As the Old Schoolhouse is closed for the time being, we thought we’d share some extracts from HHS publications over the coming weeks and months. Cinemas of Haringey by Jeremy Buck was published by HHS in 2010 and includes a section on The Athenaeum
Sunday, 17th May, was the centenary of Frank Matcham’s death, probably the most creative theatre architect the UK has produced. He was responsible for designing 150 spectacular buildings all over the country, of which 26 survive. For nine years, between 1895 and 1904, he lived at 10 Hazelmere Road, Crouch End. In November 2007, actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales unveiled an English Heritage Blue Plaque to Matcham on the house.
Muswell Hill Library was recently threatened with closure. After a huge local campaign, it was eventually kept open. This is the early history of what would have been lost.
Visitors discover a most unusual combination in Pages Lane: a modern church situated neatly between the mid-Victorian family house of North Bank and its stable block. The house, dating from around 1860, was built as one of Muswell Hill’s numerous Victorian villas with estates.
When the building served milk not alcohol
Substantial building development has changed the appearance of the top of Muswell Hill. The Green Man, probably a public house from the mid-16th century, has become Pinnacle, luxury town houses and apartments. Opposite, 77 Muswell is another residential development, once the offices of brewers Taylor Walker (1980), originally the site of the Ritz Cinema (1936), then the ABC Cinema (1962–1978). Further up is The Mossy Well pub with a large bottle hanging outside. What past has this building had?
The Friern Manor Dairy building (now a restaurant) is renowned for the rare decorative panels that adorn it. This is their story and that of a local dairying family, beginning in the 1840s. An original piece of research with wonderful and rare illustrations.
The Old Dairy is located at the bottom of Crouch Hill (Haringey) at its junction with Hanley Road (Islington). These fine buildings are now a café, restaurant and public house. Its name and the sgraffito panels on the Crouch Hill side indicate that it was connected with the dairy industry. What is the building’s history?
This short account of the history of St Mary’s Church describes the complex development and demise of Hornsey’s three parish churches.
The iconic Art Deco Hornsey Town Hall in Crouch End opened at the end of 1935. Yet the Hornsey Journal, 19 September 1919, refers to town hall plans on this site then. Why did it take so long to realise these ambitions? Where was the original town hall and why did that building and its location have to change?
The search for land by Hornsey Councillors also included their purchase of another site on which to locate the new town hall. This was Keller’s Field which lay between Middle Lane and Tottenham Lane in Hornsey.