| Tottenham | |
|---|---|
 View of Tottenham | |
  Tottenham Location withinGreater London | |
| Population | 129,237 (2011 census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TQ33608950 |
| • Charing Cross | 6 mi (9.7 km) SSW |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | N15, N17 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°35′51″N00°04′05″W / 51.59750°N 0.06806°W /51.59750; -0.06806 | |
Tottenham (/ˈtɒtənəm/,[2][3]TOT-ən-əm,/tɒtnəm/,tot-nəm) is a district innorth London, England, within theLondon Borough of Haringey. It is located in theceremonial county ofGreater London. Tottenham is centred 6 mi (10 km) north-northeast ofCharing Cross,[4] borderingEdmonton to the north,Walthamstow, across theRiver Lea, to the east, andStamford Hill to the south, withWood Green andHarringay to the west.
The area rapidly expanded in the late 19th century, becoming aworking-class suburb of London following the advent of the railway and mass development of housing for thelower-middle and working classes. It has been home to thePremier League football clubTottenham Hotspur since 1882. The parish ofTottenham was grantedurban district status in 1894 andmunicipal borough status in 1934. Following theSecond World War, the area saw large-scale development ofcouncil housing, includingtower blocks. Until 1965 Tottenham was in thehistoric county ofMiddlesex. In 1965, the borough of Tottenham merged with the municipal boroughs ofHornsey andWood Green to form the London Borough of Haringey.
Tottenham is renowned for itsmulticultural, ethnically diverse population. Following an influx of anAfro-Caribbean population during theWindrush era in the mid-20th century, it became one of the most ethnically diverse areas in Britain. It has more recently become home to an increased population from Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. At the2011 census, the population of Tottenham was 129,237.
Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in theDomesday Book. 'Tota's hamlet', it is thought, developed into 'Tottenham'. The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book asToteham, in the ancienthundred ofEdmonton.[5][6] It is not related toTottenham Court Road in Central London, though the two names share a similar-sounding root.[7]
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There has been a settlement at Tottenham for over a thousand years. It grew up along the oldRoman road,Ermine Street (some of which is part of the presentA10 road), and betweenHigh Cross andTottenham Hale, the present Monument Way.
When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, about 70 families lived within the area of the manor, mostly labourers working for thelord of the manor. A humorous poem entitled theTournament of Tottenham, written around 1400, describes a mock battle between peasants vying for thereeve's daughter.
TheRiver Lea (orLee) was the eastern boundary between the Municipal Boroughs of Tottenham andWalthamstow. It is the ancient boundary betweenMiddlesex andEssex and also formed the western boundary of the Viking controlledDanelaw. Today it is the boundary between the London Boroughs of Haringey andWaltham Forest. A major tributary of the Lea, theRiver Moselle, also crosses the borough from west to east, and often caused serious flooding until it was mostly covered in the 19th century.
From theTudor period onwards, Tottenham became a popular recreation and leisure destination for wealthy Londoners.Henry VIII is known to have visitedBruce Castle[8] and also hunted in Tottenham Wood. A rural Tottenham also featured inIzaak Walton's bookThe Compleat Angler, published in 1653.[9] The area became noted for its largeQuaker population[10] and its schools (includingRowland Hill[11] at Bruce Castle[12]). Tottenham remained a semi-rural and upper middle class area until the 1870s.
In late 1870s, theGreat Eastern Railway introduced special workman's trains and fares on its newly openedEnfield andWalthamstow branch lines. Tottenham's low-lying fields and market gardens were then rapidly transformed into cheap housing for the lower middle and working classes, who were able to commute cheaply to inner London. The workman's fare policy stimulated the relatively early development of the area into a London suburb.
In 1894, Tottenham was made anurban district and on 27 September 1934 it became amunicipal borough. As from 1 April 1965, themunicipal borough formed part of theLondon Borough of Haringey together withHornsey andWood Green.
An incident occurred on 23 January 1909, which was at the time known as theTottenham Outrage.[13] Two armed robbers, Latvian Jews ofRussian extraction, held up the wages clerk of rubber works in Chestnut Road. They made their getaway viaTottenham Marshes and fled across the Lea. On the opposite bank of the river, they hijacked aWalthamstow Corporation tramcar, hotly pursued by the police on another tram. The hijacked tram was stopped but the robbers continued their flight on foot. After firing their weapons and killing two people, Ralph Joscelyne, aged 10, and PC William Tyler, they were eventually cornered by the police and shot themselves rather than be captured. Fourteen other people were wounded during the chase. The incident later became the subject of asilent film.[14]
During theSecond World War Tottenham was one of the many targets of theGerman air offensive against Britain. Bombs fell in the borough (Elmar Road) during the firstair raid on London on 24 August 1940. The borough also receivedV-1 (four incidents) andV-2 hits, the last of which occurred on 15 March 1945. Wartime shortages led to the creation of Tottenham Pudding, a mixture of household waste food which was converted into feeding stuff for pigs and poultry.[15] The "pudding" was named byQueen Mary on a visit to Tottenham Refuse Works. Production continued into thepost-war period, its demise coinciding with the merging of the borough into the new London Borough of Haringey.
TheBroadwater Farm riot occurred around the Broadwater Farm Estate on 6 October 1985 following the death of Cynthia Jarrett. Jarrett was a resident of Tottenham who lived about one mile (two kilometres) from the estate, who died of heart failure during a police search of her home. The tension between local black youths and the largely whiteMetropolitan Police had been high due to a combination of local issues and the aftermath ofriots in Brixton which had occurred in the previous week. The response of some of the black community in Tottenham and surrounding areas culminated in a riot beginning on Tottenham High Road and ending in Broadwater Farm Estate. One police officer,Keith Blakelock, was murdered; 58 policemen and 24 other people were injured in the fighting. Two of the policemen were injured by gunshots during the riot, the first time that firearms had been used in that type of confrontation.[16]
The2011 Tottenham riots were a series of riots precipitated by thefatal shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old man in Tottenham, by police officers on 4 August 2011.[17][18][19][clarification needed] Attacks were carried out on two police cars, a bus, a Post Office and several local shops from 8:00 pm onwards on 6 August 2011. Riot police vans attended the scene of disturbances on Tottenham High Road. Later in the evening, the riot spread, with anAldi supermarket and a branch ofAllied Carpets also destroyed by fire, and widespread looting in nearbyWood Green shopping centre and the retail park at Tottenham Hale. Several flats above shops on Tottenham High Road collapsed due to the fires. Twenty-six shared ownership flats in the Union Point development above the Carpetright store—built in the landmark Cooperative department store building—were also destroyed by fire. The triggering event was when a group of over one hundred local Tottenham residents set out to undertake a protest march against the killing of Mark Duggan, who was shot by police officers assigned toOperation Trident earlier in the week. The crowd made up of Duggan's family and local community leaders, gathered outside Tottenham police station on 6 August 2011 to protest the failure of the police to provide family members with a formal notice of the killing.[20] The circumstances surrounding Duggan's death were not entirely clear at the time of the riot. On 17 August 2011, thePrince of Wales and his wifeDuchess of Cornwall visited an emergency centre to meet victims of the riots.[21]
Tottenham is the biggest part of theparliamentary constituency ofTottenham. The constituency was created in 1885 when the first MP wasJoseph Howard of theConservative Party. The boundaries were redrawn in 1918, and Tottenham was divided into two separate constituencies:Tottenham North andTottenham South. Since being reinstated in 1950, it has been predominantly represented by MPs from theLabour Party, with the exception ofAlan Brown who defected to the Conservatives due to disagreement with the Labour Party's defence policy at the time. The current MP isDeputy Prime Minister andLord ChancellorDavid Lammy, who won a by-election in 2000 following the death ofBernie Grant. Lammy served as Foreign Secretary from 2024-25.
Tottenham was at the centre of a local administrative area from the medieval period until 1965. The administrative area developed from a parish in Middlesex into an urbansanitary district in 1875, after a local board of health had been established in 1850. It was then divided in 1888 andWood Green became a separate authority.[22] In 1894, Tottenham was reconstituted first as anurban district, based atTottenham Town Hall, then as amunicipal borough in 1934.[23] Under theLocal Government Act 1963, it became part of the largerLondon Borough of Haringey. The Tottenham neighbourhood is now one of twenty neighbourhoods inHaringey.
Tottenham'selevation is approximately 33 ft (10 m) above sea level.
Because of Tottenham's long history as a borough, the Tottenham name is used by some to this day to describe the whole of the area formerly covered by the old borough, incorporating the N17postcode area and part of N15.[24] However, there are differing views as to what constitutes the Tottenham neighbourhood in the present day. Many think of Tottenham today as most of the area covered by the N17 post code, sometimes using the phrase 'Tottenham Proper' to describe it and to distinguish it from the other parts of the old borough.[25]
A claim made by MPDavid Lammy in 2011, indicated that at that time Tottenham had the highest unemployment rate in London and the eighth highest in the United Kingdom, and it had some of the highest poverty rates within the country.[26]
Tottenham has a multicultural population, with many ethnic groups inhabiting the area. It contains one of the largest and most significant populations ofAfro-Caribbean people. These were among the earliest groups of immigrants to settle in the area, starting from the UK'sWindrush era. The Seven Sisters ward has the largest proportion of Jewish residents among Haringey wards, at 18.1%.[27]
In the 2011 UK Census, the ethnic composition of theTottenham constituency, of which Tottenham is a large part, was as follows:[28]
Tottenham has been one of the main hotspots forgangs and gun crime in the United Kingdom during the past three decades since the 90s. This followed the rise of gangs and drug wars throughout the area, notably those involving theTottenham Mandem gang and various gangs fromHackney and all of the areas surrounding Tottenham, and the emergence of an organised crime ring known as theTurkish mafia fought other London gangs to allegedly control more than 90% of the UK'sheroin market.[29]
In 1999, Tottenham was identified as one of theyardies' strongholds in London, along withHackney,Harlesden,Peckham andBrixton.[30]
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TheVictoria line passes through Tottenham, calling atSeven Sisters and Tottenham Hale. This connects Tottenham directly toWalthamstow,the West End andBrixton.[36] The former is located along theA10, directly south of Tottenham High Road, whileTottenham Hale tube station is located in the area of the same name, southeast of central Tottenham.
The line has its operating depot in the area atNorthumberland Park.[36]
The district is a short distance east of thePiccadilly Line,Turnpike Lane tube station now within walking distance of the western extremity of the area, lay within the former Borough of Tottenham when opened in 1932.
The area is served by twotrain operating companies:
Tottenham is well served by manyLondon Bus routes, including: 41, 76, 123,149,192, 230, 243, 259, 279, 318, 341, 349, 476, W3 and W4[39]
The area is connected to bothLondon andNational cycle networks, with provisions for recreational and commuter cycling across Tottenham.
The River Lea towpath is ashared-use path maintained by theCanal and River Trust.[45]
Cycling infrastructure in maintained primarily byTransport for London (TfL) and theLondon Borough of Haringey.
Tottenham is the home ofPremier Leaguefootball clubTottenham Hotspur. From 1899 until 2017, the club's home ground wasWhite Hart Lane. In 2017, White Hart Lane ground closed and demolition commenced to make way for a new stadium on the same site, known as theTottenham Hotspur Stadium, as part of a widerproject for the redevelopment of the area. The new stadium was due to open in September 2018, but was delayed until later in the2018–19 season. The stadium was opened on 3 April 2019. For the2017–18 season and most of the 2018–19 season, the club played their home games atWembley.
Tottenham also has twonon-League football clubs,Haringey Borough F.C. who currently play at Coles Park Stadium andPark View who play at theWhite Hart Lane Community Sports Centre.
TheTottenham & Wood Green Independent is a local newspaper published byNewsquest.[46]
Tottenham cake is asponge cake baked in large metal trays, covered either in pink icing or jam (and occasionally decorated with shredded desiccated coconut). Tottenham cake's origins are unclear. There is reference to "tottenham cakes" as early as 1891 when theFar Famed Cake Company are credited as the originators of the confection.[47] Another source states the cake "was originally sold by the baker Henry Chalkley from 1901, who was a Friend (orQuaker), at the price of one old penny, with smaller mis-shaped pieces sold for half an old penny". The pink colouring was derived frommulberries found growing at the Tottenham Friends burial ground.[48] Originally "a peculiar local invention"[49] of north London, the cake was later mass-produced by bakery chains such asPercy Ingle andGreggs.[50][51] The cake featured onThe Great British Bake Off TV programme broadcast Tuesday 17 September 2013 on BBC2.[52]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Police-Public Relations: The Pace of Change: Police Foundation Lecture 1986, ThePolice Foundation, 1986
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