Renovations at the Triangle mean that this year Palmers Green celebrates Christmas with a real tree.
The lights will be switched on on Thursday at 3.30 by Mayor Anwar Chaudhury MBE and David Burrowes MP.
Free mince pies and singing from the children of Hazelwood School and the choir of St John’s church are promised.
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 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!
From Guest writer, Palmers Green’s Undercover reporter
Palmers Green residents are breathing a sigh of relief this week at the appearance of a new betting shop at the Triangle. Previously, Palmers Green’s keen sportsmen had been forced to cross the road at the Triangle to get to the nearest betting shop by the 121 bus stop and there was widespread anxiety that some vistas remained on the main shopping street from which a betting shop was not to be seen.
Local residents recently petitioned the council with complaints about the number of ‘useful’ shops still remaining in Palmers Green.
“Some people were being forced into online betting,” one resident told the Palmers Green undercover reporter. “At the weekend, three Palmers Green residents were seen laying wagers on how many cars would actually stop for pedestrians attempting to cross at the Triangle by HSBC. Its pathetic. Every one knows the odds are against that.”
Rumours that the town hall is to be turned into a mega casino called the Rat Pack have so far not been confirmed.
Palmers Green library will close for 14 months for refurbishment, according to latest plans approved by Enfield Council this week. However, earlier proposals to establish a temporary library in the Lodge Road car park behind McDonald’s have now been shelved. Instead, residents will need to go to one of the other libraries in the area.
The main closure will take place between June 2014 and August 2015 but there will be a foretaste much earlier – the library will also be closed for two months from 23 November this year to early in February as work begins to segregate the library from the Town Hall ahead of the latter’s redevelopment.
On the positive side, the library will be refurbished, there will be a new room available for community events, and the plans include the creation of a new public square on the corner of Broomfield Lane and Green Lanes. There will be new trees, seating, and a new clock tower (it seems that Palmers Green will soon be awash with elevated timepieces – there is another planned for the Triangle). For more information about the plans visit the Palmers Green Community website where there is an excellent article on the plans.
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.
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
Watch the news any day of the week and you will be reminded of how lucky we are to have lived our lives in peacetime. But many Palmers Green residents still remember a time of air raids and blazing fires, and daily encounters with the fragility of life.
At the start of the Second World War, the German Luftwaffe had predominantly targeted strategic sites – airfields, munitions factories and so on – but in autumn 1940 all that changed, bringing the period we now know as the Blitz. Between September and May 1941 there were 129 large scale raids on the UK, of which 71 were targeted on London. More than a million houses were destroyed in the capital alone and there were huge numbers of civilian casualties. By the middle of the war, more civilian women and children had been killed than soldiers.
Though, as with many parts of north London, Palmers Green saw its fair share of enemy action, the area suffered fewer hits than some of its neighbours nearer the Lea Valley.
But there was one terrible night that will never be forgotten by those who lived here through the war. Betty Wright’s father, Station Officer George Walton was one of the senior firemen based at Southgate Town Hall. Recalls Betty, Dad spent many many nights fighting the London Blitz, sometimes not coming home for three or four days….exhausted, dirty and hungry.”
An awful scene greeted him on the night of 5 March 1941 on Green Lanes, not far from the present day junction with the North Circular.
“One night in March 1941, the Dance Hall (held in the Princes Hall above Pitman’s College) in Green Lanes, Palmers Green was bombed. A German bomber ‘plane was overhead…and tragically his bomb carriage was blown off, so all the bombs came down together in Palmers Green.
One of my brothers returning from work was on a trolley bus, and he got off the bus one stop before his usual stop: the Town Hall. This action saved his life because immediately after he left the trolley bus, it was blown up. He never knew what made him get off before his usual stop. My brother arrived home covered in a white dust, and suffering from shock said “Pass me a clothes brush….I am in a mess”.
The Fire Brigade were there in seconds, and my Dad was one of the first on the scene. He came back with some horrific stories. He got on a double decker bus and it was as though everyone was standing or sitting exactly as they were before the bombs fell. People were still standing reading their newspapers, or sitting down….waiting for their bus stop. However, everyone was dead….killed by the blast.
Another brother was home on leave from the Royal Marines, he went down to see what was happening and came back later….filthy dirty and very tired…after helping as many of the injured he could. He said he would never forget the terrible scenes he had seen. There so many people who had lost their limbs.
A girl I was at school with (she would have been three years older than me) was in the Dance Hall and she lost a leg. I experienced many air raids in Palmers Green, but this was the worst.”
Mrs Wyn Whiddington was inside the dance hall, and later gave her account of the evening to the BBC project, the People’s War.
“The dance hall was packed, filling the upstairs of the building. Absolutely packed out. My friends and I sat out because we couldn’t do that dance. Everyone was dancing on the floor at the time.
There was a big draught of wind, you don’t hear anything. That was when the bomb dropped. Everything went dark. We had to be pulled out of the rubble. The whole floor was gone, empty, not a soul on it. Nobody.
Also a bus was hit outside as well at the same time. It was like daylight, the fire was so bright in the blackout.”
Though there were many injured, there were only 2 fatalities inside the dance hall. Sadly, it was a very different story outside. 41 people had been killed on the passing bus caught in the blast.
There is still a reminder of the terrible events of that night. 14 properties were destroyed and a further 17 had to be demolished. Of these, Barclays bank on the corner of Green Lanes and Sidney Road (141-143 Green Lanes), directly opposite the blast, was never rebuilt. The site is now used as a forecourt by Chiswick Tyres.
Kevin O’Neill of Southgate Photographic Society produced the revealing succession of pictures below, taking an original picture of the aftermath of the bombing (supplied by kind permission of Enfield Local Studies and Archive), and the former location of the dance hall, then combining the two to show where in incident took place in relation to our modern streets. See the full slideshow produced by SPA, in which old Palmers Green transforms to the new, by clicking here
