Tottenham

Coordinates: 51°36′18″N 0°03′29″W / 51.605°N 0.058°W / 51.605; -0.058

Tottenham (/ˈtɒtᵊnəm/;local /ˈtɒʔnəm/) is an area in the London Borough of Haringey, in north London, England. It is situated 8.2 miles (13.2 km) north-north-east of Charing Cross.

History

Toponymy

Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book; hence Tota's hamlet became Tottenham. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Toteham.

Early history

There has been a settlement at Tottenham for over a thousand years. It grew up along the old Roman road, Ermine Street (some of which is part of the present A10 road), and between High Cross and Tottenham 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 the Lord of the Manor. A humorous poem entitled the Tournament of Tottenham, written around 1400, describes a mock-battle between peasants vying for the reeve's daughter.

Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club /ˈtɒtᵊnəm/, commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English football club located in Tottenham, London, that competes in the Premier League. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane. Their newly developed training ground is in Bulls Cross on the northern borders of the London Borough of Enfield.

Founded in 1882, Tottenham won the FA Cup for the first time in 1901, making them the only non-League club to do so since the formation of the Football League in 1888. Tottenham were the first club in the 20th century to achieve the League and FA Cup Double, winning both competitions in the 1960–61 season. After successfully defending the FA Cup in 1962, in 1963 they became the first British club to win a UEFA club competition – the European Cup Winners' Cup. In 1967, Spurs won the FA Cup for a third time in the 1960s. In the 1970s Tottenham won the League Cup on two occasions and were the inaugural winner of the UEFA Cup in 1972, becoming the first British club to win two different major European trophies. In the 1980s Spurs won several trophies: the FA Cup twice, FA Community Shield and the UEFA Cup in 1984. In the 1990s the club won the FA Cup and the League Cup. When they won the League Cup once more in 2008, it meant that they had won a major trophy in each of the last six decades – an achievement only matched by Manchester United.

FA Cup

The FA Cup is an annual knockout cup competition in English football; first held in 1871–72, it is the oldest association football competition in the world. It is organised by and named after the Football Association, its official name being The Football Association Challenge Cup. For sponsorship reasons, from 2015 through to 2018 it is also known as The Emirates FA Cup. A concurrent women's tournament is also held, known as the FA Women's Cup.

The competition is open to any eligible club down to Level 10 of the English football league system, i.e. all 92 professional clubs (the Premier League and the three levels of the The Football League), as well as several hundred "non-league" teams in Steps 1 to 6 of the National League System. A record 763 clubs competed in 2011–12. The tournament is unseeded, although a system of byes based on league level ensures most competitors enter at progressively later stages. Played over 12 randomly drawn rounds followed by the semi-finals and final, the first six rounds are the Qualifying Competition, followed by six rounds of the Competition Proper, where 32 qualifiers meet professional sides for the first time.

White Hart

The White Hart ("hart" is an archaic word for a mature stag) was the personal badge of Richard II, who probably derived it from the arms of his mother, Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent", heiress of Edmund of Woodstock. It may also have been a pun on his name, as in "Rich-hart". In the Wilton Diptych (National Gallery, London), which is the earliest authentic contemporary portrait of an English king, Richard II wears a gold and enamelled white hart jewel, and even the angels surrounding the Virgin Mary all wear white hart badges. In English Folklore, the White Hart is associated with Herne the Hunter.

There are still many inns and pubs in England that sport a sign of the White Hart, the fifth most popular name for a pub.

Arthur C. Clarke wrote a collection of science fictional tall tales under the title of Tales from the White Hart, which used as a framing device the conceit that the tales were told during drinking sessions in a pub named the White Hart that existed somewhere between Fleet Street and the Embankment. This pub was fictional, but was based on a real pub named the White Horse where the science fiction community of London met in the 1940s and 1950s.

White Hart Lane

White Hart Lane is an all-seater football stadium located in Tottenham, London, UK. Built in 1899, it is the home of Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and, after numerous renovations, the stadium has a capacity of 36,284.

Along with housing Tottenham, the stadium, which is known amongst fans as the Lane, has also been selected for England national football matches and England under-21 football matches. White Hart Lane held capacity records in the early 1960s with numbers entering the 70,000s but as seating increased in popularity, the stadium has levelled out to a modest number in relation to other Premier League clubs. The record attendance remains an FA Cup tie on 5 March 1938 against Sunderland with the attendance being recorded at 75,038.

Plans are afoot for Tottenham to move to a new stadium with an estimated capacity of 61,000, with the new stadium being built on the current site instead of moving from the borough of Haringey. The new stadium has been designed by Populous, who also designed derby rival Arsenal's home, Emirates Stadium. Initial design was created by KSS Design Group back in 2008, but long delays allowed for major changes to the scheme by a different company.