Place Name
At 6.3 miles (10.1km) between Winchmore Hill, Enfield, to the north and Newington Green on the Hackney/Islington border, to the south, this one of London’s longest roads, forming part of the A105. As the name suggests, this wasn’t always one of London’s main arteries but it is an ancient one. Used as a track through dense woodland in Roman and then Anglo-Saxon times, by the 1500s the road was an established route of linking lanes which lead from Edmonton into the City of London. Archivists at Bruce castle, Haringey’s local museum explain: “The road connected manors and estates with villages along the route, and was used by drovers taking their cattle from outer Middlesex and beyond down into the Cattle Market in Smithfield at the edge of the City of London, for sale and slaughter. With the increase of traffic, first the horse-drawn carriages, then omnibuses and trams and finally automobiles, the road has been straightened and widened over time, but its course has remained essentially the same as it had been from the 17th century – running roughly parallel to the New River. With the coming of the railways and Harringay Park Station opening in 1885, Green Lanes was growing with its residential streets and busy commercial roads, becoming a thriving business hub.”
