Removals in Hornsey N8

Four kinds of Hornsey home, four ways of moving them

Ask anyone who has carried a wardrobe out of N8 and they will tell you that the postcode does not tell you much. What matters is the street. A family house on Hillfield Avenue, a top-floor flat in a Priory Road terrace, a maisonette on the Campsbourne and a two-bed in New River Village are all “Hornsey”, but the van stops in a different place for each, the carry is a different length, and the crew needs different kit. The history of the place explains most of it, so that is where we start.

Hillfield Avenue, Harold Road and the hill south of the High Street

Haringey’s draft appraisal of the Hillfield conservation area describes Hillfield Avenue and Harold Road as a single development built in less than ten years, between 1894 and 1904, on the old glebe land of the Rector of Hornsey, with 138 of the Hillfield Avenue houses designed by one local architect, John Farrer. The road rises from about 30 metres at the High Street end to around 50 metres where it meets Harold Road, curving as it climbs to ease the gradient. Most of the houses are two-storey red-brick terraces with an attic or dormer, front gardens behind low brick walls, and on many of them the front door is reached up a short flight of stone steps. On the steepest stretch, most of the even-numbered houses from 62 to 118 have basement rooms built into the slope.

For a move, that means three things. There are no drives to speak of: the appraisal argues against new crossovers here, to keep the on-street parking and the front walls, so the van stands in the road. The steps and the slope mean heavy pieces go down to the pavement on a sack truck or by hand, never wheeled down the path on their own. And the basement and the attic both need counting at the survey, because they are where a house of this age keeps the things people forget to mention. If you are heading for a lower-ground flat yourself, our notes on getting furniture into a garden or basement flat cover the stairs and doorways that catch people out.

Priory Park and the three-storey terraces

West of the High Street, building was held back until the 1890s because the land was tied up in a few big private grounds. The Victoria County History of Middlesex records that the Priory estate, known as Priory Park, was sold around 1896, and that the seven roads laid across it from Priory Road northward towards Alexandra Park were lined mainly with three-storey terraces. Further south, Rokesly Avenue replaced the grounds of Hermiston Lodge, and Elmfield Avenue and the rest of Hermiston Avenue followed around 1934. Where one of the tall Priory Park houses has been divided into flats, the job we are asked to price is usually a second-floor flat with no lift and a staircase that turns twice. We measure the sofa, the bed and the wardrobe against the landings before the day, take apart what needs taking apart, and send a third person when the carry from the top floor is long.

The Campsbourne: Victorian streets, council cottages and post-war blocks

North of the High Street the story is different again. According to the county history, the British Land Company bought Campsbourne Lodge and 24 acres in 1866 and laid out small terraced and semi-detached houses, of which rows in Newlands and Campsbourne Roads still stand. In 1897 Hornsey Urban District Council bought the field by Nightingale Lane for its first working-class housing, and by 1899 had built 108 terraced cottages in Northview Road, Southview Road and Nightingale Lane; that cottage estate is now a conservation area. After 1949 the council rebuilt most of the rest as the Campsbourne estate: mainly three- and four-storey blocks set among established trees, cul-de-sacs and pedestrian areas, most of it finished by 1976.

The cottages are small, with narrow fronts and steep stairs, and the van can usually stop close by. The estate blocks are the opposite: in a block of this kind the front door is usually up a shared stair, and the stair is a walk along a path from the nearest road. For those we bring trolleys and furniture dollies, plan the carry with you before the day and price the time in, rather than discovering it with a loaded van. Our guide to moving in or out of a block of flats covers the questions to put to the housing office or managing agent first.

South of the High Street and the 1970s terraces

The streets between the High Street and Birkbeck, Westfield and Lightfoot Roads were compulsorily purchased in 1963, and by 1976, the county history says, the whole area had been cleared and rebuilt as yellow-brick three-storey terraces across the hill, linked by footpaths except at the foot, where a new road runs behind the High Street. These are good family houses, but plenty of front doors face a path, not a road. We find out from you which side of the terrace your door is on, and where the nearest point is that a van can legally wait.

New River Village and the old water works

The newest part of Hornsey sits on the site of the Hornsey Water Works, beside the New River and next to Thames Water’s treatment works. A Haringey planning report from 2006 describes the estate, then still being built, as 626 new homes, most of them in named apartment blocks along the river. Blocks like these are run by managing agents, which matters on moving day: there are estate roads, rules about where vehicles may stop, and a lift that has to be reserved. Send us the building’s move-in instructions and we will book around them.

Call 020 3983 5199, tell us the road, and we will tell you which of these moves you have.

What a move in Hornsey costs

Guide prices for N8, before we have seen the property. Your fixed figure follows the survey:

Guide figures only. A Hillfield Avenue house with a basement and an attic, or a top-floor Priory Park flat, tends to sit higher in its band; a New River Village flat with a booked lift often sits lower. Any Haringey suspension fee is added at cost and shown separately.

Next door to Hornsey

We also move people in Hornsey Vale, Priory Park and around Turnpike Lane, and in the neighbouring districts that have their own pages: