The Little Russia area of Tottenham

Tottenham

Tottenham is an area of the London Borough of Haringey, England, situated north north east of Charing Cross.-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...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, UK is located on the borough

Borough

A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

 boundary with Edmonton, London

Edmonton, London

Edmonton is an area in the east of the London Borough of Enfield, England, north-north-east of Charing Cross. It has a long history as a settlement distinct from Enfield.-Location:...

, mainly comprising Pretoria Road, Durban Road and Lorenco Road (situated west of the railway line

Stoke Newington & Edmonton Railway

The Stoke Newington & Edmonton Railway was built by the Great Eastern Railway, under the GER Act of 29 July 1864. Construction was delayed due to the financial problems of the GER. Work commenced on the Hackney Downs to Lower Edmonton section in 1870...

 between Silver Street

Silver Street railway station

Silver Street is a railway station located in Sterling Way, Edmonton in North London, close to Fore Street.The next station away from London is Edmonton Green and the next towards London is White Hart Lane. Trains terminate at Liverpool Street station in the City of London.Several changes were made...

 and White Hart Lane

White Hart Lane railway station

White Hart Lane station in Tottenham was originally a station on the Stoke Newington & Edmonton Railway: it opened on 22 July 1872. It is currently operated by National Express East Anglia and is in Travelcard Zone 3, on the Seven Sisters branch of the Lea Valley Lines.-Match day special train...

) that was commonly known as "Little Russia". A large number of Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 immigrants settled there after fleeing the 1917 Russian Revolution

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

. It developed into one of the toughest areas of North London

North London

North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

 and the local constabulary

Constabulary

Constabulary may have several definitions.*A civil, non-paramilitary force consisting of police officers called constables. This is the usual definition in Britain, in which all county police forces once bore the title...

usually only policed the area in pairs. The area was mostly redeveloped in the 1970s.

Literature

• An Edmonton Boy by Terry Webb ISBN 190398100X Published 2000 by Biograph.Chapter 1 Life at Home. Page 1

  My mother came out of Tottenham, out of road called Lorenco Road (now gone). Now that had the nickname of "Little Russia" - why it had that name I don't know, but it was the roughest area. A lot of costermongers lived down there and the barrow boys and the fruit and vegetable people and they nearly all had horses and carts. The area was completely terraced, one end went into Pretoria Road, Tottenham and the other end went into Queen Street. There was an old pub there called the"Sun and Compass". It's still there and they tell me that they used to take their horses through the house and keep them in the back garden