Northcott Avenue Wood Green c1905

Comment by Vaughan on June 6, 2025 at 10:13

Pictures of Edwardian families in the West of the borough always cause me to wonder if they could be any from my family:

I was born in 1945 to a single parent and my Gran was a 2^nd mother to me. Gran, from a large Edwardian family, had brought her family up in a new council house in South Harrow where I knew her - my home was in poor-quality post-War Council requisitioned accommodation in Chelsea.

Returning to London from Leeds university in the late 1960s, I discovered Crouch End, loved it, initially living in a bedsit (Haslemere Road), until gratefully accepting a lovely Council flat in Chettle Court where I I have lived ever since.

Long after my grandparents had died, I discovered, via Kellys’s Directory, that my dearly loved Gran - Mary Hunnikin - in her teen years had lived at 31 Uplands Road N8, the very next street off Ridge Road, and barely 200 yards from me! This always seems to me an amazing and lovely co-incidence.

Great Granddad, George Hunnikin (a founder member of the Red Cross) was a businessman, maybe running a shop. They had an Iranian journalist as a lodger in this house whom I think my Gran fell in love with though she married William Charles, a male nurse who had worked with the first X-ray field stations during WW1.

(As an addendum, via a photo on the Web my Gran’s S. Harrow council house still stands, even though the council houses to her left are clearly new-build.)

Comment by michael456red on June 6, 2025 at 14:17

Fascinating image.  For those who might be interested, this was one of the three avenues Braemar, Cornwall and Northcott built by my great grandfather John Henry James.  He was a Cornishman, son of a Cornish copper miner, hence the name 'Cornwall'.  Northcott was his wife's maiden name.  The James family settled into the family home at The Towers, better known as 6 Braemar Avenue.  My great grandfather died of diabetes in 1910, but the family continued living there for a long time.  When I moved to Wood Green (from Hamburg!) in 1985 and knocked on the door of No 6, my mother's cousin answered the door! 

Comment by michael456red on June 6, 2025 at 14:18

Where could I access a watermark free copy of this photo please?

Comment by John Shulver 9 hours ago

Fascinating link michael456red !

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