Living in Tottenham: area guide to homes, schools and transport

Tottenham is being transformed with plans for 10,000 new homes, a new football stadium, and two extra schools. First-time buyers, priced out of east London, are moving in.
Enjoying the grounds: Clifford Bramble with nephew Nathan Thomson, two, at Grade I-listed Bruce Castle Museum, parts of which are 16th century
Anthea Masey12 February 2016

The north London suburb of Tottenham gets a terrible press. After nearly 30 years and numerous trials including the most recent acquittal of suspect Nicholas Jacobs this month, the murder of Pc Keith Blakelock on the Broadwater Farm estate remains unsolved. Then in August 2011, the Met’s shooting of Mark Duggan, who was under police surveillance, sparked riots that spread throughout London and to some other cities, leaving a trail of destruction and burnt-out buildings.

The local council, Haringey, is hoping to put the past to rest with a regeneration programme that will build 10,000 new homes, create 5,000 jobs and a million square feet of employment space between now and 2025. Plans already announced include a new Tottenham Hotspur football stadium with seating for 56,250 next to the current stadium at White Hart Lane. The 20-acre site also includes a huge new branch of Sainsbury’s, a technical college for 14- to 18-year-olds with an emphasis on sport, 275 new homes and a new primary school.

There will also be more homes at Tottenham Hale and a new station on what is an important transport hub on the line to Stansted airport, while £2 million worth of public realm improvements at Tottenham Green and Bruce Grove are under way. Meanwhile, at Seven Sisters, developer Grainger proposes to knock down the long-empty Wards department store and build a mixed-use development of shops and restaurants, a replacement market and 200 homes, although a local action group has put in a planning application for an alternative scheme saving the old building.

Tottenham central: Monument Way, off the A10 High Road. Images by Graham Hussey

Estate agent Elan Silver, of the local branch of Winkworth, is optimistic about the future. “Tottenham’s image is being transformed and the process is accelerating. The area is definitely urban but it is also very well-connected and it has a plentiful supply of mainly Victorian terrace houses.”
 
What there is to buy: flats and houses for sale in Tottenham
Tottenham is spread out along the A10 London to Cambridge Road and there are still a number of Georgian houses scattered along the route and on other main roads in the area. For the would-be home buyer, though, the main worth of Tottenham is its wealth of Victorian terraces. Many have been converted into flats which are increasingly luring first-time buyers. There are also a number of attractive conservation areas, in particular the Tower Gardens Estate between Lordship Lane and Henningham and Gospatrick Roads. 


£299,500: a ground-floor flat with a double bedroom and a secluded garden in Boundary Road


Historic Tower Gardens Estate, built by the London County Council between 1904 and 1911, was the first garden suburb. It has Arts & Crafts and Queen Anne-influenced cottages with small, privet-hedged front gardens similar to those found in the much better-known Hampstead Garden Suburb. The two-bedroom cottages sell for between £200,000 and £250,000.

Renting

Like Tottenham buyers, Tottenham renters tend to be young professionals priced out of more fashionable areas further south along the A10. One-bedroom flats available now range in price from £845 a month for an unfurnished property above Vicarage Parade shops in West Green Road to £1,200 a month for a first-floor home in Dowsett Road near Bruce Grove, available either furnished or unfurnished. Buy-to-let investors can expect a yield of about 5.5 per cent on flats and 4.5 per cent on houses.

Travel: there are three Tube stations and five train stations in Tottenham, all in Zone 3, and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,472. Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale Tube are on the Victoria line, while Turnpike Lane is on the Piccadilly line. Tottenham Hale, Bruce Grove and  White Hart Lane stations all have trains to Liverpool Street — the fastest link being from Tottenham Hale at only 15 minutes.

Commuters from Northumberland Park change at Tottenham Hale for trains to Liverpool Street, or for the Victoria line. South Tottenham is on the Gospel Oak to Barking Overground route and commuters can change to the Victoria line at Blackhorse Road.
 
The area attracts: Winkworth’s Elan Silver says Tottenham is attracting a lot of first-time buyers who have been priced out of Hackney, Dalston and Stoke Newington. “It is only relatively recently that Hackney has become fashionable. I expect the young buyers now making the move to Tottenham will eventually bring with them the kind of hip café culture which has grown up, for example, along Kingsland Road.”
 

Postcodes: N15 covers south Tottenham and N17 north Tottenham. The average terrace house costs about £380,000 in N15, and about £300,000 in N17. However, north Tottenham is catching up, according to Zoopla property website, with house prices up 15 per cent in the last year compared to a rise of just under 13 per cent in N15.

Up and coming: N17 is the up-and-coming postcode.

Blast from an elegant past: Tottenham Green East property, in the N15 postcode


Staying power: Tottenham has long-standing and stable Afro-Caribbean and African communities who, if they are not tempted to sell up to newcomers, have put down permanent roots. However, Silver expects the new generation of first-time buyers to be more fickle. “Many will move out after four or five years,” he suggests.
 
Best roads: the Clyde Circus conservation area between West Green Road and Philip Lane is a pretty enclave of Victorian semi-detached and terrace houses, some of which were erected to demonstrate the work of individual builders. Clyde Circus itself is an unusual circle of Edwardian terrace houses.
 
New homes for sale in Tottenham
Newlon Housing Trust (020 7613 7480) is building 222 one-, two- and three-bedroom homes and a two-form entry primary school on the site of the Cannon rubber factory in High Road close to White Hart Lane for shared ownership and intermediate rent. The scheme will be completed by the middle of next year and people can register their interest now.
 
Lawrence Square (0845 676 0261) in Lawrence Road at the junction with West Green Road is a Bellway development of 264 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and four-bedroom townhouses, including 53 affordable homes through Sanctuary. Prices start at £225,000 for a one-bedroom flat and from £400,000 for a four-bedroom townhouse. Autumn will see residents begin to move in, and the whole scheme is due to complete in early 2016.

Elgin Place (site sales 0844 809 215) in High Road, close to White Hart Lane is a One Housing Group development of 30 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats launching early next year.
 
Just over the border with Edmonton, Countryside Properties is building Silverpoint (01277 690617), a development of 118 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and three- and four-bedroom houses, in Fore Street near the junction with Alpha Road. Forty-seven homes will be affordable through Newlon Housing Trust, and prices are yet to be released.

£500,000: a three-bedroom St Albans Crescent house, with two reception rooms and a modern kitchen


Council: Haringey is Labour controlled and Band D council tax for the 2014/2015 year is £1,483.32.

Photographs: Graham Hussey

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants: Tottenham has local independent shops in High Road, stretching from Seven Sisters as far as White Hart Lane and beyond, and along West Green Road. However, with the exception of some excellent displays of fruit and vegetables outside the many greengrocers, there is no sign yet of a retail revival bringing a wider range of independent shops, restaurants and bars.

For this kind of experience residents make the journey to Stoke Newington, Dalston and Walthamstow Village. Sainsbury’s recently opened a new superstore in Northumberland Park, part of the Spurs stadium rebuilding plan. At Tottenham Hale there is a retail park with branches of Next, Argos, B&Q, Lidl and Asda Living, among others.

Open space
Lordship Recreation Ground, known locally as “The Rec”, in Lordship Lane, is Tottenham’s largest green space. It has a lake, a children’s playground, an adventure playground, a skateboard and BMX track, the Shell Theatre outdoor performance space, and a stretch of the River Moselle.
 
Tottenham Marshes covers 100 acres of semi-natural wetland in the Lee Valley Regional Park, linking with miles of walking along the River Lee and Lee Navigation.
 
Leisure and the arts
Bruce Castle — a fine Grade I-listed structure that was probably first built in the 16th century, but altered over the years — is the jewel in Tottenham’s crown. In the 19th century it housed a radical school run by Sir Rowland Hill, who invented the postage stamp. Bruce Castle now houses the local museum.

The Bernie Grant Arts Centre, designed by architect David Adjaye, is named after the late Tottenham MP and has the mission to develop “culturally diverse artists”. It is a venue for plays, dance, music performances and runs classes and courses.
 
The local council-owned swimming pool is at the Tottenham Green Leisure Centre.
 

WHAT THE LOCALS SAY ABOUT TOTTENHAM ON TWITTER:

   
@cakeadelica wonderful @wildescheese @BeehiveN17 @RedemptionBrew & many others + community spirit. #Tottenham is where it's at, maaan!
  
@MartinBallN17 Tottenham's buildings. All Hallows Church, Bruce Castle, Brook Street Chapel. And, conservation areas. Historic High Road.
   
@tottenhamlife Green Spaces - Downhills Park, lordship Rec (with Eco hub) and lake, Tottenham Marshes and walks on the River Lee
   
@Knees_and_Toes Hope you'll be featuring @BeehiveN17, @wildescheese @RedemptionBrew & @BeavertownBeer #Tottenham
 
@PaulNut @BeehiveN17 San Marco pizzeria and @ElBotellon7 plus Bruce castle.
 
@Beewan_A downhills park and lordship rec have been regenerated. Beehive pub & buonissimo new places to visit. San Marco for Italian.
 
@jslee great food from @wildescheese dinner at @ElBotellon7 and early morning runs by the river Lea and Marshes
 

Three things about Tottenham

When did a pink cake become a TV star?
Tottenham Cake is a sponge cake coated in bright pink icing which was originally coloured with mulberry juice from the garden of Henry Chalkley, the Quaker baker who invented it. It was seen in BBC2’s The Great British Bake Off in September last year. In 1901, Spurs FC gave slices of Tottenham Cake to fans after their Cup Final victory, and it still features in the football club’s celebrations.
 
Which Tottenham inhabitant made his name staring at the clouds?
There is an English Heritage blue plaque at number 7 Bruce Grove to amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772–1864). Howard, a pharmacist, spent many years recording London’s weather and in 1803 published his Essay on the Modifications of Clouds, in which he originated the cloud names cirrus, stratus and cumulus that are still used today. He is often called the Father of Meteorology.
 
Where did a friendly visit from Nottinghamshire mark a new beginning?
Tottenham Hotspur FC played — and won — their first match at White Hart Lane in 1899 in a friendly against Notts County.

Schools

Education is not Tottenham’s strong point.

State primary

Most of the primary schools are judged “good” by the Ofsted education watchdog, but there are a number in special measures, or judged “satisfactory”. Only Belmont Junior School in Rusper Road is judged “outstanding”.

Comprehensive

The best-performing state comprehensive schools are Gladesmore (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in Crowland Road which is “outstanding”, and Northumberland Park (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in Trulock Road, judged “good”.

Private primary and secondary

There are two private Islamic schools — Assunnah (co-ed, ages three to 11) in High Road and Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation (co-ed, ages three to seven) in St Ann’s Road.

Excelsior College (co-ed, ages three to 11) is a private primary school in the Selby Centre, Selby Road. Sunrise (ages two to 11) is a neo-humanist private school in Coniston Road. Wisdom (co-ed, ages seven to 16) is a private mainly secondary school in Philip Lane, and the European College for Higher Education (co-ed, ages 14 to 19) in Lawrence Road caters mainly for overseas students.

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