Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Looking to move to Harringay/Turnpike lane/Horsney
Hi all,
First of all i want to say i am quite impressed by this forum and i get the feeling of a nice community of people!
I been living in Brixton for the last 5 years with my girlfriend in a two bed flat which we own. We are in our early 30s and we are looking to make our next move and buy a house to start thinking for a family :) We love brixton but in the recent years the prices gone crazy and we cannot afford a 3bed period house in the area. We are looking for alternatives and we been flirting with the idea of moving up north in the Turnpike lane/Harringay/Horsney area and we are looking for some feedback.
Our budget is around 700K - 725K max and we are looking for a 3bed period property.
Ideally we wanted south of Alexandra park or harringay ladder but is out question for our budget. Based on our research you are looking 800K+.
There are 2 areas that it seems we can find houses within our price range:
1) East of Turnpike Lane, around Downhills park, belmont recreation grounds. Roads such:
- Crossfields road, langham road, sindar road, boundary road.
2) West of Turnpike Lane, behind the wood green shopping centre. Roads such:
- park ridings, alexandra road, Horsney park road
Obviously any thoughts or feedback for the roads mentioned or any other possible areas is much appreciated. I have the following questions as well:
a) what's the plan for the clarendon road gas work and the area around it? I like the area around park ridings round but the back of the shopping mall is a bit ugly and then you have the area of claredon road gas works that it looks really industrial.
b) Any idea where the crossrail 2 station it will be? Is it going to be in the same station as Turnpike lane tube station?
c) which area (1) vs (2) has better primary and secondary schools?
d) how areas (1) vs (2) compare against each other in terms of traffic, safety, living, local community etc?
thanks in advance and i hope i am not asking too many questions :)
thanks, Mike
Tags for Forum Posts: what's harringay like?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Hi Mike - you couldn't make a better move!
I've added a tag under your post linking you to smillar questions in the past. Had you thought of the area to the east of Green Lanes? Here's a post about somone who was asking about Cranleigh Road a couple of years back (and he's now a resident). That's a nice area. Just to the south of there is The Gardens. Rightmove will, I'm sure give you all you need to know about prices.
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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We sold our 3 bed terrace on Langham Road in December to get a larger house North of White Hart Lane. We didn't need a tube station next door, or convenient schools, buses and shops. We got a much bigger house. Our house in Langham had a loft conversion to make the third bedroom, and had a knock thru lounge. It was quite modern with hardwood flooring downstairs with a mature garden with garden office. Went for just under £500K. You should be fine with that budget. This area is becoming very popular with couples looking for community and schools. There is def a growing desire for a local community feel here and it is happening.
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Thanks a lot guys! Much appreciated.
From what i gathered east of turnpike lane sounds good and also east of green lanes.
How about west of turnpike lane in park ridings road/alexandra road and around there? Anyone lived around there? Any thoughts? thanks
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Permalink Reply by Noots on
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I’ll have to be brief as I’m heading out, but we’ve lived on Sirdar Road for the past seven years and we’re very happy with our choice. Westbury Road is obviously a busy main road, but we get very little noise just one street back, and the grid of streets in the local area are sufficiently quite that they’re used by seemingly every driving school in North London! We’ve only just started a family ourselves, so can’t comment on the local schools other than to say that I believe our local Infant/Junior school – Belmont – was rated as “Good” overall by Ofsted, and prior to that achieved an “Outstanding”.
If our budget had allowed it, we’d probably have lived further south, but as it is, we love the fact that it’s a bit quieter where we are, we’re seven minutes from the tube, have three great parks on our doorstep, the local pub – The Westbury – is a really nice pub to have round the corner, Wood Green High Street sometimes comes in handy for chain shops, we’ve a ten/fifteen minute walk down quiet, leafy back streets to either the increasingly interesting and appealing top end of Harringay for eating and drinking, or similar to Hornsey or a thirty-odd minute walk to Crouch End. The Art House cinema in Crouch End has an interesting, broad approach to programming, and you also have the cinemas in Wood Green for Big screen blockbusters. Alternatively, you can head East to Tottenham as there’s some interesting stuff to do over that way too.
Transport is decent with easy access into either the City or the West End if you work in town, and it’s only a thirty-odd minute bike ride to either too. Easy access to the Victoria line with the cross-platform swap-over at Finsbury Park if you’re looking to visit friends in Brixton.
Crime – it’s an economically-mixed area and it’s in London, but we’ve never had any problems and it feels no less safe at night that anywhere else I’ve lived in London. There are usually people out and about whatever the time, so personally, I don’t find it at all threatening. My brother lived in Brixton in the early-mid 90’s and I found that more intimidating than round our way, but that said, there are obviously wrong ‘uns up here too!
Not commenting either way on the gentrification front, but it definitely feels like more young professionals have moved into the area in the past couple of years – the now obscene house prices reflect that - and one of the consequences of that looks to be a greater variety of pubs/bars and restaurants in the area, and the fact that I can now buy poncy beer, bread and crisp bread without having to schlep over to Crouch End. I hope the area manages to retain a genuine social mix, as the variety makes it an interesting part of town at the moment. Given the property prices to the East and South of us, I fully expect people selling flats in places like Stoke Newington, Crouch End etc to continue making the move in this direction.
Oh, and one last thing that I really like about our area, is the street art – really cheers the place up: http://www.turnpikeartgroup.co.uk/
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Check out the website for the RA for that area - www.pmra.co.uk. They're on Twitter as @parksidemalvern.
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Permalink Reply by Mavic Starfish on
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Hi Mike
With that budget you could get a great house round here, I'd suggest starting at these roads (East of Turnpike lane), and fanning outwards
Stanmore Road
Carlingford Road
We moved from Finsbury Park for pretty much the same reasons as yourselves and it was definitely the right decision. Good selection of primary schools down this way, but longer term secondary schools are better up near Ally Pally / wood Green. However Park View seems to be on upward trajectory, something to bear in mind. Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by Julia on
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Seconded, moved from Finsbury Park in 2010 and love it here. We live on Downhills Park Rd which isn't superficially pretty but we have fabulous neighbours, good friends just round the corner and plenty of people to say hi to in passing. Also you'll get more for your money if you consider the 1920s/30s houses over Victorian ones. We have a big garden that backs onto Belmont Rec so not overlooked by anyone which is incredible for London. Also much more convenient for the tube than many other places we looked at on the ladder proper.
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I have lived in Alexandra Road and would have stayed but at the time could not find a house I could afford. The houses on Alexandra Road away from the shopping City are very large and some of the gardens are huge. The side roads and Park Ridings are lovely and many have large front gardens or off street parking. Alexandra Road is looking a little run down these days so I would go for the side roads. Super handy for sainsbury, lidl, boots, etc without needing transport.
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Hi Mike,
Crossrail 2 safeguarded areas here: http://crossrail2.co.uk/areas-safeguarded/
Station will probably be combined around the exiting station. But you may want to look at the route that takes place underground where tunnelling will occur. But will be pretty deep.Also on any of these schemes look at anything identified as "area of surface interest" as these will what will be happening above ground. It could be temporary e.g. use as a construction site for huts, access to deep level tunnel etc. or permanent e.g. a ventilation shaft/ maintenance/ emergency access to the tunnel when built. The plans should explain. But remember these are a good few years ahead and can change.
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Permalink Reply by Milda Rami on
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Hi! We live on Sirdar road and we love it here. It's a very quiet road but so we'll positioned. Belmont school is supposed to be great and you are in close proximity to some lovely parks. The area is changing rapidly, they just refurbished and reopened a local pub which is very nice. Prices are on the rise but still more reasonable than the Ladder. You can get a really nice house for your budget!
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Hi, interestingly the area underneath Ally Pally (Beechwood, Hawthorn, Nightingale Lane, Northview, Southview etc) is probably affordable for you. It is a great family friendly part of Crouch End, and the local schools are all excellent. For primary you have the choice of Campsbourne which is now oversubscribed with families sending their children from the other side of the Palace (in Alexandra part of Muswell Hill) and you are in the catchment for 2 good secondary schools (Highgate Woods and Heartlands). For some reason, the prices in this tucked away area have never risen as much as other areas, even though it is a very desirable area to live.
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Hi Mike,
We bought in Mannock Road, 3.5 years ago, after seven years of renting in Finsbury park and it's the best decision we ever made. To be honest, we didn't kow much about the area, other than the high street being scruffy and the area being a couple of tube stops further out, than we were used to. We were looking at one bed ex-council flats in Finsbury Park/Hornsey/Holloway, but discovered we could get a Victorian conversion with two huge bedrooms, two bathrooms, a giant open-plan living space and a south-facing garden, for the same price...it was a 'no brainer'.
The area has the same problems as most areas in London, ie litter, some people not putting their bins away, bad taste choices for the front of houses, some unkempt rentals...no different to what you'll have been used to in Brixton. For every scuffy UPVC door, there is someone who trims their hedges and looks after their window boxes though!
The upside is that the collection of roads (Mannock/Sidar/Boundry/Langham/Stanmore/Waldeck/Carlingford) tucked behind Turnpike Lane tube/bus station are quiet and really quite nice. Lots of trees, slow traffic (thanks to speed humps and the fact that lots of them are not through-roads) it's just nice and peaceful. There are no big blocks of flats or estates in the area, so no noisy or loutish gangs of kids loitering around.
There are four lovely parks and recreation grounds, within spitting distance. Downhills Park is our favourite, with tennis courts, cafe and children's play area. You'll also find a nice family cafe in Lordship Recreaction Ground, with great cakes and snacks at less than half the price of the yummy mummy cafes of Crouch End...though they are only a stroll away, if you fancy.
Wood Green High Street IS still a bit scruffy, even after it's recent refrub, but it's so convenient. We have Lidl, Morrisons, M&S, Tesco, Sainsburys and tons shops and stalls, selling fresh fish, seafood, fruit and veg. There is also BHS, Mothercare, River Island, Topman, Clarks, New Look, TK Maxx, Primark, H&M and varies sports shops...so convenient, I hardly ever need to pop to the West End to shop now...all we're missing are Zara and Mango!
Green Lanes is AMAZING for eating/going out. The vast array of Turkish restaurants have always served fantastic food at brilliant prices, but thanks to semi-gentrification of the area, we can now go for fab cocktails, gourmet burgers, italian, tapas, swedish or steaks...all within 10 mins walk of home. There are some good pubs and indie/jazz bars in the area too. Our local pub (The Westbury) has had a 400k refit, by the owner of the Jolly Butchers in Stoke Newington and The Wrestler in Highgate. It's really nice, gorgeous decor, art on the walls, friendly staff, good food and fab wines/beers/local ales at very reasonable prices.
The area on the whole has changed in the time we've been here, there are definitely more young professionals, hipster/arty/tendy types, but thankfully it's still really kept a feeling of diversity and being 'real' London. Having grown up in Elephant and Castle myself, I love the mix and the hub-bub of different groups of people living together.
As someone else said, the local Primary (Belmont) is rated Good and has previously got an Outstanding, I'd be happy to send my son there. There are so many young families in the area, loads of play groups and events, plus a big choice of nurseries/childminders, when that time comes around for you.
As well as having lots to enjoy in our immediate area, it's very easy to get to Muswell Hill, Crouch End, Stoke Newington, Ally Pally etc for an endless array of places to eat/drink/shop and things to do, your choices are endless.
On a final note, there is a nice commnuity spirit (as you can tell, by the lovely, helpful folk on this forum). People here are always happy to recommed local trades people, or lend each other tools/ladders/picnic tables, let others know about fun events in the area, or just give helpful tips and advice. We know loads of our neighbours and feed each others cats/water each other's plants when on holiday. It's just nice to say hello to people in the street!
I hope this long (babbling?) reply has helped you somewhat, good luck with your move!
Sarah
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