A gallery embedded in Tottenham Hotspur’s ground is aiming to capitalise on its not-insignificant footfall, starting with a show by the celebrated Magnum photographer. Will it be a game changer?
Despite being a Grade II listed building, Warmington House is nestled incongruously within the fabric of the sparkling new Tottenham Hotspur football club complex at White Hart Lane, north London. It’s like a visitor from another time, and its contents are equally evocative of a world and a set of experiences shared with previous generations.
Inside is the OOF Gallery, a contemporary art space that currently contains a selection of the football photographs of Martin Parr. These pictures have a strange duality. Now 69, Parr has been taking photos for more than 50 years, and his recent battle with cancer has added an extra poignancy to these samples of his life’s work. Parr has traced British football’s journey through decrepitude, deindustrialisation and gentrification. These are definitively football photos but always portraits of grounds and supporters, never of the game itself. They’re cultural totems, snapshots of memory but also football as many of us still experience it.
