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Wood Green
Wood Green maps
Historic maps of Wood Green and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Wood Green maps
Wood Green area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Wood Green and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Wood Green
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Wood Green.
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Youth
I was born in Wood Green in 1940.
My earliest recollection is being in a classroom in Lordship Lane with other children and being told I was not supposed to be there.It's possible I had wandered from home,which was on the Tottenham side of Great Cambridge Road,to this school and "joined the party!"Which may make me 4 years old at the time.
When I was about seven mum would put me on a trolleybus(643 or 625) for a Saturday morning at the Wood Green Gaumont.For a few hours we would be lost to "the pictures".If a western was shown we would tare out after the show and become cowboys all the way down to Turnpike Lane.Pedestrians probably took us for early terrorists!
A nice day out would be to take the Q bus 233 from Station Road opposite the Rex cinema up to Ally Pally (Alexandria Palace) and wander about the grounds and boating lake.Of course in the fifties we had the LNER railway line from Finsbury... Read more
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. Having failed the 11 plus, (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... Read more
Growing up in Hornsey
I was born in Hornsey in 1923, and spent the first 10 years of my life living with my parents in the top flat at 257 Wightman Road. The ground floor was occupied by Mr and Mrs Dan Costigan. Mr Costigan was a bus driver, and they had one child, a daughter, who was greatly prized. In 1928, I was enrolled at the school which occupies the space between Mattison and Pemberton roads. Very happy memories of that school, including one year being chosen to be Father Christmas in the school play! My best friend, at the same school, was Norman Parsons, who lived at 108 Wightman Road. 257 Wightman Rd was at the bottom of a hill down which horse-drawn bakers' and milkmens' carts used to come, with a steel 'shoe' under the rear wheels to stop the cart overtaking the horse!
At the bottom of our garden there was (is) a steep bank at the top of which... Read more
Wightman Road
I was born in England and lived at 399 Wightman Road for seven years of my life from 1961 t0 1968. My parents were poor immigrants from Jamaica, W.I. Our family consisted of myself, my sister, my brother and my parents. I remember our apartment building had two storeys. We lived in the flat above an older couple named the "Grandons". Across the street to the left was a meat store and further down the street to the right was a candy store. My school was North Harringay Primary School. There was also a Catholic church nearby. I have since moved to The United States, but the memories of Hornsey are always with me.
