Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey - long-term residents - is Haringey getting nicer to live in or worse?
Hello to all the long-term residents.
I've lived in north London for a good few years now, and always been a Londoner, but only recently a resident in Haringey - I'm aiming to live here for a good few more years too!
I was wondering what your opinions are about the borough, in general, is it getting a nicer, more liveable place, or is it a bit like where I grew up, going downhill and increasingly run down?
I don't mind where you live around the borough, I'm just curious really!
Tags for Forum Posts: what's harringay like?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Christopher Fowler on
-
I am not sure if I qualify as a "long term resident", but I have lived here, just off St Ann's Road, not far from Green Lanes, since late 1989. My wife has been here since 1996. I think the whole central part of Haringey - on both sides of Green Lanes - and the Eastern part (Tottenham) have slowly and steadily improved as a place to live since then. There is a wider range of shops, places to eat, and other facilities. The diversity of the population seems to me to have increased, and become more wonderful. We still have many problems, mainly associated with socio-economic deprivation and all that goes with it, particularly in the East of Haringey. However, both my wife and I feel that things have been on the up in Haringey for a long time. If we can all make it through the pandemic, and the massive economic depression that follows from that, by working together, we are hoping that the area will continue to become a better and better place to live.
-
Permalink Reply by tigha on
-
Here since 95, and def better, before it just had a few run down kebab shops, some dodgy seedy late night drinking spots/ drug havens. Regular gang fights between Turks and Kurds. Had to call the police a few times as spilled out of green lanes, and I was worried, they were going to smash my windows in. Had a police mobile parked on greenlanes for months at one point, to try to calm down the area after someone was shot just outside about near Baldwin’s area, I think
Also dirtier etc. But even then it had its own charm, just in a different way, whereas now it’s become so gentrified
-
Permalink Reply by Alfred Jahn on
-
Hi there - I moved to Seven Sisters Ward in Nov 2014 so medium-term I'd say... For my specific corner (ie that weird triangle between Seven Sisters/St. Ann's Road towards Hermitage I have to say, after seeing some initial improvements, it has become worse in recent years. I can't really point the finger and say exactly what it is but to me it seems there is now more crime, more rubbish flying about, more traffic, more noise, ... so all the bad things.
Overall, I think Haringey has improved but I always find it is a little behind its more progressive neighbours to the South and East.
-
Permalink Reply by Hugh on
-
Apparently that neck of the woods used to be known locally as Woodbury Town (yes, as with Harringay/Haringey, a different spelling - Woodbury/Woodberry.
-
Permalink Reply by Pavlos on
-
I lived in my flat on Green Lanes for over 30 years, so this is a fascinating question for me! ( I’m going to talk about Harringay not the borough of Haringey)
I always liked the vibrant urban multicultural buzz here. Being a second generation Greek Cypriot I felt at home, when the area was the hub of the Cypriot community before most Cypriots moved further north. The ethnic make up has now changed, but I enjoy I also enjoy different cosmopolitan buzz.
But to be honest, I mainly bought my flat here because Green Lanes was an excellent transport hub for central London, where I used to work and socialise. Buying in Harringay wasn’t my first choIce, but the best in my budget. I used to boast about how the N29 bus used to take me from Trafalgar sq to my front door, stressing that even a cab couldn’t take me closer.
But in the last decade or so, a lot of new positive stuff to the area that began to inspire me do more things locally. For example, we have some wonderful cafes and brunch places, live music venues, cocktails, organic shops and a greater variety of restaurants beyond Turkish. In other words, some of the things I used to enjoy doing in central London came here, conveniently at a time when I developed some chronic health problems and was less able to travel.
Being less able to travel, l made the effort to make new local friends. Although ethnic makeup of the area has changed but it’s still incredibly cosmopolitan. I embraced that to connect with people from the different new cultures. Many of the Greek and Turkish Cypriots have move to the borough of Enfield, but now getting to know more mainland Greeks Turks, Italians, Romanians, Poles etc.
The area has definitely changed since the 80s. Whether it’s better or worse, it’s a question of what you make of it or how the changes suit your personal circumstances. People have different tastes, so for example I won’t try and persuade a non-drinker that the area is better because it has cocktail bars. But despite all the new stuff, the area hasn’t gone too trendy, (eg like Covent Garden), meaning that there’s still plenty of reasonably priced accesible places where elderly residents can do their shopping at reasonable prices .
The traffic has always been awful. Despite gang wars in the past, I felt relatively safe living on a busy main road overlooked by many passers-by. At the moment, I feel for young people who find it more difficult to buy property here as house prices and rents have risen well beyond inflation and salaries. Sadly, it’s not a better area for them for them if they have to move away because the area is no longer affordable.

-
Permalink Reply by sophia c on
-
I've lived in Haringey for 20 years in Tottenham so eastern part of the Council - first off Philip Lane 5min from Bernie Grants Arts Centre and now between Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale. From at least about 10 years ago there has been definitely improvement to the urban outlook and facilities incl. as mentioned elsewhere new cafe and/or restaurants (especially for this part of the borough) but also with new cycle lanes, more areas given to pedestrians, street tree planting and better park conditions. A lot has been invested also in local education and culture in this part of the borough, and in particular with the opening of the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in c. 2007 (even if it took a couple of years to properly take off) and the College of Haringey, East and North London, along with schools which has made a great difference too. There are still areas that could benefit from improvements (West Green Road traffic conditions for instance) but overall it is a much better environment. Until about 7 years ago, this part of Haringey was totally ignored by outsiders (it had historically a bad reputation) until people started to move further north from Dalston and Stoke Newington due to the endemic issue of house prices in London. Prior to the current health crisis there were many more new projects (mostly mixed residential) under construction and/or in the pipeline not to everyone's taste but I believe this will continue to improve the urban environment of the area and if the Council keeps its promises on social housing, this should benefit a whole mix of people of different social background.
-
-
I have lived in Stroud Green since 1985, and find that in many ways the area is better in that it feels safer and there is less rubbish and anti-social behaviour than there used to be. But I do miss some of the 'real' shops and businesses, like our wonderful Cypriot cobbler, who truly loved shoes and made them last forever, and the likes of whom no longer exists anywhere. Our news agents (along with our local post office branch) are now gone too, though the local Londis is fantastic, with lovely staff and and a wide range of fresh food, wines and beers (we used to have an off-license, which is gone), vegetarian & vegan stuff, fresh meat, and all kinds of esoteric stuff too. Crouch End used to have more interesting places to eat, and while it retains some fabulous restaurants, there are too many coffee shops and estate agents. But we are blessed with a few excellent survivors - good butchers, Dunns Bakery, a fishmonger, several greengrocers - and more recently, 2 cinemas! I wouldn't want to live anywhere else!
-
Permalink Reply by Anna on
-
I moved to the Noel Park estate in 1974 and then the Ducketts Common end of the ladder in 1980 and where i am now in Stroud Green in 2009, so i seem to be a very long standing resident of the borough and also seen harringay over several decades. When i first moved to Harringay chose it over Crouch End and i loved it - quiet, unpretentious, near the tube, a mixed but largely cypriot community who made super neighbours, and meant the shops had great diverse food. Then over the next decade many of the cypriot community left, houses got turned into HMOs and to be frank it felt like a downward spiral to me. My view was probably coloured by living next door to an HMO which had particularly difficult tenants in it. By 2009 i found it really unpleasant for my teenage children - gangs on corners, bad relations between youths from different ethnic groups esp, Turkish and Kurdish, so I was glad to leave. But my friends who stayed have seen it become a nice place to be again and have enjoyed the different vibe with bars/music venues as well as the more everyday shopping pleasures and a slightly greater percentage of residents who want to improve the area. And I love Stroud Green which i think (from what people have told me) also probably had a bit of a socio-economic dip on the 80s/90s but is now a lovely place to be.
-
-
If you are referring to Haringey Borough, I’ve lived here in the same house for 56 years. The borough has changed a lot and in my view for the worse. Areas are more dirty, there is more drug spots and people as a whole in my street are not as neighbourly as they were years ago. The high street has had the worse hit and generally looks like a dump. When I was growing up here Wood Green high Road was classed as the second shopping area to West End. The cause I believe is too many rented accommodations as opposed to families, too many gambling shops, too many cheap pound type shops and too many eateries all attracting the wrong type of people. Due to circumstances I cannot move away yet, but where I once stated I was born here and want to die here is now it’s can’t wait till the day I walk away from this borough and never look back!
-
Permalink Reply by James R Grinter on
-
The claim of “second busiest after Oxford street” often still crops up, and it’s one that intrigues me.
I’m no historian, but it’s first use seems to stem back to the Shopping City development and publications extolling the virtues of the new Wood Green (ironic: its that which probably killed it). It wasn’t sourced in that.
it still casts a shadow: I’ve been told that landlords of properties on the High St still ask for very high rents, and the property agents justify it with that same “second busiest” claim! Clearly they can afford not to let the rents drop to a more realistic level that might let it thrive again.
-
Permalink Reply by Cathy on
-
I've lived 12 years in Harringay. I'd like to say that Haringey is also quite a green place: Finsbury Park, Downhills Park, Lordship Recreation Ground are wonderful places, also Railway Fields, Parkland Walk etc. New park rangers in Finsbury Park have a background in conservation, from all over the world.
In spring they let swathes of cow parsley (a wildflower beloved of bees) prosper. On top of the parks, there are 70 Sites of Interest for Nature Conservation, protected by a Biodiversity Plan, not to mention lots of small areas made available by the council, planted and looked after by residents (for example between St Ann’s Road and Green Lanes). HarringayonLine makes a habit of publishing nature photos taken in Harringay. And a special mention for olive trees and magnolias recently planted along Green Lanes.
-
-
so true Cathy and thats not even mentioning ally pally and the woods on the west side. in fact you can do a 5 mile round trip walking from Finsbury park /parkland walk/queens wood/highgate wood/ parkland walk/ally pally / new river path - with hardly any pavement. any other round trips of that kind?
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next ›
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
