IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Downhills Park Road, LONDON, N17 6AS

Downhills Park is on the right

Downhills Park was once part of the 290 acre Mount Pleasant estate. The old house was demolished by the Council soon after they bought the estate in 1902. There had been a serious smallpox epidemic in the area earlier in 1903 and the District Medical Officer made both the economic case (of saving money treating infectious diseases) and also the health viewpoint of having ample open space for the people. The first 26 acres of Downhills Park was formally opened to the public in August 1903. By the end of that year a campaign was underway to make a major extension to the park. This campaign eventually resulted in a much smaller extension to Downhills Park being informally made in 1906. This view is of a green alongside Belmont Road, with Downhills Park beyond the railings.

From Ivatt Way (built on the old railway line) one can just about see into what looks like an abandoned builders' yard through an overgrown and also abandoned footpath. The only building on site seemed to be this old male toilet. The cast iron guttering suggests it is an original late nineteenth century construction and the peeling paint suggest very long abandonment. A prime spot for a designer home maybe. Interestingly, the completely overgrown footpath that seems to follow the the line of the original railway still has old disused concrete lampposts in place with their Haringey Council ID plates on them. Forgotten like the builders' yard.

Downhills Park

The telegraph poles have unusual finials on their tops in this road.

The railway line between Seven Sisters and Palace Gates was opened by the Great Eastern Railway on 1st January 1878 and closed by British Railways to passengers on 7th January 1963 and completely on 5th October 1964. Apart from its route, very little evidence that it ever existed remains. This bridge carried Belmont Road over the line between West Green station (to the right) and Noel Park & Wood Green (to the left). A full account of the line with photographs can be seen at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/west_green/

The mural is a reminder of the Palace Gates Branch Line which ran from Seven Sisters to Palace Gates (Wood Green) from 1878 to 1964.

The other side of the two old railway brick arches is boarded up and is the boundary to the Park View School playing field. On this side the metal fencing has been broken at one point to allow access. Sheets have been tied to the fence for privacy as inside the arches there is bedding and seating, other evidence of habitation such as a fire and even a framed picture. Clearly someone is or has been living there. The simple elegance of the bridge is marred by the utilitarian fencing which has in any case failed to keep people out.

The Haringey Council signs are almost unreadable now but the 'danger' sign tells us rather starkly that the allotments are a 'hazardous area' and that the allotment management and tenants will not be liable for death or injury on the premises. I wonder if the new anti-climb razor devices on top of the gates might be the likely cause of death or are necessary to keep folk out of a deeply hazardous allotment. What has happened to our vegetable patches?