Post by John Chanin on Aug 28, 2023 12:08:49 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 after which a ward is named, which sits just to the south of the estate. Thirdly this is one of the most cosmopolitan seats 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 (over 40%) and the most working class section. The south of the seat rises up to Stamford Hill where the Haredi Jewish community forms a significant minority.
The Boundary Commission has made substantial changes to the seat for the first time since 1983. Two wards go out - the peripheral Harringay ward has been sent back to Hornsey, where it was prior to 1983, and more controversially White Hart Lane ward, which is a core part of Tottenham has been added to the strange new Southgate & Wood Green seat. In exchange two wards come in from the north-west corner of Hackney. The Woodberry Down ward consists mainly of the giant former LCC estate after which it is named, which is currently being redeveloped as a mixed tenure development, but the ward was still nearly 50% social housing at the 2021 census. Two giant reservoirs, part of the artificial New River which brought water into London from an early date, sit at the southern end. The East Reservoir has now become a nature reserve named Woodberry Wetlands. Brownswood ward covers Hackney’s part of Finsbury Park, with large Victorian housing, and is an outlier in Tottenham constituency, with over 60% of residents with degrees and in managerial jobs, and a much higher white population.
Overall, despite Brownswood, this is a multi-cultural working class seat which 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. Even when the Liberal Democrats were winning most of the wards in the west of the borough, they never won more than 1 ward in Tottenham, and all the wards (including the Hackney ones) are currently safely Labour. The parliamentary seat was the 8th safest in the country for Labour at the 2019 General Election, and the safest in London, and the boundary changes have little partisan effect. In 2024 it slid down the list of safe seats, as like the neighbouring seats there was a surge in the Green vote, moving them into second place. The current MP is David Lammy, a lawyer who won the seat at a by-election in 2000, succeeding Bernie Grant, and is the Foreign Secretary in the new government.
Census data: Owner-occupied 30% (563/575 in England & Wales), private rented 37% (19th), social rented 33% (20th).
: White 47%(543rd), Black 25%(8th), South Asian 5%(191st), Mixed 7%(19th), Other 16%(16th)
: Managerial & professional 38% (297th), Routine & Semi-routine 30% (236th)
: Degree 41% (98th), Minimal qualifications 31% (189th)
: Students 11% (87th), Over 65: 9% (556th)
: Muslim 16%(62nd), Jewish 4%(8th)
Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 83% from Tottenham, and 17% from Hackney N & Stoke Newington
82% of the old seat is in the new one, with 11% going to Hornsey & Friern Barnet, and 8% to Southgate & Wood Green
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 after which a ward is named, which sits just to the south of the estate. Thirdly this is one of the most cosmopolitan seats 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 (over 40%) and the most working class section. The south of the seat rises up to Stamford Hill where the Haredi Jewish community forms a significant minority.
The Boundary Commission has made substantial changes to the seat for the first time since 1983. Two wards go out - the peripheral Harringay ward has been sent back to Hornsey, where it was prior to 1983, and more controversially White Hart Lane ward, which is a core part of Tottenham has been added to the strange new Southgate & Wood Green seat. In exchange two wards come in from the north-west corner of Hackney. The Woodberry Down ward consists mainly of the giant former LCC estate after which it is named, which is currently being redeveloped as a mixed tenure development, but the ward was still nearly 50% social housing at the 2021 census. Two giant reservoirs, part of the artificial New River which brought water into London from an early date, sit at the southern end. The East Reservoir has now become a nature reserve named Woodberry Wetlands. Brownswood ward covers Hackney’s part of Finsbury Park, with large Victorian housing, and is an outlier in Tottenham constituency, with over 60% of residents with degrees and in managerial jobs, and a much higher white population.
Overall, despite Brownswood, this is a multi-cultural working class seat which 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. Even when the Liberal Democrats were winning most of the wards in the west of the borough, they never won more than 1 ward in Tottenham, and all the wards (including the Hackney ones) are currently safely Labour. The parliamentary seat was the 8th safest in the country for Labour at the 2019 General Election, and the safest in London, and the boundary changes have little partisan effect. In 2024 it slid down the list of safe seats, as like the neighbouring seats there was a surge in the Green vote, moving them into second place. The current MP is David Lammy, a lawyer who won the seat at a by-election in 2000, succeeding Bernie Grant, and is the Foreign Secretary in the new government.
Census data: Owner-occupied 30% (563/575 in England & Wales), private rented 37% (19th), social rented 33% (20th).
: White 47%(543rd), Black 25%(8th), South Asian 5%(191st), Mixed 7%(19th), Other 16%(16th)
: Managerial & professional 38% (297th), Routine & Semi-routine 30% (236th)
: Degree 41% (98th), Minimal qualifications 31% (189th)
: Students 11% (87th), Over 65: 9% (556th)
: Muslim 16%(62nd), Jewish 4%(8th)
Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 83% from Tottenham, and 17% from Hackney N & Stoke Newington
82% of the old seat is in the new one, with 11% going to Hornsey & Friern Barnet, and 8% to Southgate & Wood Green
| 2017 | % | 2019 | % | Notional | % | 2024 | % | |
| Labour | 40,249 | 81.6 | 35,621 | 76.0 | 35,564 | 77.8 | 23,066 | 57.5 |
| Conservative | 5,665 | 11.5 | 5,446 | 11.6 | 5,076 | 11.1 | 2,320 | 5.8 |
| Liberal Democrat | 1,687 | 3.4 | 3,168 | 6.8 | 2,306 | 5.0 | 1,928 | 4.8 |
| UKIP/Brexit/Reform | 462 | 0.9 | 527 | 1.1 | 588 | 1.3 | 1,602 | 4.0 |
| Green | 1,276 | 2.6 | 1,873 | 4.0 | 1,965 | 4.3 | 7,632 | 19.0 |
| Workers | 659 | 1.6 | ||||||
| Other | 221 | 0.5 | 221 | 0.5 | 2,941 | 7.3 | ||
| Majority | 34,584 | 70.1 | 30,175 | 64.4 | 30,488 | 66.7 | 15,434 | 38.4 |