It has been a slow journey for an often much-unloved part of the metropolis. And, in truth, it still has some way to go but from what has changed so far, N17 is well on its way to becoming the Shoreditch of east London.

When you walk out at ground level using the north stairwell of Seven Sisters Tube station, you are greeted by the sight of a popular Costa Coffee and an equally well-to-do supermarket. 
Further up the High Road, Blooming Scent Café sings softly of organic teas and a licensed bar with a range of wines by the glass. Quietly confident, it is affiliated to the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, the cultural complex next to the Town Hall, which boasts a cinema and a superb 274-seat auditorium.

Wander, and you will find further notes of intrigue. Meander east towards Tottenham Hale and you might stumble into Craving Coffee, one of those artful dens of caffeine where your latte comes with a froth-top doodle – of a flower, a tree, a bird, a fish. You might also come across Beavertown Brewery, where the context is Lockwood Industrial Park on Mill Mead Road, but the ales produced within have more in common with the craft-beer scenes in hip American cities like Portland and Seattle. And after a drink or two in the tap room, you might drift back towards the High Road, following your nose towards the aromas pouring out of Chicken Town – an eatery where the name suggest a greasy takeaway, but the blurb on the menu states that “we use happy herb-fed chickens, which we gently steam before flash-frying in rapeseed oil for a delicious, healthier treat.”

At the end of all this, you might wipe your mouth and ask if you really are in Tottenham – and not Shoreditch, Hoxton, Dalston, or some other newly gentrified part of the capital.

When the Arts Centre (named in honour of the politician and firebrand who, along with two Labour colleagues, became Britain’s first black MP at the 1987 election) opened in 2007, it was a first real sign of change and investment in Tottenham – one of the most deprived areas not only in London, but in the UK. It had come to national notoriety in 1985 via the fierce riots on its Broadwater Farm estate, and it would be back there again in August 2011 – as the flashpoint for the civil disturbances which wrecked the whole country. The police shooting of the reportedly armed Mark Duggan – the spark for six days of madness and looting in the summer heat – occurred on Ferry Lane in Tottenham Hale. In a city frequently obsessed with chicness and relentless regeneration, Tottenham has often been stuck doggedly in its troubled past.

At the centre of all this is a contradiction. The vast hulking presence of a Premier League football club. Plenty might argue that Tottenham Hotspur is bigger in reputation than it is in achievement – for all the fine players to have graced its pitch, Glenn Hoddle’s feet a pair of magician’s wands; David Ginola moving with long-haired lyrical grace – the club has just two league titles to its name (1951, 1961), and has failed to crest the summit of the English game in the monied Premier League era (which began in 1992). But it is definitely sizeable in wealth.

There is always something a little unsettling about a major sporting institution, flush with cash, radiating its good fortune from within an area rather shorter on readies. But Spurs – to use the club’s popular nickname – is far from the alone case in this. And the club would be swift to argue that its White Hart Lane stadium has long been good for Tottenham, bringing some 36,000 supporters into the area every fortnight during the season – fans whose disposable income is funnelled into the district’s pubs, bars, cafes and newsagents.

As of 2018-2019 season, Tottenham fans will get to experience watching their team play its home games in a state of the art 61,000 all seater stadium which the club boasts will generate a projected £293 million a year for the local economy.

Once completed, the stadium will be more than just a sporting cauldron. It will have a hotel and a museum. It will be adorned with extra touches – a “public square” on the concourse with room for food stalls and events; an in-house microbrewery capable of dispensing up to 10,000 pints per minute; a “Sky Walk” climbing wall which will allow visitors to clamber 40 metres up the exterior of the complex. And the club has grand designs for it to be a year-round music venue which will occupy the space in the London mega-gigs market that exists between Wembley Stadium and the O2.

Then there is the match-day experience and the not-so-small matter of corporate entertainment – which, nowadays, is such a crucial element of any sporting behemoth’s balance sheet. An innovative blueprint will see accoutrements such as “The H Club”, a members’ space supplying high-end cuisine and chef’s table dinners. And the “Tunnel Club”, a first of its kind in the UK where “premium” guests will be able to watch the players waiting in the tunnel before kick-off – an intriguing piece of 21st-century fan culture which, thanks to one-way mirrored glass, will not disturb the team’s preparations. 

Last but not least let's not forget that Tottenham FC & NFL announced a ten-year contract to host at least two games a year once the stadium is completed.