The history of Tottenham Hotspur began under a street lamp just across the road from what is now the Spurs Store on High Street Tottenham, London N17. Some players from the local cricket club and the local grammar school - St. John's Presbyterian - were at a loss as to what to get up to during the winter and so they decided to start playing football. This was back in 1882. Unsure about what to call themselves, they named themselves after the youngest son of the Duke of Northumberland, Percy, who went by the nickname of "Harry Hotspur". It was the valiant nature of his derring-do heroics, that they thought it was an appropriate title to adopt, so Hotspur FC was born. Under the chairmanship of the Reverend John Ripsher, the club was reorganised in 1883, took to wearing all navy blue and played their games at Tottenham Marshes.
The following year saw the club renamed "Tottenham Hotspur Football and Athletic club" and in 1885, Spurs played their first competitive match against St. Albans in the London Association Cup, winning the game 5-2. By this time, the kit had transformed into light blue and white halved shirts and a credit balance of nine shillings was recorded !!
In 1887, Spurs had their first match against the "old enemy" (then called Royal) Arsenal and they were denied a 2-1 win as the game was abandoned because of darkness 15 minutes from the end of the match. It was the year after this that Tottenham Hotspur moved their ground location to Northumberland Park and they charged the princely sum of 3d (1p) to get in !! In 1890, a further kit change saw the shirts change to red in an act which was tantamount to heresy. They did stick with the navy blue shorts though.
16th December 1895 was an important date in Spurs' history because they adopted professionalism and the following year also contained some milestones. A friendly against Aston Villa attracted 6,000 to the ground, the club were elected to the Southern League Division One and the colours were changed to chocolate and gold stripes. Indeed, the next year saw Tottenham reach their first (of many) Cup Finals, losing out to Wellingborough 0-2 in the local Charity cup competition.
1898 was another landmark year in the history of the club as it became a limited company and the attendance record swelled to 14,000 for a match against Woolwich Arsenal. Perhaps the most significant move of this year was the adoption of the colours of the "Invincibles" of Preston North End, who had done "the Double" and so Spurs first became associated with the white shirts and navy blue shorts for which they are now world famous.