What Harringay's Road were made of in 1906

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Permalink Reply by John Liffen 7 hours ago

The map is fascinating, and it reminded me of a passage in C H Rolph’s autobiography London Particulars (Oxford, 1980). ‘C H Rolph’ was the pseudonym of Cecil Rolph Hewitt (1901-1994), first a policeman in the City of London force and later, for many years, one of the regular team of journalists on the New Statesman. Hewitt’s family lived in Corbyn Street, Stroud Green, between 1903 and 1910 when they moved to Fulham. Hewitt’s recollections of his childhood in Stroud Green are clear and detailed, and it is probable that his description of the surface of Corbyn Street of about 1908 matched those shown as ‘unsurfaced’ in the extract from Bartholomew's’s map.

"I can’t remember what our street was made of, but although it was certainly a dusty street and liberally manured by horse traffic, it couldn’t have been a mere dirt road by 1908. However, it was far from smooth, and if you fell down on it while running it tore your hands and knees open … And whatever the surface of the roadway in Corbyn Street, it was always possible at that time to bang cricket stumps into it; and the same was true, a year or two later, of Gowan Avenue in Fulham. It says much for the infrequency and the slowness of the traffic along those London suburban roads, in the years before the 1914 war, that you could play cricket on the crown of the road with sufficient confidence to warrant the banging-in of stumps."

Hewitt later wrote a second volume of London reminiscences, Further Particulars (Oxford, 1987). Both are well worth seeking out.

Permalink Reply by Hugh 6 hours ago

Thanks for that interesting snippet, John. Here's an extract of the map showing Corbyn Street.