Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
One of the surviving Victorian houses houses of Hornsey Lane
Interesting to see an old photo of one of the few surviving Victorian houses on Hornsey Lane.
West of the Archway Road, the north side of Hornsey Lane was built up from the late 1860s. Prior to this date, there was only Bridge Place at the Archway end of the road. About half way along towards Crouch Hill was Hornsey Lane Farm, still an operating dairy farm.
Wynnstay seems to have been built by 1871. It first appears in the records under the Wynnstay name in 1891 as a private girls school. However, both it and the house immediately to its east, later called Brooklyn seem to have been given new names from the mid-1880s.
A house on the same plot as Wynnstay, probably the same one, was occupied from 1871 by John C. Harker, a stock broker at the Stock Exchange. He was recorded in residence in the census of 1881. By 1884 he had moved to Denmark Hill.
A house on the same plot as Brooklyn, probably the same one, appears in the records from 1871 as Trevor House. It was home to Michael Hodson (or Hodgson) Tatham until his death at the house in 1883. Tatham worked at Tatham & Son, originally his father's law firm in Staple Inn. I have been unable to find any further record of Trevor House after this date.
From 1936 to 1973, the house served as the base for the private Crouch End High Schoo. The school had started in Weston Park, Crouch End, then spebt some period in Fairfield Avenue and Elm House Middle Lane, before moving to Hornsey Lane
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Comment by Takaokagiejin on April 2, 2011 at 20:18
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There are a few left standing. The one called Bunty's Corner was revealed some years ago to be housing an elderly lady who ran the brothel in Crouch End. She was done for living off immoral earnings when the police caught her henchmen throwing bags of money and used condoms from the brothel into her garden.
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Comment by John McMullan on April 2, 2011 at 21:02
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THE Brothel? There was only one?
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Comment by John D on April 2, 2011 at 21:21
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The same lady ran a dubious establishment at the top of Hampden Road. It purported to be a massage parlour but it seemed odd that the white-coated masseuses arrived for work wearing gold lame high-heeled shoes.
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Comment by John Leo Waters on December 11, 2020 at 9:09
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From Archway Revisited face book page - Wynnstay 1903 a school run b...
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Comment by Ken Stevens on March 5, 2022 at 17:39
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From this postcard, the address of Wynnstay was 127 Hornsey Lane, which places it approximately opposite the junction with Sunnyside Road (which is to the right of this pic). It is gratifying to note that the writer no longer needed her bodices being sent to her, as she would be coming to Derlwyn in a while. ”Derlwyn College” implied another educational establishment but this address (which still exists) is a small roadside bungalow. In later years, it was the home of Wilfred Williams, who owned a Fowler steam road roller, a fact that is wholly irrelevant to the subject in hand but I felt that you deserved to know.
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Comment by Hugh on March 5, 2022 at 20:21
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Thanks, Ken. Wynnstay is shown on the 1895 OS. I'd added a snippet of the map previously, but it seems to have been a victim of the Ning gremlins. I've put it back along with a few paragraphs about the house's life before it was a school.
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Comment by Allen Cullen on March 20, 2022 at 7:44
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Hi. Wynnstay is still there tho yes? Just to the right of the block of flats. Here on Google 3D view:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stamford+Hill,+London,+UK/@51.573...
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PS Hi Hugh.
I see you refer to a Michael Hodson (or Hodgson) Tatham living on Hornsey Lane at Trevor House/ Brooklyn late C19.The blurb for this Harold Lawes pic at watercolourworld (© Bruce Castle Museum) says:
‘A rural view of West Green in Tottenham. A note on the reverse says the view was taken from Hodson's house (Hodson lived at Downhills House). The scene shows an open landscape of fields and a lane crossing through them. Alexandra Palace is visible high on the hill, to the right of picture.’
But the angle of Ally Pally is wrong. Could it be from your Hodson’s house? Does the angle, topography & distance fit ok? The railway (present Parkland Walk) could be hidden down there close by? And the old Banqueting/ Blandford Hall halfway down the big hill, & St Mary’s Hornsey to the right, or some other church or building I’ve forgotten or don’t know about? Or maybe I am being too hopeful for an easy solution! Is the viewpoint from somewhere between Trevor House/ Brooklyn & Ally Pally?
Or did William Hodson, the builder who purchased Harringay House, have another property round there somewhere? Or some other Hodson?!
The Townsends owned Downhills Park, but didn’t live there, having many different tenants instead, maybe a Hodson but I dunno. That’s irrelevant anyway coz the view is wrong…
So I’m asking you coz that side of town is your area of expertise! Any info or help gratefully received. TIA
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Allen,
What a lovely painting.
The arrangement of a painting is not definitive, as artists can of course shift things about to suit their desired scene. It is also likely that, presuming it was the artist himself who wrote the explanatory note, that the viewpoint is as described!
Nevertheless, taken as presented, the angle of the palace compared to a map suggests a viewpoint on a line that intersects Hornsey Lane. That brown building on the right gave me the impression of Holy Innocents, Tottenham Lane. This blurry collage indicates this possibility.
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Ken! Good points & ideas to mull over, cheers. Any more info or help from anyone else welcome too, ta!
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