Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Mystery Door on Beresford Road
Calling all architecture sleuths...
There is a house near the bottom of Beresford Road that I walk past every day, which has an extra door. Not a side door or anything, but an extra door RIGHT NEXT to the front door. I've taken a picture from Google Maps to show what I mean. And it's the only house on the street with a mysterious bonus door.
So where does it lead? Does it lead to a strange, thin house sandwiched between the other two? Does it lead to an abandoned passageway? Or does it lead to the bottomless pit from which none may return?
Do you live in the house next door to the door? Do you live IN the strange thin house to which it leads?
Crazed speculation is of course just as welcome as hard facts. Does anyone else think we should get it sealed off with holy water and a pentagram - just to make sure?
Tags for Forum Posts: denchfield, harringay mysteries, history of harringay
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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One possibility is that the builder who built this strip of houses built to a specific house plan and bought a job lot a materials to fit. However there was an extra few feet so he needed to make one house a bit bigger or leave an unused strip at the end of the terrace. Either to retain the look or to save on buying new materials, he used the double arch doorways he'd bought for the rest of the houses.
Or, another option, looking at satellite view, is that it was a right of way through to whatever the land behind the house was used for - now the goods yard or whatever. I imagine that plot of land was never gardens for the houses so must have been left open for a purpose. Perhaps a canny builder saw that by not incorporating it as gardens he could turn a few extra bucks. This doorway could have guarded one right of way to it.
I'm not convinced on the servants' door option.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Maybe, although many of the other houses on the ladder were also dual-occupancy without the luxury of a second entrance..
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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There is also one in Frobisher Road, it used to lead to an alley way that runs along the back of the gardens. My Uncle lived at number 74, he remembered that one summers evening a stranger walked from the old alley-way through his garden, through his house, opened the front door, left, and did not say a single word. This is going back around 40 years. Jane
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Interesting. So this supports the theory of access of some sort of an area at the rear of the houses, I guess.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Yes looking at the satelite view as Hugh has done and streetview, it's clearly a single house. Don't think it leads to a garden, probably for the upstairs flat of a maisonette layout.
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Yes, then it would connect to a staircase and still be used as such.. which it doesn't look like it is.
I know of other purpose built double houses (Etherley Road, Conway Road) with only one 'street door' for two houses and flats in the area (Grove Road N15), where also only one 'street door' was provided, with the dividing doors being located inside.
Purpose built flats built at that time tended to be more of the Mansion block type (St Anns Road).
These entrances are similar to those on main roads where the back yard was used commercially. I think I'd bet on that option!
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin on
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More from Facebook.
Sabrina Anna Piras: ... a thief-confusing Trompe-l'œil?
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Permalink Reply by Harringay SNT on
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Its got original frontage so looks like flats but I`m not aware of any house built on the ladder that was originally flats. It also has something sticking out of the letterbox so appears to be a working door.
Anyone have any idea what that frieze is above it
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