Tottenham Green and Tottenham Green East

Tottenham High Road dates from Roman times when it formed part of the route of Ermine Street, the main highway out of the City of London to Lincoln and York in the north of the country, although the present High Road dates from the C16th when it was realigned to avoid the occasionally flooding Moselle River. As a result of the importance of this route to and from London, hamlets, houses and coaching inns grew up at points along its way, although much of the surrounding area was farmland until housing development took place in the C19th. Tottenham itself is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 with a settlement around Tottenham Green, but almost certainly dated back to pre-Norman times. It centred on Tottenham High Cross, a wooden cross by the road for which there are records from 1409. The High Cross was repaired in 1809, when it was covered in stucco. During the C15th well-to-do people began building country residences here. Abraham Reynardson, a wealthy merchant who became Lord Mayor of London in 1648 and who was Master of the Merchant Taylors Company and Governor of the East India Company, bought an existing house overlooking Tottenham Green in 1639, and his son Nicholas later founded almshouses nearby. Reynardson's House was later demolished in 1810.

Tottenham Green and Tottenham Green East are two triangular plots flanking the High Road. The former commonland was described by William Robinson in 1840 as 'a large open space enclosed with posts and rails, and surrounded by many excellent family residences. The lately erected chapel of ease Trinity chapel, stands on the north side...'. Holy Trinity Church by James Savage was built in 1828-30 on part of the Green where there was once a large pond, which was partially filled when the church was built. The remainder was infilled in 1837 when the Green Sunday and Infants School was erected, so named because of the colour of the uniforms. The High Cross Pump was originally a well sunk in 1791 by the Lord of the Manor, Thomas Smith, to replace an earlier well to the west. In 1859 the Board of Health provided a drinking fountain with a conical roof and pump in place of the well but its water was declared to be unfit to drink in 1883, it was subsequently surrounded by decorative railings. In 1892 a fire station originally in the form of a hut was situated next to the pump, but by 1905 a small building had been erected. Tottenham Green, like many commons, was used for cricket and football, and was also the location where the Tournament of Tottenham was held.

Tottenham Green, also known as Trinity Church Common, was enclosed with railings and laid out as a public garden in a scheme for the unemployed, possibly pre-1906 and certainly by 1913. The ground level was raised and contoured in parts, curving paths laid out, shrubs beds created and new trees planted. A group of brick and stone buildings on the west side, built in 1905, included the former Town Hall, Fire Station and Public Baths. A War Memorial comprising a bronze figure of a winged female Victory was erected on the Green in 1923. Sculpted by L F Roslyn (1878-1940) the figure is set on a tall granite pedestal, and is identical to those found at Darwen (1921) and Oswaldtwistle (1922) in Lancashire. After WW2 and pre-1954 Tottenham Green was partly re-landscaped with a formal scheme focused on the War Memorial. By 1967 a formal pond had been constructed and although the structure for this remains it was later filled in for use as a planter. Today Tottenham Green has undulating turfed terrain with scattered trees including London plane, oak, hawthorn, Sorbus, Robinia pseudoacacia, Irish yew, Prunus, Lombardy poplar, Ilex altaclarensis, and lime. Much of the east boundary has clipped privet hedge with railings to the north, south and east and curving paths cross the site.

Tottenham Green East was for a time known as Hospital Common, referring to the Deaconesses' Hospital to the east that was established in 1868 and became Tottenham Hospital in 1899. In 1907 it was re-named the Prince of Wales General Hospital, which closed in the 1980s and in 1993 was converted into flats, named Deaconess Court. Today Tottenham Green East has some formal beds, a circular former rosebed now has 3 or 4 trees planted in it, and two formal display beds. In the centre Haringey Peace Garden was created in 1985 when part of the site was dedicated with a plaque to Olof Paume, Swedish Prime Minister. Trees on Tottenham Green East include C19th plane, black poplar and horse chestnut trees, and C20th lime and horse chestnut.

The Friends of Tottenham Green was set up by local people c. 2013 in order to give the community a real say in the future of their local open spaces east and west of the High Road, and surrounding facilities.