Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Turnpike Lane Junction 1947 vs 2026
This diptych contrasts a 1947 aerial image with a present-day Google maps one. I've marked with red lines those areas that were demolished (they extend further north and south beyond the open end of the marked areas.
You can see that four houses were demolished on Turnpike Lane to the east of Hornsey Park Road (No's 116 - 122, the last house having neem on the corner).
(Click the image to enlarge).
Tags for Forum Posts: turnpike lane, wightman road, wightman road alignment
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris
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A whole lot of houses seem to have been demolished to make it easier for traffic to enter and/or leave Wightman Road. However, the WW2 bomb map shows that a V2 missile landed just beyond the southern edge of the photo so perhaps some of the houses were already abandoned. I wonder what the reasoning was at the time.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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I wonder what the reasoning was at the time.
Dick, the "reasoning'—insofar as reasoning existed—is likely to have stemmed from the council's pro-car Highways Deparment.
That junction was once intended as the north-west corner of a massive, misconceived Gyratory, around the entire Ladder roads.
In November, I posted about the Ladder Gyratory, here.
to make it easier for traffic to enter and/or leave
The easing of traffic flow appears to have long been treated as the beginning and end of the Highwaymens' Brief or Remit. Encouraging walking and cycling did not compute. This department has IMO, long been hidebound, unimaginative, intractable and poor governed. It's overdue for root and branch reform.
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A V2 missile landed at the intersection of Stapleton Hall and Granville Roads. Fortunately, this corner was spared the directive to Ease Traffic Flow.
The reason that there is a small parklet there and not a council traffic easing, may be because this is Diocesan and not council land.
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Admin for testingPermalink Reply by Hugh -
Dick, the 1955 OS map shows most of the houses I mentioned standing. A quick look at the electoral register for Hornsey of 1948 suggests they were occupied (though I haven't run a thorough check).
Below is an extract from the HHS's Bomb damage map in the Burrow of Hornsey 1939 to 1945.
The most extreme hit within the square seems to have been a V2 rocket on the east side of Wightman Road. However, this newspaper photo from 1948 shows that part of Whightman Road apparently undamaged.
As far as I'm aware, the reason for the redevelopment was in part the new road design and impart the perception that the housing was unfit as was deemed the case in Asya (Hornsey Vale) and Campsbourne.
Stephen from Berlin explained the thinking behind the Wightman/Turnpike alignment project back in 2016 - which I've been referring to ever since. In his comments Stephen shared documents which showed that a 1960s/70s plan aimed to build a bypass to the east of Green Lanes and Wood Green which would take most of the traffic around the town centre. The realignment of Wightman Road was part of that plan: it was part of a design to provide a feeder road to the soon-to-be built Shopping City. The bypass never got built, but Shopping City did and the Wightman Road realignment was carried out. So in effect, Wightman Road became the Harringay and Wood Green bypass by default..
© 2026 Created by Hugh.
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