Harringay Stadium
Harringay Stadium was a major greyhound racing and motorcycle speedway venue in Harringay, North London. It was built and opened in 1927 and closed in 1987.
Construction
Harringay Stadium was the third greyhound racing stadium to open in Britain. It was owned by the Greyhound Racing Association Ltd (GRA). After great success with their first track at Belle Vue in Manchester in 1926, they opened both White City and Harringay stadiums in 1927.
The driving force behind the GRA, and its Managing Director until the 1960s, was Brigadier-General Alfred Critchley who wrote in his autobiography that, when he first learned of greyhound racing, "It immediately occurred to me that this might prove to be the poor man's racecourse". Apparently his interest in how the lower paid classes were losing money by backing horses was born out of concern for his valet who lost large sums betting on horse racing.
Harringay Stadium was constructed by Messrs T.G. Simpson of Victoria Street, London, at a cost of £35,000. The 23-acre (93,000 m2) site had been the Williamson's Pottery Works from the late 18th century through to the early 1900s. It was then used as a dumping ground for the spoil from the construction of the Piccadilly line to Finsbury Park.
Harringay
Coordinates: 51°34′55″N 0°05′58″W / 51.5819°N 0.0994°W
Harringay (pronounced /ˈhærɪŋɡeɪ/) is a residential area in the London Borough of Haringey in north London, in the United Kingdom. It is centred on the section of Green Lanes running between the New River, where it crosses Green Lanes by Finsbury Park, and Duckett's Common, near Turnpike Lane.
Location
The boundaries of Harringay form a rough boot shape in the extreme southern centre of the borough. The western boundary of Harringay is formed by the East Coast Main Line. The northern boundary is to the south of Turnpike Lane, running parallel to it, somewhere between Sydney Road and Fairfax Road. In the northeast, the boundary roughly corresponds with a line drawn between the south of Duckett's Common and the north end of Warwick Gardens. A line due south of this point, as far as Eade Road, forms the eastern boundary. Southeast of here a line to Finsbury Park completes the southeastern limits. Finsbury Park is officially part of Harringay and forms the south western boundary.
