Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

A conversation with a survivor of the bombed out houses in Fairfax Road

Earlier today, I popped by Adam Coffman's house in Fairfax Road. Whilst we were chatting outside his house, an older chap poked his head round the fence and pointing at the 1960s flats now filling the gap in the Victorian terraces where a doodlebug hit in 1944, "There y'are", he said, "Used to be number 105 there. I was born there in 1940. I was a war baby. It got 'it by a V1. I was only young but I remember it like yesterday. It wasn't the noise or the fire. It was the pressure I remember most. Tremendous force, it was like nothing I felt since. My dad used to be a French polisher. I think my brother was 'ome. He did the radars on HMS Hood. He was one of the few survivors.............."

And so this rich seam of local history poured out unabated (and unabateable). David (David Richard Norman, to do him justice) later lived in Umfreville Road, where in the 1980's he helped to get Railway Fields established and chose its name. Apparently it was nearly called Green Lanes Park!

I've given him my number and he's promised to get in touch and share his memories on 'tape'. He's also promised that he'll post a copy of a long letter he wrote to the Journal back in 1980 about his experiences in WWII Harringay.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on April 21, 2012 at 19:12

Did your family know the Normans?

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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on April 21, 2012 at 19:25

As I've mentioned before .. the Fairfax bomb got as far NE as as Willow Walk.. where it's engines cut out.. My dad told me it seemed to skim over the houses there ..perhaps there was NE wind which pushed it back towards Fairfax..? I'm not sure of the date of this one.. but it may have come from a ramp in Belgium or Holland rather than the Pas de Calais as the early ones did in June - Aug 1944, meaning a More East > West trajectory

Two of my schoolfriends later lived in the prefabs: John Wilkinson on Faifax and Keith Young on Effingham..

V1s were famous for travelling on what were called 'Conveyor Belts' - many following the same course but being diverted by the prevailing weather conditions. My parents told me once that many seemed to follow St Ann's Road from Stamford Hill.. I think the one that hit the STD Factory at New Southgate did too!

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on April 21, 2012 at 22:00

Perhaps it's time to be grown up about this. German civilian casualties were far in excess of those in the UK. All memories of their experiences of war are valid and important to retain
I but I agree with Stephen, because Germany was the "enemy" their history isn't allowed the same pain as those here in the UK. Most Germans were pawns in war in the same way that the bombed east Londoners who had to occupy Bethnal Green tube station were.
Recent releases of information about the the atrocities dealt by the British occupying forces in Kenya should make us all realise that no nation is innocent in the way they wage war.
War is always written from the view of the victor but the real challenge is to remember history from the viewpoint of those who lived it.

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Permalink Reply by John D on April 22, 2012 at 7:43

Enemy civilian casualties were far in excess of those in the UK because we were better at it.

I don't think the enemy held off bombing UK civilians bacause of any moral considerations.

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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on April 22, 2012 at 8:09

Haha.. thanks for lightening up my Sunday..

A couple of questions:

Firstly, who's we..?

Do you think the Churches blessing the bombers before they went on raids (on both sides - & that also means the 'enemy' ) was moral? I'm afraid I don't think much of what religious types call moral..

BTW, the use of 'weasel words' like 'the enemy' is a very easy way to disguise the fact that people, often civilians, were being killed.. The N+zis used it too..

Are you still fighting?

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Permalink Reply by John D on April 22, 2012 at 8:21

To avoid hurting your feelings, I used " the enemy " to avoid associating today's Germans with those of the 1940s. Tactful, eh ?

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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on April 22, 2012 at 8:49

Calling Germans 'the enemy' also had the advantage of disassociating them from the King and Royal Family who were more than 85% of German descent (only 1- 2 generations back) .. and not until or if William hits the throne will that change.. The Queen has only 50% German blood, but Philipp has 100% .. his now dead siblings lived all their lives in Germany and he used to be often 'secretly' in .de for family occasions.. So much for we!

And BTW, using 'we' assumes you were alive and fighting back then doesn't it..?