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

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Toby Nation on February 16, 2014 at 14:39

Hi everyone

Thanks to the community energy created by Nell's post on B&B the We Love Myddlteton Road group is getting off the ground to look we can create a plan to give the road a sustainable future.

For more information or to get involved check out our recent Bowes & Bounds post here.

Thanks

Toby

Permalink Reply by Toby Nation on March 27, 2014 at 18:31

PLANNING APPLICATION TO RENOVATE SHOP FRONTS ON MYDDLETON ROAD

Hi everyone, 

This is just to say that planning applications to renovate four shop fronts (123, 124, 126, 128) on Myddleton Road are currently live on the Haringey website and anyone can add their comments as part of the consultation process. The detailed plans - including the visual designs for the shop fronts - are all available on the Haringey planning pages and they look great! 123 is on the south side and makes leather goods. On the north side 124 is the Dry Cleaners, 126 is the Pro Cancer Research Fund and 128 is the Community Hub space. 

  • The link and the planning reference number for 124, 126 and 128 is HGY/2014/0823
  • The application to restore and repair the original features of 123 includes the beautiful floor tiles, is HGY/2014/0824


This project has been a long time in the planning and the funding for the renovation has come from two main sources: English Heritage and Haringey Council, who provided the additional funds needed in order for the work to be carried out. Everyone involved, incuding the council, deserves huge thanks for pushing this through, getting the planning applications in place and, crucially, providing the additional funding to make it happen.

We often use this site to flag planning applications we want to oppose but it is equally important to comment on applications we want to support.

On behalf of the We Love Myddleton Road Group please can I encourage everyone to go to the website and comment on these applications, expressing our support for what will be a welcome boost for existing businesses and the wider redevelopment on the road. You don't need any knowledge of planning law or any technical knowledge to comment, just some enthusiasm for the plans! It would be helpful if we could stress in our comments how much we see this as a key part of the wider regeneration of the road and the more comments there are, the more it will send a message about the level of community support for the road.

Thanks

Permalink Reply by Martin McDonnell on March 30, 2014 at 17:02

Done. Thanks for giving us the heads up.

Martin

Permalink Reply by Leigh on March 31, 2014 at 22:12

this is great news

Permalink Reply by Chris Mc on April 1, 2014 at 19:14

Done. More the merrier so please do if you haven't. Great to see the proposed work as well. 

Permalink Reply by Liz Wright on April 2, 2014 at 10:53

 Done.  Well done to all of you who have worked so hard and for so long on this. I hope you feel that at last your efforts are having some effect.  Liz

Permalink Reply by Caroline Simpson on March 28, 2014 at 18:16

I am also posting this on the Building Control page.

Today. March 28th, I have received three emails with Good News for Myddleton Road.

The planning application for 100 - to make more small flats on the ground floor - has been refused.  HGY/2013/2293

The application for no 51 to make the house into three flats has also been refused.   HGY/2013/1935

And the application for 122 to make extra flats and a rear extension has also been refused.  HGY/2013/1916

All very good news.  Officer reports are worth a read.

Now let us hope that the applicants wont Appeal, and that if they do, the Inspector backs the Council's decisions.  We must keep watch on this.

I look forward to see no 51 being a decent house, or 2 flats, and to the ground floor of no 100 not having people living behind metal shutters with no light.

Caroline

Permalink Reply by Kari Koonin on March 29, 2014 at 18:51

This is all such positive news - well done to the council and everyone who helped them reach these decisions!

Does anyone know what happened with the so-called studio that was rebuilt to create a two-bed bungalow in the garden?

Permalink Reply by Daniel Cowan on March 29, 2014 at 19:20
This is No.97. They were refused retrospective planning permission and they lodged an appeal. Comments on the appeal closed recently, so we await the outcome.
Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on August 27, 2014 at 17:24

The results of the Planning Inspectorate's decision on 97 Myddleton Road has been published - read the full story here

Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on February 27, 2015 at 18:35

It's been a long time coming ... but finally the illegal building behind no 97 Myddleton Road was demolished over the last two days. See a photograph of the demolition here.

Well done to all who complained and campaigned - this sends a very clear message to other landlords on the street and alongside the positive activities from local folk that were sparked by this discussion may at last see the tide turning for Myddleton Road.

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