Racing Through Time

The corner of Tottenham High Road and Lansdowne Road has a building that dates back to 1869. Although it is a shop today, here are two tales that may give a different perspective to the history of that site.

Pedal Power 

James Linzell (1831-1922) is known to have been the builder of the new Red Lion pub, that one stood here. The former Red Lion was one of the noted pubs of 17th century Tottenham, set back on the High Road and convenient for passing horse-drawn coaches and carts. It was rebuilt in 1869 to make way for the building of Lansdowne Road. This distinctive building, although no longer a pub, still survives today on the corner where it meets Tottenham High Road. 

(Postcard produced by Fred Fisk showing the old and new Red Lion pub, c.1890-1900. From the collections and © Bruce Castle Museum and Archive)

James lived not far from the Red Lion, at 1 Lincoln Cottages, Lordship Lane (near to the High Road), with his wife Mary and eight children. In his building business, he employed 12 men. By 1881 the family had moved nearer to Tottenham Green, and lived at 8 Talbot Road, Tottenham until his death in 1922. 

Sounds like a busy man, but it’s James’ extra-curricular activities that make him particularly fascinating. In his spare time, James Linzell was an amateur cycling champion, winning many cups and even embarking on a long-distance race from Tottenham to Exeter at the age of 46. The real amazing part though – he did all of this on a penny farthing! His new Red Lion pub was used for meetings by local groups, including the Tottenham Wheelers and the Eagle Angling Society.

Frederick Fisk (1860-1935)

Frederick Fisk was a printer and antiquarian bookseller who had grown up in Tottenham (living at Prospect Place, overlooking Tottenham Cemetery) and knew the area and its stories well. Living and working above the shop at 605 Tottenham High Road (now the site of Millicent Court), his business was a magnet for the collecting of information and more stories about his community. 

Amongst the many publications and printed ephemera you could find in his shop were a series of postcards titled ‘Views of Old Tottenham’ – many of these beautiful photographic postcards survive in the collections at Bruce Castle Museum and Archive. Amongst these postcards was a view of the Red Lion Pub – past and present. Some of the local landscapes and sites were presented by Fisk as a ‘Past and Present’, showing how things had changed over time.

(Fred Fisk’s shop at 605 High Road N17, c.1920. From the collections and © Bruce Castle Museum and Archive) 

A man of many talents, Fisk was also a local historian. His ‘History of Tottenham’, published in 1913, remains a wonderful historic resource loved by many. An advert – printed by Fisk himself – raised awareness of his forthcoming publication, one that he proudly declared was ‘collected, compiled and written by Fred Fisk’ – and presumably was printed by his business as well.

(From the collections and © Bruce Castle Museum and Archive)

Although there don’t seem to be any surviving images of the man himself, one local paints a rather brilliant picture of what Fred Fisk would have appeared like in later life, describing ‘a man in his 60s, grizzled and grey, with steel-rimmed spectacles and wearing a velvet grey smoking hat’.

Fred Fisk traded until the death of his wife in 1924, but remained living at the shop until he died in 1935. The parade of shops that Fisk’s was part of was demolished to make way for Millicent Fawcett Court, a block of council flats. 

Fred Fisk is buried in Tottenham Cemetery. In the words of Fisk’s obituary, after he passed ‘This neighbourhood […] lost one of its “ancient landmarks”’.