Gardens Streets Turfed for Community Celebration

Doncaster Gardens, gateway to the Community Garden, was turfed as the centrepiece of the Gardens Residents' Association celebrations yesterday

Both streets at the crossroads of Doncaster and Stanhope Gardens were turfed for yesterday's 'Community Green' event in Harringay's Gardens area.

The celebrations marked the tenth anniversary of the the creation of the Gardens Community Gardens and anticipated more progress with the £300k awarded to the area for traffic calming and other road improvements.

I arrived as Gardens Residents' Association (GRA) founder Andy Newman was 'opening' the event along with GRA chair Francois Ballay and local councillors Nilgun Canver and Zena Brabazon. To a warm round of applause, Andy spoke about the community's pride in their achievements over the past decade and underlined how life had improved in the area as result of all the hard work. Endorsing Andy's message about the dividends of community graft, Councillor Brabazon told the crowd "Haringey's a great borough but the squeaky wheel gets the grease". Councillor Canver also congratulated the community and spoke of her vision of "making The Gardens the best place to be".

Left to right: Andy Newman (GRA Founder), Zena Brabazon ands Nilgun Canver (councillors for Harringay's St Ann's ward), Francois Ballay (GRA Chair)

Overall, there was a friendly community atmosphere enlived by the 'nothing says says a party like a steel band' Hornsey School Girls Steel Band.

A (low quality) one minute snapshot of the afternoon to the tunes of the steel band

As with any event that Andy Newman organises, it was well planned with lots for the kids to do.

Willow weavers Angie and Georgia entertaining children in the Gardens Community Garden

More games at the event: Big chess game or tiny boy?

All in all another well organised community enhancing event by the GRA. Well done y'all.

GRA organisers Andy Newman and Sue Green

These sort of events are always a great opportunity to catch up with neighbours and meet some new ones. Amongst those I met were Ladder resident Ant who, as I've mentioned before, has a great plan for an Autumn event encompassing both the Ladder and The Gardens (but I won't steal his thunder). I also met with Harringay locals (ex Ladder now Gardens) residents Amy and Rob. They were telling me how much they loved the area and how their friends seem to be following in their footsteps. "It seems like everyone's moving to Harringay all of a sudden", Amy told me. "We came here four years ago and recently several of our friends have moved up here. We all just love it here". 

On my way back towards Green Lanes, I met some more neighbours and, as is my habit more often than it should be, I fell into conversation with some complete strangers (proving we all turn into our fathers). One of the encounters was with a tiler from Jamaica who, by the evidence of the track his friend played me on his phone, turned out to be a pretty decent reggae singer. Carl Melody came across as being as serious about his tiling as he is his music. So if you fancy a Tottenham based tiler with a spring in his step, Carl's on 075 3402 1501.