Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

When did the term 'Harringay Ladder' Become Common Parlance

Chatting with a former resident of St Ann's Road in the Post Office queue today, I learned that the Ladder has not always been the Ladder.

My interlocutor moved out of Harringay 40 years ago. She said, "They call it the Harringay Ladder now, don't they" and assured me that at the time she moved out, Harringay was just Harringay. She never used to hear the term Harringay Ladder, she told me. I suppose it's likely that the Ladder epithet was not always in place, but it got me wondering about when it first became common parlance.

Any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on July 21, 2017 at 16:42

Don't know if anyone else remembers that a few years ago Haringey put up "branding" street signs which referred to the area as The Ladders. They came down again pretty sharpish.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on July 21, 2017 at 17:08

Silly farts. They'll call us anything except Harringay!

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Permalink Reply by Richard Woods on July 21, 2017 at 17:08

Looks like the Ladder is gaining ground - if you visit this site http://www.oldmapsonline.org

and search on Harringay you will find this

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on July 21, 2017 at 17:37

I think that was a map based on Google in about 2013. Somebody added an area shape for the Harringay Ladder and included all of Green Lanes. This meant shops had their address changed on Google to include Harringay Ladder. Shortly after that Google locked the shapes for all N8 neighbourhoods.

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Permalink Reply by Geraldine on July 21, 2017 at 23:37

No ladders in my time (1941-1963). Sounds like estate agents' blurb. I would also like to know when and for what reason the alleys became the passage. More blurb to gentrify the area?

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on July 22, 2017 at 0:09

I don't think this story involves either estate agents or gentrification. It became known at the Ladder because of the way it looks on a map. It's not a very gentrifying epithet really. Estate agents did try Harringay Village and Harringay Heights, but thankfully they never took off.

You and your contemporaries may well have called the Passage the alleys, but it's long been officially known as the Harringay Passage (or Haringey Passage) as this 1947 OS map testifies:

as does this 1895 map:

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Permalink Reply by Geraldine on July 22, 2017 at 0:17

Thanks, Hugh. I stand corrected. Common parlance not in line with maps and books as usual.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on July 22, 2017 at 1:43

Alleys sounds like just the sort of thing kids would have called it and then I guess it sticks.

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Permalink Reply by Geraldine on July 22, 2017 at 3:05

One more question, Hugh. So it's spelt as 'Haringey' on a 1947 map. I thought that spelling was only adopted in the 1970s with the change of boroughs. You've probably answered this somewhere else, and if so, I apologise for asking again.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on July 22, 2017 at 9:35

The issue of the spellings is historical. From Harringay House days on, the normally accepted and used spelling is the -ay form. However Hornsey District Council had a perverse insistence on using the -ey form. This was occasionally, but not always, picked up by mappers. There are recorded instances of the Harringay Ratepayers Association going into battle with the Council over this issue. The spelling used on the signage in the passage was one such. The legacy of the dispute is to this day that the signage in the Passage still carries both spellings at different points.

Haringey Council have continued this perverseness but with a twist. They refuse to refer to Harringay as anything other than Green Lanes.

I've no idea what lies behind this long-running municipal wierdness.