The area now known as Harringay was practically uninhabited until comparatively
recent times. Its Saxon name was Heringshege, "the enclosure of Herring",
of which Hornsey is a more corrupt variant.
It is hard to imagine this part of north London centuries ago. The Romans built a few villas on the heights to the north where Roman remains have been found, but most of this area was forest land. We know that William the Conqueror gave a large tract of this woodland to the Bishops of London, and the hunting prelates of those days built a lodge at Highgate. It was not until the 13th century that much of the forest land was cleared and a few primitive roads opened up, one of which followed the present route of Hornsey Lane and linked up with the Great North Road at Highgate. The only congestion in those days was caused by shepherds and swineherds seeking new pastures for their flocks.
The nearest cluster of dwellings was at Hornsey which grew up round the Parish Church of St. Mary, four times rebuilt, but there was no pre-Reformation church in Harringay. The largest estate in the neighborhood of Hornsey was that of Haringey House, an older variant of Harringay, which has been chosen as the name of the new Borough. On another well known estate a Hornsey landowner built the Priory in 1830.
In 1608 the New River project was begun with the object of supplementing London's water supply from the River Lea with spring water from Hertfordshire. Well stocked with fish, it runs alongside St. Augustine's, and might prove a grave temptation to any parish priest keen on fishing, though the patrol man with his Alsatian dog should prove a deterrent! With the side door open, the New River can be seen from the Confessional precinct, and it is surely fitting that the Baptistery was built on the New River side of the church.
That part
of the parish known as "The Gardens" originally belonged to
the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and it seems that Green Lanes which
divides our parish centrally was once part of the "Walsingham Pilgrims'
Way".
At the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII divided the estate among
his friends. One would like to imagine that the Hermitage Road area of
the parish derives its name from some medieval hermitage, but there is
no evidence for this. Finsbury Park, on the southern boundary of the parish,
providing over 120 acres of recreation ground for Londoners, was opened
in 1869.
This quiet area of rural estates and parkland was destined to be changed completely by railway development. The main line to the north was constructed between 1871 and 1877. No doubt it brought the Londoners out to sun themselves in Finsbury Park, but the estate owners began to sell up and leave the district. With the break up of the large estates between Wightman Road and Green Lanes between 1886 and 1890, hundreds of small Victorian "villas" were built and Harringay took on its present appearance. Finsbury Park was preserved as a recreation ground, and later the Stadium was built on railway property as a popular centre for sporting activities.
Many churches were built to serve the needs of the new population, but Catholics would have had to go to Wood Green (1882), Stroud Green (1894) and South Tottenham (or Stanford Hill, 1894). By 1927 the Catholic population needed a new parish, but as no suitable site was available in Harringay, the new mission was established at West Green and served from Stroud Green until 1938. By 1958 St. John Vianney's was catering for a much larger Catholic population than had been foreseen in the earlier days, and Father Cuming began to be interested in properties for sale. Eventually in 1963 he heard that the Methodists wished to sell their property in Mattison Road. The purchase was completed in 1964 and Mass was said in the Hall for the first time on the 4th Sunday of Advent. The Archbishop lost no time in sending a priest to develop the parish as an independent unit. Today the Parish can stand on its own feet and serves a congregation of about one thousand people composed of many nationalities. These were the statistics of the day circa 1964 but have greatly changed over the years to the present day.