Moselle River - Tottenham
Moselle
River
The Moselle flows north
The Moselle flows south and east
Post to the west Tower Gardens
Post to the east Tottenham
Post to the north Tottenham
Adams
Road
The Willow, this was Broadwater Farm Primary School. It is now part of
Broadwaters Inclusive Learning Community
Moselle School. Opened 1970 as a special school for children with learning difficulties
Broadwater Farm Community Centre
William C. Harvey School. Opened 1970 as a special school for children with profound learning difficulties
Broadwater Farm Children's Centre, provides childcare for children from age six months to five years
Argyle Passage
Slip through from the High Road to Argyle Road
Bedwell Road
1-11, 13-19 terraces of houses with painted rough-cast fronts. They were designed for the London County Council as part of the Tower Gardens Area.
2-38 terrace of two storey Arts and Crafts Edwardian houses
Bennington Road
The Moselle ran in a loop between here and Carrick Gardens, but is culverted to the west.
Broadwater Farm Estate
Broadwater Farm. The farm had covered 119 acres of the Downhills Estate since 1728. It was bought by Tottenham Council in 1932 and part opened as Lordship Recreation Ground. The rest was used for housing in the 1970s.
Broadwater Farm Estate. System built slabs - Grim and forbidding estate. This was built by Haringey Borough Architect's Department's, as the most ambitious housing project in the first years of the new London Borough. It was planned in 1966 and completed in 1971. It is on stilts because of the danger of flooding from the Moselle. It is made up of plain slab blocks linked by walkways, the blocks called after Second World War pilots. Removal of some of the walkways and other alterations but have done only a little to dispel the bleakness and artificiality of the original concept when it was fenced off from the adjacent park and isolated from surrounding streets. Very much improved since the riots of 1985 – with access points to the park and the surrounding community.
The Moselle flows north underneath the estate in a culvert
Broadwater Road
1a Decorative Art Metals on a site which was a laundry in the 1950s. Site had now gone to auction.
Bromley Road
Coombes House. Sheltered housing on the site of the baths
Tottenham Central Wash house and Baths. In1904 work started on these baths for slipper baths and two swimming baths plus public laundries, in 1932. Demolished and replaced by Coombes House
Brook Street
Brook Street Chapel. This is an independent, non-denominational Christian church. The Gospel Hall was built in 1839, and the assembly based here ever since.
Bruce Castle Park
Bruce Castle. This is one of the few old buildings to survive in the area. It was originally the Manor of Bruses. It stands on the site of a castle said to have been built by an Earl of Huntingdon, husband of William the Conqueror’s neice. Through his daughter’s marriage into the Scottish royal family it passed to Robert de Bruce. In 1514 Sir William Compton, had the manor and in 1516, Henry VIII met Margaret Queen of Scots here. The main structure seems to be late Tudor, but the original date is unknown. A manuscript of 1585 refers to a mansion house, a dove house, and land. In the 1680s Henry Hare, second Baron Coleraine, rebuilt the porch and the tower above it - the date 1684 can be seen in the brickwork – and the north front about 1720, with the family arms. James Townsend acquired it in 1765. He was one of a family of brewers and City merchants, a Member of Parliament and a Lord Mayor. He added two wings, replaced the south face with a severe parapet. The main oak staircase within may also date from his time. The building was sold at his death and eventually in 1827 it was bought by the Hill family who established here a branch of their school which was near Birmingham. At first it was under the direction of Rowland Hill - Jeremy Bentham was impressed by the school and Grote, Hume, and others sent their children there. It was a very progressive, self-governing institution with committee of boys and teachers. Rowland Hill worked with Babbage on the difference engine and later began the penny post. Bruce Castle School continued until 1891 latterly by Rev. William Almack. A three-storied extension was added for school rooms in the 1870s. To stop it being acquired by speculative builders it was purchased by Joshua Pedley, J.P. who sold it to the District Council as a public recreation ground. It was used by the local authority as a museum until in 1957 it was found to be in a state of imminent collapse, after extensive restoration it was reopened to the public in October 1969.
Tower. A great puzzle. It is circular, of red brick, 21 ft in diameter and decorated with blank pointed arches. It is probably from the early 16th and has no known purpose. Its origins were already obscure in 1700 when Lord Coleraine said ‘I am not able to discover the founder thereof." It is thought it might be a survival from an earlier house in addition. It has a water tank in it and continues to some depth below ground level.
The former landscaped park dates from the 19th and 20th, with some 18th features. In the 17th there were formal gardens three sides and parkland beyond. There was forecourt with grass and urns and on the east side was a fountain. There are accounts of statues, orange trees, garden seats and later fishponds, shrubberies, a kitchen garden, a mount walk and plantations. In the late 18th the timber was sold. In the 19th the estate was reduced in size and the park is now dominated by limes, horse chestnut, cedar, yew and oak that now dominates the park. Pathways remain which may be 200 years old. The formal garden was replaced with shrubberies in the 19th. The park was bought by Tottenham Urban District Council in 1892 along with the house, and it was given a new layout. The park’s main east-west axis was re-established and flanked by London plane trees. The entrances have brick and stone gate piers with decorative cast iron gates.
Kitchen garden – the northern wall was removed in the early 20th and a bowling green and putting green were laid out along with tennis courts and an asphalted pitch area
Ponds - The eastern fishpond was filled in at the beginning of the 20th and the western one became a cement paddling pool
Holocaust Memorial Garden – this uses a 19th circular flower garden. It is surrounded by cast iron railings
Park keeper’s cottage of brick and used as park’s staff room
Oak - a 400 year old oak near the centre of the park, remains from what was a large stand of timber in the 18th,
Bowling Green Pavilion 1971. By Andrews, Downie & Kelly. Neat with interlocking monopitch roofs
Bruce Grove
Built in the late 18th at the break-up of the Bruce manorial estate. It is on the line of an elm avenue which had been planted as the formal approach to Bruce Castle from Tottenham High Road. Semi-detached houses built here were taken up by wealthy Quakers– and the terraces are all Grade II listed.
1 - 4 19th brick terrace with semi-basements
13-14, 15 -16 5 -6, 7- 8, 9 -10, 11- 12 grand pairs of brick villas built in the late 18th
38 -41, 46 – 54, 57 -67 Edwardian buildings
60 & 61 The Lodge to the almshouses. Originally a detached cottage but now linked to the almshouses by a 20th infill building.
68-69 19th buildings with ground floor shops,
68B, C & D single storey brick shops with glazed brick fronts
68e Nurses’ Home a late 20th detached brick building
7 Blue Plaque to Luke Howard. This is for his work on the naming of clouds – but this was just his hobby; he was an important industrial chemist.
70- 88, 89 -104, 105-109 19th brick terraces with ground floor shops
110-116 The Regency shopping parade built 1923. This is a uniform brick terrace.
112 Regency Rooms. This is the original cinema ballroom which was converted into a four screen cinema. It was closed in 1981 and converted into a banqueting suite. It has a first floor stained glass window and notice in the stucco which says ‘THE REGENCY’ and above is an art deco parapet with ‘1923’
117-118 Bruce Grove Cinema. This was opened in 1921 by the independent Tottenham Cinema and Entertainment Co. Ltd designed by local architect Charles E. Blackbourn, and built by Knight & Sons. It had a corner domed tower, a ballroom, car park and it was illuminated at night. The outer wall of the auditorium has a blank face facing the road. It was rebuilt in 1933 by architect Robert Cromie with an art deco interior. In 1962 it was taken over by Star Cinemas of Leeds and in 1963 they converted it to a Star Bingo Club with a snooker club in the stalls. The bingo closed in 1983 and was replaced with an indoor cricket pavilion, and later a Quazar laser ‘shooting gallery. In the 1990’s it became Freedom’s Ark, a church, while the snooker continued plus a Caribbean restaurant. They moved out in 2011.
119 three storey flat roofed white-rendered Art Deco style building
Edmansons Close. Drapers Almshouses. These were established in 17th Stratford with funding from three benefactors, Sir John Jolles, John Pemel and John Edmanson. In 1868 the North London Railway bought them up; the three trusts were combined and a site was found here. This new group was named after Sir John Edmanson because his trust was the most substantial of the three. They were originally known as Sailmaker’s Almshouses. The current buildings were designed by Herbert Williams in 1868 and are made up of three terraces of two storey brick cottages around a grassed courtyard. There is also a chapel
Public conveniences. These have lavish railings. This 1920s block is in a “cottage orné” style with a timber frame and with a domed ventilator shaft.
Chapel Stones Lane
Wall from the corner of James Place to the High Road is listed. It is 17th red brick wall with sloped coping.
Church Lane
All Hallows Church. Built on a slope, near the High Road ND Surrounded on three sides by the Moselle River, it was founded by David I, King of Scotland, about 1150. It is built of contrasting materials, each characteristic of its date. There is a 14th with lower part of rubble and patches of gravelly local ferrocrete and pebbles. -the top has 18th brick battlements. The 15th aisle is faced with Kentish rag stone. The porch was built about 1500, with diaper brickwork and there is a chimney to an upper fireplace in a room once as a schoolroom where there are still benches. There used to be a circular mausoleum-cum-vestry built by Lord Coleraine in 1696 but this was replaced in 1875 by William Butterfield – who is buried in the cemetery. There are many interesting monument and 17th bells plus one from the Garrison of Quebec taken at the siege of 1759.
Churchyard. This has some 18th tombstones with decorative tops. With mature trees and dense planting at its periphery, and a red brick boundary wall.
The Priory/Vicarage. Built in 1620 for barber surgeon, Joseph Fenton. Since 1906 it has been used as the vicarage. It is set back behind an 18th iron gate which came from the earlier vicarage at 776 High Road and attributed to the smith George Buncker. Behind the 18th front is a timber-framed building. Between the first floor windows is a stone plaque with Latin text. Inside the front room has a 17th plaster ceiling with a centre-piece which says ‘JOSEPH FENTON 1620’. It is in a mature garden, and that is surrounded by a high red brick wall.
Parkside Preparatory School. A 19th building originally known as ‘Prioryside’, and built as a house for Albert Hill, headmaster of Bruce Castle School. It is a brick house within soft landscaped grounds. Independent day school, very small.
Church Farm – near the site of Parkside
Tottenham Scouts’ Centre. This is at the junction with All Hallows’ Road. This is a 20th two storey building with an orange brick façade
Public Conveniences - 1930s Art Deco red brick and concrete. Now out of use
Church Road
Antwerp Arms. Closed following a fire.
Dowsett Road
Built in 1904 by the Society of Licensed Victuallers,
Factory
Lane
Site
of a silk winding factory built by Louis Frébout in 1815. From 1820 it was
leased to lace-makers Lacy and Fisher,
London Caoutchouc Co. took over the lace making works in 1837. It was set up to manufacture to the patent processes of Robert Sievier who had patented a process for rubberising fabrics and formed the company. The company became large-scale manufacturers of elastic driving bands for machinery, rope for mines, waterproof cloths and garments, and waterproof canvas, as well the first rubber-insulated wire. The works was later known as William Warne & Co., from one of the partners. The rubber mills were extended in 1839 and this included a 160-feet high chimney stack, demolished in 1903. The company continued to make rubber solution until it moved to Barking after the First World War as Icon Warne. It is said to be one of the predecessor companies of the Icon Polymer Group of Retford.
Furniture factory 1930s
Forest Gardens
Forest Gardens Mews. This has 19th stable buildings, cottages and a carriageway around a triangular courtyard with brick block paving.
Freedom Road
Road running down between the Broadwater Farm Estate and the park, with planters and gates in to the park.
Kings Road
Lancasterian Primary School. Lancasterian Schools were set up in the early 19th to teach children by the methods of Joseph Lancaster. A Lancasterian school for boys opened in a Tottenham in a barn on the High Road in 1812 and moved in1822 to a new brick building. A girls’ school as also set up. The Lancasterian schools were divided into junior mixed and infants' schools in 1939, and occupied premises in King's Road. The school was again reorganised in 2004.
Lansdowne Road
1/3 health centre and printers. These are the original buildings in which John Alfred Prestwich lived, with his wife and where he had his first works, as JAP in 1898. He had taken on the building as a workshop and also a disused chapel next door. By 1903 he had a staff of 50 and was producing a motor cycle engine which was used by Triumph of Birmingham – engines which are said to have founded the British motor cycle industry. He also produced here the engine for A.V.Roe’s first flight and was a partner of Roe’s in an early version of Avro. Prestwich also produced his own monoplane at this works. The company moved to new premises in Northumberland Park in 1911. JAP was respected for its precision engineering and its innovative product range, including engines for racing cars etc.
St. Mary the Virgin. Mission church founded by Marlborough College- where the boys undertook to provide funding for staff, which continued into the 1930s. The church was designed by J.E.K. Cutts during the late 19th. It is in brick and has a central stone bell tower with a tall spire, flanked by two turrets with conical spires.
Vicarage of similar origin and style to the church
Lordship Lane
The Moselle crosses the road from Mount Pleasant Road and continues northwards in a loop running eventually west of the church. It runs under the eastern part of Millicent Fawcett Court which was re-culverted during its construction.
Millicent Fawcett Court. Small council estate, built 1969-70 with three blocks. Millicent Fawcett was a suffragist. It is plain but steps down on the side and had a grass courtyard in between.
8-18 Bruce Terrace. Dated 1826 this brick row by the railway line was built by an early 19th iron-founder, Thomas Finney. Some of the houses still have iron steps were laid instead of stone slabs
Railway Bridge. This was built to carry the Great Eastern Railway line from Liverpool Street Station to Enfield
Electricity Substation. 20th two storey brick electricity sub-station building with what seem to be associated buildings behind and to the west. No indication about who built this and what its purpose was.
131 The Elmhurst. Brick pub with a corner turret built 1903. It is named for a local house, Elmhurst, built by 1818 and demolished in 1896.
The Enfield and Haringey Magistrates Court. Built in 1937 by W T Curtis, the Middlesex County Council architect on the site of Elmslea. It is set back from the road behind a lawn and is surrounded by a brick wall and iron railings. The main entrance has is surmounted by a stone plaque of with the Middlesex County Council arms and some scales. The wall on the east side is the original boundary wall of Elmslea,
The Probation Service. In a modern brick building on the same site as the Court.
Bruce Castle Court: A 1950s art deco style block of flats. In 1619 this site was called Slaughter House Yard
Elmslea. This faced the park of Bruce Castle by 1843. It was a girls' orphanage supported by the Draper’s Company.
Entrance and walls to Bruce Castle. The southern boundary to the park had a red brick wall with a sloped coping which is probably 17th which once was the wall to the kitchen garden
119 - 125 curved terrace of 19th buildings, the majority of which have shops on the ground floor
Moira Close
Broadwater Farm Children’s Centre
Moorfield Road
Holly Cottage, this is the old Station Master’s House. It is a two storey building constructed along with the station,
Timber yard and a post office sorting office, these are in what were gardens in the rear of 1 - 6 Bruce Grove
Postmen’s Office – now North London Community House
Mount Pleasant Road
The Moselle flows in a culvert under a footpath behind the road to Lordship Lane
Peabody Street
Tottenham Peabody Estate. Built 1907, it consists entirely of houses and was their 20th estate. Peabody was set up by philanthropist George Peabody in the 19th 150 and he was the pioneer of today’s social housing. He was an American banker who donated money to create The Peabody Donation Fund and build homes for those who needed them.
Reform Row
Telephone exchange
Rheola Close
A mid 20th Century residential estate
Roundway
Semi circular road leading to Great Cambridge Road. It is lined with wide grass verges and trees, is part of the A10 trunk road
309 was the Risley Avenue School Caretaker’s House built of brick with a tablet which indicates its original use on the hood over the front door.
Risley Avenue Primary School. Built in 1913 to a design by G. E. T. Laurence in the character of the London County Council’s White Hart Lane Estate. There are tall chimney stacks and a small white cupola. The address was originally Riley Avenue of which this part of The Roundway was made up.
Scotland Green
The Moselle flows east and turns south by the two brewers pub. Sluice gates were installed her to prevent flooding
Remains remnants of the former Blue Coat School, a “middle class school for girls” charity built in 1833
34 The Victoria Public House, badly damaged in the riots
40 & 42 The Two Brewers Public House, badly damaged in the riots
Sperling Road
Bruce Grove Primary School. This was a board school established, by early 1882, with separate boys and girls schools. In 1894 the Sperling Road building was opened
Tangmere
The centre piece of Broadwater Farm Estate – “a coarsely detailed concrete megastructure”
The Avenue
Miller Memorial Methodist Church
Tottenham High Road
This follows to the east the line of Roman Ermine Street – the main road built on the west bank of the Lea and connects London, via Bishopsgate, to Lincoln and York. The current road dates from the 16th and built to the west to avoid floods from the Moselle.
The Moselle flows south down the west side of the road in a culvert under the wide pavement. It turns east and crosses the high road at Scotland green
Bridge over the Moselle was Lordship Bridge or Great Stone Bridge
Well of St.Loy or Eloy’s Well. – This was said to be near the High Road Tottenham and today ‘awaits rediscovery
Station Buildings’ at the junction between Bruce Grove and Moorefield Road. Two storey red brick building
Bruce Grove Station. Opened in 1872 built by the Great Eastern Railway. It lies between Seven Sisters and White Hart Lane. It was rebuilt in 1979 and most of the Great Eastern structures removed except for the canopies on the up side. Ticket hall is in the arch under the line and rebuilt.
480 Ladbrokes. It is a late 19th three storey brick building with Tudor style half-timber above.
483-485 rare survivals of suburban terraces of early 18th suburbs
490 Somerfield supermarket. This replaced the George and Vulture public house built in 1829. It is said that this was the site of the Hermitage and Chapel of St. Anne. It was also the site of the house where Sanchez, the Tudor benefactor, lived.
499 The Ship Pub. Its predecessor was used by Izaak Walton and there are ship reliefs on the bay window. Badly damaged in the riots
502 - 508 MacDonald’s in the former Tottenham Snooker Hall. This is a three storey 1930s ‘Art Deco’ style building in cream painted stucco with metal Crittall windows. It was built as a Burtons the Tailors store which included a snooker hall
530 -536 three storey early 19th terrace built as four large houses.
538 - 554 Windsor Parade. This is a terrace of buildings with Art Nouveau influences built in 1907. On the pediments is ‘WINDSOR 1907 PARADE’.
549 Barclay’s Bank mid 19th building, in brick with a detailed façade
551A Morrison’s Yard is fronted by a 19th four storey former brewery building altered to provide new shop units,
Morrison’s Yard provides access to No. 551B, a small late 19th stone building which was the gatehouse and electric sub-station of the former Tottenham Brewery. In 1845 Frederick Freeman and John Fullagar owned Tottenham Brewery which still survived in 1890.
553 has an Art Deco style stone shop-surround from the 1930s.
560-568 Tottenham Enterprise Store. On the site of an almshouse for eight people founded in 1596 by Spaniard called Sanchez, confectioner to Phillip II. Protestant, died 1602 Almshouses - Sanchez charity. The Almshouses were provided for local elderly people by Balthasar Sanchez, a Spaniard who was Court Confectioner to Philip II. He came to England When Philip married Mary Tudor and lived locally. The Almshouses survived until the 19th and in 1923 the Burgess’s Department Store, was erected on the site. This closed in 1980 and it was demolished and replaced with the Tottenham Enterprise Store
579A rustic barn structure that survives from the 18th it is timber framed and weather-boarded building
581 Charlton Cottage, 18th, two storey building with an attic storey.
583- 585 are early to mid 18th semi-detached pair of grand three storey houses
612 Prince of Wales, with a floodlit sign saying ‘Mannions’. Closed.
614-620 remnants of the former Blue School, a girls' charity school built 1833 by Samuel Angell, enlarged in 1876. The school is thought to have got its name from the colour of the uniform worn by the pupils. It was originally built by public subscription and was the earliest charity school in Tottenham founded in 1735. The original building was replaced in 1833 by this one
615 State Cinema. This opened as the Premier Electric Theatre in 1910. The architects were Emden & Egan with one single floor. There was a highly decorated plaster surround to the screen and to the ceiling. It closed in 1938. It was reconstructed by George Coles and re-opened. It closed in 1961 and became a bingo club. In 1979 it was converted into a snooker club which remained until -2006. It is now a banqueting hall called Ivory Mansion.
634, the Red Lion public house built in 1870, of yellow London brick with Gothic details.
636 & 638, an Art Deco style department store originally built in 1930 for the London Cooperative Society with a later top storey. The detailed white rendered façade had a prominent square corner tower and at the base a square panel with the Co-op logo of intertwined letters ‘LCS’ and ‘1930’. The large metal windows incorporated panels between first and second floor that also had the LCS logo. Burnt down in the riots
639 Municipal Offices. These were the offices of Tottenham Gas Company.
666 Moore House rectangular stone plaques inscribed ‘MOORE HOUSE’.
676 remains of the Bell Brewery with the clock tower. Whitbread Brewery office, plus a courtyard set back behind engineering brick piers and metal gates and railings which were the Brewery ‘southern gate building. used for Whitbread distribution. Gripper Bros. owned the Bell Brewery in 1862. The premises were bought by Whitbread & Co. in 1896 and turned into a bottling depot although some of the older brewery buildings were still used in 1924
678 Florida Cinema.This was the Grand Picture House which opened pre-1913 operated by R.C. Buchanan & Co. By 1913 it was re-named Tottenham Pavilion. In 1937 it was purchased by Davies Cinemas Ltd and it was redesigned by Howes & Jackman with an Art Deco facade. The auditorium was demolished, apart from one wall, and a new interior was designed by Eugene Mollo & Michael Egan, It re-opened as the Florida. It closed in 1971 and was demolished. By 2008 TFC supermarket is on the site.
686 has a stone plaque inscribed ‘ARGYLE HOUSE 1881’
695-697 built for Joseph Fletcher in 1829.
Tottenham Baptist Chapel. Joseph Fletcher helped to build this. It is by J.Clarke in grey brick; Galleries were added in 1836.
722 is a single storey Art Deco block of public conveniences, in brick
Fire Station. This was north behind the lavatories. Demolished
724-726 The Bell and Hare. 20th brick pub, with an iron balustrade including a roundel inscribed ‘Bell and Hare’. There are also stucco reliefs of a hare and a bell.
Swallow Pram Factory
Scotland Green House. Job Centre. Now demolished
Sources
Charles Babbage Biography
Cinema Treasures web site
Clunn. Face of London
Field. Place names of London
Goulder, London, General History.
Hancock. Origin and Process of Rubber Manufacture.
Headley and Meulenkamp, Follies
Heywood. History of the London County Council
History of Middlesex
Icon Polymer web site
Lewis. London’s Best Kept Secret
London Borough of Haringey web site
London Encyclopaedia
Martin. London Industry
North by North West
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Pinching and Dell. Haringey’s Hidden Streams
Protz. Tottenham
Stevenson. Middlesex
Tottenham History web site
Walford. Highgate to the Lea
Wikipedia on Robert Sevier web site
The Moselle flows north
The Moselle flows south and east
Post to the west Tower Gardens
Post to the east Tottenham
Post to the north Tottenham
Adams
Road
The Willow, this was Broadwater Farm Primary School. It is now part of
Broadwaters Inclusive Learning CommunityMoselle School. Opened 1970 as a special school for children with learning difficulties
Broadwater Farm Community Centre
William C. Harvey School. Opened 1970 as a special school for children with profound learning difficulties
Broadwater Farm Children's Centre, provides childcare for children from age six months to five years
Argyle Passage
Slip through from the High Road to Argyle Road
Bedwell Road
1-11, 13-19 terraces of houses with painted rough-cast fronts. They were designed for the London County Council as part of the Tower Gardens Area.
2-38 terrace of two storey Arts and Crafts Edwardian houses
Bennington Road
The Moselle ran in a loop between here and Carrick Gardens, but is culverted to the west.
Broadwater Farm Estate
Broadwater Farm. The farm had covered 119 acres of the Downhills Estate since 1728. It was bought by Tottenham Council in 1932 and part opened as Lordship Recreation Ground. The rest was used for housing in the 1970s.
Broadwater Farm Estate. System built slabs - Grim and forbidding estate. This was built by Haringey Borough Architect's Department's, as the most ambitious housing project in the first years of the new London Borough. It was planned in 1966 and completed in 1971. It is on stilts because of the danger of flooding from the Moselle. It is made up of plain slab blocks linked by walkways, the blocks called after Second World War pilots. Removal of some of the walkways and other alterations but have done only a little to dispel the bleakness and artificiality of the original concept when it was fenced off from the adjacent park and isolated from surrounding streets. Very much improved since the riots of 1985 – with access points to the park and the surrounding community.
The Moselle flows north underneath the estate in a culvert
Broadwater Road
1a Decorative Art Metals on a site which was a laundry in the 1950s. Site had now gone to auction.
Bromley Road
Coombes House. Sheltered housing on the site of the baths
Tottenham Central Wash house and Baths. In1904 work started on these baths for slipper baths and two swimming baths plus public laundries, in 1932. Demolished and replaced by Coombes House
Brook Street
Brook Street Chapel. This is an independent, non-denominational Christian church. The Gospel Hall was built in 1839, and the assembly based here ever since.
Bruce Castle Park
Bruce Castle. This is one of the few old buildings to survive in the area. It was originally the Manor of Bruses. It stands on the site of a castle said to have been built by an Earl of Huntingdon, husband of William the Conqueror’s neice. Through his daughter’s marriage into the Scottish royal family it passed to Robert de Bruce. In 1514 Sir William Compton, had the manor and in 1516, Henry VIII met Margaret Queen of Scots here. The main structure seems to be late Tudor, but the original date is unknown. A manuscript of 1585 refers to a mansion house, a dove house, and land. In the 1680s Henry Hare, second Baron Coleraine, rebuilt the porch and the tower above it - the date 1684 can be seen in the brickwork – and the north front about 1720, with the family arms. James Townsend acquired it in 1765. He was one of a family of brewers and City merchants, a Member of Parliament and a Lord Mayor. He added two wings, replaced the south face with a severe parapet. The main oak staircase within may also date from his time. The building was sold at his death and eventually in 1827 it was bought by the Hill family who established here a branch of their school which was near Birmingham. At first it was under the direction of Rowland Hill - Jeremy Bentham was impressed by the school and Grote, Hume, and others sent their children there. It was a very progressive, self-governing institution with committee of boys and teachers. Rowland Hill worked with Babbage on the difference engine and later began the penny post. Bruce Castle School continued until 1891 latterly by Rev. William Almack. A three-storied extension was added for school rooms in the 1870s. To stop it being acquired by speculative builders it was purchased by Joshua Pedley, J.P. who sold it to the District Council as a public recreation ground. It was used by the local authority as a museum until in 1957 it was found to be in a state of imminent collapse, after extensive restoration it was reopened to the public in October 1969.
Tower. A great puzzle. It is circular, of red brick, 21 ft in diameter and decorated with blank pointed arches. It is probably from the early 16th and has no known purpose. Its origins were already obscure in 1700 when Lord Coleraine said ‘I am not able to discover the founder thereof." It is thought it might be a survival from an earlier house in addition. It has a water tank in it and continues to some depth below ground level.
The former landscaped park dates from the 19th and 20th, with some 18th features. In the 17th there were formal gardens three sides and parkland beyond. There was forecourt with grass and urns and on the east side was a fountain. There are accounts of statues, orange trees, garden seats and later fishponds, shrubberies, a kitchen garden, a mount walk and plantations. In the late 18th the timber was sold. In the 19th the estate was reduced in size and the park is now dominated by limes, horse chestnut, cedar, yew and oak that now dominates the park. Pathways remain which may be 200 years old. The formal garden was replaced with shrubberies in the 19th. The park was bought by Tottenham Urban District Council in 1892 along with the house, and it was given a new layout. The park’s main east-west axis was re-established and flanked by London plane trees. The entrances have brick and stone gate piers with decorative cast iron gates.
Kitchen garden – the northern wall was removed in the early 20th and a bowling green and putting green were laid out along with tennis courts and an asphalted pitch area
Ponds - The eastern fishpond was filled in at the beginning of the 20th and the western one became a cement paddling pool
Holocaust Memorial Garden – this uses a 19th circular flower garden. It is surrounded by cast iron railings
Park keeper’s cottage of brick and used as park’s staff room
Oak - a 400 year old oak near the centre of the park, remains from what was a large stand of timber in the 18th,
Bowling Green Pavilion 1971. By Andrews, Downie & Kelly. Neat with interlocking monopitch roofs
Bruce Grove
Built in the late 18th at the break-up of the Bruce manorial estate. It is on the line of an elm avenue which had been planted as the formal approach to Bruce Castle from Tottenham High Road. Semi-detached houses built here were taken up by wealthy Quakers– and the terraces are all Grade II listed.
1 - 4 19th brick terrace with semi-basements
13-14, 15 -16 5 -6, 7- 8, 9 -10, 11- 12 grand pairs of brick villas built in the late 18th
38 -41, 46 – 54, 57 -67 Edwardian buildings
60 & 61 The Lodge to the almshouses. Originally a detached cottage but now linked to the almshouses by a 20th infill building.
68-69 19th buildings with ground floor shops,
68B, C & D single storey brick shops with glazed brick fronts
68e Nurses’ Home a late 20th detached brick building
7 Blue Plaque to Luke Howard. This is for his work on the naming of clouds – but this was just his hobby; he was an important industrial chemist.
70- 88, 89 -104, 105-109 19th brick terraces with ground floor shops
110-116 The Regency shopping parade built 1923. This is a uniform brick terrace.
112 Regency Rooms. This is the original cinema ballroom which was converted into a four screen cinema. It was closed in 1981 and converted into a banqueting suite. It has a first floor stained glass window and notice in the stucco which says ‘THE REGENCY’ and above is an art deco parapet with ‘1923’
117-118 Bruce Grove Cinema. This was opened in 1921 by the independent Tottenham Cinema and Entertainment Co. Ltd designed by local architect Charles E. Blackbourn, and built by Knight & Sons. It had a corner domed tower, a ballroom, car park and it was illuminated at night. The outer wall of the auditorium has a blank face facing the road. It was rebuilt in 1933 by architect Robert Cromie with an art deco interior. In 1962 it was taken over by Star Cinemas of Leeds and in 1963 they converted it to a Star Bingo Club with a snooker club in the stalls. The bingo closed in 1983 and was replaced with an indoor cricket pavilion, and later a Quazar laser ‘shooting gallery. In the 1990’s it became Freedom’s Ark, a church, while the snooker continued plus a Caribbean restaurant. They moved out in 2011.
119 three storey flat roofed white-rendered Art Deco style building
Edmansons Close. Drapers Almshouses. These were established in 17th Stratford with funding from three benefactors, Sir John Jolles, John Pemel and John Edmanson. In 1868 the North London Railway bought them up; the three trusts were combined and a site was found here. This new group was named after Sir John Edmanson because his trust was the most substantial of the three. They were originally known as Sailmaker’s Almshouses. The current buildings were designed by Herbert Williams in 1868 and are made up of three terraces of two storey brick cottages around a grassed courtyard. There is also a chapel
Public conveniences. These have lavish railings. This 1920s block is in a “cottage orné” style with a timber frame and with a domed ventilator shaft.
Chapel Stones Lane
Wall from the corner of James Place to the High Road is listed. It is 17th red brick wall with sloped coping.
Church Lane
All Hallows Church. Built on a slope, near the High Road ND Surrounded on three sides by the Moselle River, it was founded by David I, King of Scotland, about 1150. It is built of contrasting materials, each characteristic of its date. There is a 14th with lower part of rubble and patches of gravelly local ferrocrete and pebbles. -the top has 18th brick battlements. The 15th aisle is faced with Kentish rag stone. The porch was built about 1500, with diaper brickwork and there is a chimney to an upper fireplace in a room once as a schoolroom where there are still benches. There used to be a circular mausoleum-cum-vestry built by Lord Coleraine in 1696 but this was replaced in 1875 by William Butterfield – who is buried in the cemetery. There are many interesting monument and 17th bells plus one from the Garrison of Quebec taken at the siege of 1759.
Churchyard. This has some 18th tombstones with decorative tops. With mature trees and dense planting at its periphery, and a red brick boundary wall.
The Priory/Vicarage. Built in 1620 for barber surgeon, Joseph Fenton. Since 1906 it has been used as the vicarage. It is set back behind an 18th iron gate which came from the earlier vicarage at 776 High Road and attributed to the smith George Buncker. Behind the 18th front is a timber-framed building. Between the first floor windows is a stone plaque with Latin text. Inside the front room has a 17th plaster ceiling with a centre-piece which says ‘JOSEPH FENTON 1620’. It is in a mature garden, and that is surrounded by a high red brick wall.
Parkside Preparatory School. A 19th building originally known as ‘Prioryside’, and built as a house for Albert Hill, headmaster of Bruce Castle School. It is a brick house within soft landscaped grounds. Independent day school, very small.
Church Farm – near the site of Parkside
Tottenham Scouts’ Centre. This is at the junction with All Hallows’ Road. This is a 20th two storey building with an orange brick façade
Public Conveniences - 1930s Art Deco red brick and concrete. Now out of use
Church Road
Antwerp Arms. Closed following a fire.
Dowsett Road
Built in 1904 by the Society of Licensed Victuallers,
Factory
Lane
Site
of a silk winding factory built by Louis Frébout in 1815. From 1820 it was
leased to lace-makers Lacy and Fisher, London Caoutchouc Co. took over the lace making works in 1837. It was set up to manufacture to the patent processes of Robert Sievier who had patented a process for rubberising fabrics and formed the company. The company became large-scale manufacturers of elastic driving bands for machinery, rope for mines, waterproof cloths and garments, and waterproof canvas, as well the first rubber-insulated wire. The works was later known as William Warne & Co., from one of the partners. The rubber mills were extended in 1839 and this included a 160-feet high chimney stack, demolished in 1903. The company continued to make rubber solution until it moved to Barking after the First World War as Icon Warne. It is said to be one of the predecessor companies of the Icon Polymer Group of Retford.
Furniture factory 1930s
Forest Gardens
Forest Gardens Mews. This has 19th stable buildings, cottages and a carriageway around a triangular courtyard with brick block paving.
Freedom Road
Road running down between the Broadwater Farm Estate and the park, with planters and gates in to the park.
Kings Road
Lancasterian Primary School. Lancasterian Schools were set up in the early 19th to teach children by the methods of Joseph Lancaster. A Lancasterian school for boys opened in a Tottenham in a barn on the High Road in 1812 and moved in1822 to a new brick building. A girls’ school as also set up. The Lancasterian schools were divided into junior mixed and infants' schools in 1939, and occupied premises in King's Road. The school was again reorganised in 2004.
Lansdowne Road
1/3 health centre and printers. These are the original buildings in which John Alfred Prestwich lived, with his wife and where he had his first works, as JAP in 1898. He had taken on the building as a workshop and also a disused chapel next door. By 1903 he had a staff of 50 and was producing a motor cycle engine which was used by Triumph of Birmingham – engines which are said to have founded the British motor cycle industry. He also produced here the engine for A.V.Roe’s first flight and was a partner of Roe’s in an early version of Avro. Prestwich also produced his own monoplane at this works. The company moved to new premises in Northumberland Park in 1911. JAP was respected for its precision engineering and its innovative product range, including engines for racing cars etc.
St. Mary the Virgin. Mission church founded by Marlborough College- where the boys undertook to provide funding for staff, which continued into the 1930s. The church was designed by J.E.K. Cutts during the late 19th. It is in brick and has a central stone bell tower with a tall spire, flanked by two turrets with conical spires.
Vicarage of similar origin and style to the church
Lordship Lane
The Moselle crosses the road from Mount Pleasant Road and continues northwards in a loop running eventually west of the church. It runs under the eastern part of Millicent Fawcett Court which was re-culverted during its construction.
Millicent Fawcett Court. Small council estate, built 1969-70 with three blocks. Millicent Fawcett was a suffragist. It is plain but steps down on the side and had a grass courtyard in between.
8-18 Bruce Terrace. Dated 1826 this brick row by the railway line was built by an early 19th iron-founder, Thomas Finney. Some of the houses still have iron steps were laid instead of stone slabs
Railway Bridge. This was built to carry the Great Eastern Railway line from Liverpool Street Station to Enfield
Electricity Substation. 20th two storey brick electricity sub-station building with what seem to be associated buildings behind and to the west. No indication about who built this and what its purpose was.
131 The Elmhurst. Brick pub with a corner turret built 1903. It is named for a local house, Elmhurst, built by 1818 and demolished in 1896.
The Enfield and Haringey Magistrates Court. Built in 1937 by W T Curtis, the Middlesex County Council architect on the site of Elmslea. It is set back from the road behind a lawn and is surrounded by a brick wall and iron railings. The main entrance has is surmounted by a stone plaque of with the Middlesex County Council arms and some scales. The wall on the east side is the original boundary wall of Elmslea,
The Probation Service. In a modern brick building on the same site as the Court.
Bruce Castle Court: A 1950s art deco style block of flats. In 1619 this site was called Slaughter House Yard
Elmslea. This faced the park of Bruce Castle by 1843. It was a girls' orphanage supported by the Draper’s Company.
Entrance and walls to Bruce Castle. The southern boundary to the park had a red brick wall with a sloped coping which is probably 17th which once was the wall to the kitchen garden
119 - 125 curved terrace of 19th buildings, the majority of which have shops on the ground floor
Moira Close
Broadwater Farm Children’s Centre
Moorfield Road
Holly Cottage, this is the old Station Master’s House. It is a two storey building constructed along with the station,
Timber yard and a post office sorting office, these are in what were gardens in the rear of 1 - 6 Bruce Grove
Postmen’s Office – now North London Community House
Mount Pleasant Road
The Moselle flows in a culvert under a footpath behind the road to Lordship Lane
Peabody Street
Tottenham Peabody Estate. Built 1907, it consists entirely of houses and was their 20th estate. Peabody was set up by philanthropist George Peabody in the 19th 150 and he was the pioneer of today’s social housing. He was an American banker who donated money to create The Peabody Donation Fund and build homes for those who needed them.
Reform Row
Telephone exchange
Rheola Close
A mid 20th Century residential estate
Roundway
Semi circular road leading to Great Cambridge Road. It is lined with wide grass verges and trees, is part of the A10 trunk road
309 was the Risley Avenue School Caretaker’s House built of brick with a tablet which indicates its original use on the hood over the front door.
Risley Avenue Primary School. Built in 1913 to a design by G. E. T. Laurence in the character of the London County Council’s White Hart Lane Estate. There are tall chimney stacks and a small white cupola. The address was originally Riley Avenue of which this part of The Roundway was made up.
Scotland Green
The Moselle flows east and turns south by the two brewers pub. Sluice gates were installed her to prevent flooding
Remains remnants of the former Blue Coat School, a “middle class school for girls” charity built in 1833
34 The Victoria Public House, badly damaged in the riots
40 & 42 The Two Brewers Public House, badly damaged in the riots
Sperling Road
Bruce Grove Primary School. This was a board school established, by early 1882, with separate boys and girls schools. In 1894 the Sperling Road building was opened
Tangmere
The centre piece of Broadwater Farm Estate – “a coarsely detailed concrete megastructure”
The Avenue
Miller Memorial Methodist Church
Tottenham High Road
This follows to the east the line of Roman Ermine Street – the main road built on the west bank of the Lea and connects London, via Bishopsgate, to Lincoln and York. The current road dates from the 16th and built to the west to avoid floods from the Moselle.
The Moselle flows south down the west side of the road in a culvert under the wide pavement. It turns east and crosses the high road at Scotland green
Bridge over the Moselle was Lordship Bridge or Great Stone Bridge
Well of St.Loy or Eloy’s Well. – This was said to be near the High Road Tottenham and today ‘awaits rediscovery
Station Buildings’ at the junction between Bruce Grove and Moorefield Road. Two storey red brick building
Bruce Grove Station. Opened in 1872 built by the Great Eastern Railway. It lies between Seven Sisters and White Hart Lane. It was rebuilt in 1979 and most of the Great Eastern structures removed except for the canopies on the up side. Ticket hall is in the arch under the line and rebuilt.
480 Ladbrokes. It is a late 19th three storey brick building with Tudor style half-timber above.
483-485 rare survivals of suburban terraces of early 18th suburbs
490 Somerfield supermarket. This replaced the George and Vulture public house built in 1829. It is said that this was the site of the Hermitage and Chapel of St. Anne. It was also the site of the house where Sanchez, the Tudor benefactor, lived.
499 The Ship Pub. Its predecessor was used by Izaak Walton and there are ship reliefs on the bay window. Badly damaged in the riots
502 - 508 MacDonald’s in the former Tottenham Snooker Hall. This is a three storey 1930s ‘Art Deco’ style building in cream painted stucco with metal Crittall windows. It was built as a Burtons the Tailors store which included a snooker hall
530 -536 three storey early 19th terrace built as four large houses.
538 - 554 Windsor Parade. This is a terrace of buildings with Art Nouveau influences built in 1907. On the pediments is ‘WINDSOR 1907 PARADE’.
549 Barclay’s Bank mid 19th building, in brick with a detailed façade
551A Morrison’s Yard is fronted by a 19th four storey former brewery building altered to provide new shop units,
Morrison’s Yard provides access to No. 551B, a small late 19th stone building which was the gatehouse and electric sub-station of the former Tottenham Brewery. In 1845 Frederick Freeman and John Fullagar owned Tottenham Brewery which still survived in 1890.
553 has an Art Deco style stone shop-surround from the 1930s.
560-568 Tottenham Enterprise Store. On the site of an almshouse for eight people founded in 1596 by Spaniard called Sanchez, confectioner to Phillip II. Protestant, died 1602 Almshouses - Sanchez charity. The Almshouses were provided for local elderly people by Balthasar Sanchez, a Spaniard who was Court Confectioner to Philip II. He came to England When Philip married Mary Tudor and lived locally. The Almshouses survived until the 19th and in 1923 the Burgess’s Department Store, was erected on the site. This closed in 1980 and it was demolished and replaced with the Tottenham Enterprise Store
579A rustic barn structure that survives from the 18th it is timber framed and weather-boarded building
581 Charlton Cottage, 18th, two storey building with an attic storey.
583- 585 are early to mid 18th semi-detached pair of grand three storey houses
612 Prince of Wales, with a floodlit sign saying ‘Mannions’. Closed.
614-620 remnants of the former Blue School, a girls' charity school built 1833 by Samuel Angell, enlarged in 1876. The school is thought to have got its name from the colour of the uniform worn by the pupils. It was originally built by public subscription and was the earliest charity school in Tottenham founded in 1735. The original building was replaced in 1833 by this one
615 State Cinema. This opened as the Premier Electric Theatre in 1910. The architects were Emden & Egan with one single floor. There was a highly decorated plaster surround to the screen and to the ceiling. It closed in 1938. It was reconstructed by George Coles and re-opened. It closed in 1961 and became a bingo club. In 1979 it was converted into a snooker club which remained until -2006. It is now a banqueting hall called Ivory Mansion.
634, the Red Lion public house built in 1870, of yellow London brick with Gothic details.
636 & 638, an Art Deco style department store originally built in 1930 for the London Cooperative Society with a later top storey. The detailed white rendered façade had a prominent square corner tower and at the base a square panel with the Co-op logo of intertwined letters ‘LCS’ and ‘1930’. The large metal windows incorporated panels between first and second floor that also had the LCS logo. Burnt down in the riots
639 Municipal Offices. These were the offices of Tottenham Gas Company.
666 Moore House rectangular stone plaques inscribed ‘MOORE HOUSE’.
676 remains of the Bell Brewery with the clock tower. Whitbread Brewery office, plus a courtyard set back behind engineering brick piers and metal gates and railings which were the Brewery ‘southern gate building. used for Whitbread distribution. Gripper Bros. owned the Bell Brewery in 1862. The premises were bought by Whitbread & Co. in 1896 and turned into a bottling depot although some of the older brewery buildings were still used in 1924
678 Florida Cinema.This was the Grand Picture House which opened pre-1913 operated by R.C. Buchanan & Co. By 1913 it was re-named Tottenham Pavilion. In 1937 it was purchased by Davies Cinemas Ltd and it was redesigned by Howes & Jackman with an Art Deco facade. The auditorium was demolished, apart from one wall, and a new interior was designed by Eugene Mollo & Michael Egan, It re-opened as the Florida. It closed in 1971 and was demolished. By 2008 TFC supermarket is on the site.
686 has a stone plaque inscribed ‘ARGYLE HOUSE 1881’
695-697 built for Joseph Fletcher in 1829.
Tottenham Baptist Chapel. Joseph Fletcher helped to build this. It is by J.Clarke in grey brick; Galleries were added in 1836.
722 is a single storey Art Deco block of public conveniences, in brick
Fire Station. This was north behind the lavatories. Demolished
724-726 The Bell and Hare. 20th brick pub, with an iron balustrade including a roundel inscribed ‘Bell and Hare’. There are also stucco reliefs of a hare and a bell.
Swallow Pram Factory
Scotland Green House. Job Centre. Now demolished
Sources
Charles Babbage BiographyCinema Treasures web site
Clunn. Face of London
Field. Place names of London
Goulder, London, General History.
Hancock. Origin and Process of Rubber Manufacture.
Headley and Meulenkamp, Follies
Heywood. History of the London County Council
History of Middlesex
Icon Polymer web site
Lewis. London’s Best Kept Secret
London Borough of Haringey web site
London Encyclopaedia
Martin. London Industry
North by North West
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Pinching and Dell. Haringey’s Hidden Streams
Protz. Tottenham
Stevenson. Middlesex
Tottenham History web site
Walford. Highgate to the Lea
Wikipedia on Robert Sevier web site
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