As part of the Open House London weekend, Haringey Council ran a walking tour on the Tottenham regeneration. Suzanne Johnson, Area Regeneration Manager, from Haringey Council, led the tour along with Alicja Borkowka, Director, from You & Me Architecture. Suzanne and Alicja explained some of the existing work and some of the upcoming plans for Tottenham and the High Road. We went along to get the lowdown on what’s happening in the area.
Here’s some of the things we found out:
Back in 2015, there was a West Green Road shop front project run by You & Me Architecture and funded by the council. Independent shop owners had full input into the designs and contributed 10% of the overall cost towards the redesign and redecoration of their shop fronts. This helped to improve the look and feel of some of the clusters of shops along West Green Road and the High Road and helped to draw in more foot traffic to the existing shops.
A pocket park was created next to Imbel Travel on West Green Road and was partially funded by the former Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s plans to create 100 pocket parks across London. This created a place for locals to sit and enjoy. Tom Ebdon Architects, Blacksheepscape Studio and Make-room were involved in the designs and the pocket park received £100,000 of investment in total. West Green Road received an award for ‘rising star’ in the Great British High Street Competition 2015.
A box park style project in the car park space on Westerfield Road, just off West Green Road, has been proposed. This is still in the very early stages of consultation and planning. An independent restaurant owner from Haringey is looking at the project and it will be aimed at local independent businesses.
The redevelopment and investment of Tottenham Green was completed in 2015 and received £1.5million worth of investment. Local pizzeria LOVENPresents are considering opening a pop up restaurant on the green in the near future. The Christmas lights will be switched on at Tottenham Green on 3rd December this year.
A planning application for the demolition of Apex House on the corner of Seven Sisters Road and the High Road has been approved. A 22 storey building, one 7 storey building and four 3 storey townhouses for residential (private and affordable) and commercial use are being built.
The old toilet block building on the corner of Monument Road and the High Road is being converted into a new cafe and bar with a late licence (up to 11pm). Part of the criteria for the business taking over the space is that they are independent and aren’t part of a chain.
The new Holcombe Road market on the High Road is due to open in October. Existing stalls will have a permanent space and will be joined by a few new stalls. There is likely to be a bakery/patisserie stall selling a range of produce – some of which will be from Flourish Bakery who used to be based in Tottenham.
There are potential plans for a new independent restaurant under the arches of Bruce Grove station. Some improvement works to the forecourt are planned for next year. A consultation on a TfL scheme to improve the public realm in Bruce Grove will take place in October.
Plans to restore No 7 Bruce Grove, the former residence of Luke Howard the namer of clouds, are under way but full logistics are still under review. This is the only building with a blue plaque in Tottenham. According to the English Heritage London Blue Plaque app there are nine blue plaques in Haringey altogether.
Tottenham is due to receive up to £28 million from the Mayors Regeneration Fund, some of which has already been received and spent, and work has been seen on the High Road and West Green Road. Funding is also provided by Haringey Council and TfL. This has helped fund the Growth on the High Road project, which includes Tottenham Green and Holcombe market, designed by Adams & Sutherland Architects.
Discovering Tottenham will be bringing you a range of articles, podcasts and interviews exploring the upcoming plans and looking at some of the issues involving the Tottenham regeneration over the coming months. Stay tuned.
Here are some resources that you can use to find out more information on the regeneration plans:
https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/regeneration/regeneration-project-tottenham
https://tottenham.london/sites/default/files/totgreensevsist.pdf
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/new-scheme/stadium/#world-class-design
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