Borough in London, England
Haringey
The world's first regular high-definition TV service began here in 1936, and today the borough hosts NFL games on a surface hidden beneath a sliding grass pitch.
Key information
- County
- Greater London (north London)
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 264,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- About 30 square kilometres
- Known for
- Tottenham Hotspur, Alexandra Palace, Green Lanes, the birthplace of regular TV broadcasting
- What locals are called
- Haringey residents; Tottenham football fans are Spurs supporters
- Famous people
- Ray Davies, Bernie Grant, David Lammy
- Football clubs
- Tottenham Hotspur
About Haringey
The borough that invented the evening in front of the telly
On 2 November 1936, the BBC began the world's first regular high-definition television service from Alexandra Palace, on a hill above Wood Green and Muswell Hill. Two rival systems were tried out in alternating weeks, Baird's and Marconi-EMI's. The Marconi-EMI system won, and the Baird system was dropped. The building has had a dramatic life. The Palace opened in 1873 as 'the People's Palace' and burned down just sixteen days later. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1875. Today the mast still stands on the roof and the 'Ally Pally' hilltop is one of the best viewpoints in London.
Why Tottenham's football club is named after a medieval rebel
Tottenham Hotspur was founded in 1882 by schoolboys from the Hotspur Cricket Club. The name nods to Harry Hotspur, Sir Henry Percy, the fiery knight of Shakespeare's Henry IV, whose family held land in Tottenham. The club has a long list of firsts. In 1901 Spurs, then a non-league side, won the FA Cup, a feat no non-league club has matched since. In 1961 they became the first team of the twentieth century to win the league and FA Cup double. In 1963 they became the first British club to win a European trophy, the Cup Winners' Cup. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium opened in 2019 on the site of the old White Hart Lane. Its grass football pitch slides away to reveal an artificial surface underneath, so the ground can stage NFL games as well as football.
Green Lanes and the best kebab argument in London
Green Lanes, running through Harringay and Wood Green, is one of London's great food streets. It is lined with Turkish, Kurdish and Cypriot restaurants, grill houses and bakeries, and locals have strong opinions about which ocakbasi (charcoal grill) is best. Elsewhere in the borough, Crouch End and Muswell Hill have a cafe-and-bookshop village feel, while Tottenham has a growing number of craft breweries and taprooms. The stadium itself has a brewpub run by Beavertown.
A borough stitched together in 1965
Haringey as we know it dates from 1965, when the old boroughs of Hornsey, Wood Green and Tottenham were merged. They were very different places. Hornsey and Muswell Hill were leafy Victorian and Edwardian suburbs. Tottenham was an older, more industrial neighbour with a long riverside history along the Lee Valley. That contrast still defines the area. Highgate Wood and Queen's Wood are ancient woodland remnants, and Finsbury Park and Alexandra Park are big green spaces nearby. The east side has the reservoirs, marshes and warehouses of the Lee Valley, and Tottenham Hale has grown into a new high-rise district. Haringey also has a record of political activism. Bernie Grant, elected as Tottenham's MP in 1987, was one of the first Black MPs in modern Britain. David Lammy has held the seat since 2000.
Rock, penny post and boxing for the masses
The Kinks formed in Muswell Hill, and Ray and Dave Davies grew up there. Their 1971 album 'Muswell Hillbillies' is named for the area. Bruce Castle in Tottenham is a Tudor-era manor house that later became a school run by the family of Rowland Hill, the man behind the Penny Post. It is now a museum with postal history collections. Haringey's history also includes the Harringay Arena, built in 1936, which hosted boxing, ice hockey and Billy Graham's 1954 evangelistic crusade. The nearby Harringay Stadium was well known for greyhound racing and speedway. Nearby, the Harringay Ladder takes its nickname from the ladder-like layout of parallel residential streets between Green Lanes and Wightman Road.