Growth after 1850.
The arrival of the Northern
and Eastern railway in 1840 did not markedly improve
communications with London, nor did new centres of
population arise around the first stations, east of
Tottenham Hale and near Asplins Farm. (fn. 95) The situation of the stations, however, was responsible for
buildings spreading eastward from High Road. By
1863 Tottenham Hale had been joined to the village
around the high cross by buildings along the south
side of High Cross Lane, while terraces lined part of
the new Somerset and Chesnut roads a little to the
north; Stamford and Markfield roads had been laid
out east of Page Green, where 84 small building plots
had been offered for sale ten years earlier, (fn. 96) although
a stretch of Broad Lane still approached Tottenham
Hale through fields. Farther north near Park station
there were houses along part of Marsh and Willoughby lanes, where St. Paul's church had been
built and Willoughby House had been demolished
in 1858, (fn. 97) and many middle-class villas along a new
link between the railway and High Road, called
Northumberland Park. Tottenham, on a map, no
longer appeared as a ribbon of settlement.
Several plans for further railways were canvassed
in the 1840s and 1850s. (fn. 98) The prospect of better
communications and public services, rather than
the state of those already enjoyed, probably stimulated development in the 1850s, when the population rose by more than 4,000. (fn. 99) A new cemetery,
amid fields north of the parish church, was consecrated in 1857, one year before the Drapers' Company
of London bought the Elms opposite the high cross
as the site for a boys' school and alms-houses. Tottenham's change from a select residential neighbourhood into a crowded, lower-middle- and workingclass suburb was hastened from 1858, when the City
merchants and gentry who hitherto had dominated
the local board were replaced by men who worked
locally, notably doctors and builders, and who saw
the district as ready for development. (fn. 1) Hasty building, allowing the population to rise by nearly 10,000
in the 1860s, (fn. 2) brought many crises over water
supply and sewerage, for which Tottenham became
notorious.
By the mid 1860s there was no open country
along either side of High Road north of Tottenham
Green, although many residences still stood in their
own grounds. Between Seven Sisters and Hanger
Lane (later St. Ann's Road) the only buildings were
Stonebridge House on the west, Markfield House
on the east, and a bridge carrying the Tottenham
and Hampstead Junction railway. Housing was
densest in the north, along lanes and alleys close to
High Road south of White Hart Lane, with small
terraced dwellings in William, Moselle, and Whitehall streets, formerly occupied by White Hall, as
well as in Love Lane and Church Road. Development along the roads leading to the G.E.R. stations
was partly balanced by housing along the chief roads
to the west: Hanger Lane, West Green Road,
Philip Lane, Lordship Lane, containing Bruce
Terrace, and White Hart Lane. Only along the
south side of Philip Lane, however, did it reach as
far as another village, West Green.
In the eastern part of the parish most of the premises along High Road still backed on open country
north of Tottenham Hale and south of Marsh Lane.
Beyond the railway line the marshes contained little
apart from Ferry Lane, leading past Tottenham lock
to the recently gutted mills, and from Stonebridge
lock, Asplins Farm, and a new rifle range in the
extreme north-east. The centre of the parish was
also rural, from Downhills park northward to Clay
Hill. Beyond a group of houses around Bruce Castle,
Lordship Lane ran through fields which stretched
to Chapmans Green, the sole buildings being those
of Broadwater and Grainger's farms. West of
Tottenham Park, White Hart Lane similarly passed
nothing except Tent Farm and a few cottages, while
the lane to the north led past Clayhill (later Devonshire Hill) Lodge and River House, across the New
River to Clayhill Farm on the boundary.
TOTTENHAM DEVELOPMENT FROM THE MID 19TH CENTURY
South of Downhills changes proceeded more
rapidly. Farm-land still stretched westward from
High Road to Green Lanes, along the course of
Stonebridge stream, and, in places, bordered West
Green Road and Hanger Lane, but there were clear
signs that the entire length of West Green Road
would soon be lined with houses. West Green itself
retained some large dwellings, including West
Green House, West Green Lodge, Woodlands, and
Gothic House, and possessed a school and chapel.
It was linked with High Cross not only along Philip
Lane but by terraced housing in the new Clyde
Road, where 36 a. of meadow had been offered for
building in 1851; (fn. 3) Philip Lane and West Green
Road were connected by Summerhill Road, where
terraces had been built in 1856 and 1859, and by
Bathurst (later Lawrence) Road, which contained
a floor-cloth factory. To the west Stanley Street
(later Road) and some neighbouring roads had been
laid out, between the old village centre and the
junction of West Green Road with Green Lanes. A
few houses had been built south of the junction and
others stretched northward, facing Ducketts Common, as far as Ducketts farm-house, then called
Dovecote House.
Less than a half a mile south of West Green, a new
centre was arising around St. Ann's church, consecrated in 1861. The church, together with its vicarage house, model cottages dated 1858, and schools,
had been paid for chiefly by Fowler Newsam, who
lived in High Road at Stamford Hill. It served the
Chestnuts and St. John's, Suffolk, Oak, and York
lodges, near by, and other large residences in the
south part of the parish: the Retreat and the Hermitage, amid fields bordering Hermitage Road,
Woodberry Lodge, Albion Lodge, Gothic House,
and Barnfield House, farther east in Hanger Lane,
and several mansions at Stamford Hill, where Coleraine House, the Shrubbery, and Sherborough
House all stood on the Tottenham side of the boundary. Newsam's choice of a rural site had been
attacked by those who felt that a church was more
urgently needed at West Green or Tottenham
Hale. (fn. 4) By the mid 1860s, however, the new parish
was already losing its exclusive air; the Avenue and
South Grove had been laid out near the church, the
Tottenham and Hampstead Junction railway cut
across both Hermitage Road and Hanger Lane,
and the tile-works still existed in the extreme south-west.
Even more rapid growth took place at Wood
Green, where the church built in 1844 was found to
be far too small by 1863. A direct railway to London,
foreshadowed by the G.N.R. line in 1850 and
achieved with the opening of a station ten years later,
combined with undulating, still partly wooded,
country to make the area attractive to large institutions, as well as to speculators planning a new
middle-class suburb. Wood Green was 'as charming
a spot as its sylvan name implies' in 1847, when the
foundation stone of the Fishmongers' and Poulterers' institution was laid immediately north of the
church. (fn. 5) The institution, an asylum for 12 married
couples, was opened in 1850. It was designed by
Mee and William Webb as an imposing two-storeyed (fn. 6) range in the Tudor style, with a central
turreted gateway. South of the church the Printers'
alms-houses, another two-storeyed Tudor range designed by Webb, were founded in 1849 for 12 couples
and opened in 1856. In 1871 two more wings doubled
the accommodation, and twenty years later an
extension was opened by the duchess of Albany,
marking the first royal visit to Wood Green. (fn. 7) The
Royal Masonic institution opened its boys' school
in Lordship House, Lordship Lane, in 1857 and
replaced it with a large new building, later the
Home and Colonial training college, in 1865. In
that year land in Nightingale Road was provided for
John Fuller's alms-houses, after the original site
in Shoreditch had been sold. (fn. 8) Wood Green's first
elementary school was opened in 1859 and its first
chapel was built, by Congregationalists, in 1864.
Wood Green began to grow neither around the old
common nor the new station, but north of the church
in the triangle between Green Lanes and Bounds
Green Lane. Commerce, Nightingale, Finsbury,
Truro, and Clarence roads were all laid out there in
the mid 1860s. South-east of Wood Green common,
Caxton and Mayes roads were also laid out and near
the Hornsey boundary a tobacco factory and reservoir bordered the railway. Cherson House, Wood
Green House, and other large residences still overlooked the New River near the common. To the
east, along Lordship Lane, Elm Lodge stood with a
few cottages at the former Chapmans Green. To the
north-east Green Lanes ran past the entrance lodge
of Chitts Hill House, which stood with a farm-house in some 31 a. in 1843, when it belonged to
Mary Overend; (fn. 9) Mrs. Overend still lived there in
1862 (fn. 10) and Samuel Page in 1867. (fn. 11) In contrast with
the rows of villas leading off the north side of Bounds
Green Lane, building on the south side was confined
to a group opposite the church and to Nightingale
Hall opposite Commerce Road. Nightingale Hall,
with grounds and farm-land totalling 72 a., was
occupied by Thomas Pearson in 1843; (fn. 12) it passed in
1864 from Pearson to his widow, (fn. 13) afterwards Mrs.
Pearson Kidd, who lived there for another 30 years. (fn. 14)
Farther west the only buildings were at Bounds
Green, which possessed some cottages, a tavern, and
a brick-works, and at Tottenham Wood Farm, which
was approached by a lane from Muswell Hill in
Hornsey. The first Alexandra Palace was not built
until 1873, although a pleasure ground along the
Hornsey boundary was opened ten years earlier.
Building in the 1860s mostly took place in the
hitherto neglected parts west of Tottenham High
Road, particularly around West Green and at Wood
Green. While the total population rose by nearly
10,000, Wood Green ward alone saw an increase of
some 5,500. (fn. 15) By 1869 residents at Wood Green
were demanding their own local board (fn. 16) and it was
clear that their new suburb, enjoying a separate rail
link with London, had a future of its own. (fn. 17) Inevitably development thereafter spread around High
Road in the east of the parish, the railway lines in
the south, and Wood Green in the west, leaving
farm-land in the centre and north which was not
touched until the 20th century.
The crucial factor in the sudden growth of the
eastern part of Tottenham was the arrival of the
G.E.R., ultimately running from Liverpool Street
to Enfield, in 1872. The line itself destroyed most of
the rural advantages still enjoyed by large houses on
or near the west side of High Road, including those
in Bruce Grove. More important, the issue of cheap
early morning tickets to London, which was strenuously opposed in local newspapers, attracted thousands of working-class immigrants and finally ended
Tottenham's reputation for health and gentility. (fn. 18)
By 1876 housing stretched almost continuously along
the two miles from Stamford Hill to Edmonton;
much of it was considered commonplace and some of
it wretched, although here and there wrought-iron
gates or walls with overhanging trees recalled more
stately days. (fn. 19)
The opening of stations on the Tottenham and
Hampstead Junction line, beginning with South
Tottenham in 1871, and the construction of the
G.E.R. line through West Green in 1878, hastened
the spread of building over the south of the parish.
By 1875 villas around St. Ann's had been built on
ground recently deemed an irreclaimable morass and
West Green had been transformed: 'the old village is
still there, but it is huddled up against Streets, and
Villas, and Places, and all the other devices of modern investors.' (fn. 20) In consequence the population of the
parish more than doubled during the 1870s, when
the urgent demand for elementary education frustrated determined local efforts to avoid a school
board, and had reached 97,174 by 1891. (fn. 21) The effects
of the influx were recognized in 1888, when Tottenham, with West Green, was separated from Wood
Green. Their differing characters were described in
1894: Tottenham, the most populous of all London's
outlying districts, was mainly given over to the
lower middle class, notably City clerks and warehousemen, whereas Wood Green had many well-to-do residents. (fn. 22) For much of the area, including the
southern part of Wood Green, the assessment was
flattering; standardized stock-brick terraces formed
a working-class railway suburb, where houses stood
40 to an acre, 'with back gardens distinctly minimal
and front gardens merely nominal'. (fn. 23)
Much building covered the sites of former mansions. Lordship Hall, on the south corner of High
Road and Lordship Lane, was demolished for roadwidening in 1867. William Salte's house, auctioned
after his death in 1817 and empty in 1870, made way
for the shopping parade known as Criterion Buildings, dated 1880, and for Ruskin, Cedar, and Pembury roads. Soon afterwards Bruce Castle and
Birkbeck roads were built up (fn. 24) on land which had
been auctioned with Fair Lawn, on the north corner
of Lordship Lane, in 1875. (fn. 25) Farther south in High
Road the parade called Grove Terrace, opposite
Page Green, was also built in 1880 (fn. 26) and Suffield
Lodge, at the south corner of West Green Road, was
offered as building land in the same year. The Rows'
residence at Page Green was also sold for housing
with 11½ a. in 1880, as were Markfield House with
80 a. in 1879 and 90 plots on the near-by Earlsmead
estate in 1882. (fn. 27) Properties auctioned at West Green
included West Green House in 1884 and the Woodlands in 1888. The British Land Co. bought
Downhills in 1881 and the neighbouring Mount
Pleasant estate was offered as 135 building lots along
Mount Pleasant Road in 1890. (fn. 28)
Sometimes a large private house was adapted to
serve an institution, as when Avenue House on
Tottenham Green was acquired by the Evangelical
Protestant Deaconesses' institution (later the Prince
of Wales's general hospital) in 1868, when Elmslea
was bought by the Drapers' Company of London for
Thomas Corney's school in the same year, or when
Suffolk Lodge became a priory for the Servite sisters
in 1871. On part of the Elmslea estate, facing Bruce
Grove, the Drapers' Company built alms-houses in
1869 to replace those at Bow belonging to the Jolles,
Pemel, and Edmanson trusts; most of the dwellings
were assigned to Edmanson's charity for sail-makers
from which the whole group became known as the
Sailmakers' alms-houses. (fn. 29) Alderman Staines's alms-houses were built in Beaufoy Road in 1868 on their
removal from the Barbican, London. After the last
three inmates had been pensioned off in 1899 the
property was leased out by the trustees of the
Cripplegate Foundation, who had taken over Staines's
charity, until its acquisition by Haringey in 1965. (fn. 30)
St. Katharine's college, for women teachers, was
opened in 1878 by the S.P.C.K. in the Ferns, a large
house north of Fair Lawn; (fn. 31) in 1880 it moved to former glebe land in White Hart Lane, where a threestoreyed building, later extended, was built in the
style of William and Mary to the designs of A. W.
Blomfield. (fn. 32)
Although most of Wood Green became a middle-class suburb, c. 100 a. of the farm-land of Ducketts,
adjoining West Green, was bought in 1882 by the
Artizans', Labourers', and General Dwellings Co.
(from 1952 the Artizans' and General Properties
Co.). (fn. 33) The company, founded by clerks and working
men in 1867 and later with the earl of Shaftesbury as
president, had already carried out similar schemes at
Battersea, Queen's Park, and elsewhere. In 1883
work began on the Noel Park estate, which was
named after the chairman, Ernest Noel, M.P., and
had some 7,000 inhabitants within three years. (fn. 34) The
first residents found that cheap tickets were available only for early trains, although the G.N.R. Co.
conceded some half-price fares in 1886. Construction therefore outran lettings, causing work to be
suspended for a time in 1887. Although not finally
completed until 1929, most of Noel Park had been
built by 1907, when its 2,000-odd dwellings formed
the largest group belonging to the company, itself
London's biggest provider of working-class housing
from 1890 until it was overtaken by the L.C.C. The
estate, from which public houses were excluded, contained the Empire theatre, shops, and several roads
named after directors of the company, including
Ashley Crescent, Pelham Road, and Farrant,
Hewitt, and Lymington avenues.
By the mid 1890s neither Tottenham Hale, West
Green, nor St. Ann's could be distinguished as
separate hamlets. (fn. 35) The last open spaces along Tottenham High Road had gone, with terraced streets
on the sites of Stonebridge House and Markfield
House, although a few old residences bordered High
Road at Stamford Hill. At Page Green the Hurst
alone survived as a large house, until its auction in
1893. (fn. 36) Building covered almost the whole area between High Road and the G.E.R. line, although
there were nursery gardens south of Tottenham
Hale and in the extreme north, beyond Northumberland Park; the only fields were in the south-east,
near the sewage works, around Down Lane south of
the Carbuncle ditch, and along the Edmonton
boundary. Between the railway and the Lea, however, the marshes had been little affected, apart from
the Longwater pumping station. In the extreme
south building stretched westward across Seven
Sisters Road to Tiverton Road and was about to
cover the south-western corner, where Vale Road
had been planned and the Hermitage and the Retreat
had gone. From 1892 the North-Eastern fever hospital (later St. Ann's) stood in 19 a. on the south side
of St. Ann's Road opposite the Chestnuts, which
itself was for sale in 1895. (fn. 37) Housing stretched in a
broad belt across the parish, filling most of the land
between St. Ann's Road, West Green Road, and
Philip Lane. About 1890 development started on the
Haringey House estate, extending from Hornsey
into south-western Tottenham, where by 1900
'practically a new town' had arisen, with over 1,800
houses and shops. In that year the residents, generally better off than those of St. Ann's or West
Green, secured the creation of their own ward,
Harringay. (fn. 38) By contrast the centre of the old parish,
in 1894 the north-western quarter of the new Tottenham U.D., was still open. The Avenue had been
built from Bruce Grove, where Elmhurst was the
first of the old residences to disappear, in 1896, (fn. 39)
but the park of Bruce Castle and Tottenham cemetery helped to restrict building westward from High
Road. From Downhills farm-land stretched across
Lordship and White Hart lanes to Edmonton.
Wood Green by the mid 1890s was joined by
buildings both to Southgate and to Hornsey. Near
the Southgate boundary, around Whittington and
Marlborough roads, the National Liberal Land Co.
had auctioned many plots on the Bowes Park estate
between 1880 and 1890. (fn. 40) Building along part of the
south side of Bounds Green Lane was prevented by
the survival of Nightingale Hall until c. 1896, when
it made way for a bicycle track, which was soon replaced by Braemar Avenue and neighbouring roads. (fn. 41)
Chitts Hill House also survived, although Woodside
Road and parallel avenues had already been planned
to cover its grounds. Westbury Avenue separated
Wood Green in the south-east from Tottenham, and
Granville Road had been laid out in plots as far as the
boundary. There were fields, however, between
Westbury Avenue and Noel Park, which ended at
Gladstone Avenue, and in the north-east along
White Hart Lane. The western part of Wood Green
remained open, largely because Alexandra Palace
stood in 180 a. of park-land with Muswell Hill golf
club, established in 1894, as its neighbour to the
north.
Both Tottenham and Wood Green grew ever
more populous until the First World War, total
numbers reaching 136,744 by 1901 and 186,787 by
1911. Much the higher density was achieved in
Tottenham, with 34 persons an acre in 1901 and
over 45 persons in 1911. (fn. 42) Although growth had
started with families leaving London, whither householders travelled to work, it was inevitable that some
of the land near the marshes or the railways, cheap
but undesirable for housing, should be used for
factories. (fn. 43) Firms began to move from London, the
first large company being the furniture-makers
Harris Lebus in 1900, and soon provided much local
employment. By 1914 there were three main pockets
of industry: in the extreme south around Vale Road,
around Tottenham Hale, and north of Northumberland Park. (fn. 44) New buildings along High Road included extensive offices for the Tottenham and
Edmonton Gas Light & Coke Co. in 1901, the
Jewish home and hospital in 1903, Windsor Parade
on the north corner of Dowsett Road in 1907, and
a parade opposite Bruce Grove in 1907-8. A musichall was built on land of the Drapers' Company in
1908 and a skating-rink next door in 1909. The
factories, offices, and shops, together with the railways and their yards, gave much of Tottenham an
urban rather than a suburban appearance. To keep
pace with the change the U.D.C. began to acquire
open spaces, beginning with Bruce Castle park in
1892, and replaced the houses on the west side of
Tottenham Green with an imposing row of civic
buildings.
Wood Green possessed few factories and those
were mainly close to the railway line and confined,
like working-class housing, to the south part.
Institutions were still attracted there: in 1904
Shoreditch council, which already owned Fuller's
alms-houses, built St. Leonard's House and Porter's
and Walter's alms-houses nearby in Nightingale
Road. (fn. 45) Wood Green U.D.C. followed a similar
policy to Tottenham but, with so much open space
and a wealthier population, had less need to spend
money. From 1907 its most imposing civic building
was the library, while for the town hall a converted
residence was still used. There was a density of little
more than 21 persons an acre in 1901 and 30 in
1911. (fn. 46)
The north part of Tottenham began to be connected with Wood Green in 1901, when the L.C.C.,
despite local opposition, (fn. 47) bought some 225 a. of
farm-land with the intention of housing 42,500
persons. The land, most of it in Tottenham U.D.
but extending into Wood Green and Edmonton, lay
in two blocks, of which the larger comprised 179 a.
along the north side of Lordship Lane. By 1910
Tower Gardens had been laid out and 48 a. had
been covered with 3- to 5-roomed terraced houses. (fn. 48)
Immediately to the east the Peabody Donation Fund
completed 154 terraced cottages in 1907. Since much
of the district was already working-class, the L.C.C.
was empowered to allow private firms to build more
expensive houses on part of its land in 1912. (fn. 49)
The open country which existed in the 1890s had
been much reduced by 1920. (fn. 50) In Tottenham some
waste ground in the extreme south-east and a recreation ground at Down Lane (renamed Park View
Road) constituted the only areas between High Road
and the G.E.R. line that had not been built up,
while the patches of industry were clearly marked by
factories. The L.C.C. estate stretched westward to
the Wood Green boundary, forming a belt between
Tower Gardens Road and Risley Avenue, and houses
also extended south-eastward from Wood Green's
Noel Park estate as far as Boundary Road, in Tottenham. The central wedge of farm-land had thus been
cut in two, leaving the fields of Broadwater farm
from Downhills to Lordship Lane, together with
more fields stretching from Risley Avenue across
White Hart Lane northward into Edmonton and
north-westward into Wood Green. The western
part of Wood Green U.D. was still largely open,
although Alexandra Park was separated from
Muswell Hill golf course by housing between Albert
and Alexandra Park roads and by similar housing
which stretched from Muswell Hill to Grosvenor
Road and the Avenue.
Farm-land finally vanished in the years between
the World Wars. During that period the population
continued to rise, giving Tottenham a density of
over 52 persons an acre in 1931. (fn. 51) The L.C.C. pressed
ahead with its plans, finishing 7 blocks around
Topham Square in 1924 (fn. 52) and more than doubling
the number of its tenants, to over 10,000, between
1919 and 1938. (fn. 53) Much of the Broadwater Farm
estate along the Moselle was saved by the U.D.C.
from building and opened as Lordship recreation
ground in 1932, although new housing bordered it to
the south along the Avenue and Higham, Wilmot,
and Walpole roads. North of White Hart Lane the
secne was transformed. Great Cambridge Road
brought traffic from Edmonton, which was diverted
around the L.C.C. estate along Roundway, and the
rest of the countryside was covered with suburban
avenues, interspersed with allotments and recreation
grounds. Most of the roads north of Risley Avenue
had been laid out by 1938; those where houses were
planned or under construction included Gospatrick
and Henningham roads, belonging to the L.C.C.,
Compton Crescent, Acacia, Laburnum and Oak
avenues, and Creighton Road. Residents were served
by new shopping parades, a hall and library built
in 1935, and St. John the Baptist's church, near the
junction of White Hart Lane with Great Cambridge
Road.
Elsewhere in Tottenham building was confined to
filling in those areas which had not been reserved for
recreation. East of High Road, housing in 1938
stretched farther along Carew and other roads to
leave no empty sites around Down Lane recreation
ground. Lockmead and Riverside roads were laid
out in the extreme south-east and factories built or
planned from Northumberland Park as far as the
Edmonton boundary in the north-east. Industry also
spread beyond the G.E.R. line, along the edge of the
marshes: the works of Keith Blackman were built
north-east of Tottenham Hale in 1938 and the old
farm-house of Asplins was hemmed in by factories,
which were under construction along both sides of
Garman Road. At West Green a space at the junction of Philip Lane and West Green Road was filled
with housing along Mansfield Avenue and neighbouring roads to the west. In the extreme south-west land bordering the railway and Harringay Park
station was covered by Harringay Stadium and
Arena. Overcrowding was worst in the southern part
of the borough, from Stamford Hill to Harringay,
with a density of more than 97 persons an acre in
Chestnuts ward. (fn. 54)
In the north-east part of Wood Green allotments
and playing fields preserved some open land along
White Hart Lane in 1938. Housing crept closer to
the potteries, however, along Devonshire Hill Lane
by the Edmonton boundary and along Perth Road
and the Crossway to the south. In the north-west,
building covered most of the ground from Bounds
Green Lane to the G.N.R. line and reached the edge
of Muswell Hill golf course south-west of the railway
tunnel, on land belonging to the Church Commissioners as part of the Tottenham Rectory estate. (fn. 55)
Durnsford Road and neighbouring avenues, from
Bidwell Gardens and Crescent Rise northward to
Cline Road, had been laid out by 1938.
Many estates in the period between the World
Wars were the work of the local authorities. In 1920
Tottenham U.D. planned 636 houses around
Rectory Farm and Devonshire Hill and also rather
fewer at Bromley Road, on land belonging to the
parochial charities. (fn. 56) Over 800 dwellings were
built, to which another 300 houses and flats were
added in the 1930s when the Weir Hall estate was
laid out to the east of Great Cambridge Road on
the Edmonton side of the boundary. (fn. 57) In Scotland
Green and Parkhurst Road, Tottenham, old cottages
were replaced by 36 small homes, which had been
completed by 1941. (fn. 58) Wood Green in 1933 had two
council estates, in White Hart Lane and Durnsford
Road, together comprising 244 houses. (fn. 59) Soon afterwards a few more were built, in Perth Road. (fn. 60)
Many old features disappeared with piecemeal rebuilding along Tottenham High Road in the 1920s
and 1930s. They included Phesaunt's and Sanchez's
alms-houses, the shopping parade called Sanchez
House being built in 1923, (fn. 61) and many villas in front
of Tottenham Hotspurs' football ground, where a
large stand was built in 1934. Inmates of the last
parochial alms-houses, Reynardson's, left in 1938,
after a parade had been built in front of the Wesleyans' oldest chapel, south of the junction with
Bruce Grove. Most of those 17th- and 18th-century
buildings which survived in 1937 stood north of
Bruce Grove and on the east side of High Road. (fn. 62)
Municipal building increased after the Second
World War, most of it on older sites and some of it
on bombed premises. Temporary bungalows were
built and in 1946 plans were made to re-house nearly
300 persons in the war-damaged Asplins, Manor,
and Chalgrove roads. (fn. 63) Properties requisitioned
during the war were maintained by Tottenham
B.C., which in 1955 still had charge of 1,900 such
family units. By that date there was virtually no
new land left for housing in the borough and the
council was preparing to build an estate of 300 dwellings at Potters Bar. (fn. 64) Wood Green by 1952 had
more than doubled its permanent accommodation,
with new houses in Durnsford Road, Tunnel
Gardens, and Park Grove, 58 flats near by in Bounds
Green Road and others elsewhere, including 56
in Vincent Road. (fn. 65)
During the 1950s and 1960s industry remained in
the areas where it was already established; factory
estates were opened off High Road and later at
Bounds Green, and by 1966 an electricity transformer station on the marshes vied in size with the
near-by gas-works, in Edmonton. (fn. 66) Slum-clearance
and road-widening were helped by a fall in the population, despite the settlement of many coloured
immigrants in south Tottenham. Much of the densest flow of traffic was borne by Tottenham High
Road, south of Bruce Grove, (fn. 67) although Wood Green
High Road was overcrowded owing to its growing
popularity with shoppers; by 1961 total trade turnover in Wood Green High Road was more than
thrice that of the shops around Bruce Grove. (fn. 68) The
only considerable housing development on new land
was the Broadwater Farm estate, where blocks of flats
east of Lordship recreation ground were finished in
the early 1970s. (fn. 69) Much sub-standard property was
compulsorily purchased by Haringey L.B., which
also acquired the old Palace Gates railway line,
closed in 1963, for housing. The council bought the
2,175 properties on the Noel Park estate in 1966 (fn. 70)
and, despite the sale of the former marshes to the
Lee Valley regional park authority, was by far the
largest landowner within the old parish in 1974.
Large-scale municipal rebuilding was planned in
1974, most of it in the south and east parts of
Tottenham. Work was in progress between High
Cross and Tottenham Hale, where houses had been
demolished from Scales Road to Colsterworth Road,
in patches on each side of Broad Lane, on land
around the railway crossing between Seven Sisters
and High roads, and on more westerly sites bordering Seven Sisters, St. Ann's, and West Green roads.
Farther north off High Road, rebuilding was taking
place around Stirling Road, south of Lansdowne
Road, and around Tenterden Road, north-east of
Bruce Castle park. New housing had been completed
along Clyde Road, parallel with Philip Lane, and
between Durban Road and the Edmonton boundary.
The reorganization of local government in 1965
stimulated proposals to redevelop the heart of Wood
Green, both as the centre of the new London Borough and as a shopping district. (fn. 71) Already, in 1958,
Wood Green B.C. had opened a new town hall, as
part of a larger civic scheme, on the site of the
Fishmongers' institution, while the years from 1961
to 1966 saw a rise in retail sales which left no rival
shopping centre in north London nearer than Ealing
or Ilford. Haringey council accordingly decided to
discard earlier projects, to exploit the closure of the
Palace Gates railway and, in conjunction with private
firms, to carry out a comprehensive plan covering
sites from the town hall southward to Turnpike
Lane. Provision would be made for new shops, an
arts and recreation centre around the Odeon cinema,
student hostels, offices, factories, and much new
housing. As part of the project the municipal library
was demolished in 1973 and Woodall House was
acquired from the Eastern Gas Board in 1974. By
1974 a few new buildings within the area had already been completed; they included the Post
Office's sector switching centre, a block at the
south corner of Bounds Green Road and High
Road.
As a result of rebuilding much of Victorian
Tottenham and Wood Green was transformed after
the Second World War. In 1973 very little survived
from before the mid 19th century, although the open
spaces of the Lea Valley authority and the timbered
slopes around Alexandra Palace were reminders
that travellers once saw Tottenham as a roadside
village, in low-lying farm-land, with wooded heights
to the west. Tottenham High Road itself was a busy
street, with few imposing buildings, often congested
both by shoppers and by through-traffic. The Seven
Sisters, replanted by 1876 (fn. 72) and again by 1909, (fn. 73) had
disappeared with rebuilding at Page Green. Trees
still sheltered a public garden at Tottenham or High
Cross Green and the high cross itself, restored in
1929, (fn. 74) stood on the east side of the road.
Mid-19th-century houses flank the main block of
the Prince of Wales's general hospital, facing Tottenham Green. (fn. 75) Holy Trinity church, with its
Sunday school dated 1847, stands on the north side
of the green, while the early-20th-century municipal
range lines the west. Farther north several timberframed houses which survived on the east side of
High Road in 1937 have since disappeared: nos.
824-6, 830-6, 864, and 884-890A. On the west side
nos. 855 and 857 have gone, as has Brook House,
which in 1951 stood on the site of B.R.S. parcels
depot by the Edmonton boundary. The oldest
buildings are Dial House, no. 790, perhaps dating
from the early 17th century but remodelled and
bearing a sundial dated 1691, and nos. 859-63,
where a range of c. 1700 has been converted into
shops. Dial House stands empty next to a mid-18th-century range, Percy House, whose wrought-iron
gate and stone pillars of c. 1700 are the last relics of
the genteel garden fronts which once faced High
Road. Other residences include no. 581, a threestoreyed detached house of the late 18th century, nos.
583-5, a semi-detached pair of slightly earlier date,
and nos. 695-7, early-19th-century houses next to the
Baptist chapel, which was built in 1825; at Scotland
Green a mid-19th-century house is used by the
Y.M.C.A. A few other late-18th- and early-19th
century structures can be seen above modern shop
fronts.
A row of stately semi-detached yellow-brick residences of the early 19th century extends from the
railway along the south-western side of Bruce Grove,
where most of them serve as offices and some have
been restored. Three sides of a spacious quadrangle
and part of the north-east side of Bruce Grove near
the junction with Lordship Lane are lined by the
two-storey ranges of the 44 Sailmakers' alms-houses;
they are of stock brick with stone dressings, with a
chapel in the central range and a lodge at the south
end. The future of the alms-houses, the last to
survive in Tottenham or Wood Green, was uncertain
in 1974. The junction itself is overlooked by Bruce
Castle, in a corner of its park. Church Lane, close to
the western wing of the mansion, leads northward
from Lordship Lane past Parkside preparatory
school, the much altered early-19th-century home of
Albert Hill, and the walled garden of the early-17th-century Priory towards the parish church. Thence
the lane turns east and north to join Church Road,
the northern limit of the park, at Prospect Place,
where there are five pairs of semi-detached brick
cottages dated 1822. Beyond the churchyard and
north-west of the park Tottenham cemetery provides a stretch of green as far as White Hart Lane.
Heavy traffic uses Lordship Lane and skirts the
L.C.C. estate west of Church Lane, yet tall trees and
old buildings form a comparatively peaceful enclave
between Bruce Castle and the church.
The demolition of Asplins farm-house, which
survived in 1951, has left few other pre-Victorian
buildings. The Ferry Boat inn, east of Tottenham
Hale, has a stuccoed 18th-century façade of c. 1800.
Bruce Terrace, a modest yellow-brick row, stands
neglected by the railway line in Lordship Lane; it
was built by an early-19th-century iron-founder,
Thomas Finney, and some of the houses retain iron
steps which were laid at the gate-ways instead of
stone slabs. (fn. 76) Wood Green has nothing of comparable
date, except a row of small brick houses on the south
side of Bounds Green Lane, preserved in the plans
for a new town centre. The former town hall, renamed Woodside House, is a three-storeyed brick
building, with a southerly extension; it stands in its
park, a solitary reminder of Wood Green's spacious
mid-19th-century residences.
The residential avenues which cover the centre of
the old parish contain little of note, except the older
housing estates. At Noel Park the red-brick terraced houses, with small gardens, represent the
Artizans', Labourers', and General Dwellings Co.'s
original aim to supply working-class families with
individual homes. They were designed by Rowland
Plumbe, who proposed five classes of house. (fn. 77) Slight
variations in porches and other details, together with
taller buildings at the corners and rows of trees, help
to soften the long, straight roads, which are laid out
in a grid-pattern. (fn. 78) In Lordship Lane the Peabody
Trust's cottages are terraces of stock brick, with red-brick dressings, in short tree-lined roads. The
L.C.C.'s first houses, mainly two-storeyed terraces
south of Risley Avenue, were designed by the council's superintending architect, W. E. Riley. They are
of stock or red brick, some of them gabled and slatehung, in a style employed at Hampstead Garden
Suburb. (fn. 79) They contrast with flats and houses north
of Risley Avenue, designed after the First World
War by G. Topham Forrest, who was much influenced by Belgian municipal schemes. (fn. 80)
The population of the old parish more than
doubled in the two decades after 1851, reaching
13,240 in 1861 and 22,869 in 1871. (fn. 81) It had doubled
again, to 46,456, by 1881 and yet again, to 97,174,
by 1891. Thereafter the rate of increase slowed
down, bringing the total to 102,541 in Tottenham
U.D. and 34,233 in Wood Green U.D. ten years
later. Tottenham had 137,418 inhabitants in 1911,
146,711 in 1921, and 157,772 in 1931, while in Wood
Green numbers rose more slowly from 49,369 to
50,707 and, in 1931, to 54,181. As in neighbouring
areas, the population fell during and after the
Second World War: the figures for Tottenham and
Wood Green respectively were 126,929 and 52,228
in 1951 and 113,249 and 47,945 in 1961.