Why Tottenham is the new Hackney with its new bars, clubs and blossoming creative scene

Saturday night and the dance floor of brand new nightclub Five Miles is packed. Cult garage night Joyride is being held at the vast warehouse-style venue for the first time and, as the DJ mixes the classic garage track ‘God Made Me Phunky’ by Mike Dunn into the more recent house offering ‘Equation’ by Palms Trax, bodies clad in vintage Moschino and boxfresh Adidas slam against one another in approval.

You might be forgiven for thinking this is some hip basement club on Kingsland Road. But this, in fact, is Tottenham: the area that looks set to steal Hackney’s status as the cultural and nightlife centre of London. Because while it might previously have been best known for its football team or as the place where the London riots of 2011 began, Tottenham has changed dramatically.

‘There are definite parallels between what’s happening in Tottenham now and what happened in Dalston in 2009 or 2010,’ says Deano Jo of Five Miles who, having opened both The Alibi bar and Rita’s restaurant in Dalston, is well placed to comment on any similarities. He wants Five Miles to be more than just a warehouse rave spot. Already it sells coffee during the day and the Affinity Brew Company makes beer in a shipping container behind the venue — but Jo, 31, wants more. ‘I like to think of Five Miles as an incubator,’ he says. ‘We want there to be a culture of people coming through, building up their craft, and going on to bigger and better things.’

Outside, what Jo describes as an ‘ecosystem’ is springing up around Five Miles’ space on Markfield Road. There’s industrial-styled coffee shop Craving Coffee, while multiple artists’ studios are housed in an adjacent complex (techno DJ Randomer and record label PC Music are both based there). ‘People around here make music, then feed it to promoters who play it to people,’ Jo says, explaining how Five Miles books DJs to perform at the club.

Tottenham’s rebirth began just around the corner from Five Miles on Fountayne Road, where the area’s original warehouse community began to gather 10 years ago: a network of creators to whom the area’s cultural redevelopment owes its greatest debt. Among the former occupants is 31-year-old Joshua Nawras, who co-founded Rift — the immersive theatre company best known for its 2014 production of Macbeth in the Balfron Tower in Docklands — and more recently events space and bar Styx on the rapidly regenerating Ashley Road, a 10-minute walk north of Five Miles. The name Styx is partly a reference to the river in Greek mythology, but is also a pun on the idea of being away from it all. ‘We’re out in the sticks,’ Nawras smiles.

Maybe so. But situated on Ashley Road, Styx has neighbours as interesting and diverse as any city centre. There’s the 1950s ambulance repair depot that has now been converted into artists’ studios; radical set designers Block9 (who’ve worked with the likes of Lana Del Rey and Skrillex); theatre company Punchdrunk’s headquarters; and the cavernous inclines of Stronghold Climbing Centre, London’s largest indoor bouldering space. Much-feted designer Martine Rose recently showed her menswear collection at the latter, with fashion editors disembarking from Ubers in clacking heels. Since opening in 2015, Styx itself has hosted local grime legend JME and electronic artist Four Tet.

‘We’ve got a nice little crew,’ says Nawras of the five local businesses that operate out of Styx, name-checking ‘Abs, who does crochet swimwear’ and roti shop Island Social Club, which is housed in a brightly painted shipping container with a corrugated iron roof. ‘It really feels like the beginning of a community here. There are breweries and clubs and artists’ studios. That’s something that couldn’t happen in Hackney any more. Hackney is too expensive.’ In fact, Tottenham is evolving at such a rapid pace for many of the same reasons that Hackney did in the late Noughties. Both have large ethnic minority populations and strong cultural heritages: specifically when it comes to urban music and grime, with Skepta hailing from the area’s Meridian Walk estate. Tottenham also still has plenty of affordable post-industrial buildings like those on Fountayne Road, which attract artists and creators in need of cheap space. A plethora of independent businesses has sprung up near here. Two minutes away on Norman Road is Lovenpresents, a pizzeria/bar/art space; a little further up the road is Chicken Town (offering a healthy spin on fried chicken) and the Blighty India Café. And then there is Redemption, Tottenham’s first brewery, whose beer is stocked in six local pubs. ‘We were drawn here because there was more industrial space and the transport links are good,’ explains 44-year-old founder Andy Moffatt.

When Redemption started in 2009, around half of the units in its industrial estate were taken; now all of them are full. And as a result of its success, Tottenham has become the craft beer hotspot of London — fellow brewer Beavertown is based a short walk away at Lockwood Industrial Park and will soon be joined by brewer Pressure Drop, which is opening a 6,000 square foot facility there.