Hornsey
Hornsey maps (2 available)
Map of London
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Hornsey books (18 available)
Hornsey memories
Read and share memories of Hornsey and London inspired by Frith photos
looking back
I was born in St Peters St, Islington, 1935, bombed out late 1943, with nowhere to go, had a makeshift home in Aloysius College for a time until we were given a place in 4 Montague Road, Honsey, N8, that's where I knew what it was like to be hungry. I remember to this day with my three sisters & mother given different colour tickets to show at the YMCA to prove we were homeless, waiting all night to have a nice breakfast in the morrning, only to find out that the YMCA was bombed during the night, and was reduced to rubble. I thought I was going to die of hunger, as a result of that I never leave a ...read more here
Contributed by george burton
Memories
I was born in Stroud Green in 1950, and lived in the same house in Oakfield Rd N4 for 28 years before moving up and over the hill to Inderwick where I still live.
I remember going with mum to pay the rent at Hornsey Town Hall, and seeing 'Over the Rainbow' there I think, and still have a programme for Wilfred Pickles 'Down your Way'. I don't remember the cars parked against the North Thames Gas Board though.
Contributed by Alan Last Name
Life in Hornsey
I was born in Crouch End in 1963 and lived for 22 years of my life in Buckley Court, Carysfort Road, a small block of council flats in quite an exclusive road. My Grandfather, John Leo Monnington, was relieving officer for the area from approx 1930 until the end of the war. He, my Grandmother and their 6 children lived in Westfield Road, just opposite the doctors. My Grandmother later moved to Berkley Road.
I attended Crouch End Junior School and then later Creighton (now Fortismere).
I met my husband Kevin in the Maynard Arms in 1979. I was only 16 and knew this was the only pub my parents would not go in, therefore, I would not get caught ...read more here
Contributed by Lucinda Cotton-King
Wightman Road
I was born in England and lived at 399 Wightman Road for seven years of my life from 1961 t0 1968. My parents were poor immigrants from Jamaica, W.I. Our family consisted of myself, my sister, my brother and my parents. I remember our apartment building had two storeys. We lived in the flat above an older couple named the "Grandons". Across the street to the left was a meat store and further down the street to the right was a candy store. My school was North Harringay Primary School. There was also a Catholic church nearby. I have since moved to The United States, but the memories of Hornsey are always with me.
Contributed by AVA Watson
Growing up in Hornsey
I was born in Hornsey in 1923, and spent the first 10 years of my life living with my parents in the top flat at 257 Wightman Road. The ground floor was occupied by Mr and Mrs Dan Costigan. Mr Costigan was a bus driver, and they had one child, a daughter, who was greatly prized. In 1928, I was enrolled at the school which occupies the space between Mattison and Pemberton roads. Very happy memories of that school, including one year being chosen to be Father Christmas in the school play! My best friend, at the same school, was Norman Parsons, who lived at 108 Wightman Road. 257 Wightman Rd was at the bottom of a ...read more here
Contributed by Arthur Astrop
Town Hall
My Aunt Sylvia Monnington worked at Hornsey Town Hall from the 1960s until at least the mid 1970s.
Contributed by Lucinda Cotton-King
Extracts From Hornsey & London books
A minimal circular fountain typical of the 1930s is Uren’s only gesture to forecourt landscaping. The area has tended to be a problem for the council, as there is a strong temptation to create a car park in front of the Town Hall, but praise be, at the moment it remains grassed and treed.
An extract from from"North London Photographic Memories".
In the early 1930s an architectural competition was won by a young New Zealand architect, R H Uren, for a new town hall in the Broadway, with a design very closely allied to Dudok’s Town Hall at Hilversum. The superb building, enhanced by attention to detail both outside and inside, stands proud behind a somewhat bland grassed forecourt. To the right of the photograph, and clearly visible, are A J Ayres’ fine stone relief panels, a tribute to the gas industry, on a lesser building by Uren.
An extract from from"North London Photographic Memories".
High Street North is a
relatively undistinguished
and typical London
suburban shopping street:
the exuberance of the Town
Hall complex is forgotten.
The Midland Bank on the
corner of Caulfield Road
(right) is one of their 1920s
Classical-style single-storey
buildings that add quality to
many High Streets. On the
left the taller Victorian brick
buildings were demolished
in the 1970s and replaced
by bland flat roofed ones.
An extract from from"London Living Memories".
We pass under the River Thames via the Blackwall Tunnel - the northbound side dates from the 1890s, an early
project of the LCC, which was established in 1888. East Ham was in Essex until 1965, but since the mid 19th
century very much a part of greater London. Here we approach East Ham’s town centre along the busy North
Circular Road, which seems in places merely a casual linkage of suburban roads. These terraces of neat
Edwardian bay-windowed houses survive, and lead towards the Town Hall with its tower.
An extract from from"London Living Memories".
Our tour now heads north-east to Greenwich to a much grander building. The Royal Naval Hospital, a
counterpart to the Chelsea Hospital for soldiers, began as a rebuild of Greenwich Palace by Charles II in the
1660s, but it changed direction in the 1690s. The second pediment from the right is Webb’s 1660s work. In
1873 it became the Royal Naval College; when that closed, in the 1990s it became part of Greenwich University.
In the distance are the chimneys of Greenwich Power Station of 1902-10.
An extract from from"London Living Memories".