Local History

photo of signpost at palmers green triangle

© Copyright Stephen McKay and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

If you're interested in the local history of Palmers Green, Southgate, Winchmore Hill, Edmonton and Enfield, there are a number of societies which put on regular lectures and talks and provide research facilitiies. We list some of these in our Community Directory in the History category, but you should also investigate the Conservation Groups, Residents' Associations and North London on the Web categories.

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  Category: Local History

The transformation of a semi-derelict "tin tabernacle" in Bowes Park into a modern facility for use by the Samaritans in their life-saving work is now complete.

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  Category: Local History

CHECK CHARACTERS IN DESCRIPTIONChrist Church, Southgate in Waterfall Road will be hosting “Southgate Remembers”, from Sunday 4th November to Sunday 11th November 2018. This is a week of reflection and remembrance, with displays and exhibits, to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1.

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Written by Sue Beard    Category: Local History

There may soon be one fewer historic building in Palmers Green following news this week of plans to demolish the Intimate Theatre and replace it with a new parish centre and flats.

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  Category: Local History

For the Institution of Civil Engineers' annual Smeaton Lecture in 2014, Andrew C Smith described how the extraordinarily ambitious New River project was conceived and executed, with particular focus on the role of the engineer Edmund Colthurst.

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  Category: Local History

Palmers Green Tales has made four short films interviewing Professor Kurt Barling about his life.

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  Category: Local History

The publisher of a successful website celebrating various styles of Modernist architecture in the London suburbs has launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at raising sufficient funds to publish the information on his website in book form. Among the buildings that the book will cover are the remarkable Piccadilly Line stations in our area, such as Southgate and Arnos Grove.

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  Category: Local History

Enfield's newly accredited Museum and Archive Service this month launches a programme of events in which visitors are invited in to learn about some of the objects in its collection. The Service's accreditation status was announced at the end of March by the UK Archive Service Accreditation Partnership.  The panel awarding accreditation looks at "an organisation’s ability to develop, care for, and provide access to its collections, and those areas such as resources and planning which.......

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  Category: Local History

The search is on for Enfield residents who have previously worked at Forty Hall Farm, or anyone who has memories of the Farm and its history. Land girls in Southgate Park, during WWII. Source: Enfield Local Studies Centre. Thanks to funding from the Enfield Society, Forty Hall Farm in north Enfield has been awarded a project grant to produce a series of information boards for visitors, to tell the history of the Farm and farming in Enfield. Farm manager Kate McGeevor explains:.......

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  Category: Local History

2018 is the centenary year of the extension of the right to vote to (some) women. In recognition of the fact that many leading campaigners for women's suffrage lived in and around Palmers Green, Southgate and Winchmore Hill and that local halls, churches and schools hosted campaign meetings, Enfield Council will next month be unveiling a plaque at Palmers Green Triangle. The unveiling will take place at 10.30am on 8th March - International Women's Day. Palmers Green Triangle has been chosen.......

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  Category: Local History

This year's Haringey Local History Fair at Bruce Castle Museum promises a fascinating and very varied series of talks.  Highlights include a talk about Holocaust survivor and local artist Moshe Galili and the story of the Gestetner factory (fascinating for me, because I use to use a Gestetner in the early 1960s to produce flyers for my mother's concerts). Saturday 17 February 11.00am - 4.30pm Haringey Local History Fair at Bruce Castle Bruce Castle Museum, Lordship Lane, N17 8NU .......

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  Category: Local History

If you've ever wondered about the "obelisk" in Bounds Green Road, its history and the story of the person is commemorates are recounted by Harringay Online. The obelisk, actually a drinking fountain, was erected in 1879, originally in the middle of the road, but is now located on the grass, opposite Nightingale Gardens.  It commemorates Mrs Catherine Smithies of Earlham Grove, Wood Green, founder of the Band of Mercy Movement.  The Band of Mercy was a predecessor of the RSPCA. .......

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  Category: Local History

The Trent Park Museum Trust has announced the death of Fritz Lustig, the last of the "secret listeners", who collected invaluable intelligence by listening in to bugged conversations between German prisoners of war during World War 2. This once top secret intelligence gathering was carried out at three large country houses that had been requisitioned, one being Trent Park.  Fritz Lustig, a refugee from Nazi Germany, did not himself work at Trent Park, but as one of only two surviving.......