U N C O V E R E D

WOOD GREEN HIGH ROADThe 1000-year-old high street

H a r i n g e y

THE LONG ROADWood Green High Road is part of GreenLanes, which is one of the oldest roadsin London. 1,000 years ago London wassurrounded by forest, and Wood Greenwas one of several small clearings or‘greens’ that were joined together byGreen Lanes that ran from the city,through Newington Green, Wood Greenand Palmers Green and out intoHertfordshire.

At that time, most of Haringey wouldhave been owned by the lord of themanor of Tottenham, who lived at BruceCastle. But there were a few smallprivately owned farms whose namessurvive in the streets and parks aroundWood Green: Downehills, BroadeWaters, Bowes and Ducketts.

By the 17th century, the farm atWoodreddings near Bounds GreenRoad had been replaced byNightingale Hall, one of several largehouses and villas being built in WoodGreen. According to local historianAlbert Pinching, “Wood Green becamea rural retreat for prosperous people.City gentlemen, merchants and tradersliked to live there because of the freshair, easy access to London and to getaway from all the pollution.”

By 1800, around the junction of the HighRoad and Lordship Lane, were severalhouses, a blacksmith and two pubs, theThree Jolly Butchers and the Nag’sHead. At the other end of the High Roadwas a row of large villas built in the1860s between St Ann’s Road andShopping City, and another pub, TheQueen’s Head. After 1,000 years, WoodGreen’s population was still just 100.

But after Wood Green railway stationopened in 1859, the populationrocketed to nearly 10,000 in just 20years. “Most of the grand houses andbeautiful buildings had to be knockeddown to make way” says Albert. WoodGreen High Road was starting to takeshape.

DID YOUKNOW... In 1284 Laurence Duket,the owner of DuckettsFarm, was wounded in aduel and soughtsanctuary in St Mary-le-Bow Church (home tothe famous Bow bells).He was found andhanged from one of thewindows.

DID YOUKNOW... Green Lanes was‘turnpiked’ in 1765: gateswere built to stop peopleusing the road until theypaid a toll. The toll gatewas built at... TurnpikeLane.

DID YOUKNOW... The highwayman DickTurpin, on his horse BlackBess, jumped the spike-topped gate at TurnpikeLane to escape a posseled by the chiefconstable of Westminster.

THE GREATESTATEAs more people moved to Wood Green,grand estates like Chitts Hill andNightingale Hall were sold off andturned into the Victorian version ofhousing estates - streets of terracedhouses. In 1883, on what used to beDucketts Farm, the Artisans andLabourers General Dwellings Companybegan building Wood Green’s largestand most ambitious estate, Noel Park,one of the very first social housingschemes.

“At the time Noel Park was quitespectacular,” says historian AlbertPinching. “The rent was cheap and thehouses were very well built with runningwater and inside toilets, which was quitea luxury for the working classes whooften lived in sub-standardaccommodation. During the housingboom a number of people tried to cashin by building sub-standard housingthat fell down after a few years, but thehouses in Noel Park have survived well.”

When it was finished in 1927, the estatecontained more than 2000 houses infive classes ranging from large fourbedroom houses to smaller ‘two up, twodowns’. All houses had fireplaces,running water and a toilet in thegarden, and some were connected togas and electricity, but only the firstclass houses had toilets upstairs.

18-year-old Kieran has lived in Noel Parkhis whole life. “My house was a fifth classhouse, which would have been themost basic ‘two up, two down’. It wouldhave had an outside toilet when it wasbuilt, and the living room would havebeen two rooms with the kitchen at theback and a parlour at the front. Sincethen the wall has been knocked downand an extension built for the kitchenand an indoor bathroom. It’s a niceplace to live with friendly neighbourswho talk to each other and childrenplaying out together. There’s a lot ofrespect there.”

DID YOUKNOW...In 1880 Barratt & Co.opened a sweetfactory (now TheChocolate Factory artscentre) near the HighRoad, and for 100years Wood Greensmelled of sweets likeLiquorice Allsorts, JellyBabies, SherbertFountains, Black Jacks,Sweet Bananas, MilkTeeth, Murray Mintsand Refreshers.Perhaps that’s why somany people wantedto live nearby.

DID YOUKNOW...There used to be arailway between WoodGreen and Tottenham.The Palace Gatesbranch line was built in1878 and is one of thereasons Wood Greengrew so quickly - it letresidents travel to work inthe docks and factoriesof east London.

DID YOUKNOW...The man-made NewRiver that runs throughWood Green was builtin 1613. It brought freshwater 38 miles fromHertfordshire to the cityof London, where 10years earlier 30,000people had died froma ‘plague’ blamed ona lack of clean water.

APPETITE FORDESTRUCTIONBy the end of the 1930s Wood GreenHigh Street was thriving. Thedevelopment of Noel Park included theCheapside row of shops on the HighRoad, and the Wood Green Empiretheatre. There were seven cinemas inWood Green - the Gaumont Palaceseated over 2500 people in one screen(the current Cineworld seats only 2250on all 12 screens together).

The façade of the Empire remains, butthe huge auditorium made way forwhat is now the Morrisons supermarket.The Gaumont Palace and the PremierElectric became bingo halls, and laterchurches. The Cinematograph and theElectric Coliseum became furniturestores, and the Imperial a discountcarpet store. Others were lucky enoughto be demolished.

Another beautiful building, the WoodGreen Public Library, was built in 1907.“In 1973 Haringey council decided theyneeded more office space,” says Albert,“so they demolished this landmark andbuilt offices. A new library was builtfurther down the road and it’s not apatch on the old one. I don’t know whatthey were thinking.” Probably the samething they were thinking when theydemolished two mid-19th century Tudorstyle almshouses to build the CivicCentre and a telecomms switchingcentre.

But every part of Wood Green HighRoad was built over something else. Theancient forest around London was cutdown to make farmland, the farms werereplaced by grand country estates, andthen the halls and fine houses wereknocked down to build housing estates.

In the 1970s Shopping City was builtover the dismantled Palace Gatesbranch line, which had cut the HighRoad in half. When it was opened by theQueen in 1981, Shopping City broughtthe Wood Green and Turnpike Lanetogether, creating the High Road as it istoday.

The Cinematograph was finallydemolished in 1999 and replaced bythe Hollywood Green complex, and theHigh Road hasn’t changed much since.It won’t last long.

DID YOUKNOW...In 1918, world famousmagician ChungLing Soo was shotdead on the stage ofWood Green Empirewhen his famousbullet catch trickwent badly wrong.

DID YOUKNOW...Despite being theowner of the 19thcentury’s largest andmost profitablecompany, theCarnegie SteelCompany, AndrewCarnegie claimed “Noidol is more debasingthan the worship ofmoney”. After sellinghis business for theequivalent of 120billion in 2007 USdollars, he devoted therest of his life to givingaway his fortune,paying for over 2,800libraries across theworld. One of the wasthe old Wood GreenPublic Library.

Produced by 020 8883 0260

This booklet was produced by young people at Exposure, Haringey’s award-winningyouth media charity, with help from BTCV and Bruce Castle Museum (HaringeyLibraries, Archives & Museum Service). It was paid for by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The following young people took part in this project:

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