Growing Up In Hornsey Crouch Hill

A Memory of Hornsey.

I live with my family in Mountview Road from 1960-1971.
I have wonderful childhood memories. In summer and during holidays, we used to play in the Reservoir on Mountview Road. The council built a playground in one corner.
I summer I can recall relaxing on the grass hill in the reservoir, picking plums from the many trees which grew there.
On the top of Mountview Road, there was a hole in a wood fence which led to the old Finsbury Park to Highgate line. I can remember climbing through to the side of the track with my brother and school mates and waving to the last ever steam train to use the line.
We used to go swimming in Park Road Lido and Hornsey Road Baths.
We would also see the Saturday Matinee in the Finsbury Park As to ria or see a movie in the Odeon or ABC in Muswell Hill
I also remember some very cold and snowy winters, when my friends and I would help cars and buses which got stuck on Fermi Park or Crouch Hills.

I learned to ride on Mount Pleasant Villas, a hill off Mountview Road. A block of flats (A strategy Court) was being built, and I used to use the piles do sand a a brake.

My family friends and I used to play in Priory Park ( seem to remember there was a paddling pool there.
Ally pally was a favorite, especially the boating lake.
Happy days!