The lost shops of Harringay

In the late 1880’s, the opening of the Harringay railway station, the Railway Tavern and St Paul’s Church saw the building of housing and shops along Wightman Road. In all, six separate parades with a total of 41 shops were created. By 1915, the centre was complete with a range of shops that included nine food shops, six clothes shops, four newsagents/ tobacconists, three shops selling household items as well as a hairdresser’s and a laundry. Add to this a Post Office, an estate agency, a chemist’s, a stationer’s, two coffee shops, an off-licence and a public house and you had a thriving shopping centre at the heart of the community.

The number of shops remained at 41 until 1969, when the first unit closed to become residential accommodation. Another one closed in 1982 and then between 1990 and 1997, another 20 shops closed to be replaced as residential units, dramatically changing the nature of the whole shopping centre. Following this transformation, another six shops have been converted in to residential accommodation, leaving just ten of the original shop units still in use, and one of these seems pretty well closed all the time.

The decline in the number of shops on Wightman Road has been dramatic. The major source of this change coincided with the closure of the Railway Goods Yard and the sale of the lock-up shops on Wightman Road and Railway Approach to a private developer which resulted in the building of the residential block of flats, Mermaid Court. Other changes to the area occurred at the same time; the old Highways Department closed and was redeveloped as a retirement home by the Hornsey Housing Trust. Although not directly affecting any shop premises, this development reduced the number of working people in the area who used the shops in Wightman Road. The disastrous fire that destroyed St Paul’s Church in 1984 removed a significant focus for the local community. It was ten years before the new church opened. Another community focus was the old Railway

“The number of shops in Harringay was 41 until 1969”

Hotel which closed in the late 1990s to become a B&B. The effect of all these changes was that, by the end of the 1990s, there was less to bring people to the area.

The retail landscape was changing; to the north, Shopping City, which had been opened by The Queen in 1981, and redeveloped in 2002, attracted major high street retailers to the area from Wood Green to Turnpike Lane underground stations. Green Lanes became a food destination thanks to the planned and purposeful promotion by the Traders’ Association. The opening of Sainsbury’s supermarket in the old Harringay Stadium site (1982) and the Arena Shopping Park (2000) offered shoppers choice, value and convenience: a combination that the shops on Wightman Road could not match.

For more information about the shops and their history, please contact Hornsey Historical Society.