the encyclopedic entry of Harringay

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Harringay

Harringay is a residential area of North London, close to Crouch End, in the London Borough of Haringey, United Kingdom. It is centred on the section of Green Lanes running between the northern boundary of Finsbury Park up to the southern boundary of Duckett's Common, not far from Turnpike Lane.

Location

Harringay is located at . The western boundary is formed by the Great Northern Railway. The northern boundary is to the south of Turnpike Lane, running parallel to it, somewhere between Sydney Road and Fairfax Road. In the northeast, the boundary roughly corresponds with a line drawn between the south of Duckett's Common and the north end of Warwick Gardens. A line due south of this point, as far as Eade Road, forms the eastern boundary. Southeast of here a line to Finsbury Park completes the southeastern limits. Finsbury Park is officially part of Harringay and forms the southern boundary.

Including the park, Harringay has an area of about 1¾ miles (2.8 km) from north to south and ½ mile (0.8 km), at its widest point, from east to west.

Locale

Its main shopping street, Green Lanes, is a vibrant and cosmopolitan high street. Some shops have a long established presence, like Disney's furniture store trading here since 1913. Others are part of the more transitional nature of Green Lanes and in 2007 include a scattered cluster of Turkish bakeries, grocers, cafes and restaurants. There are several pubs including the Grade II listed and Pevsner noted Salisbury. Part of the 1980 film The Long Good Friday and the 1992 biopic of Charlie Chaplin. were shot here. At the northern end of Harringay is the Queens Head, Harringay's oldest pub. Towards the southern end stands the well-preserved, Victoriana-laden Beaconsfield public house. Opposite is the new Arena Shopping Mall with shops including Sainsbury's supermarket, Homebase store and one of Britain's first "drive-thru" McDonald's restaurants.

A large section of the eastern side of Green Lanes is called Grand Parade. With the exception of the gaps introduced by the residential roads running eastwards, the Grand Parade runs almost uninterrupted, for nearly half a kilometre from just north of Harringay Green Lanes railway station to St Ann's Road.

Whilst the main road feels definitely cosmopolitan, the population of the surrounding streets is somewhat more homogeneous (See Demographics section.). The streets to the west of Green Lanes are known as 'Harringay Park' or the 'Harringay Ladder' (due to their similarity to a ladder when seen on a map). The streets to the east behind Grand Parade are known as 'Harringay Gardens'.

Geography and geology

Harringay is just under 5½ miles (8.7 km) from the centre of London sitting on a chalk bed covered by a thick layer of London Clay. The western part of the town is hilly, rising to 138 feet at it highest. Further to the west, beyond Harringay, the ground rises steadily to one of the highest points in London at Hampstead Heath about 3½ miles (5.4 km) away. The eastern part of Harringay is low-lying, at between 60 and 90 feet, as the land descends towards the Lee Valley, 2 miles (3.2 km) to the east.

Harringay covers an area of approximately ¾ of a square mile (2 km²). The land use for the area is shown in the table below.

Land use in Harringay
Land use type	Percentage of total area
Domestic Gardens	22.54
Green Space	20.36
Road	18.06
Domestic Buildings	17.31
Other Land Uses	6.69
Non-Domestic Buildings	5.76
Rail	3.32
Path	1.06
Water	0.55

The only river still running above ground is the man-made New River, constructed in 1619 to bring water into London from Hertfordshire. However two natural rivers still flow through Harringay beneath the ground. These are just two of the many springs and streams which used to flow through this part of London from the high ground to the West and into the River Lee. Stonebridge Brook ran above ground meandering eastwards just to the North of old Harringay House. It crossed the estate, running roughly beneath present-day Effingham and Fairfax Roads, ran along Green Lanes for a short way and then eastwards north of St Ann's Road and on to the River Lee. Although still flowing underground today, the Harringay section was fully culverted by 1885. Hermitage Brook flowed roughly along the southern boundary of the western part of Harringay and then, staying close to its Southern edge, under where the Arena Shopping Mall stands today. It was culverted and flows underground just to the South of the mall today.

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History

Historical outline

In the Ice Age Harringay was on the edge of a huge glacial mass that reached as far south as Muswell Hill. The area was then largely covered with forest until the Middle Ages when it was developed as agricultural land. From 1750 to 1880 Harringay experienced the pressures of the burgeoing population in London. Gradually inroads into the pastoral landscape were made, first for the lesiure and then for the settlement of Londoners. By 1900 Harringay had become a respectable outer London suburb with all the land built over and only Finsbury Park remaining as a hint of its former self. Identified as a single unified urban area from 1900, Harringay was originally split between the old boroughs of Hornsey and Tottenham with the boundary between the two running slightly to the West of Green Lanes. The unification of the two boroughs in 1965, as the London Borough of Haringey, brought all Harringay under the control of a single unit of local governance for the first time in more than a thousand years. On many of the roads in West Harringay, it is still possible to see the old Tottenham - Hornsey boundary where the paving stones give way to tarmaced pavement. The old parish / borough boundary markers are also still in place on some roads (see picture, right).

Etymology

The name Harringay has its origin in the Saxon period and is derived from the name of a Saxon chieftan called Haering. Haering's Hege meant Haering's enclosure. The earliest written form of the name was recorded as Harenhg’ in about 1195. Its development thereafter gave rise to the modern-day names of Harringay (the district of London), the London Borough of Haringey and Hornsey (another nearby district of London).

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Entertainment

From 1750 till the second half of the twentieth century, Harringay became a destination for Londoners to relax. Hornsey Wood House, Finsbury Park, Harringay Stadium and Harringay Arena were all hugely popular leisure destinations in their day. The Stadium and Arena site is now occupied by Sainsbury's and the Arena Shopping Mall.

Transport and communications history

There is little doubt that the history of transport communications through Harringay had a significant effect on shaping it today. In Roman times, a great roadway to the North was established. This roadway endured as a great communication passage to the North and brought much activity through the heart of the area. It also acted as the rough dividing line for land ownership, identifying Harringay’s position on the edge of manorial and subsequently borough boundaries.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the arrival of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) cleaved western Harringay from the rest of the Borough of Hornsey and set it fair for its subsequent union with the south-westernmost slice of the Borough of Tottenham. The subsequent construction of the Tottenham & Hampstead Junction Railway (THJR) almost defined Harringay's present-day southern boundary.

Demographics

As of the 2001 Census, the population of Harringay was about 16,500.

The racial breakdown is: 70% white, 15% black, 9% Asian, 3% Mixed and 3% other. 72% of its inhabitants were born in Europe, with 12% in Asia, 9% in Africa (mainly Eastern & Southern), and 4% in North America. Within this mix, 6% were born in Cyprus and 3% in Turkey.

About 46% of the population report themselves as Christian and 13% Muslim. Other religions are present in smaller percentages.

Over 60% of residents are classified as being in the three highest social groups, whilst 10% are students.

Of approximately 6,500 dwellings in Harringay, approximately 47% are owner-occupied and about 30% are privately rented accommodation. 17% are public or other social housing. About 40% of the dwellings are houses with the balance being flats, most often converted from the largely Victorian housing stock.

Education

There are three schools located within Harringay. These are shown below together with the number of places available in 2006:

North Harringay Primary (441)
South Harringay Infants (172)
South Harringay Junior (130)

Sport

Harringay became both nationally and internationally famous for the sporting events that were held in the Harringay Stadium and the Harringay Arena from the late 1920s until the 1980s. Greyhound racing, boxing and speedway were the main draws.

Green Harringay

22.5% of Harringay is green space land:

Finsbury Park - officially part of Harringay.
The Green Flag awarded Railway Fields Local Nature Reserve near Harringay Green Lanes Station.
The New River Path, accessible from Wightman Road and from Green Lanes opposite Finsbury Park.
A very small area of wild ground called Harringay Stadium Slopes to the south and east of Sainsbury's car park, above Hermitage Road. It is accessible from Surrey Gardens, off Finsbury Park Avenue.
Falkland & Fairfax Open Space, Falkland Road, N8.
A recently developed roof garden at North Harringay Primary School.
A small but very well kept and award winning community garden in Doncaster Gardens (off Stanhope Gardens).

Also close by are:

Parkland Walk running through nearby Stroud Green up to Highgate.
Alexandra Park.
Queens Wood.
West Reservoir on Green Lanes, between Harringay & Stoke Newington - London Wildlife Trust page on West Reservoir
Highgate Wood.
Chestnuts Park in St Ann's Road.
Priory Park at the end of Hornsey High Street.

People from Harringay

See People from Harringay

Harringay on film & TV

Films shot in part on in their entirety in Harringay include:

The Long Good Friday, 1980, Dir John Mackenzie
Chaplin,1992, Dir Richard Attenborough
Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, 2006, Dir Shaad Ali
The Lives of the Saints, 2006, Dir Rankin & Chris Cottam
Face, 1997, Dir Antonia Bird

TV productions in Harringay include:

Harringay Arena was the home of the Horse of the Year show for its first ten years, from 1947 onwards. In 1958, the show featured in the first broadcast of the BBC's new Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand.
Harringay Stadium was the home of Greyhound racing on London Weekend Television's World of Sport between 1972 and 1982.
Murder Prevention, 2004, Channel 5 - shot in and around Harringay, Stroud Green & Crouch End

Transport and local area

Nearest places

Places of interest

St Paul's Church - striking modernist church on Wightman Road.
Hornsey Church - 13th century church tower.
See also Green Harringay above.

Nearest railway stations

Nearest tube stations

Buses

There are three major bus routes that connect Green Lanes with the City and the West End; the 29, 141, and the 341. The nearby Turnpike Lane bus station offers further connection to the west, east and north.