Place Name
After nearby Tottenham Court Road, which took its name from the former manor of Tottenham (Tottenhall) which stood near here from the 13thCentury, and was possibly so-called after one local William de Tottenall, or else meaning Tota’s Hall. The name later became confused with the unconnected Tottenham, Middlesex. John Field in Place-Names of Greater London says that it means: “‘Manor house of Totta’s angle of land’, bearing the same personal name as Tottenham but not necessary referring to the same man. The parish name has also affected this one, which might without such influence have become Tottenhall or Totnal. The manor house [which was still standing in the 18thCentury] was situated not far from the site of Euston Station.” Around the time of the first millennium it was mentioned as þottenheale and in 1083, the Normans called it Totenhala but by 1487 it was Totenhalecourt. David Mills in A Dictionary of London Street Names writes: “Although this name contains the same Old English personal name as Tottenham, it will be noted that the origins of the two names are quite different; it is only in relatively recent times that the old spelling Totenhale has been influenced by the name Tottenham, as in Tottenham Court on Rocque’s map of 1741-5.”
