Tower Gardens Estate

Tower Gardens in North Tottenham is a distinctive semi-circular estate bounded by Lordship Lane and the Roundway. Constructed between 1904 and 1928 in the arts and crafts style. It was known as 'A Jewel in the Heart of Tottenham'.

It was one of the first and foremost municipal "cottage estates" and foremost housing design of its type in the world.

Originally known as the White Hart Lane Estate, locally known as 'The Snail' with Tower Gardens being the area between Risley Avenue & Tower Gardens Road.

Housing of the Working Classes Act 1900 Changed housing secondary to laws passed following slum clearances.

Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling of the 4% Dwelling Company & Montague Bank donated £10,000 for the purchase of the land on which it was built. The donation was tied to the rehousing of Jewish workers resident in the Tower Hamlets parish, and required an area of land to be set aside for public gardens: hence the name Tower Gardens.

The architects William Edward Riley (until 1919) and George Topham Forest (1919–1924) were the Chief Architects of the LCC whom designed the estate. Many street names were after the Lords of the Manor of Tottenham. Risley Avenue school did a project on this to feature as part of the Open House self-guided walking tour.

Tower Gardens was also the largest of the four original estates with 954 houses over 24 streets and the first LCC estate to be built outside the LCC area and one of the foremost housing designs of its time within Europe and the world.

It is now an Article 4 conservation area, which protects original front facing architectural and design features, including the privet hedges. The council with English Heritage published Special Planning guidance 3.1 to protect its quality Arts and Crafts architectural features. Article 4 is and has been enforced by the council.

Ruth Crowley, a resident, successfully petitioned Ordnance Survey in 2004 to classify Tower Gardens as an area on the map, similar to Stroud Green.

In 2003, she also petitioned London Open City to facilitate it being featured in the annual Open House London architecture weekend on the third Sunday in September, which continues to this day.

Tower Gardens was featured in a Royal Historical Society Conference on 28th May 2025 celebrating 60 years on from the London County Council's 1965 transfer of housing stock to local councils.

It is the feature of a London Archives event on 28 May 2025 featuring on a resident's perspective of Tower Gardens.