Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Burgoyne Road showing parish room c1910

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Comment by StephenBln on October 5, 2014 at 14:20: No, I think church building remained until the 60s. It was similar to the one on Stanhope Gardens, which in my day was used by the 75th Harringay scouts and girl guides.

Comment by Bethany Burrow Atherton on October 5, 2014 at 14:29: That sounds about right, Stephen. I'm still piecing it all together from church records - those still around who would have known exactly what was where appear to have mixed it all into one in their minds, so it's quite difficult. I have found the plans for the building that used to stand on the site of the current church centre (on Cavendish Road, behind the present church), but nothing for the building in the postcard just yet - bear with me.

Comment by Bethany Burrow Atherton on October 5, 2014 at 14:53: I was just doing a Harringay Remembers blog post of one of the vicar's letters to the parish in the Parish Magazine from October 1914, when I came across this paragraph (complete coincidence!):

"We hoped to build our new Parish Hall next year; but we may have to postpone that, if the authorities will allow the old iron room to remain a while longer. We were counting on the proceeds of the annual Bazaar in November towards the cost; but it will be generally felt that it will be right not to have it in the circumstances. Much work has been done in preparation, including a good deal that is useful and not of the nature of luxuries. It has been suggested, therefore, that there should be a simple one day sale, of such material as is available, on Saturday, November 21, but we shall be able to speak definitely in the next number of the Magazine."

(Bear in mind that a "simple one day sale" was a significant come down from the annual Bazaar, which seems to have gone on for several days and to have been open all day and until 9 p.m.!)

So, added to the bits in the posts above, it looks very much like the thing in the 1910 picture is the old iron room in its guise as the "Parish Room" before the more permanent Parish Hall was built on the same site.

You can read the rest of the letter here.

Comment by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on October 5, 2014 at 15:23: Bethany, any hint in the Vicar's October 1914 letter that he hoped those "circumstances" might still be over before Christmas?

Comment by Bethany Burrow Atherton on October 5, 2014 at 15:33: No - there are a few comments elsewhere in the magazines of the time that suggest that, but the vicar himself seems to have recognised that it would be a long haul and was prescient about the war - he was clearly pretty aware of the political situation both domestically and in Europe leading up to the war - the last paragraph of this one is telling in that way. The other thing to note is that we cannot be sure exactly how much of these letters is made up of the vicar's own words - he was subject to DoRA and some of the articles in the wartime magazines scream of propaganda and an "official line".

Comment by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on October 6, 2014 at 11:44: Thanks, Bethany - some interesting pieces there. Vicar Greaves was obviously a thoughtful man. Some interesting restrictions, I see, in the first version of DoRA (August 8th 1914): "No one may ring church bells." / "No one may buy a round of drinks in a pub."

Comment by John D on October 6, 2014 at 11:50: "No one may buy a round of drinks in a pub."

I've been using Dora as an excuse for years

Comment by Bethany Burrow Atherton on October 6, 2014 at 11:53: John!

OAE - we've got loads more articles coming - I'm trying to put the interesting ones up more or less at the time they would have been published 100 years ago. You might find our exhibition (8 and 9 November) interesting too - there will be a lot of information about Revd. Greaves and about some of the men who went off to war, plus a talk on conscientious objectors. It's at the church, 10-5 on Saturday and 12.30-5 on Sunday (as we have the small matter of the Remembrance Sunday service in the morning...!)

Comment by Angela on October 10, 2014 at 17:09: Fascinating stuff!

Revd. Greaves was a regular visitor to North Harringay School from the very beginning and I think was also a member of Hornsey School Board.

Comment by Bethany Burrow Atherton on October 10, 2014 at 17:12: Yes, he was, Angela - he seems to have been much more than just the "guy who set up St. Paul's, Harringay" - more like a founding father of the community, really.

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