Look up and see the past
Originally uploaded by MrsEds
Our historical environment is all about what the generations of people who have lived here have made of the place they have lived. Look around and you will see layer upon layer of human activity as each generation makes its mark.
Looking around at the cladding and pebble dash on the houses and the garish signs featuring blurry photos of kofte on Green Lanes, it is hard to imagine that there will people, 50 years from now ,sighing and saying 'Those were the days' but I may be wrong and red tile paint may be considered the last word in style.
Still, looking up, you can still glimpse the past peeping through and showing up what our grandparents and great grandparents saw when they made their way home from a hard day at work.
These little features are part of our 'common wealth' and seeing them survive makes me feel closer to the history of my neighbourhood.
9 comments:
You make a very good point HH.. From the 1920s onwards all things Victorian were generally considered to be 'Passé'.
That point I'm trying to make is.. In general everyday life in Harringay in the 40s, 50s & 60s, people didn't care a toss about preserving the past either.
So nothing much has changed, has it? Modernisations of the 1940s & 50s were just as damaging as those of today.
I suppose the trick is to counterbalance keeping the original and unique, with not over regulating.. consequently turning the the area into a 'Disneyland' (no pun intended) - Harringay is Disney land isn't it?
yes,I remember my parents tearing out the old doors to put up 'modern' ones in the 70s. My own house had all the chimneys and fireplaces ripped out in the 80s.
Victorian was for many years associated with old fashioned, reactionary, dull. Its only now perhaps that a true appreciation is possible but for many of the buildings of that time it's too late. They are in the hands of people that couldn't care less, or they are beyond repair.
People like English Heritage are only just beginning to assess historic environment in social terms possibly in response to political pressure.
I sometimes think if the fine old Georgian buildings of Tottenham struggle to get recognition, how will we persuade people of the value of Victorian Harringay?
Still history is v 'hot' these days on TV and the like and times change. Even modern planners admit that no one laid out an estate better than the Victorians.
Oh sorry.. not sure how to refer to you. HH, MrsE, MrsEds or something even more regal..?????
I do have a sneakin' suspicion that those on the council who have a say and could do more to preserve buildings in the Borough as a whole, don't care that much for Harringay's/ Haringey's pre-Windrush history anyway..
As you rightly mention, all periods of the areas history are important and I don't want to make a specific period more important than another, but the pre-1960 stuff needs to be preserved before it's too late.
BTW, I know I'm biased, but I actually think that the Gardens are much more interesting (and important?) architecturally (as a gardens estate) than the Ladder. Which saw quite piecemeal development. Umfreville and Burgoyne are very different(earlier?) say to Allison and Fairfax..
p.s. are we on California time here?
The Duchess of Harringay will do fine :D
Hard to say about where priorities lie. I heard that those who make such decisions tend to care about the Georgian heritage and seem to go out of their way to list horse troughs in Highgate over complete Victorian appartment blocks in Harringay.
I asked Alan about the 'heritage champion' that is supposed to exist in Haringey. He had never heard of it. Haringey has a very bad record overall on this stuff and I think its a lack of understanding about the social good that can be achieved through historic regeneration.
I'm thinking about taking my camera over the Gardens but it would break your heart Steve to see the damage that has been done to the uniformity and authenticity of the houses.
The Ladder was a lot more piecemeal but there are sections of really lovely houses.
p.s. Can't work out the time thing. I've marked on in the UK but can't see where to set the time. Maybe in google proper.
The Duchess of Harringay?? lol
I was actually referring to the shortened form of the current Monarchs name..
What I also find interesting on the Gardens side, not to mention being unusual, are the stepped side roads.. none of which have houses, but all have names.. I wonder what their original purpose was?
Surely it would have more interesting for the developer to build over them? There are some examples in Forest Gate, East Ham, Manor Park & Ilford of similar very long streets. All from around the same period as the Gardens
yes okay, Liz will do fine.
I guess the side streets could be about convenience. Having to walk up and down to get through would be a pain and alleyways cutting through like the Harringay Passage, as we know, can be a magnet for bad dog owners and fly tippers.
Next fine day, me and the youngster will go exploring with our camera round the Gardens again but lots of poor development, absentee landlords, rubbish and litter are giving them the same headache as the Ladder.
Strange how things aren't quite like how one remembered them as a kid..
Do you have the same feelings for the area/street/house where you grew up?
Not really because my parents still live in the same house as they did when I was a kid and it always seem the same to me, if a little smaller and warmer since they has central heating installed.
The area they live in is in decline and it seems a little less homely and familiar with the loss of the little shops but my immediate childhood environment is just the same.
Fortunately, no one seemed to feel the need to have cladding or pebble dash, install bad extensions,or cover their house in paint in the street where my parents live :)
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