K1 on stroud green road

Sevlow

Do you know where hell is?

andy

@krs - wasn't she the one who did a big SG Square proposal that lots of people put time into, but wasn't really a thing?

krappyrubsnif

Indeed. I recall I helped give 'Stroud Green Square' a bit of a push to begin with, and there were a few interesting ideas. Basically it was about taking away the service road (really just a car park) outside Charter Court and the hairdressers' shops, pedestrianising the space, putting in low level planting and seating, adding some 'features', and making a little square. It would be a good spot for a cafe with outside tables. There was talk of a compass or meridian feature to reflect the area's multicultural nature, and even talk of a mini 'clocktower'.

Haringey was quite sympathetic. There was an exhibition in a tent at one point. But then after that some university school of architecture seemed to adopt it as a 'learning project', and next thing it had turned into a kind of architectural onanism, with a group of students meeting now and again in a local bar to bleat about impossibly unrealistic ideas, none of which stood the slightest chance of seeing the light of day. There were also objections that it would just create a new place for street drinkers and street crime. I'm no architect and I stopped having any time for it, it gradually died a death and I've heard nothing since.

The only thing that actually happened was the council replaced the shrubs and tarted up the existing flower beds.

Pity, because all that 'dead' space at the heart of Stroud Green is wasted public land on a prime spot, which could really be turned into a focus for the community. Imagine passing something zingy and interesting there on the W7 bus through Stroud Green, instead of a dreary row of cars, frazzled shrubs and a row of shuttered shops. Any architect or planner here want to give it another go?

Arkady

I'd love to see it happen. I guess that sooner or later the whole site behind it will be developed, and maybe some significant plans will come forward then.

Ali

This was the site of Busby's water tank "swimming pool" during the war ! I wonder what has happened to Busby ?

dorothy

I wonder if I've met you Krappy. I did some fundraising for the project which paid for some of the consultation. I too lost interest, for various reasons.

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Thomas

Sounds like a good idea. The sort of thing that Haringey could probably get funding for from Boris's Outer London Boroughs town centres pot - <http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/business-economy/investing-future/outer-london-town-centres>; Guess you would need some sort of local champion to shout about it to take it forward. Begs the question, if you could get £0.5 mill (I think that is the max funding allowed for each area) to improve SGR, how would you spend it?

Arkady

I’d found a trust, used to issue low-interest loans to subsidise the refurbishment of the Victorian shop-frontages along Stroud Green Road, with strict conditions. The loans would be used to repair plaster mouldings, create appropriate shop-signs, etc. The intention would be to go from this: <http://www.bdonline.co.uk/pictures/636x441fitpad[237]/1/7/7/1676177_Aldgate_before_ready.jpg&gt; To this: <http://www.bdonline.co.uk/pictures/636x441fitpad[237]/1/7/6/1676176_Aldgate_after_ready.jpg&gt; Those are from opposite Whitechapel Gallery. The best example of this sort of restoration can be found on the south side of Cheshire Street off Brick Lane: <http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=51.523494,-0.071014&spn=0.002647,0.006866&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.523524,-0.070688&panoid=qniRZa0Vw4nc2-9agcwwJA&cbp=12,241.87,,0,0.28>;

Thomas

@ Arkady - thats an impressive transformation. But are there actually any buildings of that quality on SGR?

Arkady

Gosh yes. Take a stroll down SGR on the Harringay side, starting at the Stapleton, and looking over to the Islington side (which supports my point marginally better than the more mixed Harringay side). And *look up*. The Medical Centre/Sainsburys building is every bit as glorious as the corner building depicted above, and is already in top notch condition. Between there and the World’s End is a continuous run of beautiful homogenous 1860-70s villas, broken only by the post-Luftwaffe TESCO stretch and a short run of attractive Victorian terraces south (& west) of the Tollington Park junction (the corner building of which, occupied by Davies & Davies, is already an exemplary example of how the shop-fronts should and could appear, save for some of the upper plasterwork, and is the only survivor of the wartime destruction of the crossroads). Take a look at those villas as you walk down. Imagine the London stock brickwork cleaned up and stripped of any inappropriate render and paint. Imagine the nasty PVC windows restored with wooden sash ones. Imagine the plasterwork picked out again with white paint. Imagine the elaborate plasterwork columns that divide the individual shops restored and homogenously repainted. Imagine the shop-signage limited to a fixed size that suits the original design. It would be every bit as striking as the examples given above. The terraces (on both sides of the road, especially those south of Tollington Park) could also be restored to their former glory. In addition to the measures suggested above, the original brick and plasterwork between the top windows and the roofs should be restored as in the Whitechapel example I gave. These measures would allow SGR to be brought within the Stroud Green conservation area and preserved for all time. The alternative is to watch them slowly rot and be disfigured until no-one cares enough to stop them being torn down. The buildings in my Whitechapel example came *this* close to being demolished. And look at them now. This is serious stuff, people. There is an old picture in circulation looking down SGR from fiveways junction, taken at the turn of the century. So similar, and yet so different. It breaks the heart.

Mirandola

@Arkady. I agree that Stroud Green Road buildings are better than they look (as are stretches of the Hornsey Road). Are you putting in a bid?

Arkady

Do you think I should? If I were to start a campaign of this nature, do we think that people would care and support it? I seem to be getting sucked into working for Friends of Regents Canal, but I’d prefer to mobilise locally if I thought people cared.

Thomas

Love your passion for this Arkady. I care and could be mobilised! The whole of SGR is a bit of an obstacle course, so sometimes hard to look up! I'd like the councils to spend some money tidying up the streets /pavements and getting rid of all the clutter. Especially the bit by the Post Office. Problem is always going to be that half the street is in Islington and half in Haringey. Trouble is getting landlords, homeowners and shopkeepers to appreciate thier buildings I guess. I think i read last year that some of the shops (Sunflower Lounge for one) got funding to get new shop fronts, but nothing seemed to happen. I also find front gardens one of the biggest blights - guess this all comes down to absentee / disinterested freeholders.

Arkady

Interesting. Shall give it some thought. The *Stroud Green Preservation Society*? A voluntary committee, helping to co-ordinate the Islington and Harringay Stroud Green conservation areas and promote conservation and restoration of the Stroud Green Road? Mmmm. There are some stats out there that show that landlords gain higher rents if they maintain their frontage well; both residential and commercial. Clutter: there is a growing movement, slowly percolating through even to council bureaucracy, which recognises that street clutter is a bad thing. The latest Islington policy on this is quite impressive and will hopefully see results.

Mirandola

Why not? I've no idea what the success rate for bids is, but it's often surprisingly high for these things as people don't get round to applying. And you'd have a good case.

Ali

clutter has come up before <http://www.stroudgreen.org/discussion/2133/street-signs-in-stroud-green/>;

tomp

Hi Arkady,

I definitely care and would join such a group if set up

A series of small incremental improvements, baby steps as it were - holding shopkeepers hands at each step - would have a great impact

I noticed this morning the plaster mouldings between each shop - where they fall 'between' each shop's area of responsibility/paint job, have been left to peel and flake. In time the plasterwork will be quickly eroded and lost.

An example of a small, achievable interim step would be a coordinated effort to strip and repaint these mouldings while a wider more impactful scheme was being developed

Ali

If you want to revive the plaster work in yoiur ceilings this is the stuff to use <http://www.decoratingwarehouse.co.uk/buy/decorators-tools/paint-removal-systems/peelaway-7---paint-removal-system/821>; Easy to use and works very well it is amazing to see 140 years worth of paint comming of the cornice all in one go. It would work on the street stuff as well

miss annie

I was born just along from those Whitechapel buildings Arky, and for as long as I can remember they were always an eyesore. It was truly amazing when they were restored. I would wholeheartedly support, and volunteer to help with, a scheme to do that in SG. I'm no good good at plastering but I'm nifty with a paintbrush.

krappyrubsnif

I'm in. Er. In principle. If not too time consuming. Love your street.

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ChangN4N6

Maybe pull together the Cllrs of the Islingtön and Harringey wards which hit the Road. They might help get something going. The Stroud Green Square idea seems great too, but the same team/woman tried something similar in lower Highgate (archway!) seem to remember it was a vanity project for students than something built up by locals. She ended up rowing with everyone. There was a awful Dick Wittington theme. Wot wud the theme be for Sgr? Are the famous locals from these parts ? Chang

krappyrubsnif

"a vanity project for students"

nails and heads come to mind with this phrase - thanks

Arsenal could be one. I have been told a very very famous Arsenal footballer lived and ran a shop on this corner site pre-Blitz, some time in the 1930s when the game was amateur. Don't have a name.

Bob Hoskins.

Diversity?

ChangN4N6

Did diversity come from here ? That wud be gd or. I thought they were from Hackney

marko

I've had cause to complain to Haringay's Noise Patrol (in this case, over noise coming from a Funfair in Finsbury Park) - which just in their area.

I didn't get very far - I was asked by the drone answering the phone for my post-code and then told me that as a resident of Islington they couldn't help me.

I suggest that anybody else getting this kind of treatment talks to councillors on both sides of the boundary line, and possibly an MP or two for good measure.

Hackney, Islington and Haringay had Finsbury Park designated as a special action zone precisely because it bordered 3 local authority areas and services where therefore fragmented. They seem to have forgotten all about this.

James Daniel

Sounds like a great idea, maybe someone could merge those last posts into a new topic so it will be visible to more people?

I am really excited at the prospect of this.

harpistic

Doing that now :)