Haymaking in Keller's Field, Crouch End, c1900

This photo shows Keller’s Field which ran between Middle Lane and Tottenham Lane.

Snippet from 1893 Ordnance Survey map. The field was the area at the bottom of the map, to the north of what is shown as 'Elder's Path' and had previously been called .Gravel Walk'.

The field was part of an estate centred on Elm House and, from the mid-1860s, belonged to a german-born Hatton Garden diamond merchant called Leopold Keller.

Four years after Keller's death in 1905, Keller's three sons put the estate up for auction. The house was used for Crouch End High School and the field was bought by Hornsey Council for the development of a new town hall. However, after building plans changed, with the Rokesly Avenue was developed from 1912 and Elmfield and Hermiston Avenues from 1914. With interruptions for the war, the three roads weren't completed until 1921. Rokesley school was opened on the remaining eastern part of the field in the 1934.

The photo was taken around 1900. It's amazing to think that there were still scenes like this in Crouch End into the twentieth century. 

The scene put me in mind of this work by Crouch End photographer, Albert Newman.