Palmers Green Charity Shop Capital of London
Palmers Green in South Enfield North London N13 is teeming with second hand shops within a short walk up Green Lanes from the Triangle.
Heading North on Green Lanes first you encounter the famous Cancer Research on your left,
where you can buy a vintage ceramic hot water bottle for £10
widely memed as it's ironically next door to Smokers Paradise
(also
2 doors down from Coop Funerals)
(Did I miss one here?)
If you cross to the
other side of the calmed traffic High St you'll find Oxfam, the
exception as its the only one on this side of Green Lanes and the only
one that has a corporate attitude and prices, and grumpy oppressed volunteers not
to mention oppressive staff, that guy left i think. no bargains
either
so, cross back over and keep going on the easterly side of Green Lanes and there's the North London Hospice - an excellent shop with all sorts of unlikely Bargains and very friendly and helpful staff
Next up is Red
Cross = fairly standard,neat and tidy
but next door is the wonderful Red Cross Book Shop, a lovely place with a constantly refreshed selection of cheap books, most highly recommended, helpful and obliging volunteers, thanks you!
Next door to the excellent Red Cross bookshop is the RSPCA shop
O yes and last of all for now is the jampacked British Heart Foundation
if you keep going up Green Lanes past the fox pub you will find a handy second hand furniture and clobber shop across the road, on the right side,
and a small portable antiques place on the corner and a 2nd hand records shop (another one up in Winchmore Hill - too few these days).
and that's your lot i think
Somewhere there's a curiosity shop with a bear and a tarboush, but we never found it.
ps don't forget to buy a Stevie Smith book in Red X bookshop!
<div class="poem-content"> <p>Mother, among the dustbins and the manure<br /> I feel the measure of my humanity, an allure<br /> As of the presence of God, I am sure</p> <p>In the dustbins, in the manure, in the cat at play,<br /> Is the presence of God, in a sure way<br /> He moves there. Mother, what do you say?</p> <p>I too have felt the presence of God in the broom<br /> I hold, in the cobwebs in the room,<br /> But most of all in the silence of the tomb.</p> <p>Ah! but that thought that informs the hope of our kind<br /> Is but an empty thing, what lies behind? —<br /> Naught but the vanity of a protesting mind</p> <p>That would not die. This is the thought that bounces<br /> Within a conceited head and trounces<br /> Inquiry. Man is most frivolous when he pronounces.</p> <p>Well Mother, I shall continue to think as I do,<br /> And I think you would be wise to do so too,<br /> Can you question the folly of man in the creation of God?<br /> Who are you?</p> </div> <div class="source-box bg-grey pa-boxed small-text"><p>Recording reproduced by kind permission of the BBC. Stevie Smith reading 'Mother, Among the Dustbins' (1938) from a BBC Radio broadcast on 12th April 1956 - from Collected Poems and Drawings by Stevie Smith (Faber, 2018) Stevie Smith, 2018. Reproduced by kind permission Carcanet Press, Manchester.</p></div> </div>
N13: Not waving but drowning
N13 is Palmers Green, and is largely an Edwardian district which architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner describes as a poor man’s Muswell Hill.
We start our walk at Palmers Green Post Office, 364 Green Lanes which is almost opposite Fox Lane.
Turn right out of the Post Office and walk along Green Lanes. Keep going past the cross roads (Bourne Hill on your left, Hedge Lane on your right. Take the first left and then take the first right. Stop number 1 is the first house.
Stop 1: Number 1 Avondale Road
This fairly modest house is where the poet and writer Stevie Smith lived almost all her life.
And here is the only Blue plaque I could find in N13.
Stevie Smith isn’t an extremely well known poet, but the New York Review describes her better than I ever could: “She is a female William Blake, an Emily Dickinson of the English suburbs, a mixture of Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash, and the Brothers Grimm. Her reading style, which became legendary, with her cropped hair, baleful expression, little-girl dresses, and singsong lugubrious chanting voice, was described (by Jonathan Miller) as a cross between Mary Poppins and Lawrence Olivier’s Richard III. Seamus Heaney called it a combination of Gretel and the witch.”
My three portraits of poet Stevie Smith (2022), commissioned by Wetherspoon, are now permanently installed at ‘The Alfred Herring’, in Palmers Green, just down the road from where Stevie lived at 1, Avondale Road until her death in 1971.
Image: Portrait of Stevie Smith in Grovelands Park
Poetry at the Triangle: Memorialising Stevie Smith
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"I imagined Stevie Smith typing her poetry and used the typewriter font within the Corten steel, with the negative space to allow the plants to grow through the letters. I hope her words continue to give pleasure to passers by."New artwork celebrates Palmers Green poet
Renowned poet Stevie Smith lived in Palmers Green for most of her life
A new permanent artwork celebrating poet Stevie Smith has been unveiled in Palmers Green, where she lived for 65 years.
Through Enfield Council’s ‘Stories of Enfield‘ programme supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Palmers Green Action Team successfully applied for funding for its ‘Poetry in Palmers Green’ project, which “celebrates Stevie’s unique poetic point of view”.
Stevie Smith, who died in 1971 aged 68, lived in Palmers Green from the age of three. She published three novels, ten poetry collections and several other works and is remembered as a sophisticated poet who often focused on suffering and death. Her dark humour could sometimes shock, as seen in her most famous poem Not Waving But Drowning.
Despite her fame, Smith was previously only commemorated in Palmers Green with a blue plaque on the house where she lived. Now, a commissioned piece of text-based artwork by artist Ruth Hallgarten has been revealed at The Triangle in the centre of Palmers Green, incorporating Smith’s poem The Pleasures of Friendship.
Ruth explained: “I have loved creating this piece for Palmers Green. I imagined Stevie Smith typing her poetry and used the typewriter font within the Corten steel, with the negative space to allow the plants to grow through the letters. I hope her words continue to give pleasure to passers by.”
The Poetry in Palmers Green project also aims to trigger local interest and pride in this nationally recognised poet. To support the installation of the artwork there have been poetry workshops for children and adults at Palmers Green Library, led by local writer Martin Jenkins and the local poetry circle People with Voices, led by Poppy Medenis.
Participants explored and responded to Smith’s poetry to create a range of artworks which will be displayed at an event of talks and readings to celebrate Stevie Smith’s life and work, taking place this Sunday.
Book a ticket for the free Stevie Smith event taking place on Sunday, 16th October, from 5.30pm at St John’s Church:
Visit eventbrite.co.uk/e/galloping-cats-the-pleasures-of-friendship-celebrating-stevie-smith-tickets-428445370637
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