Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Southgate in Colour in 1951 (and the Harringay connection)

The original video has been removed from Youtube. I think it was probably the one still online at Youtube here. There’s another (or possbibly a different cut of the same one) here.

I couldn't quite resist the charms of this old film even though it's a bit of a ways off for us. It paints a very cosy picture of a relatively nearby area just 60 years ago and the scenes it shows probably give a good idea of around here some fifty years before that.

And I can almost be excused since there is a local connection. As luck has it, the building you see in the picture in the video thumbnail is the Friends Meeting House in Winchmore Hill. It was here where the parents of Edward Gray, the builder of Harringay House, are buried. (Though no grave marker remains). (Shows at about 21 mins).

Gray's brother, Walker Gray, owned a property in the area called Southgate Grove (also called Grovelands). (Shows at about 20 mins). Built by the same family and at about the same time as Harringay House, I fancy this house gives us some sense of what Harringay House looked like. It subsequently passed by marriage into the Taylor brewing family.

And the final part of my excuse is Arnos Park which belonged to the Walker family, Quaker brewers and cousins of the Gray family. (Shows at 9.30 mins).

The Taylors and the Walkers together formed Taylor-Walker brewers.

So there is a local connection after all you see. I do have an excuse!

Thanks here to Angela Burge with whom I collaborated virtually to build up the Gray family tree.

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