As a youngster I lived just off White Hart Lane, on Devonshire Hill Lane. If you are not familiar with the area, let me explain.
The two Lanes meander, going through sudden 90 degree turns for no apparent reason while roads of different names suddenly take over straight ahead. At one point the two Lane’s cross the Great Cambridge Road – also known as the A10 – a dual carriageway carrying cars north/south in and out of London.
When I was a child in the area in the 1950s (thus I show my age, having no shame) I watched football in White Hart Lane – but not at Tottenham, because Tottenham was not and is not in White Hart Lane. The only football ground in White Hart Lane was about 200 yards from my home – it was Wood Green Town, an amateur club.
Wood Green Town FC had been around from the earliest days of football, and their programmes (some of which I still have from the 1950s) welcomed supporters to the “poor end of White Hart Lane”.
But poor only meant in relation to football, because the western end of the Lane was gentrified with Edwardian houses. Indeed Norfolk Avenue, where I set the home of Jacko Jones in the novel “Making the Arsenal” runs within a few hundred yards of White Hart Lane. Jacko’s family are traditionally Tottenham supporters.
Wood Green Town FC is no more – so no more that an article in Wikipedia, to which I made a few minor contributions while writing Making the Arsenal, has now been removed in an act of footballing vandalism.
The excuse is that in 1976 clubs merged to form Haringey Borough F.C. and in a moment of savagery, equal to that of Wikipedia editors, Wood Green Town FC was removed.
To move from the old Wood Green Town ground to the Tottenham Ground along White Hart Lane is a crazy journey, involving a zig zag procession that would make you think you must be off track. Indeed if you try to do it in a car, you can’t actually cross at the A10, but have to do a fairly long detour.
But supposing you are on foot, you cross the A10, pass the Tottenham Cemetary on the right (appropriately enough) do a 90 degree left at Creighton Road, a 90 degree right 50 yards later, then another, then a 90 degrees left, pass White Hart Lane railway station and on for another 100 yards and you hit, Tottenham High Road, wondering where the hell the football ground is.
Could you have missed it?
In fact, no, because White Hart Lane has no football ground other than the old ground of Wood Green Town. To find the Tottenham ground you have to turn right, walk along the High Road and there’s the ground, in the High Road, in Park Lane, in Paxton Road, and in Worcester Road.
And you suddenly realise, that while the Wood Green Town end of the Lane has some Edwardian houses in, you are now in the darkest depths of London. This is not a place to be out at night.
Not at all.
Why the club insist that they are in White Hart Lane is anyone’s business. Maybe the had a row with dear old Wood Green Town, whose memory was probably deleted from Wikipedia by Tottenham fans.
Whatever the reason Tottenham’s ground (I use the word lightly) is not in White Hart Lane, is not even opposite White Hart Lane and has never been so. It is a myth, a con, a trick, a travesty.
The ground laughingly known as White Hart Lane was built in 1899 and has a capacity of 36,310.
The record attendance was achieved on 5th March 1938 against Sunderland and was 75,038.
There is talk of a new stadium on the old site, with a capacity of 56,000. But when one remembers that the firm involved in the scheme is K.S.S Design Group who also did Stamford Bridge, then you know the idea is not really serious.
The ground was originally a disused nursery owned by a brewer – and at that time it was known as the High Road ground. The disreputable Archi Leitch (whose career gets a once over in Making the Arsenal) did the redevelopments there, and at Chelsea (where the whole terracing broke up) and Fulham (at the same time as Chelsea!) and at Rangers (where the terracing collapsed and many were killed). Much of the work was done in and around 1910 – which is how I came across all the detail.
If visiting the High Road ground it is best to take a parachute just in case.
This is the ground where Tottenham Hotspur played their first league match against Woolwich Arsenal 100 years ago, with both sides knowing that relegation was a real possibility.
A very big crowd wandered from the White Hart (which was in Devonshire Hill Lane, just to add to the confusion) and all the other pubs and walked to the ground.
more anon
You can read about London and the Arsenal in 1910 in Making the Arsenal by Tony Attwood (that’s me).
More on Arsenal in 2010 here
Dear Tony. I would like to enlighten you and your readers about the reasoning behind the naming of the Spurs ground in the High Road. In the old days when few people had their own transport and the lure of creative football was beckoning the common people of Southern England, the railways were the only transport to get to the ever popular football matches. The nearest railway station was White Hart Lane and so this was adopted for the ground name hosting the greatest football team in England. Additionally, the public house fronting the High Road and next door neighbours was called the White Hart. Being an Old Boy of Tottenham Grammar School -it was a number of my 19th century predecessors who were members of the Hotspur Cricket Club and went on to be founder-members of the winter-interest offshoot to be named Hotspur Football Club in 1882. As an “accepted” pupil of the school, I was privy to many of the “inner-workings” of the original foundation of the club which were handed down to us, most of which we were sworn to secrecy. Indeed, as a local resident you would probably have known that my school occupied the island site between White Hart Lane and Creighton Road which was farmland when the ground was first played on in 1899. It is hard to believe that growing up in Tottenham did not suck you into the beautiful football that Spurs have played since inception. In contrast to the pleasant area of Tottenham, I remember visiting Highbury many times (I’m a glutton for any football) in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, when it was a very dark and dilapidated place to be.
Regards, Philip Nyman
Thanks very much for that Philip – now you spell it out it all is clear.
By the strangest chance, having done my primary school years at Devonshire Hill Lane school I took the 11+ and got a place at Tottenham Grammar – but my parents moved to Dorset, and I went to Poole Grammar instead.
But as you’ll know, that whole area around Boundary Park, Devonshire Hill Lane, and the Wood Green Town FC end of WHL was utterly mixed. We lived in a gerry built post-war set of flats – downstairs were Tottenham fanatics, and my family were complete Arsenal fans – and we certainly had a hard time of it.
My father had been at Highbury in the 1930s, and my grandfather at the very start at Highbury, so there wasn’t much choice for me.
Tony
Hi,
I wonder if you could contact me re: Wood Green Town. I am researching a book on defunct London clubs and would relish a chance to chat.
Thanks
Mike
I went to St Ignatius school in South Tottenham and our playing fields were in Park Lane adjacent to “White Hart Lane”. A misnomer of great proportions. I did the only sensible thing and supported West Ham at The Boleyn Ground.
I did see Benfica and the mighty Eusebio play at Park Lane though.
Hullo,Tony,
I was born in White Hart Lane(184-no longer there) and watched Wood Green as well as Spurs and Arsenal playing home games at “white Hart Lane. I attended Devonshire Hill Lane Infants during the War and can endorse your comments on Spurs and White Hart Lane.
I never met an Arsenal supporter. My grandfather always called them Woolwich. To this day I have believed that there are two teams in North London but only one North London team. Supporting Arsenal would have seemed as perverse as voting Conservative
However, I have lived in Derbyshire for many years and appreciate good football whoever plays it. Thierry Henry has replaced Tom Finney as my all-time favourite and I admire Arsene Wenger. But you don`t choose your team where I come from. It`s Spurs for life. How did you go astray?
Sorry,Tony. You did explain. Family tradition is right and proper. No excuses necessary
Hi Tony
I used to live in the prefabs in White hart lane close to Devonshire hill lane and also went to the primary school of that road. I lived in the prefab from 1946 until 1967 .Of course they are no longer there.
Wow John – two of us on this site actually went to Devonshire Hill Lane school – I guess they knocked it down years ago. What is on the site now. And I know exactly where you lived. When were you there? I was there until 1958.
Hello
I lived at 139 Devonshire Hill Lane and was very familiar with the places mentioned on this web page – Wood Green Town FC, Devonshire Hill Primary School etc – and have written a book about the history of the district – see http://www.samuelsouth.co.uk/ruraltottenham2.htm for the precise area covered. Includes the histories of the football club and school.
Regards
Ken Barker
OK you have me hooked I will order it tomorrow. Thanks for telling me about it… a book about the street where I lived as a youngster…
Gor blimey, love-a-duck (etc etc)
Tony
I`m fairly sure I watched cricket on the Wood Green Town FC ground. Can anyone confirm?
And is the White Hart Inn still there in Devonshire Hill Lane? I used to have Christmas dinner just across the road from the pub. My grandparents lived at number 87. I told you he called Arsenal Woolwich. He also referred to Thames Ironworks(West Ham),Clapton Orient and Leicester Fosse.