Railway Fields

By John Hinshelwood and Stephen Rigg

The gates to Railway Fields, on the opposite side of the Green Lanes to the station entrance, stand out as a fine example of artistic embellishment to the street scene.

Apart from the decoration on the houses, some of which is truly outstanding such as the swags on the bays of houses in Cavendish Road, or the porches to houses in Pemberton Road, there is not a great deal of street art in Harringay. Outside number 7 Willoughby Road is a modernist sculpture entitled ‘Monument to Engineering Works’. A plaque explaining the Monument has a signature which is illegible, and there is no date given. Why it was installed remains unknown.

Railway Fields was originally the goods depot of the Harringay Park, Green Lanes, Station opened in 1883. The station name lasted until 1951 when it was renamed, to just plain Harringay Park; seven years later it became Harringay Stadium. After the stadium closed the name of the station changed in 1990 to Harringay East, becoming Harringay Green Lanes in 1991.

The old goods depot opposite the station entrances closed in 1967, eventually becoming, in 1985, Railway Fields, Haringey’s first nature reserve and teaching centre. The gates were designed by Heather Burrell and made in the artist’s own studio in Deptford and installed at Railway Fields in 2002. Behind the magnificent iron gates lies one of Harringay’s most hidden and wonderful treasures.

The decorative iron gates, by Heather Burrell, to Railway Fields on Green Lanes, opposite Harringay Green Lanes Station.