White Hart Lane

White Hart Lane is an all-seater football stadium in Tottenham, London, England. Built in 1899, it is the home of Tottenham Hotspur and, after numerous renovations, the stadium has a capacity of 36,230.

Along with housing Tottenham, the stadium, which is known amongst fans as the Lane, has also been selected for England national football matches and England under-21 football matches. White Hart Lane held capacity records in the early 1960s with numbers entering the 70,000s but as seating increased in popularity, the stadium has leveled out to a modest number in relation to other Premier League clubs. The record attendance remains an FA Cup tie on 5 March 1938 against Sunderland with the attendance being recorded at 75,038.

Plans are afoot for Tottenham to move to a new stadium with an estimated capacity of 56,000, with the new stadium being built on the current site instead of moving from the borough of Haringey. The new stadium has been designed by KSS Design Group, whose other work includes Stamford Bridge.

History
Tottenham Hotspur moved to White Hart Lane in 1899, renovating it from a disused nursery owned by the brewery chain Charringtons, with the help of local groundsman, John Over, into a substandard football pitch. The first game at White Hart Lane resulted in a 4–1 home win against Notts County with around 5,000 supporters attending and witnessing the first game and first victory at the new ground, although referred to at the time as either High Road ground or White Hart Lane.

White Hart Lane underwent redevelopment in the early 20th century with stadium developer, Archibald Leitch, designing a mainly square stadium seating 15,300 and incorporating a standing paddock for another 700 fans along with the famous cockerel being placed on the mock-Tudor apex at the end of the 1909–1910 season. Redevelopments continued in the 1910s, with the wooden eastern stand replaced with an enlarged concrete stadium, vastly increasing the stadium capacity to over 50,000. The ground continued to be renovated and in 1925, thanks to the FA Cup win in 1921, both the Paxton Road Stand and Park Lane Stand were enlarged and mostly covered from the elements.

The pitch was overlooked by a bronze fighting cock (the club mascot) that still keeps an eye on proceedings from the roof of the West Stand.

In the 1930s, football had a popular following, and despite Tottenham's lack of success, at the time, 75,038 spectators squeezed into White Hart Lane in March 1938 to see Spurs' performance against Sunderland in the FA Cup. The venue hosted some of the football preliminaries for the 1948 Summer Olympics. 1953 saw the introduction of floodlights with their first use being a friendly against Racing Club de Paris in September of that year. . These were renovated again in the 1970s and steadily replaced with new technology since. By this stage, Tottenham were firmly established as one of England's best clubs which attracted some of the highest attendances in the country on a regular basis. Between 1908 and 1972, White Hart Lane was one of very few British football grounds that featured no advertising hoardings at all.

Perimeter fencing was erected between the stands and the pitch during the 1970s to combat the threat of pitch invasions from hooligans; however this was removed on 18 April 1989 for safety reasons in reaction to the Hillsborough disaster three days earlier, in which 96 Liverpool fans were fatally injured, most of them crushed to death against the perimeter fencing in an overcrowded standing area.

The West Stand was again renovated in the early 1980s, however the project took over 15 months to be completed with cost overruns having severe financial implications. This West Stand is parallel with Tottenham High Road and is connected to it by Bill Nicholson Way. The early 1990s saw the completion of the South Stand (on Park Lane) and the introduction of the first Jumbotron video screen, of which there are now two, one above each penalty area. The renovation of the Members' (North) Stand which is reached via Paxton Road was completed in 1998, leaving the ground in its present form. At the turn of the millennium, after falling behind in stadium capacity, talks began over the future of White Hart Lane and Tottenham Hotspur's home. Over the years, many stadium designs and ideas were rumoured in the media. Most recently a move to Wembley Stadium was ruled out by the club, as was talk of moving to the future stadium of the 2012 Olympic Games. However, ostensibly as back-up planning to the plans for a new stadium (see below), Tottenham registered interest in making use of the Olympic Stadium in conjunction with AEG, owners and operators of The O2 in London's Greenwich, formerly known as the Millennium Dome.

Other uses
White Hart Lane, during the construction of Wembley Stadium, was used to host full England international matches, such as a 2–0 defeat to Holland. Since the completion of Wembley, the Lane has been sporadically used to host England Under-21's international matches in recent years, most notably a 1–1 draw against France Under-21's.

White Hart Lane also briefly hosted American football, in 1995 and 1996 as the home ground of the London Monarchs. Because the pitch could not accommodate a regulation-length American football field, the Monarchs received special permission from the World League to play on a 93-yard field.

It has also been used for boxing, most notably the fight on 21 September 1991 where Michael Watson collapsed with a near fatal brain injury after a fight with Chris Eubank.

Structure and facilities
The outer White Hart Lane frame is designed in a square shape, with the inner seating tiers having a more rounded-square shape to maximise the amount of seats possible within the structure. The cockerel is placed upon the West Stand, with the West Stand located on Tottenham High Road, the East Stand being on Worcester Avenue, the North Stand on Paxton Road and the South Stand on Park Lane.

Park Lane and Paxton are adopted as stand names by the fans when chanting during matches, with the East stand referred to as The Shelf side, but officially the names of the stands are their compass locations.

The pitch is maintained by Stadium Grow Lighting, a series of heated lights which maintains the grass quality and also allows the grass to grow at all times of the year and in all seasons. The SGL system controls all aspects of the pitch when in use, including variables such as water intake, heat allowance, light allowance and other aspects which decrease the quality of a football pitch. The pitch is available for hire when not in matchday use, with full Premier League officials and even Jumbotron use, hoarding advertising and a DVD-quality recording of the match available along with the executive suites for weddings, birthdays and other functions.

Home and away pubs
As with most grounds and stadiums included in the English league system, the pubs around the stadiums are divided into home pubs and away friendly pubs for security reasons. Most pubs close to White Hart Lane are home pubs only, and The Bricklayers Arms is the most popular one with the best atmosphere. The Elmhurst is the most popular away friendly pub near the ground. There are several web services to use to find popular pubs around White Hart Lane, such as supporter fansites and Football Guides

Record scorelines
Tottenham's biggest win at the stadium came in an FA Cup tie against Crewe in February 1960, with a 13-2 final score. This was also the highest aggregate score seen at the stadium. The club's biggest defeats at the venue were 0-6 scores in Division One, firstly against Sunderland on 19 December 1914 and later against Arsenal on 6 March 1935.

Future
It was announced on 30 October 2008 that Tottenham are going to develop on the current site and also to the north where they have purchased land, creating a 56,000-seater stadium, with the White Hart Lane name likely to be abandoned in favour of a sponsorship link. The new area will include leisure facilities, shops, housing, a club museum, public space which can be used as a temporary ice rink and also a new base for the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. On 26 October 2009, the club submitted their planning application, hoping to start work on the new ground in 2010 and to be playing in it come 2012. Haringey Council approved the club's application on 30 September 2010 and the plans were referred to English Heritage, the Mayor of London and the Secretary of State for a final decision. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has since approved the plans.

Possible relocation
There have been a number of plans in the past for relocation. The first, revealed in 2001, was to relocate to the 43,000-seat stadium at Pickett's Lock which was being planned for the 2005 World Athletics Championships as the centerpiece of London's bid to host the games; however the games were awarded to Helsinki, Finland, instead. However, the plans for Tottenham to move to this site were looking unlikely by October 2001 as expansion now appeared to be the club's preferred option. Over the next few years various other schemes were mooted, including a relocation to the rebuilt Wembley Stadium (which opened in 2007) and even to the stadium being built for the 2012 Olympic Games, which Tottenham had planned to rebuild it as a football-only stadium. In 2003, there was also talk that Tottenham would ground-share with Arsenal at their new Emirates Stadium from its completion in 2006.

Transport
White Hart Lane has the benefit of being close to White Hart Lane railway station which allows fans to use public transport. The location of the stadium, in Greater London, means that the area close to the stadium is regularly serviced by many different bus routes and services.