The hidden reality behind Tim Martin’s Tottenham Question Time appearance
I don’t watch Question Time and haven’t done for years. I’ve seen quite enough of Nigel Farage. I knew several weeks ago that it was coming from Tottenham but decided to spend a night in the pub instead.
That said Tim Martin’s appearance (never mind whatever BS he came out with on the programme) had a certain poignancy for anyone who has lived in the area over the decades as I have.
Martin lived in the immediately adjacent area of Wood Green in the 1970s and 1980s and opened his first Wetherspoons pub, 40 years ago in Muswell Hill. He then went on to open numbers of pubs in the Borough of Haringey before he discovered the (possibly questionable) truth that there is life beyond its boundaries.
Thatcher devastated the industrial area of the Lea Valley including Tottenham and that had the knock on impact of pubs closing. Indeed until the recent sharp reverse, which has seen new pubs opening in the area, there has been a steady decline in licensed premises over 40 years.
There was a blip and that was Martin. He opened and closed more pubs in Tottenham than even Mrs Thatcher, indirectly, managed. There is no Wetherspoons in Tottenham as such, the nearest is the Tollgate in Turnpike Lane. Several of the former Wetherspoons still survive as pubs such as the Elbow Room on Tottenham High Rd and K K McCools on West Green Rd,
Others such as the Narrow Boat on the River Lea, and JJ Moons on Markfield Rd have been demolished, while still others like the Goat on West Green Rd just stand shuttered and empty. At least one, the Suffolk Punch on Harringay Green Lanes is now a betting shop.
Tim Martin’s tour of destruction in Tottenham tells us something about the man I suspect.
I’ve been a long time away from Tottenham. I loved the narrow boat. Used to go for a few pints while the Sunday roast was in the oven. Pleased the Anchor is still there on the Lea down in Clapton