Tottenham and Wood Green Independent
The Tottenham and Wood Green Independent is a free weekly newspaper serving Tottenham, Wood Green and the wider London Borough of Haringey in north London. Owned by Newsquest, one of Britain's largest regional publishers, it covers local news, community affairs and sport for one of the capital's most diverse and dynamic boroughs. The title took its current name in August 2014, when the long-established Haringey Independent was renamed to reflect the core areas at the heart of its patch.
From the Haringey Independent to the Tottenham & Wood Green Independent
The paper's modern identity dates from 15 August 2014, when the Newsquest-owned Haringey Independent became the Tottenham & Wood Green Independent. The name change was presented as a bid to focus more closely on the paper's core patch. At the time the title had a free distribution of 18,154, according to the most recent ABC figures published that February.
Explaining the change on its website, the paper said the new name had been chosen to reflect the core areas it covered and its desire to be the paper and website that Tottenham and Wood Green people turned to for breaking news and community stories. Despite the new name, the Independent and its website continued to cover stories from across the whole borough, from Highgate and Muswell Hill in the west to the River Lea in the east, and from Tottenham down to Harringay in the south. Staff, telephone numbers and email addresses remained unchanged.
The renamed title sits within Newsquest's London portfolio, which has included a wide roster of north London weeklies such as the Enfield Independent, the Barnet & Potters Bar Times, the Hendon & Finchley Times, the Harrow Times, the Edgware & Mill Hill Times and the Hillingdon Times, alongside the Guardian series papers for Waltham Forest, Chingford, Epping Forest and Wanstead & Woodford.
The Borough: Haringey
The paper serves the London Borough of Haringey, created in 1965 from the former municipal boroughs of Tottenham, Wood Green and Hornsey. Tottenham, some eight miles north-north-east of Charing Cross, was historically a Middlesex parish whose eastern boundary was formed by the River Lea, while Wood Green grew up around the hill crowned by Alexandra Palace. The 1965 amalgamation brought the whole area under a single local authority for the first time in more than a thousand years.
Haringey is among London's most ethnically diverse boroughs, with more than ninety languages spoken in its eastern districts, and it contains striking contrasts: the grand Victorian and Edwardian streets of Highgate, Muswell Hill and Crouch End in the west, and the denser, younger and more deprived neighbourhoods of Tottenham, Seven Sisters and Wood Green in the east. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, based at its stadium on the High Road, is the borough's most famous institution and a constant presence in the paper's sports pages.
Covering the 2011 London Riots
The paper, then the Haringey Independent, played a notable role in covering one of the most dramatic episodes in its patch's recent history: the London riots of August 2011, which began in Tottenham following the police shooting of local man Mark Duggan. The news teams of the Enfield Independent and its sister title the Haringey Independent set up a round-the-clock operation, creating a dedicated London Riots 2011 section on their websites with reporters updating the sites as often as four times an hour.
A 24-hour news desk was established on the Sunday morning as the disorder spread, providing readers with regular live updates on the riots in North London. Group editor for North London Martin Buhagiar said around 25 articles had been uploaded to the two papers' websites on the Sunday alone, alongside two picture galleries, a dedicated riots news channel and a live blog with video updates and a live social media feed. With staff on holiday, the coverage was put together by a small team including assistant editor Tim Jones and reporter David Hardiman, and the Newsquest-run titles ran around 30 stories on the riots in total. The episode demonstrated the capacity of a local weekly's team to sustain intensive breaking-news coverage of a national story unfolding on its own streets.
Award-Winning Journalism
The Haringey Independent's journalism earned recognition within Newsquest itself. In December 2007 the paper was named Newspaper of the Year at the publisher's North London and Hertfordshire divisional awards, the top title honour of the evening. The awards also recognised reporters, photographers, sub-editors and feature writers across the division's titles, from the Watford Observer to the St Albans and Harpenden Review and the Waltham Forest Guardian.
The paper has also been noted for its campaigning work. Its campaigns have included action on local council parking plans, which drew a personal intervention from the singer Tony Hadley, formerly of Spandau Ballet, who contacted the paper to complain about Haringey Council's proposals. The paper's owners have additionally supported the borough's community through charitable giving: the Gannett Foundation, the charitable arm of Newsquest's American parent company Gannett, donated £4,500 to help disabled children in Haringey get involved in sport.
Editorial Leadership
The title has been led through successive Newsquest restructurings by editors overseeing growing groups of papers. Tim Jones served as group editor for Newsquest North London, at one point taking responsibility for 18 weekly titles across North London, South Buckinghamshire and South Hertfordshire after a 2015 restructure, having previously run the company's East London and West Essex titles. He left Newsquest in January 2017 after seven years' service, with deputy group editor Victoria Birch taking on the role of Newsquest North London editor, reporting to regional editor-in-chief Chris Hatton.
The North London titles overseen from the group's management included the Barnet & Potters Bar Times, Borehamwood Times, Edgware & Mill Hill Times, Enfield Independent, Haringey Independent, Harrow Times and Hendon & Finchley Times, alongside the Ealing Times and Hillingdon Times. This consolidation reflected the industry-wide trend towards shared editorial management across clusters of local titles.
A Notorious Front-Page Blunder
In May 2015 the paper, then still widely known by its former name, suffered an embarrassing episode that made national headlines. The Haringey Independent published a photograph on its website purporting to show the newly re-elected Tottenham MP David Lammy, but the picture was actually of Julius Maada Bio, the former military head of state of Sierra Leone. The story concerned Lammy's consideration of a bid for the Labour leadership following Ed Miliband's resignation.
Lammy himself drew attention to the mistake, posting the paper's story on social media with a wry comment. Editor Tim Jones described it as an embarrassing blunder, explaining that a reporter had been too trusting of a photographer's caption, and the online story was corrected with the right photograph. The paper noted that Lammy, who had just been re-elected as MP for Tottenham, took the error in good humour. The incident became one of the most widely reported press blunders of the year, a cautionary tale about picture verification in the digital newsroom.
Coverage and Content
The Tottenham and Wood Green Independent covers the issues that define life in Haringey: council politics and the borough's often turbulent Labour administration, housing and regeneration including major estate renewal schemes, policing and community safety, education, health services and the area's vibrant voluntary sector. Tottenham Hotspur's fortunes dominate the sports coverage, alongside non-league football, boxing, athletics and grassroots sport.
Community affairs are central to the paper's identity, reflecting a borough with a strong tradition of activism, arts and multicultural civic life. The paper covers campaigns, charity fundraising, faith communities, festivals and the night-time economy, as well as the practical concerns of its readers: transport, high streets, markets and the cost of living in a rapidly changing part of London.
Print and Digital Presence
The paper is published as a free weekly in print and online at thetottenhamindependent.co.uk, where its stories sit within Newsquest's wider London digital network. The free-distribution model gives it reach across Tottenham, Wood Green and the surrounding neighbourhoods, delivered to homes and available at pickup points, while the website provides rolling updates between editions.
The 2014 renaming underlined the paper's digital ambitions as well as its print focus: the announcement stressed the desire to be the paper and website that local people turned to for breaking news and community stories, recognising that the Independent's audience increasingly encountered it online first.
Newsquest and the North London Weeklies
As a Newsquest title, the paper is part of the UK's second-largest regional newspaper group, itself owned by the American media company Gannett. Newsquest's north London operation has been repeatedly reorganised over the years, with titles grouped under shared editors and management structures covering North London, Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The Tottenham and Wood Green Independent has survived these consolidations as the group's dedicated Haringey title, a distinct brand within a portfolio that has otherwise seen many historic mastheads merged or closed.
Its continued existence reflects the commercial and journalistic logic of the free weekly: a defined, populous and newsworthy patch, a large potential readership, and an advertising market tied to some of London's busiest high streets and town centres.
The Paper Today
The Tottenham and Wood Green Independent continues to serve its north London patch as Newsquest's free weekly for Haringey. From its origins as the Haringey Independent, through the intensity of the 2011 riots coverage, the divisional Newspaper of the Year award, the 2014 renaming and the digital consolidation of the years since, it has remained a constant presence in a borough that has seen profound change. For the communities of Tottenham, Wood Green and the wider borough, from Highgate to the Lea, it remains their local paper: chronicling the council chamber and the football stadium, the high street and the housing estate, week in and week out.
