Scotland Green Stories

Carbuncle Passage and The Moselle

One of Tottenham’s hidden streams, the Moselle runs west to east across the borough.
The earliest recorded description of the Moselle in Tottenham comes from Reverend William Bedwell's (1561-1632) history of the area, in which he refers to 'The Mose'. Bedwell was the Vicar of Tottenham at All Hallows from 1607-1632 and is considered to be the first person to write a history of Tottenham.

(Culverting the Moselle, c.1906. From the collections and © Bruce Castle Museum and Archive)

As early as the 15th century, there were efforts to control flooding in Tottenham by diverting the Moselle through making the ‘Garbell Ditch’, just south of the High Road near Scotland Green. This later became known as the ‘Carbuncle Ditch’, partially culverted in 1906, with the ‘Carbuncle Passage’ now running directly above it.

(Bridge over the Moselle at Scotland Green prior to culverting, c.1900. From the collections and © Bruce Castle Museum and Archive)

Further resources

Friends of Hartington Park and Carbuncle Passage – find them on Instagram, Facebook and X under the same name

Bluecoats – a school turned pub

Up until the Education Act of 1870, formal education was available mainly to wealthy, middle or upper-class families. Ragged Schools or schools run by charities and religious institutions usually taught the poor. One such charity school was the Bluecoat School for Girls, so named for the distinctive blue uniform originally worn by their pupils.

(Pupils at the Bluecoat School in their distinctive uniforms, 1865. From the collections and © Bruce Castle Museum and Archive)

The school was established at Scotland Green in 1735 and was the only charity school in the area to offer primary education. The school was converted into the Tottenham Middle Class Girls' School in 1886. With numbers of pupils rising, by 1927 it was overcrowded and in 1930 pupils were moved to All Hallows school.

After the closure of the Middle Class School, the building at 614 Tottenham High Road had many different names, but was most notably the Pride of Tottenham, a local pub especially popular with Spurs fans.

(Now the Bluecoats pub, here it is as the Middle Class School for girls, in 1892. From the collections and © Bruce Castle Museum and Archive)

In 2018, the pub was taken over, revamped and named the Bluecoats pub in a nod to its original role as a school for girls. The beautiful building you can still see today had been restored with housing added c.2007 (see the transformation), with the oldest surviving parts dating from 1835.