Crouch End, today, provides no obvious evidence that it was once the location of a theatre. You won’t see a huge auditorium that has been through various incarnations such as cinema, bingo hall, or space used for worship. The evidence is there though, at 31 Tottenham Lane nestled in amongst the shop units. The restored semi-circular glass window is recognisable from old images and a new glass canopy echoes the structure that previously covered the whole pavement.
In a fast changing world, elements of stability and continuity are treasured.
Crouch End lost one of its favourite and most enduring landmarks at the end of February 2021 when Paul Saxton clicked the padlock of his kiosk for the last time.
A 1972 series of Hornsey Journal articles by Ian Murray, first Chairman of Hornsey Historical Society and Haringey Borough Archivist. The HHS gratefully acknowledges the kind permission of Archant/Ham and High for this reproduction
For 12 years, from 874, Hornsey was part of the Danelaw, that part of the country under the control of the Danes, until it was liberated by Alfred the Great. The Thames valley was repeatedly ravaged by the Vikings and the remains of a Viking ship were discovered in the Lea at Tottenham in 1901.
Bulletin 62 marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the HHS in 1971, and while we could not celebrate the occasion as we had hoped, due to the pandemic, maybe this issue, with its special cover, afforded some consolation.
Crouch End man Nigel Moore was recently told by his father he remembered that back in 1968 (when gas pipes were being installed) he had spotted some items in the cellar space underneath the hallway.
An article from the Bowes Park Weekly News, 12 January 1940
Thieves broke into the Crouch End branch of the Westminster Bank during the week-end, and tried to blow open the safe in the strong room but failed.
HHS member Andrew Whitehead is intrigued with a monkey which appears as external plasterwork on a house on Park Road in Crouch End dating from the early 1880s.
The virtues of thrift and sobriety were highly prized in Victorian society. Mrs Priscilla Wakefield (1750-1826), born in Tottenham, philanthropist and a Quaker author of children’s books, founded a Penny Bank for children which was to develop into England’s first savings bank. The movement took off in Scotland in 1848 and was rapidly followed by many others in Yorkshire and London. In his 1882 book, Thrift, Samuel Smiles said, ’The penny bank is emphatically the poor man’s purse’.
The headmistress and founder of the Crouch End school was Miss Charlotte Jane Howarth Cowdroy. She was born on January 5, 1864 and died on September 22, 1932. I only saw her once when she was brought into the classroom in her wheelchair by Miss Marguerite Bennell who later succeeded her as headmistress.
September 1928, aged five, my mother took me across Cranley Gardens to St. George’s Hall for my first day at school. At that time there were no nursery or play schools to help prepare a child for this big day.