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Crouch End
Crouch End maps
Historic maps of Crouch End and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Crouch End maps
Crouch End area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Crouch End and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Crouch End
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Crouch End.
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Christ Church
Back in 1965 we moved into 6 Tregaron Avenue, just off Crouch Hill. I was 3 years old and there were six of us, Mum and Dad, my sister Jill and our lovely Nan and Auntie Peggy. One of my earliest and fondest memories is of on Sunday nights you could look out of my nan's upstairs dining room and see the crucifix all lit up on the steeple of Christ Church. Such lovely happy memories of a wonderful childhood.
Happy Childhood in Crouch End
This is how I remember the Broadway from the eyes of a very small child walking around with my mum's gloved hand securely holding mine and my nan and my sister walking along with our dog Pepi. We would either be shopping or on the way to Rokesly School, the other very regular place we walked through the Broadway to was to visit Dr Campkin at her surgery on the corner of Tottenham Lane, I can also remember the nurse in there called Mrs Ward. I can remember being bought toy cars from Timothy Whites which is to the right by the black van. United Dairies had a shop on the right on the corner of Weston Park opposite the clock tower, this became one of the first Kentucky Freed Chicken shops in 1971 (let's not go there though). Out of view and over to the far left was Wilsons department store which was just like the Grace brothers in 'Are you being served', my mum would be seated confortably... Read more
Mr Laughlin's China Shop.
This view of the Broadway shows it along Tottenham Lane where further up on the left was a china shop which was owned by Mr Eric Laughlin, who lived next door to us in Tregaron Avenue with his wife Ellen. They were lovely kind-hearted people and I always think of Mr Laughlin when I hear the word gentleman, he would always raise his hat as he passed by a lady and would stand to attention with his hat to his chest when a funeral passed by. After his wife died in 1972 he became a voluntary driver for the local Red Cross, he always had beautiful cars like Rover P6's and Daimlers. I can still see him in his immaculate blazer just like a real life Nigel Havers character.
Greater London memories
Fish Shop in Hornsey High Street
I was born in 1950 at Alexandra Park Nursing Home in Muswell Hill. My Mum and Dad (Ivy and Joe Abrahams) owned and ran the fish shop in Hornsey High Street and my Dad was not very pleased when Mum went into labour just before the lunchtime rush! I came home to live in the flat above the fish shop. It was a wet, dry and fried shop. My Dad used to have live crab on the slab in the front window and we had a tank on one side of the shop with live eels - sometimes school boys would let the eels out and my dad would have to chase them down the high street. When dad was frying, I used to sit on counter. One side of us was the butcher's shop run by a lovely couple called George and Lil, and on the other side was the greengrocers run by George Alders and his wife. In 1952 my Dad had a massive stroke when he was... Read more
Town Hall
My Aunt Sylvia Monnington worked at Hornsey Town Hall from the 1960s until at least the mid 1970s.
Hornsey
I grew up in Hornsey - Westfield Road to be exact. They tore down a lot of the houses in the late 1960s and built a new estate in its place. I still remember going to Priory Park, the swimming pool on Park Road - ahhh happy days.
Hornsey
I was born in Hornsey in 1940 returning from evacuation in S.Wales in 1944 .I went to Highgate Primary School for a short time,before moving to 141 Crouch Hill (now demolished)and attending Rokesley Infants School,Crouch End Junior school where I remember teachers Miss Flynn and Mr Baker,before ,having failed the 11plus,(it was fixed)moved on to Crouch End Secondary Modern.I remember the headmaster was Mr Chapman and deputy head Mr Marks, teachers include,Wardle,Salter,Davies,Adams(he never liked me),Small,Stonely and Young,who,being small in stature naturally acquired the nickname'Mighty Joe'.We played football and cricket at the playing fields on Park Rd.behind Hornsey Swimming Pool.The classrooms for woodwork and metalwork were on Park Road next to the 'bread & drip' shop,at dinner time we would descend on this cafe to buy 'doorsteps' of fresh bread laden with thick beef dripping....Heaven.they sold other snacks and chips but I think the vegetarian option was 'Sod off'.I remember the Broadway with Wilsons,Dunns the bakers(still there) and the Town Hall,where we would go for school concerts and ,later,to dances.As teenagers... (Awaiting moderation, read more soon)
