Tottenham and Middlesex

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Irrelevant. We were in that part of London and they moved into it, just down the road. If gooners are actually using this as an argument then I pity them more so than I've done in the past.
 
Tottenham has always had a London postcode and fallen within the jurisdiction of London County Council (precursor of the GLC and now the London Assembly) - pre 1947, I think it was known as Tottenham, London N - no post codes back in them days. When the Post Office divvied up London as it expanded post war, those N, S, E and W postal addresses added numbers and letters to aid mail delivery. In fact "S" disappeared completely and was shunted off to Sheffield replaced with SW and SE. Tottenham has never been part of Middlesex's jurisdiction though rumour has it that we fielded 2nd XI teams in the Middlesex Senior Cup in the late 1800's. Parts of Edmonton have been in Middx and everything north of the historic A406 boundary were. Middlesex, as county council ceased to really exist even before 1965 with the key big towns in the old county (Hounslow, Enfield, Brentford, Wembley, Hillingdon etc) being absorbed into London Boroughs.

Any Goon clinging on to this as a valid reason to debunk their franchise origins is even sadder than the rest of them.

From an ex - Post Office worker!
 
We haven't moved anywhere,but the boundries have changed. Before 1965 Tottenham was in Middlesex, however was Middlesex classed as one of the home counties and NOT North London or was Middlesex IN North London? I don't know tbh.

we've always had the London post code n17.... the greater London postcode!!!... our parent foundation was the London f.a... Woolwich/dial squares parent f.a was kent f.a fact

& this... please read through it states we're a London club somewhere. The Romance Of Football

the history of Tottenham Hotspur 1882 - 1921

This is a link to an e-book version of an account of our early history and is a wonderful read.

it covers almost everything that happened back then.

the weekly herald paper the local rag, were the first place that the spurs match reports appeared.

we owe them a great debt for chronographing the clubs early years, and they continued to do so until the paper ceased publication in the early 1980s

some may have seen this link before as i posted it on the other board, but to those who havent, it will tell the story of what happened back then,

heres the link

please enjoy

http://www.spurshistory.com/
 
why do people go onto gooner forums anyway - this is a serious question. Personally, I can't abide anything to do with them, and don't give a monkey's about their opinions, views, etc - I can't even stand seeing their kit, it makes me cringe!
 
Spooky's nailed it...boundaries move all the time, fact is we've been where we are now throughout that period, same area whether it's classed as Middlesex, NL or fucking East Timbuktu - not like we've moved across the city like certain other nomads
 
My Grandfather who was born, bred and died in Totteham in 1968 had lived there for 88 years always maintained that Tottenham a team he obviously supported and followed all his life was always a ‘proper’ Middlesex club and always said that it only ever started being called a London club in the fifties when games started to be filmed and it was just that by then no one seemed to know after the war where middlesex boundries started and ended. For whatever reason, he never liked the club being called a ‘London Club’. But I guess all this has been obscured for decades now and the reality is it means little. Tottenham is now as far removed from the North London I knew as a kid as the docklands is to the Olympic stadium.
 
See where you got the 1965 thing, the creation of what became known as Greater London. But think Tottenham was already recognised as part of London since 1889. Tbh it's all a bit desperate, surrounding areas like that have been part of London in real terms for hundreds of years
 
I've kind of stayed out of this, since it's a rather silly thing for the Wanderers to be bringing up, and I'm not exactly a pro at the history of London. Basically all I know is that the government was always playing catchup with figuring out what London actually is. Until 1965, that is.

So instead, I decided to have a peep at some old newspapers and see what they have to say about "Middlesex's Tottenham Hotspur".

First, we competed for the London Cup, which is what makes up a lot of the articles from the 1880s and 1890s when I search for "Tottenham Hotspur" and "London". As do our matches against London Welsh. But there's over 1600 hits on both search terms between 1884 and 1900, so I narrowed it down to "Tottenham Hotspur" and "Londoner". This yielded 13 hits, but in none of them did the "Londoner" refer to our club. Usually it was in an entirely different part of the article, often a sports omnibus that included boxing (where they'd refer to a fighter as "the Londoner".

Considering our second division status for much of this era, I should not be surprised that we don't get much press other than a result printed. If you want to know what they looked like, here are a few examples:
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I'm a big proponent of "The Hotspur" as a nickname. "The ’Spurs" less so, though people should perhaps pause in mocking Americans for calling the club "The Spurs," as London papers did so 120 years ago.

Finally, apparently it was dangerous to be a footballer back then:
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Middlesex was in London: I know cause I was born there and watched Spurs from 6 years onwards. Spurs is as much a part of London as anyone else!!

no!!.. London was the county town of Middlesex!.. the southern boundary of Middlesex was the river thames
the name derives from "middle Saxons" goes back to when king Alfred trashed the Vikings
 
I want to get some clarification on this. Were we not a North London club until 1965? And does that mean Woolwich were a North London club before us? I was looking this stuff up, but I can only really find stuff on it from Woolwich blogs. Hoping a Yiddo more clued up on our history can impart their knowledge.

Cheers.
 
Cheers guys. Like I said, the only source of this information I could find was from Gooner blogs, and I wasn't going to take what those classless mongs said without a massive handful of salt.
 
We haven't moved anywhere,but the boundries have changed. Before 1965 Tottenham was in Middlesex, however was Middlesex classed as one of the home counties and NOT North London or was Middlesex IN North London? I don't know tbh.
 
Does anyone know how far along White Hart Lane our original ground was?

Only reason is that I actually live only about a mile from White Hart Lane now... but it's a fecking long road.
 
The City of London was geographically located in Middlesex (and was bounded by the hundred of Ossulstone to the west, north and east) but was essentially independent of the county for most purposes.

If the City was in Middlesex then where the fuck actually was London?! :naughton:
 
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