Books by Albert Pinching

Alexandra Park and Palace: What was there before?

Alexandra Palace and its Park dominate the skyline for miles around in North London. What was on the site previously?

Before New River Village

The site of New River Village, circa 1833

The New River Village comprising 622 owner-occupied or rented apartments was built on a 15 acre site alongside Hornsey High Street between 2005 and 2007 by St. James Homes Ltd. What was there before? [Read more…] about Before New River Village

Before the Cypriot Community Centre

This building in Earlham Grove, Wood Green, serves all sections of the local Cypriot community, providing vital community services and facilities. The land it stands on has a long history, having been the site of a family home and educational establishment. What story has it to tell? [Read more…] about Before the Cypriot Community Centre

Bounds Green – A History and Walk

By Albert Pinching

This book is about a less well-known, but nevertheless interesting, corner of Haringey, initially a rural hamlet which became a cosmopolitan residential district of Wood Green. [Read more…] about Bounds Green – A History and Walk

Discovering Old Wood Green – A Walk

By Albert Pinching with illustrations by Peter Garland [Read more…] about Discovering Old Wood Green – A Walk

Greenridings House: What was there before?

Greenridings House, a modern office block in the High Road Wood Green, houses a British Telecom switching centre. The building which stood on this site previously had a much more interesting appearance and history, as almshouses.

Haringey Civic Centre: What was there before?

Fishmongers’ and Poulterers’ Almshouses, c1905

Wood Green was at the geographical centre of the 1965 local authority amalgamation which created the Borough of Haringey. So the new Civic Centre was located in the High Road opposite the turning to White Hart Lane. This site had a long history.

Haringey’s Hidden Streams Revealed

By Albert Pinching and David Dell

This book retraces the routes of Haringey’s several natural streams which once flowed in the open from the “northern heights” of Highgate and Muswell Hill but are mainly now underground. [Read more…] about Haringey’s Hidden Streams Revealed

Hollywood Green, Wood Green: What was there before?

Chesser’s Forge, 1924 on the site of Spouters Corner by J E Savery

It is very difficult to imagine that central Wood Green with its cinema complex, shops, road junction and busy traffic was ever peaceful countryside with the New River meandering through. So what was Hollywood Green before? [Read more…] about Hollywood Green, Wood Green: What was there before?

Lost Houses: Nightingale Hall, Wood Green

Nightingale Hall, c.1890. This shows a castellated façade with a large conservatory, probably Victorian modifications, on the SW side, suggesting an earlier building in the background.

This is the sixth in our series on Lost Houses of our area. This edited text was written by the late Albert Pinching, HHS Sales Manager for 21 years and editor for 14 years of our annual journal, the Bulletin, who died at the end of July this year. The full text was a chapter in ‘People and Places: Lost Estates in Highgate, Hornsey and Wood Green’, published by HHS in 1996.

Before the advent in 1859 of Wood Green Station (now Alexandra Palace Station) on the Great Northern Railway (GNR) much of the area was farmland claimed from the Great Forest of Middlesex. One of the few distinctive buildings was Nightingale Hall, situated on the SW side of Bounds Green Road, covering the site now occupied by the Adventist Church, with its outbuildings and gardens extending over what are now Northcott and Cornwall Avenues. [Read more…] about Lost Houses: Nightingale Hall, Wood Green

Books by Albert Pinching

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