White Hart Lane
Encyclopedia
White Hart Lane is an all-seater football stadium
in Tottenham
, London
, England
. Built in 1899, it is the home of Tottenham Hotspur
and, after numerous renovations, the stadium has a capacity of 36,230.
Along with housing Tottenham, the stadium, which is known amongst fans as the Lane, has also been selected for England national football
matches and England under-21 football
matches. White Hart Lane held capacity records in the early 1960s with numbers entering the 70,000s but as seating increased in popularity, the stadium has leveled out to a modest number in relation to other Premier League clubs. The record attendance remains an FA Cup
tie on 5 March 1938 against Sunderland
with the attendance being recorded at 75,038.
Plans are afoot for Tottenham Hotspur to move to a new stadium with an estimated capacity of 56,000, with the new stadium being built on the current site instead of moving from the borough of Haringey
. The new stadium has been designed by KSS Design Group
, whose other work includes Stamford Bridge
.
owned by the brewery chain Charringtons
, with the help of local groundsman, John Over, into a substandard football pitch. The first game at White Hart Lane resulted in a 4–1 home win against Notts County
with around 5,000 supporters attending and witnessing the first game and first victory at the new ground, although referred to at the time as either High Road ground or White Hart Lane.
White Hart Lane underwent redevelopment in the early 20th century with stadium developer, Archibald Leitch
, designing a mainly square stadium seating 15,300 and incorporating a standing paddock for another 700 fans along with the famous cockerel being placed on the mock-Tudor apex at the end of the 1909–1910 season. Redevelopments continued in the 1910s, with the wooden eastern stand replaced with an enlarged concrete stadium, vastly increasing the stadium capacity to over 50,000. The ground continued to be renovated and in 1925, thanks to the FA Cup win in 1921, both the Paxton Road Stand and Park Lane Stand were enlarged and mostly covered from the elements.
The pitch was overlooked by a bronze fighting cock
(the club mascot) that still keeps an eye on proceedings from the roof of the West Stand.
In the 1930s, football had a popular following, and despite Tottenham's lack of success, at the time, 75,038 spectators squeezed into White Hart Lane in March 1938 to see Spurs' performance against Sunderland
in the FA Cup
. The venue hosted some of the football
preliminaries for the 1948 Summer Olympics
. 1953 saw the introduction of floodlights with their first use being a friendly against Racing Club de Paris in September of that year. . These were renovated again in the 1970s and steadily replaced with new technology since. By this stage, Tottenham were firmly established as one of England's best clubs which attracted some of the highest attendances in the country on a regular basis. Between 1908 and 1972, White Hart Lane was one of very few British football grounds that featured no advertising hoardings at all.
Perimeter fencing was erected between the stands and the pitch during the 1970s
to combat the threat of pitch invasions from hooligans
; however this was removed on 18 April 1989 for safety reasons in reaction to the Hillsborough disaster
three days earlier, in which 96 Liverpool
fans were fatally injured, most of them crushed to death against the perimeter fencing in an overcrowded standing area.
The West Stand was again renovated in the early 1980s, however the project took over 15 months to be completed with cost overruns having severe financial implications. This West Stand is parallel with Tottenham High Road
and is connected to it by Bill Nicholson
Way.
The early 1990s saw the completion of the South Stand (on Park Lane) and the introduction of the first Jumbotron
video screen, of which there are now two, one above each penalty area. The renovation of the Members' (North) Stand which is reached via Paxton Road was completed in 1998, leaving the ground in its present form. At the turn of the millennium, after falling behind in stadium capacity, talks began over the future of White Hart Lane and Tottenham Hotspur's home. Over the years, many stadium designs and ideas were rumoured in the media. Most recently a move to Wembley Stadium
was ruled out by the club, as was talk of moving to the future stadium of the 2012 Olympic Games. However, ostensibly as back-up planning to the plans for a new stadium (see below), Tottenham registered interest in making use of the Olympic Stadium
in conjunction with AEG
, owners and operators of The O2
in London's Greenwich
, formerly known as the Millennium Dome
.
, was used to host full England international matches, such as a 2–0 defeat to Holland
. Since the completion of Wembley, the Lane has been sporadically used to host England Under-21's international matches in recent years, most notably a 1–1 draw against France Under-21's.
White Hart Lane also briefly hosted American football
, in 1995 and 1996 as the home ground of the London Monarchs
. Because the pitch could not accommodate a regulation-length American football field, the Monarchs received special permission from the World League to play on a 93-yard field.
It has also been used for boxing
, most notably the fight on 21 September 1991 where Michael Watson
collapsed with a near fatal brain injury after a fight with Chris Eubank
.
Park Lane and Paxton are adopted as stand names by the fans when chanting during matches, with the East stand referred to as The Shelf side, but officially the names of the stands are their compass locations.
The pitch is maintained by Stadium Grow Lighting, a series of heated lights which maintains the grass quality and also allows the grass to grow at all times of the year and in all seasons. The SGL system controls all aspects of the pitch when in use, including variables such as water intake, heat allowance, light allowance and other aspects which decrease the quality of a football pitch. The pitch is available for hire when not in matchday use, with full Premier League officials and even Jumbotron use, hoarding advertising and a DVD-quality recording of the match available along with the executive suites for weddings, birthdays and other functions.
around the stadiums are divided into home pubs and away friendly pubs for security reasons . Most pubs close to White Hart Lane are home pubs only, and The Bricklayers Arms is the most popular one with the best atmosphere . The Elmhurst is the most popular away friendly pub near the ground . There are several web services to use to find popular pubs around White Hart Lane, such as supporter fansites and Football Guides
tie against Crewe in February 1960, with a 13-2 final score. This was also the highest aggregate score seen at the stadium. The club's biggest defeats at the venue were 0-6 scores in Division One
, firstly against Sunderland on 19 December 1914 and later against Arsenal
on 6 March 1935.
, with the White Hart Lane name likely to be abandoned in favour of a sponsorship link. The new area will include leisure facilities, shops, housing, a club museum, public space which can be used as a temporary ice rink and also a new base for the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. On 26 October 2009, the club submitted their planning application, hoping to start work on the new ground in 2010 and to be playing in it come 2012. Haringey Council approved the club's application on 30 September 2010 and the plans were referred to English Heritage
, the Mayor of London
and the Secretary of State
for a final decision. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson
, has since approved the plans.
which was being planned for the 2005 World Athletics Championships
as the centerpiece of London's
bid to host the games; however the games were awarded to Helsinki
, Finland
, instead. However, the plans for Tottenham to move to this site were looking unlikely by October 2001 as expansion now appeared to be the club's preferred option.Over the next few years various other schemes were mooted, including a relocation to the rebuilt Wembley Stadium
(which opened in 2007)and even to the stadium
being built for the 2012 Olympic Games
, which Tottenham had planned to rebuild it as a football-only stadium.In 2003, there was also talk that Tottenham would ground-share with Arsenal
at their new Emirates Stadium
from its completion in 2006.
White Hart Lane has the benefit of being close to White Hart Lane railway station
which allows fans to use public transport. The location of the stadium, in Greater London, means that the area close to the stadium is regularly serviced by many different bus routes and services.
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
in 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...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Built in 1899, it is the home of Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....
and, after numerous renovations, the stadium has a capacity of 36,230.
Along with housing Tottenham, the stadium, which is known amongst fans as the Lane, has also been selected for England national football
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
matches and England under-21 football
England national under-21 football team
England's national Under-21 football team, also known as England Under-21s or England U21, is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team....
matches. White Hart Lane held capacity records in the early 1960s with numbers entering the 70,000s but as seating increased in popularity, the stadium has leveled out to a modest number in relation to other Premier League clubs. The record attendance remains an FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
tie on 5 March 1938 against Sunderland
Sunderland A.F.C.
Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...
with the attendance being recorded at 75,038.
Plans are afoot for Tottenham Hotspur to move to a new stadium with an estimated capacity of 56,000, with the new stadium being built on the current site instead of moving from the borough of Haringey
London Borough of Haringey
The London Borough of Haringey is a London borough, in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of three former boroughs. It shares borders with six other London boroughs...
. The new stadium has been designed by KSS Design Group
KSS Design Group
KSS Design Group is a company that specialises in architecture, interior design, graphics and branding.-Notable projects:* Chelsea Village Redevelopment @ Stamford Bridge* Community Stadium, Brighton & Hove Albion FC* Tottenham Hotspur FC new stadium...
, whose other work includes Stamford Bridge
Stamford Bridge (stadium)
Stamford Bridge is a football stadium in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, West London, and is the home of Chelsea Football Club. The stadium is located within the Moore Park Estate also known as Walham Green and is often referred to as simply The Bridge...
.
History
Tottenham Hotspur moved to White Hart Lane in 1899, renovating it from a disused nurseryNursery (horticulture)
A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size. They include retail nurseries which sell to the general public, wholesale nurseries which sell only to businesses such as other nurseries and to commercial gardeners, and private nurseries which supply the needs of...
owned by the brewery chain Charringtons
Charringtons
Charrington United Breweries Ltd was an English brewery company founded in 1738 which merged with Bass in 1967.-History:Robert Westfield, a member of the Brewers' Company from 1738, owned a brewery in Bethnal Green, London, prior to 1757, when he took Joseph Moss into partnership and moved to new...
, with the help of local groundsman, John Over, into a substandard football pitch. The first game at White Hart Lane resulted in a 4–1 home win against Notts County
Notts County F.C.
Notts County Football Club are an English professional football club based in Nottingham. They are the oldest of all the clubs in the world that are now professional, having been formed in 1862. They currently play in League One of The Football League, the third tier of the English football system...
with around 5,000 supporters attending and witnessing the first game and first victory at the new ground, although referred to at the time as either High Road ground or White Hart Lane.
White Hart Lane underwent redevelopment in the early 20th century with stadium developer, Archibald Leitch
Archibald Leitch
Archibald "Offside Archie" Leitch was a Scottish architect, most famous for his work designing football stadia throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.-Early work:...
, designing a mainly square stadium seating 15,300 and incorporating a standing paddock for another 700 fans along with the famous cockerel being placed on the mock-Tudor apex at the end of the 1909–1910 season. Redevelopments continued in the 1910s, with the wooden eastern stand replaced with an enlarged concrete stadium, vastly increasing the stadium capacity to over 50,000. The ground continued to be renovated and in 1925, thanks to the FA Cup win in 1921, both the Paxton Road Stand and Park Lane Stand were enlarged and mostly covered from the elements.
The pitch was overlooked by a bronze fighting cock
Gamecock
A gamecock or game fowl is a type of rooster with physical and behavioral traits suitable for cockfighting. Game fowl are more closely related to their wild cousins "jungle fowl"; a shy wild chicken from forests in South Central and Southeastern Asia...
(the club mascot) that still keeps an eye on proceedings from the roof of the West Stand.
In the 1930s, football had a popular following, and despite Tottenham's lack of success, at the time, 75,038 spectators squeezed into White Hart Lane in March 1938 to see Spurs' performance against Sunderland
Sunderland A.F.C.
Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...
in the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
. The venue hosted some of the football
Football at the 1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Olympic Games title was won by Sweden, managed by Englishman George Raynor.-Summary:Sweden, whose Football Association forbade professionalism within domestic football, ran out as winners and only used 12 players throughout the entire tournament but there were exceptional performances put...
preliminaries for the 1948 Summer Olympics
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...
. 1953 saw the introduction of floodlights with their first use being a friendly against Racing Club de Paris in September of that year. . These were renovated again in the 1970s and steadily replaced with new technology since. By this stage, Tottenham were firmly established as one of England's best clubs which attracted some of the highest attendances in the country on a regular basis. Between 1908 and 1972, White Hart Lane was one of very few British football grounds that featured no advertising hoardings at all.
Perimeter fencing was erected between the stands and the pitch during the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
to combat the threat of pitch invasions from hooligans
Football hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
; however this was removed on 18 April 1989 for safety reasons in reaction to the Hillsborough disaster
Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989 at Hillsborough, a football stadium, the home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people, and 766 being injured, all fans of Liverpool F.C....
three days earlier, in which 96 Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
fans were fatally injured, most of them crushed to death against the perimeter fencing in an overcrowded standing area.
The West Stand was again renovated in the early 1980s, however the project took over 15 months to be completed with cost overruns having severe financial implications. This West Stand is parallel with Tottenham High Road
Tottenham High Road
Tottenham High Road is the main thoroughfare through the district of Tottenham, in the London Borough of Haringey. It runs from Edmonton in the North to Stamford Hill in the South . It follows, for the whole of its length, the course of the erstwhile Roman Road, Ermine Street...
and is connected to it by Bill Nicholson
Bill Nicholson (footballer)
William Edward "Bill" Nicholson OBE was an English football player, coach, manager and scout who devoted his life to Tottenham Hotspur in North London.-Early life:...
Way.
The early 1990s saw the completion of the South Stand (on Park Lane) and the introduction of the first Jumbotron
Jumbotron
A JumboTron is a large-screen television using technology developed by Sony, typically used in sports stadiums and concert venues to show close-up shots of the event. Although JumboTron is a registered trademark owned by the Sony Corporation, the word jumbotron is often used by the public as a...
video screen, of which there are now two, one above each penalty area. The renovation of the Members' (North) Stand which is reached via Paxton Road was completed in 1998, leaving the ground in its present form. At the turn of the millennium, after falling behind in stadium capacity, talks began over the future of White Hart Lane and Tottenham Hotspur's home. Over the years, many stadium designs and ideas were rumoured in the media. Most recently a move to Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
was ruled out by the club, as was talk of moving to the future stadium of the 2012 Olympic Games. However, ostensibly as back-up planning to the plans for a new stadium (see below), Tottenham registered interest in making use of the Olympic Stadium
Olympic Stadium (London)
The London Olympic Stadium will be the centrepiece of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The stadium is located at Marshgate Lane in Stratford in the Lower Lea Valley and has capacity for the Games of approximately 80,000 making it temporarily the third largest stadium in Britain behind...
in conjunction with AEG
Anschutz Entertainment Group
The Anschutz Entertainment Group is a sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. It is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports events, the owner of the world’s most profitable sports and entertainment venues, and under AEG Live the world's...
, owners and operators of The O2
The O2 (London)
The O2, visually typeset in branding as The O2, is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars and restaurants...
in London's Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, formerly known as the Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
.
Other uses
White Hart Lane, during the construction of WembleyWembley
Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena...
, was used to host full England international matches, such as a 2–0 defeat to Holland
Netherlands national football team
The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands...
. Since the completion of Wembley, the Lane has been sporadically used to host England Under-21's international matches in recent years, most notably a 1–1 draw against France Under-21's.
White Hart Lane also briefly hosted American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, in 1995 and 1996 as the home ground of the London Monarchs
London Monarchs
The London Monarchs were a professional American football team in NFL Europe and its predecessor league, the World League of American Football . The Monarchs played their final season in 1998 as the England Monarchs...
. Because the pitch could not accommodate a regulation-length American football field, the Monarchs received special permission from the World League to play on a 93-yard field.
It has also been used for boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, most notably the fight on 21 September 1991 where Michael Watson
Michael Watson
Michael Watson, MBE is a retired British boxer whose career ended prematurely as a result of near-fatal injury sustained in a WBO super-middleweight title fight defeat by Chris Eubank in September 1991....
collapsed with a near fatal brain injury after a fight with Chris Eubank
Chris Eubank
Chris Eubank, Lord of the Manor of Brighton is a retired British boxer who held world titles at middleweight and super middleweight...
.
Structure and facilities
The outer White Hart Lane frame is designed in a square shape, with the inner seating tiers having a more rounded-square shape to maximise the amount of seats possible within the structure. The cockerel is placed upon the West Stand, with the West Stand located on Tottenham High Road, the East Stand being on Worcester Avenue, the North Stand on Paxton Road and the South Stand on Park Lane.Park Lane and Paxton are adopted as stand names by the fans when chanting during matches, with the East stand referred to as The Shelf side, but officially the names of the stands are their compass locations.
The pitch is maintained by Stadium Grow Lighting, a series of heated lights which maintains the grass quality and also allows the grass to grow at all times of the year and in all seasons. The SGL system controls all aspects of the pitch when in use, including variables such as water intake, heat allowance, light allowance and other aspects which decrease the quality of a football pitch. The pitch is available for hire when not in matchday use, with full Premier League officials and even Jumbotron use, hoarding advertising and a DVD-quality recording of the match available along with the executive suites for weddings, birthdays and other functions.
Home and away pubs
As with most grounds and stadiums included in the English league system, the pubsPublic house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
around the stadiums are divided into home pubs and away friendly pubs for security reasons . Most pubs close to White Hart Lane are home pubs only, and The Bricklayers Arms is the most popular one with the best atmosphere . The Elmhurst is the most popular away friendly pub near the ground . There are several web services to use to find popular pubs around White Hart Lane, such as supporter fansites and Football Guides
Record scorelines
Tottenham's biggest win at the stadium came in an FA CupFA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
tie against Crewe in February 1960, with a 13-2 final score. This was also the highest aggregate score seen at the stadium. The club's biggest defeats at the venue were 0-6 scores in Division One
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
, firstly against Sunderland on 19 December 1914 and later against Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
on 6 March 1935.
Future
It was announced on 30 October 2008 that Tottenham are going to develop on the current site and also to the north where they have purchased land, creating a 56,000-seater stadiumNorthumberland Development Project
The Northumberland Development Project is a project to build a football stadium which will replace White Hart Lane as the home stadium of Tottenham Hotspur. The stadium is intended to have a capacity of 56,250 spectators. The development plans also include 200 homes, a 150-room hotel, a supermarket...
, with the White Hart Lane name likely to be abandoned in favour of a sponsorship link. The new area will include leisure facilities, shops, housing, a club museum, public space which can be used as a temporary ice rink and also a new base for the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. On 26 October 2009, the club submitted their planning application, hoping to start work on the new ground in 2010 and to be playing in it come 2012. Haringey Council approved the club's application on 30 September 2010 and the plans were referred to English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, the Mayor of London
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
and the Secretary of State
Secretary of State (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, a Secretary of State is a Cabinet Minister in charge of a Government Department ....
for a final decision. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
, has since approved the plans.
Possible relocation
There have been a number of plans in the past for relocation. The first, revealed in 2001, was to relocate to the 43,000-seat stadium at Pickett's LockPicketts Lock
Pickett's Lock or Picketts Lock is an area of Edmonton, in the London Borough of Enfield. It is bordered by River Lee Navigation to the east, Pickett's Lock Lane to the south, Meridian Way A1055 to the west and the Ponders End industrial area to the north...
which was being planned for the 2005 World Athletics Championships
2005 World Championships in Athletics
The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland , the site of the first IAAF World Championships in 1983. One theme of the 2005 championships was paralympic sports, some of...
as the centerpiece of London's
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...
bid to host the games; however the games were awarded to Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, instead. However, the plans for Tottenham to move to this site were looking unlikely by October 2001 as expansion now appeared to be the club's preferred option.Over the next few years various other schemes were mooted, including a relocation to the rebuilt Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
(which opened in 2007)and even to the stadium
Olympic Park, London
The Olympic Park in London is a new sporting complex currently under construction, adjacent to the Stratford City development in Stratford, Bow, Leyton & Homerton in East London for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics....
being built for the 2012 Olympic Games
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
, which Tottenham had planned to rebuild it as a football-only stadium.In 2003, there was also talk that Tottenham would ground-share with Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
at their new Emirates Stadium
Emirates Stadium
Ashburton Grove, currently known as the Emirates Stadium, is a UEFA elite football stadium which is home to Arsenal FC, where they moved from Highbury in 2006. It has an current capacity of 60,361, and there have been rumours of an expansion...
from its completion in 2006.
Transport
| London Buses | Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 149 London Buses route 149 London Buses route 149 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Arriva London.-History:... , 259, 279 London Buses route 279 London Buses route 279 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Arriva London.-History:... , 349 |
| London Underground | 1.4 mile walk Seven Sisters Seven Sisters station Seven Sisters station is a National Rail and London Underground Victoria Line station in the Seven Sisters area of the London Borough of Haringey, north London.The station is in Travelcard Zone 3....  |
| National Rail | 0.2 mile walk 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... 0.5 mile walk Northumberland Park Northumberland Park railway station Northumberland Park railway station is located in Northumberland Park, London, United Kingdom. The stations and all trains servicing it are operated by National Express East Anglia.-Overview:... |
White Hart Lane has the benefit of being close to White Hart Lane railway station
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...
which allows fans to use public transport. The location of the stadium, in Greater London, means that the area close to the stadium is regularly serviced by many different bus routes and services.
External links
- Tottenham Hotspur – official site
- Stadium History
- Picture Gallery White Hart Lane on londonfootballguide.com
- Atmosphere at White Hart Lane on footballmatch.de
- First match at White Hart Lane Retrieved 13 March 2009
- http://footballaway.co.uk/uk/component/jreviews/search-results/query:all/dir:11/scope:title/keywords:tottenham/order:alpha List all available pubs near White Hart Lane