One answer is contained in a new sound map produced by a fascinating London website, London Sound Survey. The map pays tribute to Beck’s iconic map of the underground, but instead of tube lines, the focus is on waterways, or more accurately, the sounds around London’s Waterways, including the New River at Palmers Green, and at other sites as the 400 year old man-made water course makes its way into the city.
In the Palmers Green recording, taken at the New River by Oakthorpe Road in September 2011, you can hear traffic, children playing outside the mosque, birdsong, airplane drone, and in a back garden a mastiff begins barking.
Elsewhere on the site there is a two-minute recording of Green Lanes at Palmers Green – mostly traffic, speech and the obligatory car horn. The sounds are somehow soothing, and make you wonder what Palmers Green might sound like in 50 years time and how strange the sounds might be to our descendents.
The map is part of a much wider website dealing with sound in the capital – now and in the past. There are some wonderful things contained therein and I really can’t recommend it highly enough.
And so, we have made it to 2014. The New Year lies before us, full of unknown things and hopeful resolutions.
But before we move on proper, one last look at some of the things we covered on this website in 2013, including one or two stories you might have missed…
January
2013 kicked off with Betty Wright nee Walton’s amazing story of how she and her brothers and sisters grew up in Southgate Town Hall in the years leading up to and including the war – her father had been a fire officer and the Councils official mace bearer. Sadly letters to local councillors and Mayor Anwar suggesting that Enfield Council open the Town Hall to local people one last time before the developers moved in, and in particular to enable Betty and her family to see the place where she was born, were simply ignored.
Graham Dalling at work image This is local London
We heard the tale of Dr Alex Comfort, writer of the Joy of Sex and expert on ageing, who also grew up in Palmers Green, and lost fingers in a childhood experiment with fireworks. Sadly, we also learned of the death of much loved local author, historian and Enfield Archivist Graham Dalling, who once worked in the Town Hall.
Myddleton Road apparently became flesh and started tweeting about its unloved state and Enfield Council put on display a rare Constable drawing from its archives.
Space Art Gallery, a pop up venue on Southgate High Street, opened its second exhibition with work by Polish artist Maciej Hoffman. Wood Green’s Banksy was chipped and shipped to a US auction house, then withdrawn from sale at the 11th hour after a vociferous campaign, only to be put up for auction again later in the year. New artwork appeared in its stead, and in proof that you couldn’t make it up, we heard Poundland declare that they were fans of Banksy’s. Who knew? In the local corridors of power (also known as Enfield Council), Bush Hill Tory Councillor Chris Joannides hit the national press after being suspended from the party for making inappropriate remarks on Facebook.
There was news that PG could become better connected (though there could be disruption ahead for our neighbours in the south) – London First published its report on Cross Rail 2, this time linking North to South, and calling at Ally Pally. Still on transport, the third exhibition at Space Art Gallery featured 100 paintings of London Underground stations by Ross Ashmore. Broomfield Community Orchard embarked enthusiastically on the ancient ritual of wassailing.
March
Southgate underground station celebrated its 80th birthday and we looked at the story of its opening. We also learned about a wartime horsemeat scandal at Southgate Town Hall. A new local debating group was formed, and we heard Chas and Dave sing the praises of the long gone Empire in Edmonton. (There is a rumour that Chas and Dave first met in Palmers Green – does anyone know if it’s true?). There were long queues outside Palmers Green’s flagship branch of Laiki bank, as Greece announced a bank levy, but relief as it was later announced that UK customers would mostly be exempt.
April
Poor old soul – Truro house in a state of dilapidation May 2012
Palmers Green residents were distraught to be deprived of their burger fix when local Scottish brasserie MacDonald’s was closed for a number of days.
May
May saw the launch of a new website bringing together local community groups, news and activities for the whole area. Designed and managed by webmaster Basil Clarke, Palmers Green Community is an excellent source of news about local groups and issues, and includes a forum and an excellent ‘what’s on’ section. It’s a brilliant addition to Palmers Green life – please sign up and get involved!
The Thatched Cottage in 1903, image by kind permission of Enfield Local Studies and Archive
The Centenary Festival, a great programme and the kind weather brought thousands to Grovelands Park to celebrate over two days. We uncovered the story of a past Palmers Green tourist attraction – the flower bedecked Thatched House that once stood on the site of Westlakes and was famed for miles around.
June
Cameras were rolling again in June as the BBC made a pilot episode of a new drama called Family. Locations included the Fox and a house in Selbourne Road. Our neighbouring site Bowes and Bounds Connected told an amazing tale of the kinky cobbler of Myddleton Road, one of my favourite posts of the year.
Image: Dan Maier
Open Studios weekend saw the Creative Network team get last minute access to the old Blockbusters building in Southgate and use it to stunning effect. This year, thanks to an Arts Council grant, the weekend also included a number of free workshops, alongside the opportunity to view work by over 30 artists, designers and crafts people. A second craft fair in November was packed out and full of excellent work.
July
In July a few lucky ticket holders got an opportunity to travel the whole of the Piccadilly Line from Cockfosters to Edgware on a 1938 vintage train as part of London Underground’s 150th anniversary celebrations. By then we were in the grip of a summer heat wave, but learned that it was far from as hot as PG has ever got according to voodooskies.com. In August 2003, the temperature reached 100 degrees. The coldest temperature recorded was just 17 degrees on January 12, 1987.
Enfield Council consulted on plans to ‘open up the park’ and build a new school on an unused Thames Water site adjacent to Grovelands park, splitting opinion in the area, given the love of the park and the desperate need for school places in the area. Meanwhile Alexandra Park celebrated its 150th birthday.
Image by kind permission of Leithcote, Creative Commons
We investigated Palmers Green’s strong connections with the suffragettes and the Pankhurst family, including a riot in Palmers Green Triangle. Good thing then that July also saw news that spitting would be banned across Enfield.
August saw our neighbours in Winchmore Hill out on the Green again for the Summer Art Exhibition including work by some of the area’s most interesting artists, photographers, sculptors, ceramicists and jewellers. There was a UFO sighting in Enfield and we explored the story of how one man’s unofficial green belt policy shaped the future of Palmers Green
September
September’s Palmers Green Festival in Broomfield Park was the biggest and best for many years, and the park was positively buzzing. The Palmers Green Tales project – recording memories of local residents – was launched at Ruth Winston House as part of the festival, and Southgate Photographic society produced and excellent video showing how familiar views in PG had changed during the last 100 years. We also revisited the story of the Cuffley airship, and a world war one dog fight which was witnessed by thousands of people in North London’s skies.
October
And so the nights began to draw in. In October, a worrying PG betting shop shortage was averted with the news of the opening of another bookies; people danced in the streets. We investigated some of Enfield ghosts but found that although the borough has more than its fair share, PG itself just isn’t that spooky. Unless you know different.
Joe Studman launched the first local history course for 30 years at the Dugdale Centre, accompanied by six themed walks. The course was so successful that it will run again in April – book your place now, it’s selling fast. Palmers Green Triangle’s underground toilets were sealed off and the clutter in the triangle removed though there is still no news about how long we will have to wait for more substantial improvements to the area and the reinstatement of our lost tree. We told the story of the terrible night in 1941 when the Princes Dance Hall was bombed with great loss of life. Betty Walton’s father was one of the first on the scene.
November
In November, the library was closed for the first part of the changes to the Town Hall area, and hoardings were put up around the Town Hall itself. But on the upside, we had our first real Christmas tree in many a year.
On the subject of Talkies, it would have been difficult to mention all the great events that the Talkies team has run in the last 12 months; the programme has been varied and interesting and is becoming an indispensable part of PG’s social glue. As has Palmers Green Life, the new monthly magazine set up by Anthony Webb estate agents, featuring history, people, local groups and events. PG has needed something like this for years and now we have it.
Finally, a thanks to everyone who has been so kind about this website and the articles we have provided for Palmers Green Life. We had more than 10,000 individual visitors to the site this year, ad 34,000 ‘hits’ which is gobsmacking. I hope that you enjoyed what you read. If, perchance, you would like to contribute an article to the site, please do get in touch.
“It’s clear within a few pages of [the new book]The Library: A World History that there will be no place in this survey of libraries for the one I grew up visiting. A shame. Palmers Green library in Enfield had an impeccable selection of plastic-backed Quantum Leap novels, plus all the TinTins. But it was never pretty …
The Observer’s Tom Lamont recalls his childhood days in last weekend’s book reviews.
Southgate Town Hall from the New River December 2012 Image Sue Beard
The fate of Southgate Town Hall is now decided, according to reports from the local press this week.
The building is to be redeveloped by Hollybrook Homes in 2014-15 following a deal with Enfield Council which will also include the refurbishment of Palmers Green Library. Hollybrook will be extending the Town Hall main building to create between 30 and 40 one, two and three bedroom flats, to include a mix of private and affordable housing. The façade will remain, but the interior will be extensively remodelled.
Palmers Green Jewel in the North wrote to Enfield Mayor Choudhury Anwar MBE in July asking if Palmers Green residents could be given a chance to look around parts of the Town Hall one last time before developers move in, with a view to opening the building as part of this year’s Palmers Green Festival or Open House day.
Though the letter was circulated to other counsellors by Counsellor Ingrid Cranfield, and reforwarded to Mayor Anwar a few weeks ago, unfortunately as yet no reply has been received.
It seems that time is now running out if we are to see the fantastic council chamber one last time – before the Town Hall changes forever.
Betty Wright nee Walton’s account of her childhood growing up in the town hall where her father was a fireman and the Council’s mace bearer http://www.palmersgreenn13.com/2013/01/03/born-in-the-town-hall/
After more than 100 years of modern-day Palmers Green, dripping with requisite potentially spooky Edwardiana, you would have thought that Palmers Green would be groaning with ghosts. But we seem to have just two ghostly sightings to my knowledge.
The Fox – spooky goings on
The first concerns the Fox. In the 1980s and 1990s the back rooms of the Fox (as The Fox Theatre) became home of several theatre companies in succession, including in 1996 the Fact and Fable Theatre Company, whose performance of Pin Money by Malcolm Needs was directed by June Brown, Dot Cotton of Eastenders. It was during another performance in November 1996, according to Gary Boudier his 2002 book, A-Z of Enfield Pubs (part 2), that a Mr Sullivan from Archway felt himself being tapped on the shoulder but turned to find no one there. Bar staff and customers also reported unexplained noises, only some of which were attributable to the effects of alcohol.
The Intimate Theatre also reputedly has its ghost, according to the BBC’s Doomsday Reloaded project of a few years ago, though it’s not much of a story, only a ghostly presence in the auditorium.
You have to go slightly further afield for a proper ghost story, courtesy of Henrietta Cresswell’s Winchmore Hill, Memories of a Lost Village (you can read the book in full on N21.net).
In 1800 a common was enclosed which lay between Vicarsmoor Lane and Dog Kennel Lane, now called Old Green Dragon Lane. It was known as Hagfield or Hagstye field, on account of a witch who infested it on stormy nights with her proper accessories of a broomstick and a black cat! The right-of-way across the common was left as an enclosed footpath. In the sixties there were five stiles in it marking the field boundaries. This is still called Hagfields, and not long ago was strictly avoided after dark. The Clapfield Gates, now Wilson Street, had also a bad name. They were said to be haunted by a black bull.
And here’s another
At the top of Bush Hill is a footpath which avoids the long bend of the high road. It used to pass slightly to the west of its present position and was known as “The Poet’s Walk” or Stoney Alley. It passed under an avenue of limes which met overhead, and on its left was a black and sullen looking pond. Towards the Enfield end there was a high red brick wall, overhung by ancient yew trees, which made it exceedingly dark at the close of the day. It was reputed to be haunted, and few people would go through it after dusk. The ghost was said to be a lady in full bridal costume, who appeared on the top of the wall, gave a piercing and unearthly shriek and vanished. After a time it transpired that a white peacock found the wall under the trees a pleasant roosting place, and when disturbed it uttered its unmelodious cry and flew away.
Further afield, in Green Street, Brimsdown, was the site of the manifestation of the Enfield poltergeist. This really isn’t one for those of a nervous disposition. The story is taken up by London teacher turned Taxi driver Rob in his excellent View from the Window blog – click here. I don’t recommend watching the video clips but it’s up to you…
If you know a Palmers Green spooky story, please tell us!
The next Poetry in Palmers Green takes place at the Parish Centre St John’s Church this Saturday 19 October and features an impressive and award-winning line up.
Angela Kirby’s poems have been translated into Romanian and have won prizes in several major competitions. In 1996 and 2001 she was the BBC’s Wildlife Poet of the Year. Her collections are Mr Irresistible, Dirty Work and A Scent of Winter.
Enfield based poet Sonia Jerema – photo NewID
Sonia Jarema was born in Luton to Ukrainian parents and now lives in Enfield. Her poems have appeared on-line in Ink Sweat and Tears, Every Day Poets and in print in South Bank Poetry Magazine as well as several anthologies. She was shortlisted for the Enfield Mayor’s Poetry Competitions 2010 & 2012 and Holland Park Press What’s your History? 2012 Competition.
Kay Syrad’s publications include her collection Double Edge (Pighog Press, 2012), Objects of Colour: Baltic Coast with photographer Gina Glover, a novel, The Milliner and the Phrenologist (Cinnamon Press, 2009), and an artist’s monograph, Tracks (Thames & Hudson, 2012). She often collaborates with artists and dancers on public projects, reviews poetry and was recently guest editor for the poetry journal Artemispoetry.
Michael Bartholomew-Biggs is a co-organiser of the Poetry in the Crypt reading series at St Mary’s church in Islington. He is also poetry editor of the on-line magazine London Grip. His poetry has appeared in many magazines and anthologies and he has published three chapbooks and two full collections. A new collection Fred & Blossom, set in the 1930s, was published this July. See also http://mikeb-b.blogspot.co.uk/
John Greening completes the line up. He has as published over a dozen collections. They include his Hawthornden chapbook, Knot (April 2012) and due this autumn: To the War Poets (Carcanet/OxfordPoets). He is a regular TLS reviewer and author of several critical guides to Yeats, Edward Thomas, Ted Hughes, the Elizabethan Love Poets and the War Poets. He has received the Bridport Prize, the TLS Centenary Prize and a Cholmondeley Award.
The event starts at 6.45 for 7.15 pm. The Parish Centre is behind St John’s Church, 1 Bourne Hill/corner Green Lanes, London N13 4DA. Tickets are £5(£3.50 concs) and there will be books for sale, refreshments and an open mic. To find out more about the event and Poetry in Palmers Green’s other activities visit their Facebook page www.facebook.com/PoetryinPalmersGreen
What does Palmers Green sound like?
