We were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of local historian Graham Dalling, who died on Christmas Eve after a battle with cancer.
If you are interested in the history of the area, you cannot fail to have come across Graham Dalling’s many books including Enfield Past, Southgate and Enfield Past, The Enfield Book, All Stations to Enfield Town, and Southgate and Edmonton Street Names. Always able to string a story together from a maelstrom of facts, clues and documentation, all meticulously researched, his style was entertaining and well-informed.
Born in 1949, Graham joined Enfield Library service in 1967 and qualified as a librarian in 1972. With David Pam, he was instrumental in setting up the local history team which had its home for many years in Palmers Green, bringing together an archive which included newspapers, historic documents, photos and other records, and conducting his own original research. He was involved in many local organisations, including the Enfield Society, of which he was a director, and the Edmonton Hundred Historical Society.
Graham’s passion for Enfield and our local history never waned. He told This is Local London in April 2009 on his retirement from the library
“As citizens of Enfield we need to know who we are, where we come from and what we stand for.”
Christmas may be over, the leftovers becoming a public health risk, and your Christmas tree droopy, but there is a whole New Year ahead….
2013 sees the 400th anniversary of the opening of the New River. Discovering London’s Peter Berthoud will be leading a two-day walk along the full length of the river (which isn’t a river and isn’t new) in September. It’s also the 100th anniversary of the opening of Grovelands Park – celebrations are planned in May – watch this space!
The Palmers Greenery café in Broomfield Park is hopefully due to open soon (check their Facebook page for updates) and we shouldn’t have to wait too long either to find out the result of the Heritage Lottery Fund bid for Broomfield House.
Annabelle Dawson’s Hampstead Ponds – exhibiting in February
The SPACE Art Gallery has its launch night this weekend, and looks set to be amazing. The programme of exhibitions and events already reaches into early 2014, and includes Ross Ashmore (currently on a quest to paint every London Underground Station), Russian painter Alexander Bessanov, Ann Lunden Jakoby, and Conrad Mecheski . In February there is a group exhibition of more local artists including Annabelle Dawson, Samantha Lesley and Helen M Ryan. Meanwhile, the wonderful Southgate and Palmers Green Open Studios and art trail event runs again on the weekend of 8-9 June.
The Talkies Community Cinema is going from strength to strength. The next event, a showing of Strictly Ballroom, is sold out, but there are tickets on sale for the next event, Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi in The Blues Brothers at the Fox on 20 February. Give them some lovin’….
Peter Brown of the Broomfield Museum Trust will be giving a talk on Broomfield Park at Trinity at Bowes on 24 January at 2pm. Peter is a really fascinating man – go along if you can.
If you are feeling energetic, or indeed sluggish, why not join the Grovelands park run every Saturday at 9. Its free, and a mixed ability group – just join them next to the lake opposite Grovelands House. More information (and registration for your bar code so you can track you times) at www.parkrun.org/uk.
Poetry in Palmers Green will meet again on 27 April with a line up that includes Grevel Lindop, Martha Kapos, Nancy Mattson, Graham High and Lynda How. The venue is St John’s Church and tickets are £5(£3.50 concs).Further details from myrarschneider@gmail.com mail@katherine-gallagher.com
Finally, for you theatre goers, Finchley and Friern Barnet Operatic Society will be returning to the Intimate Theatre on 5- 9 March to perform Anything Goes.
On Christmas Day we received a lovely comment on the site from Betty Wright nee Walton, who told us that she was born in the Town Hall and lived there for the first 24 years of her life!
Southgate Town Hall from the New River December 2012 Image Sue Beard
I was born in the Town Hall on 26th September 1927, and lived there with my parents and four brothers and two sisters until 1951. Dad was in the Southgate Fire Brigade (2nd Officer George Walton) so was my brother Jack. Dad was also the Mace Bearer for the Mayor of Southgate. We had a wonderful life in the Town Hall, being the envy of all our friends because of the space we had to ‘play in’…..yes, even the Mayors Parlour ! I am very glad it has been cleaned and updated and is being made use of, instead of just falling apart with age and neglect. I hope I have the opportunity to see it in all it’s glory one day.
We asked her if she could tell us more, and thankfully she has been kind enough to do so. Betty writes absolutely beautifully, so we will just reprint her email in full.
We lived in the basement of the Town Hall, which sounds pretty horrific, but believe me it was kept spotless and highly polished, thanks to our Mum. We had a large living room in the front, a kitchen, bathroom, two toilets, a washing room where Mum had her washing machine (a real luxury in those days) and eventually four bedrooms. Rather crowded by today’s standards but we considered ourselves well off.
We had the run of the New River Bank……my youngest sister and I actually played in a converted fever ambulance…..dating back probably 50 years.We made curtains and made it look like a caravan…..oh what wonderful days they were.
During the War, our parents wanted my sister and I to be evacuated, but I begged not to be sent away…….it was much more exciting with everything going on in the Town Hall. I remember people coming to view bodies of people killed in air raids (the mortuary was behind the Town Hall, next to the Fire Station). I used to charge my friends a halfpenny to look through the mortuary window which was frosted, but you could see the outline of a ‘body’…..and red rubber gloves on the windowsill which were much more scary !
I went to St Angela’s Convent, purely because it was across the road, and Mum would know we were alright after an air raid. I remember the bombs which dropped in Green Lanes (a bomb carriage was blown off and all the bombs came down in one go), and Pitman’s College was hit and one of my friends killed and another lost a leg. The station on Alderman’s Hill was also bombed.
The house on the corner of Oakthorpe Road was hit by a bomb (where our Doctor lived)….and I remember going to view the damage to hear someone say “Oh that was meant for the Town Hall”.
In one of the statements I read on ‘your site’ someone saying “The Town Hall is in the grounds of the Library”……..believe me, the Library came very much later….I was about 13…when I applied to join the Library. I was asked my name and address and of course said Town Hall, Palmers Green, N.13 to which the assistant said “Oh don’t be so silly, I mean your address….not the address of the library” !!! I was nasty enough to enjoy insisting that the Town Hall WAS my address.
Another time I was stopped in the street and asked for my Identity card and when I produced it to the policeman he said “Oh are you a refugee?”. So my address caused quite a lot of queries.
What a wonderful story – I hope that Betty will tell us more about her memories of the area. Meanwhile, Betty wonders if there are still people who remember the Waltons and the wonderful parties in the Town Hall. If you do, or know someone who might, please get in touch!
Palmers Green born author of Joy of Sex Dr Alex Comfort was the subject of a Radio 3’s Sunday Feature in December.
Presented by author Matthew Sweet, Stop Calling Me Dr Sex tells the story of Comfort’s remarkable career, and his ultimate sorrow that his rich range of work – including poetry, broadcasting, political activism and pioneering work in the study of old age – were forever overshadowed by a book he had dashed off in just a few days. Published in 1972, The Joy of Sex had sold 12 million copies worldwide by the time of his death.
At the beginning of the documentary, Comfort’s son Nicholas tells the story of a formative event in Comfort’s childhood, when young Alex lost the use of all but the thumb of his left hand following a schoolboy experiment in his back garden in Palmers Green.
It happened in the spring of 1935, he told presenter Matthew Sweet….
It was the weekend of King George V’s Silver Jubilee and my grandmother had grounded [Comfort] from going to the cinema. He and a school friend stayed home and started making fireworks in the greenhouse that was attached to the back of the house…..
Their first effort produced a large crater in the lawn and my grandmother then sent his friend home. Dad, being a persevering type, kept going and he was working on getting everything into the tube when there was a stray spark and the whole lot went up, including the greenhouse.
The explosion basically destroyed his left hand. He was obviously in a lot of pain and while they were waiting for an ambulance he actually rang his friend to say ‘please dont do this experiment, because the same thing might happen to you’.
Fortunately they got him into hospital and found an extremely accomplished surgeon, a man called Twistington Higgins, who managed to reconstruct enough of his left hand that he still had a workable thumb.
Well, November seemed to go by in a whoosh. We confess to have been a little remiss on the posting front, so here’s an opportunity to catch up on all the news in PG…..
The Woodman reopened on 1 December following much local campaigning and bothering of Marstons. Its had a lick of paint but otherwise is just the same. Welcome back, and just in time for Christmas too…..
The Christmas lights were switched on at the Triangle to the ‘woos’ and ‘ahhs’ of Hazelwood School’s children, teachers and parents, and gave a public outing to MP David Burrowes impressive Movember face furniture. PGJITN was inexplicably humming YMCA for the rest of the day. Apparently the new look Burrowes rendered David Cameron speechless in the Commons, to the point where the PM forgot Mr Burrowes’ question. The ‘mo’ has not met with approval in the Burrowes household however so you may already be too late to witness the whiskers first hand. Its all for charity, in aid of men’s health and in particular the fight against prostate cancer, so please donate.
The Talkies Community Cinema presented the latest of its pop up cinema nights at Baskervilles couple of Fridays ago, with the film of Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Everything is Illuminated playing to a packed audience. The next showing is Baz Luhrman’s Strictly Ballroom at the Fox on 30 January – book now if you want tickets, its selling fast. Talkies are looking for some new venues so if you’ve any suggestions, please get in touch with David Williamson via their facebook page or the Talkies website www.talkies.org.uk. Its a really brilliant initiative, so please support it if you can.
Our neighbours in Winchmore Hill published a new hardback book of images of the area, past and present, following on from the fantastic exhibition at this summer’s Fancy Fair. If you would like to get your hands on one, the official launch is next week at the Queens Head from 7 and all are welcome…..
Winter is time for the shivers, and sure enough there were spooky goings on in Enfield. First of all Lazy Hound Productions staked out the Hop Poles. Then North London Paranormal Investigations spent some nervous hours in Enfield Fire Station. A NPLI film is in development. And closer to home, Joe Studman repeats his Darker Side of Winchmore Hill walk as part of the St Nicholas Fair events. Not to be missed but also not for the faint hearted. Wrap up warm and have some sturdy footwear.
Also this month we also learned that….
Joe Strummer was once a Palmers Green resident with his mate Tymonn Dogg, living in a house in Ash Grove they renamed ‘Vomit Heights’…. Ally Pally was subject of a £16 million bid to the Heritage Lottery fund, which, if successful, will restore the old TV studios, the Victorian Theatre, and the East entrance. And Alexandra Palace Park won a Green Flag Award and was voted one of the best in the UK (and second best in London)…..Fionn Wilson and Gosia Stasiewicz’ Space Art Gallery on Southgate High Street have fixed up a programme of exhibitions which spans well into 2014. The roster is truly amazing, so it should be a wonderful addition to local life, and attract visitors from much further afield. The gallery opens in December, with an exhibition of Fionn’s own work.
Finally, a last reminder that if you were planning a Sunday trip up town to see the Christmas lights and do some shopping you will need to do some serious planning – pretty much no direct trains to Kings Cross until Christmas on a Sunday, unless you get up early. If this is news to you, its probably because there has been virtually no information from First Capital Connect, including nothing at all in PG station – bravo chaps! – and just at the point where we are renewing our season tickets and feeling particularly begrudging.
But why not stay closer to home anyway, and attend one of the local fairs, events and bazaars happening in December. Winchmore Hill’s St Nicholas Fair on the Green from 2 til 7pm looks set to be fantastic. Snow, carriage rides, stalls and mulled wine and encounters with St Nicholas are all promised. And if you havent bought your Christmas Cards yet, there are some excellent options locally. Palmers Green’s Art Cove cards, available online or from Annita at the station kiosk, feature local artists. Local photographer, architect and urban designer Richard Crutchleys London Letters cards are also on sale at various local events, online and through Baskervilles. There is also still plenty of time to buy your charity cards at the United Reformed Church.
On into December then. May your tinsel sparkle and the needles stay on your tree.
Merry Christmas!
Sue, Palmers Green Jewel in the North
If there is a topic you would like to write about, why not get in touch, especially if its about history and people? We would love to hear from you. There is a huge knowledge about Palmers Green out there … lets try and put it all together.
The Woodman on Bourne Hill is to reopen under new management.
Banners went up outside the pub a few days ago. PGJITN hopes that the traditional feel of the pub will be retained, there will be nice beer, a fine Sunday lunch and that the new tenants will be able to develop a positive relationship with owners Marstons.
