Work has begun on new housing to the rear of Green Lanes alongside the footpath which once ran across Clappers Green Farm.
There has been a footpath extending west in this location for over 500 years – the Clappers Green footpath once extended as far as the entrance to The Mall.
A section of the footpath between Green Lanes and the railway line will be narrowed by 70 cm to make way for an access road to the new properties.
Local tour guide and storyteller Joe Studman will be leading the latest in his walking tours of the area on Sunday 19 August. Entitled Welds, Walkers and Watering Holes, the walk starts at 2.30 at Southgate Underground station – further information from Joe at www.jaywalks.co.uk.
Joe has kindly given Palmers Green Jewel in the North two tickets to give away. To enter, all you need to do is tell me where the weather vane which once stood on the Weld Chapel is now located. As usual, the answer is somewhere on this website.
Answers to palmersgreenn13@btinternet.comby 12 noon Friday 10 August please. The winners will be the first two correct answers randomly picked from the proverbial hat.
The excellent Woodman pub on Bourne Hill is under threat of closure from Marston’s breweries.
The Woodman is the oldest pub in Palmers Green and one of the last remnants of a more rural age in the area. The building dates from 1727 and ale has been sold at the Woodman for nearly 150 years.
The pub still retains its old world atmosphere, has a cheery welcome from a committed staff and does delicious food – the generous Sunday lunches are particularly recommended. In winter, there are cosy fires. In summer you can sit out in the shady garden under the trees.
Enfield community group Love your doorstep have set up a petition to show the community’s displeasure at the threat to a local community pub. Please sign – and make sure you go the Woodman soon.
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Back to Zero front man and local lad Brian Kotz this week joined the ranks of the capital’s listed Londoners.
The feature, on Robert Elms’ popular show on BBC London, invites London’s celebrities and personalities to answer 15 questions about their favourite buildings, open spaces, shops and drinking holes as well as talking about their lives and concocting their ideal London day out.
Osidge born Kotz spoke of his early memories of Southgate, and Southgate Underground station in particular. The station was designed by Charles Holden and opened in 1933. “I can imagine when it was built – Southgate was mostly fields at that point – it must have looked like something had arrived from outer space. And for me, it was a kind of space portal..! I knew that half an hour away was where I wanted to work, be, see bands play….and its a beautiful building.”
Kotz’s first escape into the wider world was in 1975 when the Record Mirror advertised for young people to take part in a new pop quiz, Pop Quest. Run by Yorkshire TV, the show featured teams from different regions of Britain in a knock out contest. Kotz’s encylopeadic memory, honed through years of radio listening and access to his older brother’s record collection, helped secure success for the Thames team. After Pop Quest Kotz went on to win Quiz Kid on Radio 1, which was in its final year of being presented by Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman.
In 1979 with the coming of the mod revival, he became a performer himself. “Your side of heaven” was Back to Zero’s only single release, but is now regarded as a cult classic. Since then, Kotz has continued to make guest appearances and sung with a number of bands, as well as becoming a regular on the London music scene as a performer, DJ, gig goer, collector and enthusiast – not just music but (as the son of a blue badge guide who grew up surrounded by his father’s books about the capital), anything London related.
In June he walked 149 miles from London to Utrecht to raise money for the Oncology Department of the Diakonessenhuis in Utrecht, in memory of his friend Michel Terstegen, who ran Da Capo records in the city. The walk was also in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Ward at UCH.
Kotz responses to the ‘famous 15 questions included
The interview can be heard on BBC iplayer until Sunday at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00vhct3.
Donations are still open following the London to Utrecht walk
There really can have been few festivals that have been put on with such energy, commitment, joy and sense of fun and heritage as Winchmore Hill’s N21 Festival. The tireless organising committee put on a programme of 120 events in the course of a single week, including talks, films, exhibitions, parades and classes.
I have attended just a few, but all have been wonderful, warm and fascinating, including Graham Dalling’s talk on Southgate before the first world war, Joe Studman‘s entertaining exploration of the Dark Side of Winchmore Hill (perhaps I will stay down here where its safe in PG) and a wonderful show of films about the area. Many are being repeated in the coming weeks having sold out. Check N21.net for more details.
The festival ends tomorrow, with the Winchmore Hill Fancy Fair. The day will start at 10 O’clock with a grand opening, with the Mayor of Enfield, David Burrowes MP and some of Winchmore Hill’s 98 and 100-year-old residents. There will be stalls, performances, a chill out zone and children’s area, and much more. See the Fancy Fair section of the N21 site for more details.
And see you there.
In 1914 a Suffragette meeting was held at the Triangle, to local indignation. The principle speaker, Mr Goulden, (a brother of Mrs Pankhurst and the husband of Mrs Goulden, the headmistress at Hazelwood School), was rescued from angry residents by police, and escorted home to Radcliffe Road, where protestors proceeded to pelt his house with eggs. Ruby Galili takes up the story on the History Files website: http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesBritain/Modern_Suffragettes01.htm