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Local History/Local Studies

Southgate Civic Week 2017 - join in!

07 February 2017

The second Southgate Civic Week will be from 10th to 18th June 2017. Southgate District Civic Trust are extending an invitation to local groups to add their own events to the week's activities

Do you have any Terrific Toys?

25 January 2017

Toys and Games wanted! Enfield Museum is planning its 2017 exhibition, ‘Terrific Toys: Made and Played in Enfield’ which is set to open at the Dugdale on Thursday 13th  April, running through to January 2018. This free exhibition will explore 100 years of toys and games played with by Enfield children and investigate some of the borough’s factories that produced famous name toys. Are you a collector with a significant collection of toys from the past century? Do you.......

Exploring Haringey's history in three walks

08 January 2017

Haringey Federation of Residents Associations and Haringey Friends of Parks Forum have produced three booklets describing walks across the borough that trace the history of Wood Green and Tottenham and visit their highlights:  a palace, a castle, numerous conservation areas, several parks and London's own River Moselle (without vineyards, unfortunately). The booklets can be obtained from libraries in Haringey or downloaded using the links below. Alexandra Palace to Bruce Castle.......

Trent Park planning application submitted

08 November 2016

Berkeley Homes have submitted a planning application for their scheme to build housing on the former Middlesex University campus in Trent Park. The application is listed thus: 16/04324/FUL  |  Phased redevelopment of site to provide a total of 262 residential units (134 apartments, 128 houses, including 18 affordable units) with museum, cafe and leisure uses, ancillary parking, vehicle and pedestrian access routes and cycle ways, involving the demolition of Bevan Hall, Lakeview,.......

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Helen Lederer's family history - the Trent Park connection

07 November 2016

Actress Helen Lederer's grandfather fled to Britain from Czechoslovakia to escape the Nazis.  Save Trent Park have posted a clip from the TV series War Hero in my Family in which she finds out about other relatives who failed to escape and about her grandfather's role as a Secret Listener at Trent Park........

Trent Park's wartime role

03 August 2016

The campaign to create a museum in part of the Trent Park mansion is continuing.  So far more than 3800 people have signed an online petition which has the goal of persuading the Berkeley Group to set aside a sufficiently large area within the building for a museum that would truly do justice to the important subject of the mansion's World War II intelligence gathering role. If you missed the TV programme broadcast earlier this week on More 4, it's also available on youTube (see.......

Trent Park owners reveal more detail of their evolving plans

24 May 2016

The company that owns the former university campus in Trent Park is hoping to create 245 new homes on the site.  It is willing for part of the historic mansion to be used as a museum, but campaigners are disappointed with the amount of space the company is willing to allocate to this purpose.  There will be a public meeting about the campaign for a museum on 16th June. The Emerging Masterplan Berkeley Homes revealed details of how their ideas for development of the former campus are.......

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World War I Lives Remembered

11 May 2016

In support of a national charity's campaign to record and maintain the country's war memorials, a local church is providing access to information about fallen World War I servicemen. Christ Church Southgate Green will be making its WWI Lives Remembered exhibition materials available to the participants in the Civic Voice war memorials workshop, which will be held at the similarly named church in Cockfosters on Friday 13th May. All the display boards from last November's exhibition can now be.......

Trent Park owners respond to petition

27 April 2016

The owners of the former university campus in Trent Park have published a response to the online petition which calls for the creation of a museum in the mansion and continued public access to the grounds of the former campus. The statement issued by the Berkeley Group can be read below.  It includes assurances that there will be a museum and that public access will be available not just to the grounds, but also - for the first time - to part of the mansion.  However, the statement.......

Trent Park campaigners launch a new petition

08 April 2016

The Save Trent Park campaign has this week launched a new petition asking the owners of the mansion and former university site to set up a museum in the mansion to marks its vital top secret role during World War II. The campaign fears that the new owners, the Berkeley Group, intend to divide the mansion up into private apartments, which would prevent public access. The online petition, addressed to the Berkeley Group and to Enfield Council, the planning authority, is asking for the.......

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Update on Trent Park redevelopment consultation

01 April 2016

The property developer Berkeley has published an update on the progress of the public consultation about redevelopment of the former university campus in Trent Park, including the historic Trent Park Mansion.  The updates summarises comments received at the consultation event in February.  A further consultation event will be held in late April. The text below should be read in conjunction with the Consultation Boards used at the February event.  The aerial view below shows the.......

Cutting glass in Palmers Green

12 February 2016

The latest video on Palmers Green Tales looks at the career of a local artist and craftswoman who draws inspiration from the stained glass she sees in the surrounding streets.  Jenny Bourke introduces the video: "Susan Mehmet and I have made a really interesting film this month about a local stained glass artist called Annahita Hessami. Anna moved to Palmers Green when she was young and attended Hazelwood and Ashmole Schools. You will see in the film how she was influenced by the wealth of.......

Haringey Local History Fair 2016

09 February 2016

20th February, 11am to 4.30pm, at Bruce Castle Museum Discover more about Haringey’s history at our Fair at Bruce Castle Museum – you can visit the Search Room and talk to Archive Staff, enjoy our all-day talks programme or browse stalls from local organisations showcasing our area's heritage. The Old Kitchen will also have a café for teas, coffee and cake all day. Tel: 020 8808 8772 Email: museum Free Talks Programme 11.15am The Ivy-Mantled Tower.......

Council offers prize for local history essay writing

18 December 2015

Enfield Council has announced a £250 prize for essays which bring to life some aspect of the London Borough of Enfield's past - including, of course, the time before the London Borough of Enfield was created 50 years ago from the former boroughs of Enfield, Edmonton and Southgate. The David Pam Memorial Bursary is named after a renowned local historian who died in 2014.  He worked for the Enfield Local History and Museums Service and after retirement became president of the Edmonton.......

Council rethink on museum and archives service cuts

25 November 2015

Enfield Council has withdrawn its proposal to completely cease providing drop-in access to its Local Studies Centre at the Dugdale Centre and to drastically scale back the Enfield Museum, which is also located at the Dugdale Centre.  There will, however, still be cutbacks, though their scope is unclear. "Just Married" might have been the last special exhibition at the Enfield Museum under the original proposalsThis rethink, announced on the Council website earlier today, is a response to.......

Confusion about plans for museums and archives service

03 November 2015

"Enfield 229" has issued a second bulletin with information about its campaign against drastic reductions in Enfield Council's Museums and Archives Service (see this earlier article).  The campaigners are now expecting a decision by the end of November, but say that there have been contradictory indications about the proposed scale of cuts to the service. Despite reassurances that "nothing has been finalised yet", the campaigners claim to have learnt that plans are in place to delete all.......

Telling the story of two remarkable women through comedy and tragedy, song and dance

26 October 2015

A play to be performed this week at the Dugdale Centre traces the lives of two notable women from Edmonton - one thought to be a witch, the other a saint. Calling it a "play" doesn't really do it justice - The Determined and the Damned includes especially written lyrics, a live band, films clips and animation. Local theatre group InterACTion has assembled a cast of 25 people to present the two lives.  Three different actors play the "witch", three more the "saint".  Reflecting.......

Surveying "every street in Palmers Green"

04 October 2015

If you're not a regular visitor to Palmers Green Jewel in the North (and if not, why not?) you may have missed Sue Beard's series of reports on work done by her and others to identify "built heritage" that merits Local Listing (see this earlier report). Part of The Market shopping parade in Green Lanes, built by Arthur SykesAs part of this grand effort to document interesting buildings, Sue has been allocated a pretty large area to survey - east of the railway line, including central Palmers.......

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The printer who gave the world Sans Serif and helped build a church for Southgate

01 October 2015

The first of a new series of lectures organized by the Friends of Christ Church, Southgate, takes place next Wednesday, 7 October, at the church on The Green, N14 7EG. These talks are intended to mark the 400th anniversary of Christian worship on the site by featuring people associated with Southgate in general and the church in particular. A page from an 1815 Figgins specimen bookOn Wednesday the church is extremely privileged to have secured the services of Professor James Mosley, one of the.......

Campaign launched to save Enfield Museum and Archive Services

29 September 2015

A campaign has been launched in opposition to Enfield Council's plan to make money-saving changes to the operation of the Museum and Archive Services (see this earlier article).  'Enfield 229' or the "Unofficial Friends of Museum and Archive Services" have issued a four-page bulletin outlining their fears about the impact of the proposed changes.  They accuse the Council of a lack of frankness about the proposals, in particular the failure to mention that four and a half experienced.......

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