South Asian heritage in Haringey

In Haringey South Asian heritage can be found all around the borough. The Earliest written records of presence here date from 1801, although South Asians have been settling in Britain for at least four centuries. 

Before the First World War, amongst those living in London were colonial troops and ex-military officers, lascars (sailors), servants and ayahs, medics and students. In Cromwell Avenue in Highgate, India House was a well-known hostel for students. Not far away, and nearby to the Highgatehill Murugan Temple on Archway Road (opened 1979), an English Heritage blue plaque on 30 Langdon Park Road commemorates the campaigner and activist V.K. Krishna Menon. He lived there when he first came to London to study in 1929. He set up the India League and went on to help India achieve independence in 1947. 

The majority of South Asian migration has happened since 1950, with the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act marking a serious shift in bringing skills and businesses to the UK.  2022 marks 50 years since the expulsion of Ugandan Asians by Idi Amin in 1972, with many finding a home in Haringey.

Haringey’s South Asian communities have seen many other achievements over the decades, including:

• the Asian Women’s Action Group was set up in 1985 in Edison Road, Hornsey;
• the first Goan Community Centre in the UK was established in Keston Road, Tottenham in 2002;
• the UK's first female Asian police officer Karpal Kaur Sandhu (1943-1973), remembered as a "trailblazer of her time", joined the Met Police force in 1971 and first served as a police officer at Hornsey Police Station;
• for over 23 years, Wise Thoughts, the pioneering LGBTQI+ & BAME Arts Charity has been based in Haringey, creating dynamic local, national and international arts initiatives; 
• Sir Anish Kapoor CBE, RA, one of the most influential sculptors working today, moved to the UK to begin his art training at Hornsey College of Art.