Fairfax Hall - Contender for Prize as the most Fascinating Building in Harringay

Years back, I wrote a short history of the building that is now known locally as the Kurdish Community Centre, but spent most of its life as Fairfax Hall. 

An unrelated conversation earlier this week sent me back to digging around in its story and I've been revising my original article on an almost daily basis this week. It's now probably as finished as it's going to be for a good while.

Focussing on just a single building almost always results in a rich tableau that, whilst it won't tell our whole story, gives a vivid insight into life in Harringay over the past hundred years as well as national and global events.

I'd already teased out the bones of the story of Fairfax Hall three years ago and traced its life from dancing academy, to gas mask factory, host to both pro and anti war movements during the Great War, crucible of the British Socialist movement and home of Britain's cartoon industry.

I've now dug deeper and filled in some of the gaps. This includes details of the scandalous divorce of the Edwardian occupiers and its life as a clothing factory, including 20 years as a factory for Moss Bros. I've also found out about its purchase by Tottenham Council and its period as a daycare centre for Haringey Social Services. Finally. I've brought things bang-up to date with the sale of the building this summer to the current occupants who now call themselves the Kurdish People's Assembly.

Full article here.