Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – construction description

Tottenham Hotspur’s plans of building a new stadium date back to early years of the 21st century. A ground for over 50,000 people was to stand partly on the site of White Hart Lane, though mostly north of the legendary stadium. 

In 2009, when the club already had parts of the land secured for investment, design by KSS Group was presented to the public, envisaging a 56,000-capacity venue built in phases. Around 60% would have been built without demolishing the older stadium, while remainder only after WHL would have given way.

Unfortunately prolonging disagreement with Archway, company holding central plot of the future stadium, caused severe delays. Finally in 2015 the company was forced to relocate by compulsory purchase order.

At that point enabling works were already ongoing, but it proved in July of 2015 that the final design was already changed completely. New one, with retractable field and capacity increased to over 61,000, was created by Populous.

In its final form the stadium should have been delivered in 2018, forcing Tottenham to relocate to Wembley. Unfortunately, the 2018 deadline proved far too optimistic. Faced with serious issues on the construction site, Tottenham had to postpone opening by nearly a year.