Post by John Chanin on Apr 16, 2020 11:18:29 GMT
Tottenham sits on the west side of the Lea, separated from Walthamstow by the Lea reservoirs with their nature reserves. To the south is the Stamford Hill district of Hackney, and to the north is Edmonton. This part of outer London was developed early, in late Victorian times, as workers’ housing connected to inner London by the railway. In more modern times it has been isolated by its separation from the London underground system. The Piccadilly line runs through Wood Green to the west, and the Victoria line touches the south of the constituency at Seven Sisters.
Tottenham is famous for three things. Firstly the football club, which sits in the north of the seat just to the east of the High Road. It is not, curiously, on White Hart Lane, despite the conventional name of the ground, which extends to the west of the High Road. There is a football club on White Hart Lane, but it is non-league Haringey Borough. Secondly, just to the south of White Hart Lane in the valley of the Moselle stream, is the large Broadwater Farm Estate. This would better be described as infamous, as the site of the 1985 riot, which reflected the very bad relationship between the large black community and the police. Tottenham was also the epicentre of the 2011 London riots, when a local gangster was shot dead by the police. Less famous is the Tudor mansion of Bruce Castle which sits just to the south of the estate. Thirdly this is arguably the most cosmopolitan seat in the whole country. The statistics below don’t entirely do it justice, as this is the only place outside central London where “other white” exceeds white British. Much of this is the concentration of Cypriots along Green Lanes, which starts further south in Hackney and Islington, and extends north into Enfield. These are both Greek and Turkish in origin, and have been joined more recently by further immigrants from Turkey, many Kurdish. But the census shows white British in a minority right across Tottenham, as there are many east Europeans here too. The black population is very high in the north-east of the east of the seat, extending down the High Road into central Tottenham, and Tottenham Hale in the Lea Valley, where there is a large amount of new housing, both private and social. This is also not coincidently the part of the borough with the highest social housing (still touching 50%) and the most working class section. Tottenham has the 6th highest black proportion in the country. Harringay on the west side of Green Lanes is rather different. It adjoins the Stroud Green/Hornsey area, with the large Finsbury Park to the south, and has little council housing, the highest proportion of owner-occupation, and an enormous private rented sector. Long rows of Victorian housing extend between Green Lanes and Wightman Road, with no connections between them and the area is known locally as “the ladder”. Managerial employment is much higher here than in the rest of the seat, and twice that in Northumberland Park in the north-east. It is much more similar to Hornsey than the rest of Tottenham. The old Harringay Stadium, on the east of Green Lanes, famous for dogs and speedway, closed in the 1980s and has been redeveloped into private housing. The south of the seat rises up to Stamford Hill where the Haredi Jewish community forms a significant minority.
Overall as a multi-cultural working class seat this is safely Labour, and always has been. Like most London seats its population is young, but educational qualifications are much lower than areas to the south and west. There has been no change to the boundaries since 1983 when Haringey was reduced from 3 seats to 2. Even when the Liberal Democrats were winning most of the wards in the west of the borough, and coming close to council control, they never won more than 1 ward in Tottenham. The current MP is David Lammy, a lawyer and member of the Shadow Cabinet, who won the seat at a by-election in 2000, succeeding Bernie Grant.
Haringey, like Hackney to the south, is a little too large for 2 seats, while Enfield to the north is a little too small for 3 seats. This means cross-borough seats are inevitable under the new more restrictive rules. The original proposal saw Hackney’s two surplus wards in the Finsbury Park area added to this seat in exchange for the West Green & White Hart Lane wards in the north-west of the seat being added to Hornsey & Wood Green. Following consultation there has been a further minor change with Harringay ward between Green Lanes and the mainline railway, rather than West Green ward being shifted to Hornsey. These changes will make little difference to a very safe Labour seat.
Census data: owner-occupied 33% (555/573 in England & Wales), private rented 31% (31st), social rented 34% (21st).
:White 50%, Black 27%, Sth Asian 5%, Mixed 7%, Other 11%
: Managerial & professional 33% (333rd), Routine & Semi-routine 32% (229th)
: Degree 29% (191st), Minimal qualifications 34% (365th)
: Students 10% (60th), Over 65: 8% (558th)
Tottenham is famous for three things. Firstly the football club, which sits in the north of the seat just to the east of the High Road. It is not, curiously, on White Hart Lane, despite the conventional name of the ground, which extends to the west of the High Road. There is a football club on White Hart Lane, but it is non-league Haringey Borough. Secondly, just to the south of White Hart Lane in the valley of the Moselle stream, is the large Broadwater Farm Estate. This would better be described as infamous, as the site of the 1985 riot, which reflected the very bad relationship between the large black community and the police. Tottenham was also the epicentre of the 2011 London riots, when a local gangster was shot dead by the police. Less famous is the Tudor mansion of Bruce Castle which sits just to the south of the estate. Thirdly this is arguably the most cosmopolitan seat in the whole country. The statistics below don’t entirely do it justice, as this is the only place outside central London where “other white” exceeds white British. Much of this is the concentration of Cypriots along Green Lanes, which starts further south in Hackney and Islington, and extends north into Enfield. These are both Greek and Turkish in origin, and have been joined more recently by further immigrants from Turkey, many Kurdish. But the census shows white British in a minority right across Tottenham, as there are many east Europeans here too. The black population is very high in the north-east of the east of the seat, extending down the High Road into central Tottenham, and Tottenham Hale in the Lea Valley, where there is a large amount of new housing, both private and social. This is also not coincidently the part of the borough with the highest social housing (still touching 50%) and the most working class section. Tottenham has the 6th highest black proportion in the country. Harringay on the west side of Green Lanes is rather different. It adjoins the Stroud Green/Hornsey area, with the large Finsbury Park to the south, and has little council housing, the highest proportion of owner-occupation, and an enormous private rented sector. Long rows of Victorian housing extend between Green Lanes and Wightman Road, with no connections between them and the area is known locally as “the ladder”. Managerial employment is much higher here than in the rest of the seat, and twice that in Northumberland Park in the north-east. It is much more similar to Hornsey than the rest of Tottenham. The old Harringay Stadium, on the east of Green Lanes, famous for dogs and speedway, closed in the 1980s and has been redeveloped into private housing. The south of the seat rises up to Stamford Hill where the Haredi Jewish community forms a significant minority.
Overall as a multi-cultural working class seat this is safely Labour, and always has been. Like most London seats its population is young, but educational qualifications are much lower than areas to the south and west. There has been no change to the boundaries since 1983 when Haringey was reduced from 3 seats to 2. Even when the Liberal Democrats were winning most of the wards in the west of the borough, and coming close to council control, they never won more than 1 ward in Tottenham. The current MP is David Lammy, a lawyer and member of the Shadow Cabinet, who won the seat at a by-election in 2000, succeeding Bernie Grant.
Haringey, like Hackney to the south, is a little too large for 2 seats, while Enfield to the north is a little too small for 3 seats. This means cross-borough seats are inevitable under the new more restrictive rules. The original proposal saw Hackney’s two surplus wards in the Finsbury Park area added to this seat in exchange for the West Green & White Hart Lane wards in the north-west of the seat being added to Hornsey & Wood Green. Following consultation there has been a further minor change with Harringay ward between Green Lanes and the mainline railway, rather than West Green ward being shifted to Hornsey. These changes will make little difference to a very safe Labour seat.
Census data: owner-occupied 33% (555/573 in England & Wales), private rented 31% (31st), social rented 34% (21st).
:White 50%, Black 27%, Sth Asian 5%, Mixed 7%, Other 11%
: Managerial & professional 33% (333rd), Routine & Semi-routine 32% (229th)
: Degree 29% (191st), Minimal qualifications 34% (365th)
: Students 10% (60th), Over 65: 8% (558th)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Labour | 24,128 | 59.3% | 28,654 | 67.3% | 40,249 | 81.6% | 35,621 | 76.0% |
Conservative | 6,064 | 14.9% | 5,090 | 12.0% | 5,665 | 11.5% | 5,446 | 11.6% |
Liberal Democrat | 7,197 | 17.7% | 1,756 | 4.1% | 1,687 | 3.4% | 3,168 | 6.8% |
UKIP/Brexit | 466 | 1.1% | 1,512 | 3.6% | 462 | 0.9% | 527 | 1.1% |
Green | 980 | 2.4% | 3,931 | 9.2% | 1,276 | 2.6% | 1,873 | 4.0% |
Others | 1,852 | 4.6% | 1,615 | 3.8% | 221 | 0.5% | ||
Majority | 16,931 | 41.6% | 23,564 | 55.4% | 34,584 | 70.1% | 30,175 | 64.4% |
