Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Make a Difference and help change Wood Green High Street
I don't think that I have ever disguised my dislike of Wood Green High Street and it’s never ending pound shops, takeaways and betting shops - Tottenham High Road is almost identical. So fed up of sitting and moaning about it, this weekend I decided to take some action.
Many of you will be aware of the current discussions taking place about rejuvenating Britain’s High Streets with Mary Portas even being appointed government advisor to look into how we encourage more independent retailers back into the high St and we revive this great institution.
Yesterday I had a great conversation with Mary Portas and also the lovely chaps at the Big Green Book shop and with the Karamela cafe on Coburg Road to see if we thought there would be interest locally in creating something exciting on our High St.
This could be anything from helping independent retailers to set up shop in Wood Green and in Tottenham, to ask Landlords to let empty shops be used for pop up shops and to charge a nominal rent for them, to encourage more of a 'scene' in Wood Green and in Tottenham, we have some great things already going on at the Big Green Bookshop and at Karamela and at the Chocolate Factory and yet no-one really talks about them.
I am also keen to work with some of the bigger stores already located in the High St to get them to put their hands in their pockets and help us clear up the High St by donating plants etc to create a garden in the sky to rival Crouch End and the new Roof Garden project taking place in Dalston
I am not talking about gentrification here or turning Wood Green into the next Crouch End just about the community coming together and taking ownership of its High Street and the local area and making it a better place for everyone to visit.
I am sure that everyone has a lot of great ideas and if you would like to get involved I will be setting up a community working group it really doesn’t matter what your talent is if you feel that you have something to contribute I would love to hear from you. Karamela have very kindly agreed to host a get together. This is going to be a huge task but if we work together we can make change happen.
Thanks
Tammy
Tags for Forum Posts: festivals, wood green
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rachella on
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Yes - let's meet up. I've just been sent the draft scrutiny review of betting shops. That's something you may be interested in.
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Permalink Reply by Tammy Palmer on
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oh yes am really interested in seeing that one!
great well just let me know when you are free - weekends or evenings good for me
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I'm also available evenings and weekends -- not this Saturday, though. Send me you're email address and I'll send it you a copy of the document: noelpark.preservation@gmail.com
I noticed you're on Lordship lane. Are you near Noel park? If so, you may also want to come to the Noel park Residents Association meetings. We've been discussing the high street for ages so you'll probably be able to get some people on board to help your cause.
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Geat you can drop me an e-mail at changewoodgreen@gmail.com and we can arrange soem time to meet.
I am very close to Noel Park - I live just on the Roundway - thats a whole other campaign we need some serious work doing there!!!! I am on the opposite side of the road to lovely Tower Gardens though in the weird no mans land where N22 starts and N17 stops we bought a lovely little cottage which we love but sadly there is very little sense of community, maybe thats my next project!
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Permalink Reply by Julia Bell on
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Just caught on to this thread - bravo Tamara - this is just what WG needs! I'm a member of the West Green Road Residents association and I use WG high street as little as possible at the moment - nightmare of traffic, crap shops and the carbunkle that is Shopping Shitty . . . It's certainly true the council have let it get very run down - poor maintenance etc and too many betting shops etc but you know all of this already . . .
So enough with the negatives - I think the amazing cultural diversity of WG/Tottenham/Green Lanes is its unique USP - which could be reflected in some kind of festival of food - Polish/Turkish/Carribean/African/Asian etc etc . . .?? Food is a great way to bring people together - I like the idea of doing something on Ducketts Common . . . Some kind of floral prettification would probably help too and maybe a people's supermarket a la Camden and the one on Lamb's Conduit Street in Bloomsbury - which was recently on C4... More decent cafes on the High Street too - not just chain coffee shops . . . Costa is an improvement on Burger King, but . . .
Anyway, just my 2p . . . Be interested in getting involved in some way, not quite sure how, but bravo to you & let us know how you get on. Julia
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Festival of Food?
Great idea! Put it in your diary!
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Brill! How did I miss this before?? (Actually - I remember now I had a broken leg & couldn't leave the house much . . .)
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Permalink Reply by PaulG on
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Julia
Might I say, in the most pleasant way possible, that your vision for Wood Green High Road sounds hideous? This is not Bloomsbury, nor is it - thank God - Camden Town. Nor do I agree that Costa is an improvement on Burger King, not least as I suspect the nutritional value of the products sold in the former to be lesser than that of the fare formerly dispensed by the latter. Oh, and as I said earlier, there's a reason those "crap shops" are always busy. People like them.
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Hi Julia
just wanted to reaffiarm that I think your ideas are FANTASTIC keep them coming - that alternative pound shop is genius!!!!
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Well respectfully back atcha - thanks for the negative energy! Perhaps you would like WG High Street to stay the same? Or you have some suggestions of your own to add to the mix? A People's Supermarket whether it be in Camden, Bloomsbury or Wood Green turns us all into owners of our own community rather than consumers of the sh**e Tescos likes to call food... And the betting shops drive me mad - the only chains in impoverished areas are William Hill, Betfred etc - bottom feeder capitalism at its most rampant. I'm no fan of Costa either, but at least it encourages a kind of human communion rather than the 'eat a grizzled cow as fast as possible because the bogs are overflowing into the restaurant' that was the Burger King of yore. I don't see what so horrendous about wanting to mix things up a bit rather than just moaning about it but doing nothing...
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Permalink Reply by Peter Cosmetatos on
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Changing how a high street or neighbourhood feels tends to be something that requires more strategic management - typically, either by a single landowner (for example, the De Walden Estate in Marylebone), or by a local authority. Clearly, that strategic management can also be inspired and implemented differently - we have the localism agenda, after all, so communities can lead, and even a gaggle of landowners and/or a disorganised local authority might be chivvied along into constructive cooperation and action. But all too often people focus on what they can see (the retailers) and ignore the longer term interests behind them. What is your understanding of the ownership of the land on the high street? If it's diverse, we may need local authority support at a strategic level, if not there may be scope for talking to a small number of landlords directly. I work for a trade association of commercial property owners and would be happy to help in talking to landowners.
The other point I suppose is that this high street caters for its local community - and though that community is evolving and includes professionals etc., it is dominated by poorer people who seem to find the mix of shops it offers attractive (judging both by the relative health of the high street and by how busy it usually seems to be). Changing the face of the high street can't happen on its own or to suit the taste of only a small part of the local community. The bottom line is, well, the bottom line - both landlords and retailers will tend (not unerringly, but broadly) to make the choices that work commercially.
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I would love to see a different kind of pound shop which sold local art/food/clothes for a quid . . . I have done some teaching in the local schools and the general sense is that Tottenham/Wood Green is a 'depressed' area - which I think is writ large in the crappy and neglected infrastructure... But there is still a real sense of community here which I think gives me hope that we could turn the neighbourhood more into a 'people's republic' a la Hackney . . .
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