Crouch End Hill c1960

Comment by John Liffen on September 1, 2023 at 12:42

In 1979 Fred Cleary (1905-1984) published his autobiography, I’ll Do It Yesterday (London, The Carlos Press, 1979). In it he describes his motives in the 1940s, as a Hornsey resident, for wanting to improve the look of Hornsey and how he managed it. He was elected to Hornsey Borough Council, became Chairman of the Town Planning Committee and in 1950 was Deputy Mayor. In 1958, he says, ‘I was experiencing an urge to branch out on my own in a new and exciting venture based on our old private family Company – the Haslemere Estates – formed before the war and registered as a private limited company in 1943.’ It is very likely, then, that the company was named after the road in Hornsey. Comparatively little space is given in the book to Cleary’s time in Hornsey but the book as a whole is an exhilarating read about an energetic and public-spirited individual who must have been very hard to keep up with.

Comment by Hugh on September 1, 2023 at 17:53

Thank you, John.

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