Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Mount View Road with Mount View Congregational Church
As well as being a decent view of Mountview Road from just east of the junction with Ferme Park Road, this Edwardian postcard shows the Mount View Congregational Church and lecture hall in the distance on the right, on the eastern corner of Granville Road. You may have noted that both the caption on the postcard and my rendering of the road name both use two words, which was and still is the correct way to write it. (Though, I must admit, I'd always thought it was just one word!)
Little seems ever been written about the church. What I have been able to find out is that it held its first service on September 26th 1894. Built at a cost of £9,000, the church seated 800 people. A hall was opened in April 1887 and used for worship until the completion of the church building. The church was closed and demolished in 1935.
I couldn't find any photo of the church, but I was able to find this line drawing, published when the church was first opened in 1894.
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Comment by Joanna Bornat on March 29, 2024 at 19:37
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Additional information from another Albany Road resident: ‘As a footnote, not long after I moved here 45ish years ago an elderly lady told me that the Congregational Church had been demolished because of structural problems: inadequate foundations slipping in the hilltop clay. (What was that about building your house on sand?) When Granville Court went up there was much head-wagging and eager local anticipation of it following the church downwards, disappointed because it had deep piled steel supports.’
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Comment by Hugh on March 29, 2024 at 23:00
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Thank you to the HoL member who passed me this postcard which they say is from Bruce Castle Museum. (I've added a watermark to acknowledge that). The photo shows the church more clearly. Judging by the size of the tree, it was taken a few years before the colourised one.
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Comment by Trevor Ford on April 5, 2024 at 9:27
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Hello Hugh,
This image might answer some questions.
Trevor Ford (formerly 151 Mount View Road).
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Comment by Arkady on April 5, 2024 at 9:33
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Oh hello there!
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Perfect. Thank you, Trevor. So it looks pretty much like what I was able to work out is right. What I hadn’t realised is that the tower actually got half-built. I guess the belfry and spire just cost too much.
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It's probably time I gave you the rest of my postcard collection!
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Comment by Richard Woods on April 5, 2024 at 22:11
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Like Hugh I recall using Mountview as one word but I also had an explanation - from whom I do not recall. Mount View I was told suggests a view of or from the Mount. Mountview Road suggests a road which leads to or from such a viewpoint. My grandmother lived for a few years in the early 50s in Mountview Court, Green Lanes - here the usage is clear.
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At the risk of focusing on a detail, I’m of the opinion that the original photograph published by you, Hugh, was taken from the western side of Ferme Park Road. I think that explains the large gateposts on the right and the slight dip in the road. Perhaps the large gateposts were somehow connected to the reservoir which is of course still there. The dip running across the picture would be Ferme Park Road.
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Here is Hugh's original photo, but taken facing the other way along Mount View Road. The original photo really is Mount View Road - I owned the little shop/office on the corner of Mount View/Ferme Park for many years, and I used to walk along Mount View Road (including the 'slight dip'!) twice a day. The large gateposts are for access into the reservoir - former home of the Mount View Tennis Club.
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Thanks, Trevor. I hadn't realised that there'd been a tennis club there. It as memories for me as the place I spent the dawning of this century when a New Year party I was at up the road spilled over.
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