Bowes and Bounds Connected
A Community Network for Bowes Park and Bounds Green
Myddleton Road... A Street Worth Fighting For
We’ve spent the last 18 months focusing on making The Step the best it can be but we are now thinking more about the future of Myddleton Road and how we can all work to make it a better place. We don’t want to look backwards, we are where we are, but we need everyone including the relevant people at Haringey Council to share our enthusiasm for this street and, more importantly, the Bowes Park area to be bullish and belligerent about our future.
The potential for regeneration in this curious little “Bowes Park Triangle” of ours is immense. We have the excellent transport links, the availability of relatively well-priced housing and the enthusiastic spirit of a creative community. Look at the massive success of the Myddleton Road Market and how it brought our own community together and drew scores of new people to the area. This was a reason to be proud and must be capitalised on.
So we must ask ourselves why the heart of Bowes Park is a rundown, ramshackle street crippled with high density, low quality housing and the multitude of anti-social problems this brings? We must ask why illegal and ugly shutters out number open shop fronts at a ratio of five to one? Because this Myddleton Road does not reflect the vast majority of people who live in streets and roads that surround it so difficult questions must be asked of Haringey as to quite how the street has been left to rot and decay like this. We know of several people who have wanted to set up a business in the area but couldn’t find a retail space to let so we must ask why in less than 100 metres we have ten “property” companies whose activities contribute absolutely nothing to the local community?
We are not kidding ourselves that the solutions are easy and we know the historical reasons that led to the decline of Myddleton Road as a shopping street. There are probably many issues that we don’t fully understand but we founded The Step because we believe in Bowes Park and want to put back something in to the community as well as trying to make a living here. Without being too big headed we are bloody proud of what we have achieved so far but we want to make it very clear that if Haringey Council is not serious in backing the future of Bowes Park then we will move elsewhere and we will do this soon.
We didn’t open our business because we looked at the area and saw pound signs to get rich quick. We opened The Step because we saw a huge potential for long term regeneration and improving the quality of life here but nearly two years on, the signs are mixed and confused. On the one hand, the rubbish in the street is getting worse, anti-social behaviour is significantly on the increase and the quality of housing on the street is becoming ever more alarming and absurd. This is spreading to other roads in the area, make no mistake about that.
However…the positive news is that we know there are local people who want to invest in Myddleton Road. We know that there are many local people in Bowes Park both old and new who care deeply about the area. We know from personal experience that there are many people considering moving to the area but the ugly and seemingly unloved High Street is a big drawback for them. We have a brilliant street market, beautiful community garden, the Tin Tabernacle and an outdoor gym. In two years time wouldn’t it be brilliant if that last sentence was a paragraph?
So let’s not use the past as an excuse for passing more and more poor quality, high density housing in the area …let us use the future as a reason for saying no, this will harm the people who live here, your proposals are of no benefit to Bowes Park whatsoever. Let’s all of us work together to get that English Heritage money flowing in to Myddleton Road because if managed correctly it will make a world of difference.
It is also vital we engage with the certain landlords on the street because when we have spoken to them they don’t seem to have any idea of the damage they are doing to the Bowes Park community. They also don’t realise the huge potential of the properties they own…by train, we are twenty minutes from the City of London and the same from Shoreditch, the creative centre of London. Bowes Park could and should be the next big emerging area of our capital but a handful of cynical, short-sighted landlords don’t, or won’t, see this potential and have their foot to the throat of Myddleton Road. This is choking the life out of a whole area.
Do we throw our hands in the air and leave the future of Myddleton Road and, more importantly, the wider community of Bowes Park in the clutches of a handful of landlords who live far away from the boundaries of Haringey. We have put too much into The Step to walk away just yet and over the coming months we will be doing absolutely everything we can to put Myddleton Road and Haringey Council in the media spotlight…its blighted and bungled past and present, as well as its future potential.
Because it is a story worth telling and a street worth fighting for.
Let us know what you think by posting on our discussion on the Bowes and Bounds Forum.
Yours in hope
Nell and Mat
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sam Hoggarth on
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He was open during the first Market as well, but sadly not during the second one.
Hopefully when the go ahead comes along for more we can tempt him to open for them!
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Permalink Reply by Caroline Simpson on -
I have just bumped into the chap who runs the shop, outside the shop.
He has taken down his phone number.
He has some problems with his lease and landlords (yes plural) but he is trying to sort them.
He hopes to be open again soon.
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Permalink Reply by Nell Riches on
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Here's the agenda for tonight folks... most of it is discussion based so everyone can get involved after an initial short introduction:-
Myddleton Road – A Street Worth Fighting For
Agenda 16th October 2013 at 7.30pm
- Welcome
- Brief history of the road
- Summary of the problems of the road
- The role and achievements of the Myddleton Road Strategy Group
Subjects for discussion:-
- Where do we want the road to be in the near future?
- How do we achieve this?
- Planning applications – where to find, how to decipher and how to comment
- Engaging landlords
- How to attract new businesses
- Bowes Park train bridge
- Shutters
- Street branding
- Petition
- AOI… any other ideas!
Action points and next meeting dates
- Who will do what
- Future meeting options
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Permalink Reply by Derek Keay on
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Great discussion. Sorry I was unable to stay to the very end. I wasn't expecting such a large turnout.
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Permalink Reply by Martin McDonnell on
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Hi,
I had to work late and regrettably missed the meeting - will someone post a quick update on ideas/planned action? Hope it went well!
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Permalink Reply by Lucy Whitehead on
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Really sorry not to make the meeting Nell, I wasn't able to get a babysitter. I spoke to Kari and she said it was a brilliant turnout and very positive discussion. Well done. Would love to hear more feedback on this thread if poss.
Lucy
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Permalink Reply by Lucia on
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Also didn't make meeting but would have liked to - keen to hear updates and be supportive in future!
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Permalink Reply by Caroline Simpson on
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Dont miss the fact that the application for what was '112A' has been taken down from the Haringey website.
see my mail to the other Discussion.
http://www.bowesandbounds.org/forum/topics/building-control-on-mydd...
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Permalink Reply by Laura Davenport on
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Many years ago I went to a planning meeting at Haringey Civic Centre, it was made very very clear by councillors that Myddleton Road was of no interest, they wanted all the shops closed and should all do our shopping in Wood Green or a similar large shopping area.
So maybe now we have to take things into our own hands and work with the Localism Act:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_dat...
I don't know a huge amount about the act but I do know that the community can start to layout how it wants the area to develop. With a residents assoc in place you are half way there. Across the borough boundary in Enfield there are similar plans to work with the localism act, we are completely fed up with the plan to build so many flats along the A406 with no extra school places, decent shops, leisure facilities, dare I even say jobs!
Have a look at the link, google it a bit more and see what you think.
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Permalink Reply by Clare on
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Hi Laura, just quoting from that document:
"Strengthening enforcement rules - For people to have a real sense that the planning system is working for them, they need to know that the rules they draw up will be respected. The Localism
Act will strengthen planning authorities’ powers to tackle abuses of the planning system, such as deliberately concealing new developments."Perfect :)
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Permalink Reply by Liz Wright on
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Localism act was discussed at BHORA - which is where I was - meeting held on the same night.
Connecting the communities of Bowes Park and Bounds Green in north London.
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