Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Green Lanes Showing houses on site of Mountview Court, c1920(?)
This is an unusual photo looking south along Green Lanes, from a point almost opposite the former Queen's Head outside where Mountview Court now stands.
On the left is the site of Mountview Court, until the early-mid 1930s occupied by four houses. On the north of the site were two detached properties, Pitfield Cottage and Elm House. On the southern part of the site was a pair of semi-detached houses, 1 and 2 Harringay Villas. Altogether there were four pairs of houses called Harringay Villas, the southernmost pair, numbers 7 and 8 were on the corner of Colina Road where the electricity substation now stands. (More on those another time).
On the left of the photo, a little of the front of one of the Harringay Villa houses is shown. At the bottom of the photo, you can see the edge of the cobbled southern entrance to the semi-circular driveway of Elm House.
3 and 4 Harringay Villas survive today as 644 and 646 Green Lanes. They are shown below in a screenshot from Google Street View.
3 and 4 Harringay Villas, now 644 and 646 Green Lanes (Google Street View)
If you walk along Green Lanes today, you can still see a little of the surviving boundary wall and railings of Pitfield Cottage. They are pictured below in a photo I took in January 2012. This part of the boundary was the only part that was at a right angle to Green Lanes. To the east of it, the boundary continued angled in a southeasterly direction. It explains the angled orientation of St Margaret's and Alfoxton Avenues
Surviving wall and railings of Pitfield Cottage
Below is the site togrther with the Alfoxton/St Margaret's block shown on the 1895 Ordnance Survey town plan, overlaid on Google Maops.
Extract from 1895 Ordnance Survey Town Plan
I'm uncertain about the date of the main photo. I've guessed c1920 from the clothes and vehicles. Any thoughts?
-
Comment by Paul Soper on March 22, 2024 at 23:03
-
Fascinating - when we moved to the area in 1968 we had a flat in Mountview Court, it's a pity this shows very little of that side of Green Lanes...
-
Comment by Hugh on March 23, 2024 at 7:59
-
I've never been inside one of The Mountview flats, but I've always imagined that they are nice flats.
I agree about it being a shame that there not being a better view of the east side of the road. The fact that there is anything showing the east side of that stretch is rare and made me sit up and take notice.
-
-
Ours was on the top floor at the front (No 28 if my memory doesn't deceive) and we lived there until we started a family and a one bedroom flat was too small. They are (or were) nice flats and the view from our top floor balcony was great - we could see the racetrack at Ally Pally from there but my one regret was that we never went and then it closed down... Opposite were three grocery shops, one Greek and one Turkish, who got a bit put out if you shopped in the other... so we usually shopped in the Polish delicatessen which was neutral ground! Mountview was owned by the Freshwater Group who were very big landlords in North London...
-
-
You can relive some of the flavour of the racecourse in "Unremembered: London's Favourite Racecourse at Alexandra Park".
-
-
They must all have looked handsome properties in their days with presumably well laid out front gardens. All a sad decline.
-
Comment by Richard Woods on March 29, 2024 at 17:12
-
My Gran lived in Mountview Court until about 1950 and then moved to the Langham court block near Turnpike Station. The latter building still appears to exist but it seems its name may have changed.
Add a Comment
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Harringay online to add comments!
Join Harringay online