Ward's Corner, the indoor market and buildings above Seven Sisters station that Haringey council has spent years trying to scrub away in favour of a retail and residential unit, has been saved.
A court of appeal judge decided this week that removing the market, a haphazard and partly derelict mixture of mostly Latin American stallholders, would "damage race relations" in the area. A specious argument, perhaps, but the judge's decision is to be welcomed: the main retail tenant was to be a major national supermarket chain, on a junction where a large Tesco already takes up one entire block.
Opposition to the scheme was headed by the Ward's Corner Community Coalition, which argues that any development should help out existing local businesses and be respectful of the area's history and heritage. The WCCC organised various attention-grabbing stunts, even getting Boris Johnson to visit the market before he was elected Mayor and eliciting from him a promise that he'd "call in" the project — a plan, needless to say, that has never been heard of again.
In another blow to development in Haringey, Spurs recently had to change plans for their new stadium to avoid knocking down a row of Victorian buildings.
