Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
'The Chestnuts' c1905
'The Chestnuts' was a mid-Victorian house that used to stand on what is now Chestnuts Park on St Ann's Road, or Hanger Lane as it was then called. The entrances to the old driveway still remain along with the old brick gate posts.
The Friends of Chestnuts Park offer a potted history of the house and park which I've paraphrased below:
"In around 1850 Chestnuts House was built for Mr Haynes, a timber merchant. In March 1898 the house and grounds were purchased by Tottenham Urban District Council. It was laid out as Chestnuts Recreation Ground. It was intended as a commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and opened to the public in November 1900."
What I hadn't realised is that reading rooms were opened in the house in 1900 and it was soon converted into a lending library. Apparently the library moved to the education offices in Philip Lane in 1917 and to Vincent Road from 1931.
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Comment by Hugh on January 14, 2017 at 14:57
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Here is a snippet od the 1893 OS map showing the house:
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Comment by Richard Woods on January 21, 2017 at 14:25
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Fascinating Mansard roof.
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Comment by Roy Abbs on January 9, 2018 at 22:40
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I went to Woodlands Park School from c.1959 to 1963. This building was the school dentists which I attended.
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Yes, I went to Woodlands as well. If my memory is correct, in the early 50s it was also a clinic.
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It was the baby clinic,also the dentists,it is still there but I don’t know what it’s used for now.
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Comment by John D on April 2, 2019 at 16:28
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So, it's where the Chestnuts Community Centre building is now ?
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The building is long gone, but yes it was roughly where the community centre is.
The map from 1869 suggests that the grounds were more formally laid out earlier in the century. The shape of the house on the map is also a little different. I' bit sure if that's as a result of cartographic style changes, a rebuild or or alterations.
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Hugh, are you saying that Woodlands/Chestnut Park rec were former grounds of the house ?
Or did the house grounds just abut the Park ?
During my school days at Woodlands Infant and Junior schools (54 -60) this house was our dentist clinic.
Spent countless hours in that park playing football and mucking about etc. Great fun that but NOT the dentists ! Put me off for years.
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Yes, its grounds were part of what is now Chestnuts Park. You can see it in the Ordnance Survey map overlaid on Google Maps, above.
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Comment by Maureen Bamfield on January 20, 2022 at 23:14
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Oh no, I too remember with great fear going to the dentist in that house. I went to Woodlands school, 1942-1948, which of course was during the war.
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