings on Tottenham Lane, behind the Railway Hotel were demolished. The platforms were extended northwards and a new bridge built to connect the station to Hampden Road and Tottenham Lane. The booking office was moved to a building on the bridge and the waiting rooms to buildings on the platforms.
Local residents also saw t it that the GNR was less niggardly with regards to public access to the bridge.
Fig. 7: Islington Gazette, 21 September 1899
Fig. 8: Hornsey Station and the Railway Hotel, c1905
Just twenty years later and things have developed still further. Trackside, the multitude of tracks that characterise today's Hornsey have appeared. Just off the map, Hornsey bridge, over Turnpike Lane was widened in 1899 to accommodate additional goods railway tracks. The goods shed has been enlarged for use as an engine shed.
At the station, the platforms have been extended and what is probably the bridge we use today has been built. It connects to the new ticket hall (visible in both the top photo and the 1962 one, below). The street level station building behind the station yard appears to have been demolished.
Fig. 9: Ordnance Survey Map, 1915
The 1909 Kelly's shows what had become of the buildings to the north of the station entrance. I'm not sure which fits where. Off the map, there was another building at the corner of the junction with Turnpike Lane. So that perhaps accounts for Brown the Builder.
Fog. 10: Kelly's Directory, 1909
The 1915 map gave the broad outline of the station today, but not quite. The 1954 map below shows that a new platform had been built in the old forecourt, perhaps for goods only. We can also see the addition of a train turntable to the east of the line, just at the end of the pedestrian footbridge (the northern edge of the turntable was under where the tall fir trees now grow).
TCB is an abbreviation for telephone call box.
Fig. 11: Ordnance Survey Map, 1952
Fig. 12: Hornsey Station, 1961
The 1962 train buff's picture of the Flying Scotsman, below, shows Hornsey station in 1962. Both platforms seem still to be functioning on two sides. The old higher-level ticket office is still in situ.
Fig. 13: Hornsey Station, 1962
And, I'll finish with a view from the old forecourt/garage, showing Lotus Colin Chapman et al with the chassis of a Lotus 17. For those less au-fait with local history, Lotus git its start in a shed behind a house on Ribblesdale Road. (See here and here)
Fig. 14: Colin Chapman, Mike Costin, Alan Stacey, Innes Ireland and Graham Hill Lotus 17 Chassis, 1959
Today, the two platforms serve only one side each, the Tottenham Lane goods platform is gone, as is the old ticket hall. I don't know what led to the demolition of the latter of those. Harringay's went following a fire.
So, to answer my question, what's now the garage (of sorts) started its railway life as the forecourt for the old station, all fringed with green spaces and ended it as some sort of goods yard.
All the above is sourced from original research, mainly using primary documentation. …
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