Most of us know the Alexandra Palace loop is used as a race track. What is less well known is that the only speed camera on Muswell Hill (the A504) faces one way. As far as residents can tell it catches cars going down the hill. Nothing catches them going up from the Priory Road gyratory, round the bend, past a pavement that is one slab wide and used by children walking to school every morning. The bollards at the foot of the hill are knocked over again and again. One went on Tuesday.
A few facts from public sources:
- Muswell Hill only became a 20mph road on 1 December 2025. Only the downhill direction is enforced.
- Department for Transport collision records show 46 injury collisions on Muswell Hill between the Broadway roundabout and Priory Road from 2016 to 2025, four of them serious, and 39 on Alexandra Palace Way, eight of them serious.
- The Palace Trust's own 2021 report recorded over 50 cars a night racing on Alexandra Palace Way in 2020, which is why the road was closed overnight that summer with the agreement of the council, the police and TfL. It is still 30mph and still has no camera.
- Haringey has said it cannot install a camera without TfL. TfL said in March 2026 that it will add at least 20 new camera sites in "areas with persistent community concerns, proven collision risk and excessive speeds".
Haringey needs to survey the hill, day and night, and propose it to TfL, and TfL needs to hear that the concern is shared. A Haringey ePetition is now live and runs until 5 December:
https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?id=159
It asks the council for a seven-day, 24-hour speed survey on the uphill carriageway with night-time speeds reported separately, for the site to be proposed to TfL for a safety camera, for the bollard strikes to be logged as a safety indicator, and for the council to work with the Palace Trust, the police and TfL on enforcement around the Palace.
Fifty signatures get an officer response, 500 put it in front of the Cabinet Member for transport, and 2,200 force a full council debate. Two minutes to sign.
If you want to do more, a short email to Councillor Gio Iozzi (Gio.Iozzi@haringey.gov.uk), copying the Muswell Hill ward councillors Karolina Braun and Tony Powell, asking for the speed survey and the TfL proposal, counts as a separate logged concern from each household. The ward councillors, the Cabinet Member, Catherine West MP, Joanne McCartney AM, the Safer Neighbourhoods Team and the Palace Trust have all been written to this week.
Let's get this done and make the roads safer for us all!
Replies