Green Lanes in Haringey has served as the cultural hub of the Turkish community in London for decades
What makes living in London so great is that you can find almost everything you’re looking for here. If you’ve ever been abroad and discovered something amazing for the first time, you’re more or less guaranteed to find it back home, too.
That definitely resonates with anyone who has ever visited Turkiye and tried a tasty treat they forgot to get the name of before leaving. The only question is where in London can you find the same thing?
Well, a good place to start looking is in a part of North London that has come to be known as ‘Little Istanbul’. Green Lanes in Haringey is just that for anyone looking for the sights and sounds of the magical Turkish city on the Bosphorus, and it is especially important to members of the local Turkish community who live and work in the area.
It might not have the domes and minarets that dominate the Istanbul skyline, but much like Istanbul, it is a place that has drawn in the Turkish community from different parts of Turkiye and Cyprus.
For decades, Green Lanes has served as a cultural hub for the community, with Turks from all walks of life flocking to the area to open their shops, restaurants and cafes. Each one has its own story to tell.
Nuray, who came to own the Evkur kitchenware store after moving to London from Istanbul three years ago, says she arrived as part of the ‘Ankara Agreement’ struck between Turkiye and the UK which grants visas to Turkish businesspeople and skilled workers. Her husband Turker arrived 18 months later, and coincidentally became the store manager of the Badem sweet shop next door.
Nuray says: “I came at a very difficult time. Just after I arrived, the pandemic hit and a lot of people like me were out of work with no means of living. Many businesses shut down, but for me it worked out well because I took over the ownership of this shop.”
Nuray added: “We sell regular kitchenware that you’d find in any kitchen around the world, but we bring certain products especially from Turkiye that not only our Turkish customers but also our English customers enjoy as well.
“Our English customers are particularly fascinated by our two-tier tea pots, which we call caydanlik. We place tea leaves specially picked from Turkiye’s Black Sea region in the top tier and let it brew in hot water while we boil the water in the bottom tier. This is how we make Turkish tea. Alternatively we have pots made of copper that we use to boil Turkish coffee, and match tea and coffee sets with special trays, as our hot beverages have to be served in a certain way.”
Nuray’s husband, Turker, meanwhile sells a wide range of sweet treats that cannot be found anywhere else in London, mostly made of nuts and dried fruits such as walnuts, pistachios, almonds, figs and pomegranates.
The street is also lined with several Turkish restaurants that provide a top class service, including Selale, Devran, Hala and Gokyuzu to name a few – all great places to grab a delicious meaty dish, with Iskender Kebab, Ali Nazik and Lamb Beyti being popular items from their menus.
Nurhan, a home care worker based in the area, couldn’t be more thrilled with the wide range flavours available in Green Lanes. He says: “This place has everything. No matter what you’re looking for, you’ll find it. All the kebab restaurants aside, we have a lot of dessert shops and bakeries too. There are lots of places where you can get a lahmacun (Turkish pizza) or a gozleme (flatbread stuffed with cheese, feta, potato, mince meat or spinach).
“Down the road we have Yasar Halim, a Turkish Cypriot-owned bakery patisserie, which has been running since 1987. We’ve been getting our freshly-made simits, pides and choreks (types of bread) from there for decades, and our baklava too. They have everything we’d find back home.”
Another popular fast food sold in the area is something Turks call cigkofte, which means ‘raw meatball’. However, you can be assured there is nothing raw about it, and it’s actually vegan-friendly, although it’s a bit on the spicy side. Sold at Cigkoftem, it’s made of bulgur, pepper, tomato paste, onion, garlic, spices and pomegranate juice kneaded together. Usually served in a wrap, it goes down well with some ayran, a cold, soothing yoghurt drink straight from the fridge.
Ergun, a retired mechanic who describes himself as an ‘old-timer’ in the area, says he has seen many changes in the area since he arrived from Cyprus in 1984. He says: “It’s always been diverse, but a lot has changed since my day. When I first got here, the Turkish Cypriots were all in Newington Green on the Hackney end of the street, and all the shops in the Haringey section were owned by Greek Cypriots. The Turks from Turkiye didn’t start arriving till the mid 90s.
“Slowly, the Turkish and Greek Cypriots have been moving northwards to Palmers Green, and now all the shops here are owned by people from Turkiye. When they came they brought a lot of their products and culture from Turkiye with them.”
According to Ergun, 65, Green Lanes has also long served the Turkish community as a political centre. He explains: “The cafes were where we used to come together to talk about what was happening back home, in Cyprus and in Turkiye. Turkish political leaders used to come here and order a coffee and just casually sit among us, but of course which café they went to depended on their political party, because some cafes were communist and some were nationalist.
“I’ll never forget when Olympic weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu came here after blowing the whistle on Bulgaria’s persecution of the native Turkish minority there. He fled Bulgaria in the 90s and exposed the atrocities there. He stayed with us here in London till Turkiye granted him asylum. We all gathered in Green Lanes to welcome him when he arrived.”
Erim Metto, the CEO of the Turkish Cypriot Community Association which has been based in Green Lanes for the last 20 years, meanwhile, calls Green Lanes the ‘heart of the Turkish community’. He says: “The beauty of Green Lanes is that it’s multicultural and it is a ‘Little Turkiye’, or a ‘Little Istanbul’, as some have put it. The community here is very cohesive and very strong, and has become increasingly affluent over time.
“Our community continues to go from strength to strength. When people want anything authentically Turkish, they come here. All it takes is a stroll up Green Lanes to see the beauty of what is a Turkish community based in London.”