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White Hart Lane

G

ghod

Fraizer Campbell
One for all the Historians (or Geographers ?)

How did our ground get its name when its not on White Hart Lane.

I could understand Paxton Road, Worcester Ave, Park Lane or at a pinch High Road, but the actual WHL is about 3 streets away.
 
What is now called Bill Nicholson Way was originally White Hart Yard. The name of the ground was probably a convolution of that and the nearby (and much more well-known) Lane.
 
I heard it was because to access the ground you had to go through the White Hart pub, and therefore the name just stuck.
 
I can well believe White Hart Yard was so named because of the pub being there (the land the ground was built on was all owned by Charrington's brewery as well, I think). "You have to go through the pub" sounds like it was probably just a well-used excuse to me, though :)
 
When the club wanted to move from Northumberland Park, the land next to the White Hart pub obviously caught their attention. They agreed a lease with Charrington's and later bought the land. The landlord wanted a football team to draw customers to his pub. Says in my history book it was known as 'The High Road Ground' early on and the club also considered the name 'Percy Park'. Somehow it ended up as White Hart Lane.
 
mudshark said:
I can well believe White Hart Yard was so named because of the pub being there (the land the ground was built on was all owned by Charrington's brewery as well, I think). "You have to go through the pub" sounds like it was probably just a well-used excuse to me, though :)
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Jordinho said:
When the club wanted to move from Northumberland Park, the land next to the White Hart pub obviously caught their attention. They agreed a lease with Charrington's and later bought the land. The landlord wanted a football team to draw customers to his pub. Says in my history book it was known as 'The High Road Ground' early on and the club also considered the name 'Percy Park'. Somehow it ended up as White Hart Lane.
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This the correct, I believe. There was an old nursery behind the pub, owned by the brewery, and this was leased and converted to the football ground. The club bought the ground a few years later (ca 1906?). I think something like Gilpin Park was another potential name.
 
The White Hart was the personal badge of Richard II. Ironically the Earl of Northumberland was instrumental in his overthrow and in allowing Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV) to succeed. 'Hotspur' is a reference to Henry Percy, the said earl's eldest son. Both the earl and Hotspur were killed when defeated by Henry Bolingbroke's army when they rebelled at the Battle of Shrewsbury. So our club has many associations with these aspects of late 14th and early 15th century history.
 
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