Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Time to Remember the Harringay Arena
On 28th October it will be 50 years since the last event was held at the Harringay Arena. Through it's short 22 year life the Arena hosted a huge range of events including some of Dame Alicia Markova's earliest performances in the West, the London Music Festival which made classical music accessible to the masses for the first time, Tom Arnold's famous circuses, Ice shows, roller speedway derbies, the basketball competition for the 1948 Olympics, the Horse of the Year Show for its first ten years, the England Badminton championships, the European Netball championships, and of course boxing (at the time it closed the Arena held the UK record for hosting he highest number of world title fights)......and more.
28th October 2008 would be a great day for us to celebrate one aspect of what was great about Harringay in the past and have a bit of party and look forward to the future.
I contacted our councillors, local residents’ groups and Wildmoor properties about this idea around 5 weeks ago. So far I have had replies from the LCSP, the GRA, Councillors Baker & Alexander and Wildmoor Properties (who own and manage the Arena shopping Centre). All were positive and offered their support. It’s a shame that I’ve not yet heard back from the other ward councillors. I’m sure they’ve been busy. I will follow them up.
I don’t have a clear plan of what we’d do – at one level it could be a stand in the corner of the car park with some limp balloons and a few bottles of Tizer. At the other end we could try and entice some of the Arena’s former users back – for example the Horse of the Year Show people are out on the web fishing for past stories of Harringay Arena days. The limit is our imagination, energy, time and of course money.
But what do you guys think? Should we do it? A chance to create a positive buzz?
If you're in the mood, look here at some old photos of the Arena and here at old programmes.
28th October 2008 would be a great day for us to celebrate one aspect of what was great about Harringay in the past and have a bit of party and look forward to the future.
I contacted our councillors, local residents’ groups and Wildmoor properties about this idea around 5 weeks ago. So far I have had replies from the LCSP, the GRA, Councillors Baker & Alexander and Wildmoor Properties (who own and manage the Arena shopping Centre). All were positive and offered their support. It’s a shame that I’ve not yet heard back from the other ward councillors. I’m sure they’ve been busy. I will follow them up.
I don’t have a clear plan of what we’d do – at one level it could be a stand in the corner of the car park with some limp balloons and a few bottles of Tizer. At the other end we could try and entice some of the Arena’s former users back – for example the Horse of the Year Show people are out on the web fishing for past stories of Harringay Arena days. The limit is our imagination, energy, time and of course money.
But what do you guys think? Should we do it? A chance to create a positive buzz?
If you're in the mood, look here at some old photos of the Arena and here at old programmes.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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This is a lovely idea and I wonder if we could get Wildmoor to take it up? The BBC angle 'Horse of the year show' might draw them in. It would be nice to get something permanant out of it too like pictures around the site of what used to be there, and some noticeboards like the Passage ones giving a bit of history. There are some fantastic photos around, it would be nice to give people some sense of the past and maybe make them feel a teeny bit sad that where once there were circuses and concerts there are now car parks and chaos?
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Permalink Reply by Adam on
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this is a superb idea. It would ge great to have a small tent/gazebo in either the Sainsbury's or Homebase car park and have a slideshow of archive photos from the Arena and also some archive film clips. A friend of mine from Falkland is a film researcher specialising in archive, is it worth me asking him how much it might cost to put togerther a 3 or 4 minute compilation?
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Permalink Reply by Ruth on
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It would be excellent to do something to celebrate what was there but it takes and organisation. I wonder if local schools might be interested, in terms of local history projects and the like? there would certainly be a lot to get stuck into. Local newspapers would love something like this to report on. We could do some time travelling- what things were like back then etc., what peoples lives were like. There may be some sponsorship funding available. Of course, where to have the events/event would be an issue as the Arena isnt there and its always so full of traffic round there. But wouldnt let all that stop the development of ideas and plans!
I am very interested in history esp local history and how we can preserve something of the past as everything around us gets knocked down. At the moment I am doing work on my local area of origin up in Coventry, in particular the working mens clubs. (see www.clubhistorians.co.uk)
good luck! will help out if I can
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks for the feedback Ruth, and Adam. At the moment, support seems a little limited. I guess we can only really get something significant going if people are interested.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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My (now sadly deceased) neighbour, Nancy, used to be on the tote at the stadium right up until we came to Warham Road in the very early eighties when the dogs were still running. She had wonderful stories about what it was like in the 50's and 60's.
Do you think Sainsbury and the other stadium businesses (God forbid that I should menton McDonalds!) would want to mark the event?
What about a couple of pearly queens? I can think of a few likely candidates.
Michael
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I've been in touch with Wildmoor who own the Arena Shopping Centre. They apparently would be up for it. Very disappointig response from the politicians though and, to be honest, not a lot of interest from residents. I was wondering if we might combine it with the street party somehow.............
Do you remember any of Nancy's stories?
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This is good news. I spoke to my friend on Falkland, who is a film researcher about it. He was really interested and reckoned we could sort something out in the region of £500. This would mainly be the costs of the transferring the archive, from film on to a digital format. He would do the researching for free and I'm sure we can find someone in Harringay who could edit it together nicely - I know at least 2 people who could do this pending other commitments.
If Wildmoor are interested and are willing to put some money up, I think it would be great to go ahead with it as stand alone event in October. We could get local media coverage and it is the kind of thing that BBC London might well be interested in.
Is it worth contacting David Lammy and Joanne McCartney?
What is the next step with Widmoor?
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One option is we ask LBH for a stand at Car Free Day on 28th September and run the film and photographic slideshow there as part of a HOL stand. There will be a lot of people around that day.
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