Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Hell that is Wood Green
Yesterday, I had the misfortune to find myself in the shopping mall. Walking out the big automatic doors and into the crowd of Star Wars pub extras who were smoking, spitting and squabbling on the footpath I witnessed what for me sums up the whole carbuncle on the arse of Haringey that is Wood Green High Road. One of the characters stormed through the crowd with his status dog in tow. I was reflecting on the fact that ‘status’ dogs don't seem to work (as the people who have them only ever seem to be what everyone else in society would consider low status). Everything suddenly went quiet except the ever present sirens. The status dog had stopped and released its copious bowels all over the footpath. It was like turning on the light in an HMO; the cockroaches screamed and scattered. The dog owner laughed and walked on. It was probably one of the most disgusting things I have seen or smelt in London. Eventually the crowd returned and watched the next horde trample the mess up and down the road. There was no-one to turn to, no-one to clean up and more importantly no-one with the authority to challenge and/or shoot the dog owner. Things just returned to normal.
The whole experience made me think how the council, local police and traders believe that we're all animals if they are happy for us to have to deal with this every time we go to the High Road. It's easy enough for me to hop on a bus and head off to Crouch End or Islington or even Enfield to shop but if you're older or disabled and have trouble getting around or not enough money for the bus it must be pretty grim to face it every day. Imagine how the standard little old lady dreads heading out into the crowds, litter, phlegm, smoke and anti-social behaviour of Wood Green every morning to get the milk.
Short of manning water cannons at each end of the High Road and employing some mercenaries with batons to control the crowds, I don’t know what can be done. Are there any clever ‘nudges’ or interventions that could improve Wood Green? Is it a matter of tarting the place up and hoping that the crowds respect their new surroundings? Is it signage to remind, and in many instances educate, people that spitting, littering and barging into other people is just not the done thing? Or do we just give up, bulldoze the lot and install a waterhole in the middle and let the law of the jungle and the status dog owners prevail?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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It would appear that the critics of Wood Green on this thread don't subscribe to the Dantesque view of hell, but rather Sartre's "L'enfer, c'est les autres."
Beware though, lest you find yourself in the 5th circle, raging against each other and the rising tide.
Look, I have always been a very vocal critic of environmental crime in Harringay and I deplore the behaviour of the few who do spoil it for us but I will not damn a place simply because a few unsavoury characters live or hang about here.
Nor should it be done to Wood Green.
I don't approve of the behaviour of some people there, but then again force me to spend an hour in Monkey Nuts in Crouch End and watch my blood boil. Truly an enfer of bad manners, brattish children and overpriced buns and chips.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I do like Wilkinson's Liz, although I preferred it before the revamp :)
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Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on
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This is true Liz, as is the joy of watching mummy and little ones playing shoppe at the self service check out at Waitrose while the queue of furious shoppers grows behind them. But both Monkey Nuts & Waitrose can be easily avoided by not going there. Wood Green High Street's crimes of rudeness happen on the highway and are sadly unavoidable (except aforementioned peeing child)
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You can't avoid the march of the buggies and weird clothing sense of the men though. However, I don't want to get into how much I can't bring myself to pay a fiver for a cup of tea. Crouch End has its merits.My kids enjoy eating at Monkey Nuts even if I spend the whole time seething.
That said they also like stuffing their face with popcorn watching films at Wood Green, while I spend the time seething about people who TALK IN FILMS, as well as stuffing their face with chicken and chips at Nando's (where I never seethe). I've also never heard them comment about the people around them or their behaviour despite going to Wood Green every week on their way to dance classes (Dance Arc). Perhaps they've got the right attitude. Now who wants to sit up the front and drive the bus?
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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Hell is other people, eh!
It is called Shopping Shitty in our house for good reason. Half the shops up there look like they are in the process of being looted, not shopped!
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Well since I only go shopping when I actually need something I can't say I notice all this angst about the type or the state of the shops. Maybe being a scruffy middle-aged lady who likes books and gardening, with kids addicted to Lego and Skylanders, I fit into the demographic that Wood Green caters for.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Stop confusing "Wood Green" with "Turnpike Lane". Yes Wood Green is a special kind of hell due almost entirely to the behaviour of fellow "shoppers". Turnpike Lane, home to Jashan, Maplin and some could argue the Big Green Bookshop... is OK. The bus stop outside the Mall itself and the one further up should be bulldozed first.
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Permalink Reply by Neville Collins on
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Wood Green High Road is supposed to be Haringey's main shopping street. Every effort should be made by Haringey Council and partners to keep the area around it spotlessly clean. However, I agree with many people on this thread that it has gone down, made worse by issues, for example restrictive parking controls, a lack of proper social amenities, poor enforcement of anti-litter laws, and the continued neglect of the public realm. Compare this with places like Islington, Hackney, and Camden Town, Wood Green needs help and proper care.
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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I find your remarks about residents in social housing quite disgusting, bigoted and ignorant. I was raised in a council house in a community of people of most upright and honest manner. It wasn't till I came across middle class 'posh' people that I experienced duplicity, careerism and insincerity, though of course that was not typical. May I suggest you indulge in some social cleansing and move to an area more conducive to snobbery and ignorance.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I too read what you "actually said", Thérèse. And you clearly realised that at least some of your remarks would offend, since you included the words "may be censured here".
By the way, what was the particular smell in Wood Green Library that you found so off-putting? When was this, and did you ask the staff about it?
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