A little history of my local area...

I am now campaigning as the Conservative council candidate for the Harringay Ward in Haringey.

The correct spelling for the borough is "Haringey", however there is a ward in the south of the borough called "Harringay". Some people get mixed up between the two, and when people refer to "Haringey", you assume the borough. Except people who live in Harringay.

The reason is because the name Harringay came from the Saxon, Haering's Hege — the enclosure of Haering's people. During the following several hundred years, spellings were rarely fixed and the name went through 162 recorded variations. The Harringay variant was first recorded in 1569, but oldest, Haringey, was first recorded in 1387.

The choice of the Harringay spelling in 1792 by Edward Gray, the builder of Harringay House, ensured that this variant survived as the name for the area today. The spelling's survival was not always safe however. In the early 20th Century the Municipal Borough of Hornsey tried to enforce use of the Haringey spelling. It was only resistance by local residents that prevented its adoption.

In 1965 local government in London was re-organised, and a new borough was created by combining Hornsey, Wood Green and Tottenham. (Harringay had been split between Hornsey and Tottenham). At this point the descendants of the early burghers of Hornsey got their revenge on the former residents of Harringay and chose the name Haringey for the new borough. Whilst there's no record about why they chose that spelling it's likely that went for the oldest recorded form. Children attending schools in the borough in the mid to late 1960s were taught that the -ey in the new borough's name should be pronounced as in Finchley.