Sanitised sewage: learning from the history of the Haringey Passage
In Life Between Buildings, urban designer Jan Gehl explains how incremental changes to an urban environment can gradually make it more welcoming to its inhabitants; not just to those that live in it, but to those too that flow through it. Gehl distinguishes between necessary activities in the public realm and those that are more “social”, arguing that social activities – such as stopping to talk, read, or simply think – are far more common in the spaces that have good urban design. People rush through poorly designed places, engaging with them at a bare minimum. As Lauren Elkin once described the act of walking, they are far less likely to “toss in their chips” to the public realm. Haringey Passage is an alleyway loaded with dichotomies. At one end lies Turnpike Lane, the grime of Hornsey Park and the seedy underbelly of Wood Green. At the other lies Haringey Park, Railway Fields, pretty primary schools; Finsbury Park beckons and brightest London beyond. Two sides to multiface