Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Prince (public house), 1 Finsbury Road, Wood Green N22 8PA
http://www.bowesandbounds.org/forum/topics/the-prince-pub-an-asset-...
Please lend your support to our local campaign registering this grand old Victorian pub (which dates back to 1868) as an 'Asset of Community Value' under the Localism Act. Final draft application and further info at the above link:
The Prince is currently boarded up again and has suffered constant mismanagement and under-development as a public house over many years A number of locals from the Bowes & Bounds Connected website are keen to ensure that does not fall into the hands of property developers and speculators with little concern about it's long history or future value to the community.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Richard Matz on
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"The Prince public house has stood on the corner of Finsbury Road and Trinity Road close to the Bounds Green Road in N22 since 1870 and was originally known as The Prince of Wales. The 1871 Census lists 28 year old William Freeman Thomas as the licensed victualler in residence with his wife Emma, their infant son William J. and 3 bar staff. A three-storey Victorian public house, the building is constructed of London stock brick and now has a rendered, black-painted ground floor frontage following a recent renovation in Spring 2015.
The Trinity Road Entrance is framed by a couple of elegantly tiled period walls apparently by Millington, Wisdom and Co. and gives the full name of the pub. This leads into the first of the two bars with a skylight giving some welcome natural light (possibly a billiards room in a past life?) - a long room with some superb wood panelling with mirror inserts on the walls. The main more modern bar to the right follows Trinity Road with a side entrance onto Finsbury Road where some outside seating is often provided. The public house is adjoined to the north by a later diminutive two-storey, stock brick addition and, with the upper floors of the pub itself, comprise of 11 letting rooms in total which is split as 8 x bedsits and 3 x studio apartments (as of December 2013).
The open stretch of land The Prince faces is known as Trinity Gardens, named after the Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Chapel built in 1871 (now the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Mary). The focal point of the garden is a 21 foot high granite obelisk with drinking fountains commemorating the life and work of Catherine Smithies. She was the founder of the Band of Mercy (a charitable organisation aimed at relieving the suffering of animals and one of the precursors to the RSPCA) and, ironically, a campaigner for temperance.
Over the past 15 years, The Prince has declined due to poor management and under promotion. Up until 2008, the interior was dilapidated and heavily nicotine stained. A refit by new management that year at least made the environment more sanitary, but the limited selection of poorly kept beers and lack of food did nothing to boost the pub’s fortunes as a business. A further refurbishment in Spring 2015 looked promising, but subsequent efforts to turn it into a live music/night club/sports bar venue failed to attract the mixed economy of drinkers and diners necessary to sustain a modern pub.
As of July 2015, the Prince pub is now boarded up again. The former manager and the leaseholder of the residential accommodation above the pub have just been sentenced to six months in prison each for putting lives at risk by breaking fire safety laws. Disabled smoke alarms, inadequate fire detection and defective fire doors led one senior Brigade officer to describe the pub as a "death trap”. The Prince is is the last pub in the area between Wood Green and Bowes Park along the Bounds Green Road. The Alexandra in Commerce Road closed in 2003 and has been demolished. The Fishmongers Arms at the end of Trinity Road has been redeveloped into a police station and The Kings Arms (later The N22 Bar) close to White Hart Lane has also been long closed.
The Prince falls within the Trinity Gardens Conservation Area – designated by Haringey Council as an area of special architectural or historic interest, and it has also been listed in Haringey’s Register of Local Buildings of Merit since 1997. However, it is unclear what statutory protection against inappropriate redevelopment of historic buildings these listings offer. The Prince has suffered constant mismanagement and under-development as a public house over many years, and a number of locals from the Bowes & Bounds Connected website are keen to ensure that does not fall into the hands of property developers and speculators with little concern about its long history or future value to the community.
The loss of the Prince, in its current form as a public house, would leave the community impoverished and the loss or inappropriate redevelopment of the historic building itself would detract from the local landscape. For this reason, we wish to make an application for The Prince to be recognised as an Asset of Community Value, so that, should it ever be threatened, it will be clear that this is a both building and social hub valued in the local area, and that local people might have some kind of option to intervene."
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..and we're off!
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Request for further historical information:
Hi Richard
The ACV Panel has reviewed the Nomination form and have requested some additional information. Please could you provide more evidence of how the pub met the objective of furthering the social well-being and interests of the local community in the past. If you need further clarification of the information we are requesting please do not hesitate to get in contact.
Regards
Mercy Oruwari
Planning Policy, Design & Conservation Support Officer
Tis a pity that the mismanagement and under-development of the site in recent years has detracted from its earlier history, and the future potential, of a place with community significance, but I’m crowd-sourcing you all for further information about past uses of the pub.
A local writes:
I can only think of fairly recent and short-lived music nights on Saturdays around three or so years ago. I believe it was also a meeting place for members of the Bowes Park choir when they first formed and rehearsed across the road...
Any further info on this use or others would be appreciated.
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Further anecdotes like these would be very welcome:
Gavin: About 10-15 years ago, the Prince was run by a woman called Sue who used to be extremely supportive of local musicians and would put on live music every week. My band at the time, "The Drive", played some of our best gigs there and sometimes up to 200 people crammed in to watch us. We were also friends with other bands who played there who would say the same about the place. It was a great music venue and a super place for people from the area to meet up.
David: The Prince has special memories for me; it was one of the first pubs I ever visited in London, back in 1986. I was fresh down from the north, and one of my new friends lived round the corner in Clarence Road. (I never thought I'd end up living in the area myself 30 years later.) I visited for a tuna bake or similar student fare, and then we wandered to the local, and it was like a make-believe cockney boozer, very friendly and welcoming, and a singalong round the joanna with the entire pub belting out the old favourites! I spent a lot of time thinking that all London pubs were like that. Would be great to see in back in business
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Permalink Reply by John Hough on
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The Prince of Wales in Trinity Road, has re-opened with a really great selection of ales. Very nice and with a microbrewery in the back. A pleasant change from what it was historically being probably one of the dodgiest pubs in Wood Green.
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We went last week, nothing at £10 a pint. I think a mistake was made.
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