Playing away from home not good for Tottenham by Spurs

White Hart Lane

As the political classes and the media camp-out in the epi-centre of the London riots in Tottenham, l have to admit that l’ve only travelled up to Tottenham once a year for a certain fixture at White Hart Lane – Spurs Vs Man Utd. Now that may well be good enough for me as an away fan but residents of Tottenham need their area to offer them a lot more and if Spurs leave Tottenham, then the area will be losing a major asset which places it on the map and perhaps the only attraction which it has to offer those of us from other parts of town.

While the club is probably the biggest private land owner in Tottenham, it also has a CEO Daniel Levy, actively pursuing moving the club elsewhere shown by their Olympic bid and its subsequent legal challenge of the OPLC decision to negotiate with West Ham. What seems to be troubling the club are the transport links to the ground, or more accurately, the lack of good links especially by tube. So what’s the problem with extending the Victoria line to Northumberland Park? The depot for the tubes along the Victoria line actually go pass the side of the ground at Northumberland Park. The sticking point with this option appears to be the cost and logistics of a footbridge which could accommodate the huge numbers from the side of the station to the stadium on match days especially evenings.

However, not long ago, the LDA provided for a footbridge over Wembley Stadium rail station to get to the new Stadium at a cost of about £11 million so why can’t something similar be done to plug the gap in funding for a footbridge at Northumberland Park? This I believe, would be a small price to pay to keep the club in its neighbourhood, which without it, would suffer a huge gap in its urban fabric. Otherwise we are in danger of seeing Tottenham being lost on the map of London, losing its historic identity and becoming more renowned for the riots and looting of 2011.

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