Green Lanes Flood, 1937

Comment by Ceri on June 27, 2019 at 7:41

Great pic Hugh. Was this flood caused by the Stonebridge Brook flooding? Surely this is where it passes/passed under Green Lanes? 

This morning at 11am I'm meeting a postgrad engineering student from the Engineering Exchange at UCL to discuss us doing further research into the 1960s culverted route of the brook, and the options for daylighting it in Chestnuts Park. She's going to talk to our Friends of Chestnuts Park AGM next month. 

I think that you know as much or more as any living person about the routes of the culvert - can we talk/meet with you at some point to discuss the maps and info we have? I'll email you as well about this. 

Comment by Hugh on June 27, 2019 at 10:33

The 1869 OS map shows where the Brook ran through Harringay 150 years ago.

After flowing under a viaduct built to carry the Great Northern Line, the brook entered Harringay close to where the top of Beresford Road now is. It then flowed mainly between where Fairfax and Effingham now are. In the map you can see it flowing along a field boundary line, before zig-zagging along the borough boundary for a little then flowing on to Green Lanes. Where it first met Green Lanes in the map above, it then flowed south along the west side of Green Lanes before crossing beneath it, just opposite numbers 1 & 2 Harringay Villas. The villas stood on the corner of where Colina Road now is and were demolished in the 1930s to make way for the ventilation structure built for the Piccadilly Line extension. The brook then flowed along the east side of Green Lanes to just south of Allison Road, just about where Selale now stands, before heading south east again and on towards the Lee. 

The photo above is taken looking towards the church at the bottom of Allison. So it us very much within the area the would have been affected by any flooding of the brook. There was fairly frequent and significant flooding in this area about every ten years until the brook was culverted.

I'm not sure I'd admit to being an expert on the brook but I'm happy to offer what little knowledge I do have if it can be of any help. 

Comment by Ceri on June 27, 2019 at 11:01

Thanks Hugh. Does that area still flood at all, or has the culvert ended flooding there? 

Comment by Hugh on June 27, 2019 at 11:21

There was the Harringay Tsunami four years ago, but my understanding is that it was caused by a burst water main. So, as I understand it, flooding ended with the improvements to the culverting in he middle of the last century. 

Comment by Christine Killick on July 5, 2019 at 19:31

Love your photo as I was born in the flat above the Laundry in 1949.  Although it was no longer a laundry at that time. We had a family that lived above us who look like the people hanging out the windows above what would have been our flat. I can remember the flooding in the 1950's and did not realise the brook ran somewhere below we always assumed that the heavy rains coming down the ladder caused the flooding.

Comment by Maddy on July 5, 2019 at 19:56

There's an interesting exhibition on at the Museum of London in Docklands about London's hidden rivers.

Comment by John Shulver on August 28, 2019 at 21:37

Christine Killick re your comment 5 July :   I lived (and was born in Harringay Road, 1949 !) and we had at least 3 floods that I remember.   We were also led to believe it was result of rain gushing down "the Hills" (as was referred to then) from Wightman Road and collecting at bottom.  Knew nothing of underground waterways, though there was a Culvert Road nearby !   Big concrete pipes were laid along Harringay Road early 60s to alleviate the flooding but possibly they carried/diverted the waterway ?  Interesting site this.

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