Former name(s) | Berry Lane |
---|---|
Length | 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) |
Location | Haringey, London |
Postal code | N17 & N22 |
Coordinates |
Wood Green 51°35′50″N 0°06′35″W / 51.5971878°N 0.1097238°WCoordinates: 51°35′50″N 0°06′35″W / 51.5971878°N 0.1097238°W Tottenham High Road 51°35′55″N 0°04′06″W / 51.5985856°N 0.0682005°W |
Lordship Lane connects Wood Green (N22) with Tottenham High Road (N17). It lies in the London Borough of Haringey and forms part of the A109 road.
Wood Green was originally a clearing in the dense forests of oak, ash and beech that covered most of what is now North London. There were a number of these clearings in the vicinity and each is likely to have been the site of a few simple habitations. Lordship Lane would have begun as a track running through the forest from the clearing at Wood Green to Ermine Street, the main Roman road from London to the north east.
During the 1000 years before the Norman Conquest, the county of Middlesex was established and divided into administrative areas called Hundreds. Lordship Lane was in Edmonton Hundred. The importance of the Hundred in local government declined as that of the Manor grew. Manors were estates controlled by a landowner called the Lord of the Manor. Tottenham’s manor house is on Lordship Lane. It is called Bruce Castle.
By 1619 (the date of the first known map) the land to the north and south of Lordship Lane had been cleared of woodland and was mostly in cultivation. On this map the majority of the lane (from Chapmans Green to Tottenham High Road) is called Berry Lane although its modern name was recorded in 1526.
In 1904 tram tracks were laid to connect Wood Green with Tottenham. These followed Lordship Lane as far as Bruce Castle. Between 1936 and 1939 the tram was replaced by trolleybuses. In 1961 these were in turn replaced by diesel buses.