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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

New River 400th Birthday Party: Planning Meeting Tuesday 8PM

The New River is 400 years old next year and I've been digging around a bit over the past few weeks trying to find out what's planned  / could be planned by way of celebration.

I've spoken with the press office at Thames Water and they're vaguely certain that something will probably happen. More definite is a local initiative funded by the Manor House PACT.

Their project outline says the following:

PACT will use this occasion to run a Festival, to celebrate the New River. The local section forms part of the Capital Ring walk and this will be an opportunity to raise awareness of the potential of this area for walking. is bidding for funding from the Heritage Lottery for an oral history project about the history of New River to celebrate the anniversary. They aim to use their findings to stimulate new interest in the New River. There are also plans to create a walkway along part of the New River. 

Tomorrow night there is a meeting co-ordinated by PACT partner Transition Finsbury Park to start planning the New River Festival. It will be in The Brownswood at 8pm.

I'm keen to use the opportunity of the 400th anniversary to see if we could do a couple of other things locally. To make a start, I'm still trying to get hold of someone in Thames Water. My thoughts at this stage are to investigate if we could the focus on the river next year to:

  1. get rid of the fencing that borders the river through Finsbury Park - never understood why it's there since the river is barrier free everywhere else.
  2. find a way of providing better access to the river through the Ladder without disadvantaging those living along its banks? It seems such a shame to keep this great local amenity gated off.
  3. Anything else?

These elements would be beyond the scope of the PACT funds, but that doesn't mean we can't investigate what's possible.

Tags for Forum Posts: new river, new river festival, thames water

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ant on December 10, 2012 at 22:39

Better access through the Ladder would be fantastic if it could happen. If thats too hard it would be great if even just a short bit was opened up so that you can get from the Passage to Finsbury Park without having to go via Green Lanes or Wightman Rd. That could be done with the route going by just a few houses back gardens  - http://goo.gl/maps/koq2O - so it seems maybe possible? 

Permalink Reply by maggie on December 11, 2012 at 12:16

Ant, this would be a great idea. I walk grandchildren along the passage when going to Finsbury Park and have to detour a dogs hind leg up to Wightman Road, it would be great to complete the walk along the New River.

Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on December 11, 2012 at 13:34
The down side being that the dog owners of Green Lanes will just let their dogs crap along the new river. Nevertheless I would love to have the river opened up for all.
Permalink Reply by Colinloves on March 1, 2013 at 14:07

This was a great little program
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qxmpx

Woman highlighted the dog poo, by just making them with little pink flags.  Clearly, this has an effect on the dog owners and dog poo dropped to just one owner doing it.

Permalink Reply by John McMullan on December 11, 2012 at 12:37

Yes please!!!!

Permalink Reply by ElleCarumba on December 11, 2012 at 13:12

I thought the issue with opening it up (apart from security for neighbours) was that the path is very narrow in parts?

I don't know about the Umfreville to Endymion Stretch but certainly further up, the part is very narrow.

Also upkeep would need to be funded- the litter on the stretch that is open to walkers at the north of ladder is terrible. 

Permalink Reply by John McMullan on December 11, 2012 at 13:17

The path is also extremely narrow in places when you leave Green Lanes to take it around Woodberry Down.

Permalink Reply by Maddy on December 15, 2012 at 10:06

And there'd have to be a way to get across the railway - don't know what kind of bridge exists at present.

Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on December 11, 2012 at 0:04

But how can a river celebrate its 400th Birthday?

"You could not step twice into the same river, for other waters are ever flowing on to you," says Heracleitos of Ephesus, 535-475BC (as quoted by Plato in his Cratylus). This was really 'Heracleitos for Dummies', exemplifying his doctrine of 'Pánta rei kaí oudén ménei' ['everything's in  flux and nothing remains.'] But Cratylus seems to have thought old Heracleitos a bit of a raving liberal on the flux question, "for surely you cannot step into the same river even once." Well, maybe you could manage it in the New River's more sluggish, trolley trammelled stretches.

But the principle stands. You cannot celebrate the river's birthday in 2013. Why not try it on Disney's Furniture(1913) instead? Not even Heracleitos, much less Cratylus, could claim that everything or even anything flows through Disneys. All is stuck fast in pre-war 1913, maybe even 1613.

Permalink Reply by Hugh on December 11, 2012 at 0:21

If it's a man made one surely you can give it a party.

Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on December 11, 2012 at 8:10

Hugh, Heracleitos might concede an ouzo or retsina libation for the New River cutting and banks - but even a man-made one isn't the same river.

Alan, I've always assumed Efes had been recycled at least seven times through the sewers of Ephesus.

Permalink Reply by Hugh on December 11, 2012 at 8:58

Ach, look, I'd fight to call it the New River Banks and Cuttings Festival just for you OAE, but it's never going to get traction.

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