Updates to previous posts – loss and regeneration

I have this morning added some updates to these old posts – click the links above the pics to read the articles and see the pics at larger size:

Scratched graffiti outside the Humanist Chapel in Rugby Street 

New life for Michli's old grocery store

Loss of another ghostsign in Holloway Road

Woodblock paving in Pentonville Road

Remembering Andreas Michli & Son

I was out and about wandering* along and through the back streets of Harringay/Haringey recently. After delivering a framed print to an address in the Hornsey Vale area (which, incidentally, offers amazing views of Ally Pally) I was intending to head straight back home to Holloway but on venturing slightly off-piste I rediscovered the lovely old library near the junction of Quernmore Rd which beckoned me inside and, after half an hour of book browsing, I then got distracted and delighted by the shops that form the old station parade there and, oh gawd, here we go again... I was out for hours. I'm not complaining though. 

Emerging into Wightman Road, I first investigated some of the streets that form the lower rungs of 'the ladder' including the parallel worlds of the New River and the Harringay Passage, a footpath that links Turnpike Lane to Umfreville Rd but stops short of the railway land, today converted into a marvellous bug-tastic and diverse eco-park. 

I wandered up and down Green Lane's Grand Parade looking at the adapted facades on the buildings (ooh, I feel a montage coming on soon) and after a yummy lunch in a Turkish restaurant I made my way into the streets on the eastern side of the road, with the idea to follow the railway line as best as as possible, eastward to South Tottenham station. I found some more little green spaces abutting the line and made my way into and around the old St Ann's Hospital site, coming out almost opposite the recreation ground and Black Boy Lane renamed La Rose Lane earlier this year.

I then recalled that I had recently noticed from the top of a passing bus that the grocery shop at the corner of St Ann's Road (where it meets Salisbury Rd a sharp point) hadn't yet re-opened. I had assumed it had closed due to coronavirus but that did seem odd. And, even if that was the case, why would it still be closed now? So I instead of heading towards Seven Sisters I made my way back towards Green Lanes to investigate.

I had often thought that if I lived in the vicinity I would definitely frequent Michli's with its marvellous selection of fruit and veg and so much more – see this retrospective streetview for how the shop looked twelve years ago. But I've missed out. Because now it's closed for ever. It's empty. And there's a very sad reason for this. 

A type-written sheet on the glass door near the corner tells the story. It seems the shop has been closed for over four and a half years now. Andreas passed away in August 2018.

I peered inside and saw the remains of a once-thriving business. Wood-panelled walls, a delivery tricycle, empty shelves, pots and pans and pictures, racks and rubbish and, bizarrely/ironically, one of those Oriental perpetually waving cats, still waving. Other windows contain healthy houseplants. 

I can't really do this justice being as I never went inside and I never met the evidently much-missed Andreas Michli. But I've read some marvellous reviews of the shop like this one from 2011 explaining Andreas's ethics and how he was proactive in offering locally-grown produce. After his death many heartfelt remembrances have been posted online – I particularly like this one by Shilpah Shah. 

So what's going to happen to the shop? There is an estate agent's board on the building that seems to intimate that the property is already let. However, they have an active listing here (approx £4K a month available for a 15 year lease) which also includes some excellent photos of the interior spaces. 

I really hope whoever takes on the site respects it and doesn't lose all the layers of architectural history here. I'd be more than saddened to see this all replaced wit UPVC. And I am sure Andreas would be saddened too. Fingers crossed. 

Update March 2026 – HURRAH! most of the property has been sympathetically converted into a lovely community hub/cafe called 33's The Old Grocery Store.

See Google streetview here

*wandering. I do a lot of wandering. I set out to go somewhere and, once I have been to the shop or delivered the package, I get easily distracted by backstreets, old signage, intriguing alleyways etc. I follow my nose wherever it takes me until my feet ache or my belly gurgles. I will write about being a Nosey Parker soon.

A bit of Holloway ghostsign sleuthing – Henry Dell, grocer

Last week I was contacted via Twitter about a ghostsign at the rear of a property in Hornsey Road. Archway Ramblings @UpArchway asked if I knew any more about an old painted sign visible from Bracey Street. Well, this was the first I knew about it, which is not surprising seeing as Bracey Street is a little back street that I have rarely ever used, and the sign fairly inaccessible.

H....ELL, TEA MERCHANT....... 408 Holloway Road. Photo: @UpArchway

A quick bit of sleuthing and it turns out this was Henry Dell who had a grocery shop here at 450 Hornsey Rd, a few doors up from Thorpedale Road, today a launderette.

647-665 Holloway Rd, 1882 

Henry Dell appears to have been established in the area for decades. In 1882 he is shown at No.408 Holloway Rd (today, Santander) with another shop further up the road at 5 Northampton Place which later became No.657 (today, the fish and chip shop). Prior to the later 1880s, the upper section of Holloway Road northwards of Tufnell Park Rd on the west side and Tollington Way (then Grove Rd) on the east side was still evolving and there were no Holloway Rd door numbers – the houses or business premises were simply part of a named terrace* and, very often, the pub at the corner of that stretch was echoed in the name, as in Marlborough Terrace, Crown Terrace etc., though not in this instance. Northampton is probably a reference to the Marquis who owns Canonbury Tower (I will park that tangent for another day!).

647-665 Holloway Rd, 1939

Therefore, regarding what's visible of the ghostsign, I think it's fair to assume, judging by the space available/covered, that the pipes might be hiding the door number of the store at the northern section of Holloway Road which was closer to this Hornsey Rd shop, as in "657 & 408".

Moving fast forward to 1939, I see Henry Dell [and/or his family] is still going strong. The Hornsey Rd shop is listed as "Dell's Store's" and the shop at 657 Holloway Rd is battling for custom with two similar grocery shops next door, namely Liptons, a well-known country-wide chain, and David Greig** the provisions company founded in Hornsey. As for the shop at 408 Holloway Rd, by 1939 it's listed as a restaurant with Mullholland's shoe shop also shown at the same address so I think we can assume that Dell's restaurant was on one of the upper floors. 

Some photographic ref would be nice, but I can't find any right now. The Dells might have been trading in the area earlier than 1882 and I don't know if they continued after WWII. So I'll have to leave it there – Henry Dell, a successful family business, established in Holloway for at least 60 years. Nice. 

Thanks again to Archway Ramblings for bringing this to my attention.

*I refer to this kind of thing on my Mr Pooter's Holloway guided walk about the book 'A Diary of a Nobody' where the characters of 1888 are living at a made-up place called Brickfield Terrace – I have some very good ideas where this could have been along this busy thoroughfare.

**DG shops are a bit of a 'thing' with me. Note to self; collate and post about the company here – any additional info you might have will be gratefully received, and credited.

Update re doorway mosiac in Caledonian Road

A while back I wrote about this doorway in N1.
I completely forgot about it until I was looking in the directories for something else along The Cally and found that for at least 1915-39 this was a branch of Frost or Frosts or Frost's*.
This local grocery chain was not as common as say Lipton's, Sainsbury's or Home & Colonial Stores but they did employ the ubiquitous Victorian script style for their 'logo', as per Boots and CocaCola.
I discoved the name Frost at the Cally Rd location – er, why hadn't I checked theis before?
This reminded me of the lovely old shops I photographed Wandsworth which includes this one:

Doorway mosaic, 114 St John's Hill, Wandsworth

Further sleuthing... here's the full list of their shops in 1939:

And I found an old pic of how one of their stores might have looked – I am guessing c1910:

Frost's Stores, location unknown

*My [pedantic?] eye for detail has spotted that the possessive apostophe and/or plural name isn't consistent. As you can see from the 1939 directory, above, they are listed as 'S. Frost & Co. Ltd., provision merchants, yet for the specific Wandsworth entry in the same directory they are shown as 'provision dealers'. I am not about to check them all...!