Little Russia, Tottenham, London

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An area of Tottenham, London, UK on the borough boundary with Edmonton, mainly comprising Pretoria Road, Durban Road and Lorenco Road (situated west of the railway line between Silver Street and White Hart Lane) that was commonly known as "Little Russia". This name evolved from the large number of Russian immigrants who settled there after fleeing the 1917 Russian Revolution. It developed into one of the toughest areas of North London and the local constabulary usually only policed the area in twos. An inexperienced PC who ventured into the area alone in 1938 or thereabouts was unceremoniously stuffed head-first into a drainhole by local yobs.

The area was mostly redeveloped in the 1970s.

[edit] Literature

An Edmonton Boy by Terry Webb ISBN 190398100X Published 2000 by Biograph.Chapter 1 Life at Home. Page 1 My mother came out of Tottenham, out of road called Lorenco Road (now gone). Now that had the nickname of "Little Russia" - why it had that name I don't know, but it was the roughest area. A lot of costermongers lived down there and the barrow boys and the fruit and vegetable people and they nearly all had horses and carts. The area was completely terraced, one end went into Pretoria Road,Tottenham and the other end went into Queen Street. There was an old pub there called the"Sun and Compass". It's still there and they tell me that they used to take their horses through the house and keep them in the back garden'