Garage by Queens Head

Comment by Richard Woods on December 15, 2014 at 18:51

I worked at this spot in the late 50s/60s when it had petrol pumps selling the stuff! I "think" the road layout5 pre-dated the trams as the inn, before the Queens Head, was an 18th century coach stop on Green Lanes. Last one before the tolls at Tunpike Lane?

Comment by Lydia Walter on October 14, 2022 at 7:38

I remember the road layout from the 60s and 70s. It was free parking that, as the years went by, became increasingly impossible to access. Remember cars parked up on both sides in front of the pub, generally half up on the pavement. Seem to recall Harringay Council introducing No Pavement Parking across the borough which was never adhered to and rarely enforced. 

Comment by John McMullan on October 15, 2022 at 15:26

So what happened here that it looks how it does now? Enclosure by the car yard?

Comment by Hugh on October 15, 2022 at 16:18

It used all to be part of the pub. It was created after the pub was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century and the building was realigned so it was parallel with the road.

For a few decades, it was run as the Olympian Gardens and was the venue for a range of popular entertainment (I’ve written a short history of it in the forthcoming Hornsey Historical Society book). It fell out of use as plein-air entertainment lost popularity and was the front section was leased out.

Comment by Hugh on October 15, 2022 at 18:47

Present-day pictures of the space here.

Comment by Reginald summers 17 hours ago

Ah yes Johnson's car sales. His son used to go to the same school, but me his name escapes me now. He was always well dressed smartly presented,. Also just a few shops along to the left was Brookers Motorcycle's. David Brooker was my mate. We were friends in the 1950's at school through to the early 1960's in the Mod era with our scooters up to the mid 1960's when we got our first cars. Ah those were the days

Comment by Hugh 14 hours ago

That's interesting, Reginald.

After the Queen's Head was rebuilt at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot that the garage occupied was established as the Olympian Gardens, a 'grounds' areas used mainly for entertainment. 

The earliest known reference to the gardens, though not by name, is August 1904 when 234 dogs competed in the Hornsey Dog Show, held to support the Passmore Edwards Hospital. 

The first known reference to the Olympian Gardens was in September 1907, when the Queen's Head lessee, Robert Chattey, advertised the grounds by what was most probably their new name. In his advertisement, Chattey was offering a 'shared let' for 'Al Fresco Concerts'. He claimed in his advert that 1,400 people had recently paid for admission to an event in the gardens.

It went on be used for film shows and became a well-known venue for concert party entertainment.

I wrote about the story of the Gardens as one of ten one-page articles in the Hornsey Historical Society's 100 Stories from the Archive. 

Comment by Richard Woods 11 hours ago

Just under age I served petrol at the garage that open there in the late 50s. 

Comment by Reginald summers 10 hours ago

Really, you must have known the two brothers that lived in a flat attached to the rear of that shop to left their names escapes me at the moment the access was via the iron steps on the left.

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