Talk:Archway, London

Shortlived description for part of today's Archway as The Hungry Hill

The Hungry Hill, a notorious area of North London, near Archway, comprising of Hazelville Road, Sunnyside Road, Hornsey Lane and the surrounding vicinity. The area became infamous during the 1940's for criminality and violence, culminating in the torso murder case of 1976.

Hungry Hill, an area in N19, was an area that produced some of London's most feared criminals such as John Moriarty (no relation to the fictional one) who was a north London armed robber active in the 70s known as "the Target" because he had been shot so many times, or Frank Smith who was both feared and respected by other crime families in London.

The nickname of the area derived from the locals of the area as this was an area that was extremely poor and everyone was hungry.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Blisco (talk • contribs) 22:42, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Shop photo

The shops in Archway Road, in the photo, are not in the Archway area of Islington - they're in Haringey. Either redefine the scope of the article or remove them or clarify the photo. BTW, is there a picture of the view towards the City? Folks at 137 20:57, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, looking by chance at Highgate, that mentions three boroughs. Will add Haringey in the light of your comment as the characteristic bridge-over-cutting (i.e. what made the name stick) is obviously in Haringey.- Adam37 Talk 16:37, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

Name

The name came from the failed tunnel project - 'archway' is an old alternate term for 'tunnel' —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mauls (talk • contribs) 01:55, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

The name must precede the building of the Archway in 1896. in Chapter 42 para 3 of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, published 1832, two characters pass "through Highgate archway". Stork27 (talk) 06:42, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

...which had been built c.1813...? Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (talk) 08:07, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

Due to the rapid collapses of these long tunnels what instead made the name stick was the high, majestic arches designed by Nash, planned by Rennie, over the deep cutting this point of the "great north road". Quite a clever engineering feat and distinctive to look at in what is a relatively gently sloped built-up London, a terrain rarely meriting the cost even if it means straighter roads.- Adam37 Talk 16:37, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

Image removals

@Archwayisthebest: Please don't keep on removing the image. I'm afraid that that stretch of the Archway Road looks more-or-less exactly like that now: see this Google Street View link. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, WP:NOT a promotional medium: see WP:NOTADVOCACY for more on this.

Archway can be both new and aspirational, and tacky and old, at the same time, and Wikipedia exists to describe reality as it is, not how it should be. -- The Anome (talk) 13:33, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

See this street view link for an even better view of that part of the Archway Road as it still is now. Pizza shops, kebab shops, and KFC. -- The Anome (talk) 13:43, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

I agree with the deletion of this image, not because it shows the area in a bad light or anything like that, but because it is a very poor photo. The sky is completely blown out, so it is just an expanse of white. Also, as the caption of the image file mentions, the tower block has been refurbished and doesn't look like that anymore, so from that point of view it doesn't show the place as it is now. I don't think there's any need for a photo here. If a better photo were available, fine, but given a choice of this very poor photo, or no photo, I think it would be better to have no photo. Dubmill (talk) 22:02, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

I've added a better photo, this time of the shops on Junction Road. Yes, it's over a decade old, but the street still looks exactly the same, Co-Op, Planet Kebab and all. My point in including this photo is that by far the greater part of the Archway area does not look anything at all like the idealized photo of Navigator Square, regardless of the council's and developers' efforts at urban renewal/gentrification. And there's a charm about that, too. -- The Anome (talk) 14:25, 27 March 2021 (UTC)

The new photo is OK, although the view is so tight that it almost could be anywhere. But I don't have a problem with it. I liked the idea of the old photo as it was a view up the Holloway Road towards the junction, and the importance of that route in the development of the area was referred to in the text immediately beneath. It's just that particular photo was so technically poor that I considered it unusable. I might see if I can take a photo of the same view as in the old photo, the next time I'm there. I don't live in the area but pass through it from time to time when walking around. Dubmill (talk) 15:09, 27 March 2021 (UTC)

@Dubmill: Thank you! That would be excellent. -- The Anome (talk) 15:50, 28 March 2021 (UTC)