Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
A Tour round Edwardian Wood Green from the Air c1930
This image is from the 'Britain from Above' series. With the number of images I've been adding of Edwardian Wood Green recently, I thought it would be useful to add this one to help orientation in Edwardian Wood Green (which was still largely intact in 1930-ish).
In the centre of the picture is the domed Wood Green Public Library. The Library and the parade of shops next to it are now occupied by Haringey Council’s River Park House and other buildings. Just to the north of the library stood the extensive old tram sheds.
A little further north of the tram station, on the corner of Watson's Road, was the Three Jolly Butchers. Originally built in 1781as a coaching inn with livery stables, it also catered for drovers taking their cattle to market in London. The original Three Jolly Butchers was replaced with a new building in 1905. The hill leading up to Bounds Green Road took its name from the pub and was known as Jolly Butchers Hill. The pub site is now occupied by the Monaghan's Tavern pub. Watsons Road is the little cut-though to Station Road that many of us will know as a hard-to-avoid rat-run. (Watson's Road was named after the family who ran the pub from 1810 until the mid 1870s. In addition to being publicans, they owned much of the surrounding land).
On the northern corner of Watsons Road stood the Post Office. Directly next to that was the Printers’ Almshouses which are in the top right hand corner of the picture. The almshouse site is now occupied by a hard-to-love BT building.
Wood Green tube station was built on the corner opposite the library shortly after this photo was taken. Also gone soon after this photo was The Elms, a large Victorian villa seen towards the bottom left hand corner. It was demolished in 1930 and replaced with Broadway Parade which still stands today. To the south of The Elms was Gladstone Gardens, a public park. The Gaumont cinema was built over the park as part of the Broadway development.
The large building towards the bottom right of the image was originally the Cinematograph cinema on Lordship Lane.
Cutting across the left of the picture is the now long defunct Palace Gates Line. The station on Wood Green High Road is just out of sight to the south.
The main image was added by user Tony in the comments section of a photo on Britain from Above-
Comment by Justin Guest on April 30, 2018 at 12:38
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So the railway line Hugh, was that lost pre or post Beeching? Amazing to see the Elms, and those buildings where the Vue and Whetherspoon pub (Sprouters Corner?) are *now* sat.
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Comment by Tony on April 30, 2018 at 12:39
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On the bottom right of this picture Is the old green line bus depot in Lordship Lane that I believe was used in the filming of the "On the Buses" TV comedies in the 60's and 70's.
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Comment by Hugh on April 30, 2018 at 12:47
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I'm not at all knowledgeable about railway history, but I think the decision to close that line must have been taken just before Beeching proper, but was probably part and parcel of the same mood. Passenger service stopped in January 1963 a couple of months before the first Beeching report was published.
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Comment by Richard Woods on May 4, 2018 at 12:15
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Do you know roughly when this was taken? It seems much earlier than the usual 1940s RAF survey pictures. Fascinating to see how much was still intact in the 50s/60s and how little is today!
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I know no more than I've already said, I'm afraid, Richard. I've dated it to c1930 since the tube hasn't yet been built and there are no signs of it. Also, as I said above, my understanding is that The Elms was demolished in 1930 and that's still standing in the photo. The Library is built, so it's after 1907. A date of somewhere between 1910 and 1930 is almost certain, but I've erred towards the later date.
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Comment by Renato B on May 9, 2018 at 20:32
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Fantastic aerial photo. I can see my old home in Ringslade Rd. and all the changes.
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Comment by matt on May 21, 2018 at 8:21
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So The Elms/Gladstone Gardens, which could have served as a central park for Wood Green, were built upon, the railway ripped up and built upon, the library flattened and replaced with the ugly River House. The area has been a urban planning nightmare ever since! Think it's time they flattened some of the area's post war buildings and allow for a park again. There's no heart & soul to the place. Like a lot of people I avoid the area if I can and shop elsewhere.
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Yes, building preservation of Wood Green's architectural heritage has been dismal. Most (but not all) of the pre-twentieth century significant buildings of note have been demolished.
Thirteenth Century Duckett's/Dovecote Farm/Manor/House lasted until the end of the nineteenth century before succumbing to the wrecker's ball.
Two of the three mid nineteenth-century almshouses have gone. Had they survived, it is highly likely that they would now be protected (going by similar surviving buildings of lesser note by the same architects).
The library too could have provided some architectural focus for the town, which River Park House singularly fails to do.
You're right about the lost opportunity for a town centre park. I hadn't thought of that.
Sadly the story may not yet be over. Last week a staff member in the registry office told me that Civic Centre Staff are still due to be decanted to Woodside House in the summer. Plans to move staff from the Civic Centre to Woodside House (a lucky survivor) were made through the early part of this century and put on hold in late 2008. The plans were revived under the HDV. Personally I think the loss of this this much under-valued mid-Fifties modernist gem would be a real shame. Given the likely death of the HDV, I'm not sure what the latest thinking is.
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Great photographic record. I wonder where all the earth from the railway embankment went when they flattened it. Must have been quite an exercise to shift it all.
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