Tottenham
Tottenham
For many people, Tottenham is intrinsically linked with the football team that shares its name and the impressive stadium that sits in the neighbourhood. If you’re not a Spurs fan – or heading to the stadium for an NFL game or a concert – there’s loads more to keep you busy in this part of north London.
If you’re partial to a pint, there’s plenty of places to get one in Tottenham. The area is home to a number of great breweries, like Beavertown and Pressure Drop, which have taprooms where you can get the beer fresh from the tanks (Beavertown even has a microbrewery inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium). Or you can head to one of the many pubs in N17, including The Antwerp Arms, the first-community owned pub in the whole of north London, and The Bluecoats, which also boasts Ling Ling’s in the kitchen.
Want something a little more lively than the pub? A night out at Drumsheds will do the trick. Formerly home to IKEA, the site is now a huge warehouse nightclub that plays host to a range of DJs and artists, including Skepta and Jammer, Bicep, Sugababes, Fatboy Slim, The Blessed Madonna, The Chemical Brothers and Craig David.
If you prefer a slightly slower pace of life, Tottenham is home to lots of green spaces where you can connect with nature. There are the sprawling Tottenham Marshes, one of the largest open spaces in Haringey, to Bruce Castle Park, with Bruce Castle Museum tracing the borough’s history.
After a series of sell-out supper clubs, Genevieve Sparrow took Pasero from pop-up to permanent by opening it as a restaurant and wine bar in Tottenham. Pasero, named after the Esperanto word for Genevieve’s surname, runs week-long as a cafe and deli by day before flipping into a restaurant from Wednesday – Sunday. That’s when guest chefs come in to take over the space – the likes of GrillBird (doing yakitori and Japanese small plates), Diamantis Kalogiannidis (doing modern Greek food) and Lucy Timm (doing Middle Eastern and North African flavours) have already passed through the kitchen.
Seven Sisters is a real hub for Latin American food and Blankita is one of the best. The Colombian spot serves up home-cooked comfort food, including sancocho soup, bandeja paisa, chicharron with rice & plantain, frijoles, and beef empanadas, and in proper portions too. Don’t miss the fresh soursop and carrot juice either.
Broadwick Live, the team behind Printworks, Beams and Manchester’s Depot Mayfield, took over the old IKEA site in Meridian Water in 2023 and turned into its biggest venue yet. The 608,000 sq ft, 15,000 capacity Drumsheds nightclub is the ultimate warehouse space and has played host to the likes of Skepta and Jammer, Bicep, Hercules & Love Affair, Sugababes, Chase & Status, Bonobo, Elrow, Fatboy Slim, The Blessed Madonna, The Chemical Brothers and Craig David. With epic lighting and production tech, it makes for the one of the best places to experience music in London.
Formerly the Pride of Tottenham, a pub you’d avoid unless you wanted things to get a bit tasty on matchdays, The Bluecoats is now somewhere you’d actually want to go for pint. The team behind Night Tales is responsible for the new look, including 20 lines of craft, keg and cask beer and Ling Ling’s in the kitchen.
Back in 2013 these guys were brewing from a back garden in Hackney and now they up in Tottenham producing a whopping 10,000 litres of the good stuff every week. Why Do You Always Do This is the name of their mango coconut sour, a great bev to see in the weekend with. It’s sweet, tropical and brings the sunshine. We also love the Alligator Tugboat, a West Coast-style IPA with a label inspired by the East London streets. Talk about a winning combo. Pressure Drop is making waves in the industry and we’re here for it.
As one of the largest open spaces in Haringey, it’s a popular spot for dog walkers, joggers and locals looking to spend a bit more time out in nature. The 100-acre marshes have changed a lot over the last century – once floodplain for the River Lee, it was home to tennis courts and outdoor lido in the 1920s, before being used as landfill after WW2. Now part of Lee Valley Park, the marshes are home to a range of birds, voles, and fruit trees. It’s a great place for a picnic on a sunny day but there’s also a cafe in the middle of the marshes if you don’t fancy packing up your own food.
Named after the late Bernie Grant, the MP for the area who envisioned the creation of a flagship performing arts centre to house diverse artists and audiences, the Bernie Grant Arts Centre is a multi-art venue that includes a 250-seat auditorium, a gallery, rehearsal studios, creative workspaces and a cafe. BGAC works to make the arts and creative industries more accessible by providing a space for Black-led work and Black artists to thrive. The Centre hosts everything from theatre productions and music performances to dance classes for children.
In 2015, the Antwerp Arms (aka the Annie) in Tottenham became the first community-owned pub in the whole of north London (though the site has been a pub, under various different names, serving locals since the 19th century). When the building was put of for sale and threatened with redevelopment, a successful campaign got it listed as an Asset of Community Value and then it was purchased by the local community. Close to White Hart Lane, the pub’s been a popular spot with Spurs fans but there’s a lot for non-footy followers to love too, including real ales from local brewery Redemption and a pub grub menu from That Cook Shop.
After a host of successful pop-ups, winning a Young British Foodie award and smashing a crowdfunding campaign, siblings Ifeyinwa and Emeka Frederick opened Chuku’s in Tottenham in 2020. The restaurant serves up Nigerian tapas, with a backdrop of contemporary art and an afrobeats soundtrack designed to give you a little taste of Lagos. The menu includes jollof quinoa, moi moi, suya meatballs, caramel kuli kuli wings, egusi bowl, banga prawns and plantain waffles, alongside Nigerian beers, palm wine & coconut cocktails and spiced hibiscus iced tea.
If you’re looking for somewhere to watch Spurs, The Beehive is pretty hard to beat. The pub shows a range of sports but the atmsophere on Tottenham matchdays is top and there are screens throughout the venue so you won’t miss a kick. Bruce Stove Kitchen serves up a menu of pub grub classics, including roasts on Sundays, and they’ve got a dartboard and a pool table inside if you wanna make your own entertainment. The large beer garden is also a great spot to be when the sun is out.
Just a little further away from the main thoroughfare of Turkish and Kurdish restaurants that is Green Lanes, Durak Tantuni is a small, late-night spot specialising in the Turkish street food of the same name. Tantuni is the only thing on the menu here, a dürüm bread wrap filled with chopped beef flavoured with parsley, raw onions, and sumac. Durak Tantuni is credited with being the first to bring the wraps to London (if they do say so themselves) and has certainly perfected their recipe, having been operating out of their West Green Road site for more than 20 years. They’re open all day (from 12pm until 2am), so whether you’re after a quick lunch or a post-pub snack, Durak Tantuni has your back.
Beavertown and craft beer are pretty much synonymous – so much so that Beavertown is practically a household name. And with beers that are as distinctive as their branding, it’s no surprise they’re often the beer aficionado’s go-to. Neck Oil is almost as common as tap water these days, and that’s because it’s Tasty with a capital T. The brewery has Tottenham origins, so this is where you’ll have to go to visit the taproom, an essential stop on the Tottenham Beer Mile (which is good enough to rival the Bermondsey Beer Mile, if you’re asking). It’s got lots of indoor seating, an upstairs space with a full view of the brewery, a fully covered outside drinking area, and most importantly, eleven taps of the good stuff.