Improving Turnpike Lane
- The Roj Cafe Kiosk
- Turnpike Lane’s future
- Why Turnpike Lane?
- Working together to improve Turnpike Lane
- Shopfront improvements
- Shutter Gallery
- Turnpike Lane newsletter
- Shopping survey
- Tackling issues
The Roj Cafe Kiosk
Haringey Council, in partnership with Cosmur Construction and the Roj Cafe leaseholder, are very pleased to announce that the new Roj Cafe is complete.
The new cafe has an accessible toilet and can be hired by local community groups and residents from the leaseholder. The cafe now offers a full food and drink menu.
Buildings works can cause inconvenience and disruption and we would like to thank you for your patience during this project.
Landscaping works will be undertaken around the cafe later in the year. These works will not disrupt the use of the cafe.
We hope that you will enjoy the new cafe, support a local business and, in turn, continue to enjoy the facilities that Ducketts Common has to offer.
Background
The new Roj Cafe enables visitors and residents to enjoy the northern part of Ducketts Common in all seasons and weathers.
It has large windows which open to the south, east and west of the common. By improving visibility with large windows, we hope there will be a reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour.
A series of spaced, slender timber columns sit lightly amongst the trees that border the park. At the northeast corner, a softly illuminated sign features the name (Roj means ‘sun’ in Kurdish).
Customers are able to order food and refreshments through an external service hatch, or sit and linger over a coffee inside. There is also a permeable gravel patio bordered by a rain garden planted with ornamental grasses. A new accessible toilet will help all visitors to spend moe time in the park.
Turnpike Lane’s future
High Streets are the heart and soul of our community and as a council, we want to ensure that our High Streets remain a vibrant and bustling part of community life and can make a robust recovery post-COVID-19.
Turnpike Lane bustles with activity. It has great independent shops with loyal customers and is an important transport hub - but it could be better.
We have been talking with local residents, organisations, and shop owners to hear their views on the future of Turnpike Lane. The communities’ opinions are feeding into a collaborative improvement plan, which will support the area’s long-term development.
Why Turnpike Lane?
Turnpike Lane is a unique and integral part of Wood Green. It has traditional Victorian terraced street properties with more than 100 shops along its length. It also connects the east and west parts of the borough.
In earlier consultations, engagement events and surveys on the future of Wood Green, the community were very clear that they would like to see Turnpike Lane improved.
A study of Economy and Employment Space in Wood Green identified Turnpike Lane as an area of untapped opportunity. With investment, it has huge potential to be a busy and thriving street meeting local shopping needs and business needs.
Working together to improve Turnpike Lane
As a council we would like to:
- Deliver community-led regeneration - we want you, the residents, traders and local stakeholders to participate and become partners in the development and future of Turnpike Lane
Contribute to a safer environment - Turnpike Lane will be a place where people will have ownership, feeling secure and proud to live and do business- Enhance public spaces - create a cleaner, greener and safer experience for all users of Turnpike Lane
- Secure a legacy of good design - enhance the unique identity of Turnpike Lane and reflect the vibrant and diverse community that live, work, shop and play there
- Improve safety - design out anti-social behaviour
- Promote local economy - support existing local businesses to grow, attract new businesses to the area and work closely with the Turnpike Lane Traders Association
We are committed to ensuring that all residents, traders, and key members of organisations are part of Turnpike Lane’s future development. Many people have already had their say through council-run engagement activities and by the engagement events and co-design sessions undertaken by our design consultants ‘We Made That.’
Shopfront Improvements
The last few years have been an incredibly difficult time for shop owners across the country, but we’re excited to see that our local High Streets are recovering with each passing day. We want to work with Turnpike Lane businesses to create a shopping area that encourages people to visit more often, stay longer and return to Turnpike Lane again and again.
To ensure that we achieve great visual impact on Turnpike Lane, we want to help make the street more welcoming for residents, commuters and shoppers through a shopfront improvement project. There are two parts to this project – large scale shopfront improvements and smaller-scale shopfront improvements.
This project is supported by the Turnpike Lane Traders Association.
Read the full details of this project on the dedicated Turnpike Lane shopfront improvements webpage.
Shutter Gallery
Turnpike Lane is now a ‘Shutter Gallery’.
Visit our Turnpike Lane and Station Road Shutter Gallery page for all the latest project updates.
Turnpike Lane newsletter
This newsletter is currently on pause, but you can see past editions below:
- Read the July 2022 edition here (PDF, 437KB)
- Read the March 2022 edition here (PDF, 487KB)
- Read the January 2022 edition here (PDF, 423KB)
- Read the December 2021 edition here (PDF, 401KB)
Shopping Survey
We carried out a shopping survey in 2019 to find out who shops on Turnpike Lane and what their aspirations for the area were.
The survey data showed that the majority of customers who use Turnpike Lane live within the surrounding areas; Green Lanes, the Ladder and Wightman Road and Wood Green. They also told us they wanted to see:
- Improvements to how and where you can park to better support local traders
- Investment and celebration in the area’s culture and heritage
- Support places and activities for young people
- The road environment improved and the layout to be greener and nicer for people to walk and shop
COVID-19 has changed how customers' shop, work and play. We will be reviewing the shopping survey findings to make sure our proposals are responding to today’s challenges and what the area will need in the longer-term.
Tackling issues
A number of issues have been raised by residents, traders, shoppers and visitors (in 2019) and in response we are:
- Antisocial Behaviour and Crime
- Partnership working with the Metropolitan Police to identify the offenders involved in drugs activity at Ducketts Common and elsewhere locally
- The Police and council have increased resources to tackle anti-social behaviour in the area and share intelligence
- Haringey Council Officers are exploring possible sources of funding to install a CCTV camera to cover Harringay Passage
- Dirtiness / Street Cleaning
- Litter
Turnpike Lane is swept throughout the day from 7am. Feedback on the quality of the sweep is good- The council has purchased a new deep wash kit and will be carrying out extra cleaning of the pavements
- Graffiti
- The council will remove graffiti, and within 24 hours if offensive or racist. There may be delays if the graffiti is on private property
- Fly Tipping
- Fly-tipping in this area is typically black bags presented on the pavement at the wrong time of day
- The area has two collections each day, one in the morning and one in the evening
- Businesses have separate commercial contracts for disposal of waste and where this is via a sack collection it should also keep to the advertised time bands
- The council will check that businesses have arrangements in place for the collection of waste
- Council officers try to prevent fly-tipping by offering advice and guidance, designing out opportunities where possible and enforcing where they are able
- Litter
- Condition of the roads and pavements
- The council has resurfaced
- The paving is planned to be inspected and any damaged slabs replaced
- The extent of further refurbishment and investment will be scoped during the development of the Improvement Plan
- Parking restrictions
- Haringey Council has agreed to reconfigure parking spaces on the side roads to create 54 extra pay-by-phone parking spaces
- Six underused loading bays have been converted to 18 pay-by-phone parking spaces
- Marketing banners
- New brackets on lampposts have been installed to enable lamppost banner publicity for events or marketing activities
- Festive Lights
- Haringey Council installed power supply and sockets to support the installation of festive lights