Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The dying days of south Mayes Road
A few years back I wrote a piece about the origins of Mayes Road. Searching for something else this morning, I came across the seventies BBC news report on the problems surrounding the development of Shopping City and realised that this added to the Mayes Road story.
I must have watched the report many times in the past, but perhaps never paid attention closely enough. Watching it again the other day, I realised that it had two sections that had been shot along the now demolished section of Mayes Road which ran directly into the High Road.
I made a number of screenshots of relevant sections and have crudely pasted together the results and added them below. (The first is less successful than the second as it was shot from inside a car, at an angle with the windscreen pillar in the middle of each image. I'm sure time and patience could provide a much superior result, but the images at least give a good impression of what that stretch was like).
The third image, a map extract from the 1953 Ordnance Survey map, shows where the location of the two stretches pictured in images 1 and 2. (Image1, showing numbers 6-20, being the strip marked to the right of the map and Image 2, numbers 30-50, the one to its left).
Double-click an image to expand it and click the result again to further enlarge it.
Image 1: 6-20 Mayes Road 1974 (highest numbers to left). Wood Green High Road is visible on the far right, behind the strip of single-storey buildings (which I assume were the result of the Victorian buildings having been lost during the war).
Image 2: 30-50 Mayes Road 1974 (highest numbers to left)
Image 3: Extract from 1953 Ordnance Survey map
Here's a 1938 picture from Britain from Above (click to enlarge).
Tags for Forum Posts: blenheim road, mayes road, wood green history
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Fowler on
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Interesting; thanks Hugh. I think the shopping mall was one of the worst things to happen to Wood Green and its shopping centre. I remember the area in the late sixties, and the high street was far better. Malls like this are a thing of the past, and I very much hope it will be torn down, and something on a more human scale put in its place. At present it is ugly, too big, and full of shops selling over-priced tat.
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Permalink Reply by Lydia Walter on
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I remember Mayes Road from my childhood. I thought there was a pet shop in the run of shops on the right hand side walking towards Wood Green High Road. Can anyone put me right on this?
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I remember a shop selling tropical fish, be about 1959/60.
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Yes, that could be the one. Budgies too possibly.
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Permalink Reply by Christine Yates on
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There was a pet shop on the left of the High Road going towards Mayes Road. My mum bought a budgie and cage from there in 1966.
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Must be early 1950's late 1940's there was a cat's meat stall/?shop....the meat was coloured with bright dye, presumably to indicate not for human consumption. Also on Saturdays a stall selling sweets and making them on-the-spot in a copper bowl, presumably portable gas heated - orange coloured twists of I think, cough candy.
On another tack, High Road - West side just north of Turnpike Lane - a Jolly's cold meats shop: brawn, tripe, pig's trotters, faggots, cowheel.
Takes me back.
Nick
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I can remember open-fronted shops in Mayes Road, selling a variety of things including shoes and dress material.
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I remember the funeral director on the corner of Blenheim Rd. They use to leave the doors ajar at the back entrance and you could see the coffins, didn't want to see em but difficult not to glance at them.
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Oh Hugh…happy days and memories of shopping with my lovely Mum. We would get off the bus at Turnpike Lane, go in to what felt like every shop, get to Mayes Road and do all the shops there, then walk back vie both Co-Op buildings, Martin Ford, Marks and Spencer’s, BHS for a jelly, Boots and Bartons.
Thank you for posting those photos….life moves on but your memories remain the same ❤️
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Permalink Reply by Eileen Penn on
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Such wonderful memories. My nan and grandad lived in Caxton Road (where the community hub now stands). I can remember shopping with my nan in the early 60's and going to the bakers and the dairy in Mayes Road. I still have a love of iced finger buns!!! I also remember the alleyway that went from Caxton Road to the High Road.
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