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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Library Wall at the Ribbon Factory in Harringay's Warehouse District

A couple of weeks ago a group of warehouse folk launched the Library Wall in the Warehouse District's East End.

The project's website describes what its about as follows:

The Ribbon Factory Library Wall is an interactive outdoor library installation created by Artefacto. Commissioned by Haringey Arts, it is a curated collection of digitised texts, which people are able to freely obtain, read and share through the use of smartphones or other “smart” mobile devices such as ipads and tablets by pointing their device at the installation.

The project’s aim is to celebrate the role of public libraries in providing open access to cultural content in this brave, new e-book and digital publishing world.

I couldn't get to the launch myself. So many thanks to Hande for sending through the picture and a link to the project's website.

Tags for Forum Posts: ., free libraries, libraries, little free libraries, warehouse district

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This is a great idea, some of the books i'd never heard of - Fascinating

This is so cool. A real shame that local residents weren't aware of it, invited to the launch :-( will pop around to see this today.

I only chanced upon this when I happened to be taking a short cut down this route. Think that's part of the attraction really? There's no conspiracy not to tell people.

No, of course not but some people were told. There was a 'launch'.
Arggh! Course it's ok. My reference I suppose was to our two communities coming together a bit more. I doubt most residents on Tiverton would stumble upon the library wall but it's a stones throw from them. We have discussed a bit more cohesion in the past Hannie. :-) I'm being both positive and sincere.
Yes, great idea. Some very interesting looking books online. There's also a small and quite charming box which sits behind the garden wall of a house on Cranley gardens (opposite side of the road to the church at park road) containing books for loan. The sign on the glass fronted box reads "The Little Free Library"

More on little free libraries here.

Ok so I was involved in this project so I can only say it's brilliant.

If you missed the launch, it was streamed LIVE over the internet and is still a great view.

http://bambuser.com/v/4906410

Again this project makes use of technology by allowing you to download a book directly onto your mobile device by simply scanning the QR codes.

Just added a feature that tracks the books downloaded and tweets them out when scanned.

Go try it ;)

https://twitter.com/librarywalled

Great idea, love it. Will be out to try it for myself this weekend. Love the Twitter integration feature! 

"Harringay's Warehouse District"?
(Raises an eyebrow) ;-)

An invention or more accurately a reinvention of history. Presumably to echo the redevelopments in parts of the U.S. where real former warehouses existed next to ports. It's a sort of Chicken Tikka Masala approach to property development - which tickles the palates of new customers.

This sort of dressed-up history is very popular with estate agents and developers. It scrubs-up the working history of areas. Perhaps leaving some artifacts - cobles? an old pub? - as selling points.

Zena and I went to Manchester to see the Etihad Stadium area; and "New Islington". These may be one model for Tottenham Hotspur's plans in Northumberland Park. One of the new blocks of flats in New IsIington is called Milliners Wharf. An estate agent's website described it as "bang in the heart of Manchester's historic hat-making district".  It seems simply to have been the site of a hat box factory on the Canal.

Maybe in the future there'll be Historic Re-enactment Societies where people dress up in the traditional costumes worn in Harringay in the early twenty-first century. With old-fashioned music and food in a realigram  simulation of Green Lanes. With people sipping what were known as "pints of gastro". And everyone carrying the black street refuse bags they had to leave on the reserved waste areas known as "pavement". Participants in the re-enactment will gaze jealously at primitive, gruesome "videos" of traditional "car" jousting; showing people of that era driving ruthlessly at one another in steel boxes. "Just imagine, in those days they still had to use the wheel."

Except, neither developers nor agents (nor even the Council which takes such an interest in interfering with the name of the wider neighbourhood) were involved in what you call the reinvention of the warehouse district name. In this case the name was brought back into currency by the people who live there. Isn't the naming of an area by its residents just how things should be?

More properly, the adoption of the 'Warehouse District' name should be seen within the context of the use/reuse of old warehouse and industrial areas in London. Starting in the old docklands, the warehouse live-work movement/ethic (call it what you will)  got edged out of areas as they were developed. About 20 years ago it got as far as Harringay and Tottenham.

Some of the occupants of Harringay's Warehouse District have even taken a real interest in discovering the roots of their area. Having read all about our history on HoL one of the Warehousers even wrote a song about part of our shared history.

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