Firefighters are currently battling a blaze at Archway Sheet Metal Works in Paxton Road, Tottenham adjacent to Tottenham Hotpur's stadium White Hart Lane.

Crews were called at 5.15am this morning and several engines are in attendance. The entire first floor and half of the ground floor is alight.

The business has been in a long-running dispute with the club and Haringey Council after it challenged a Government minister's decision forcing it to move.

The Josif family, who own the metalwork business, announced they would challenge the decision to grant Haringey Council permission to issue a Compulsory Purchase Order on Archway’s property in July. The hearing is due to be heard in January. 

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club cannot start work on the new stadium until the metal business is relocated.

In September a member of the Josif family said: “Some fans have taken it on themselves to phone us up and abuse us, and abuse our staff. It’s not nice. It’s horrible.

“Some of the behaviour of Spurs fans towards us is animalistic, when we’re just exercising our rights. Some of them are fanatical. They say they love their club more than life.”

He added: “It’s irrelevant whether we’re Spurs fans or not now. This is our business. It’s where we make our money.

“Everybody keeps going on about whether we’re Spurs fans or Arsenal fans. We’ve got nothing against the football team. This business is our family’s future.”

“People have been threatening us, we’ve had bomb threats, we’ve had people saying they’ll come and get us at night. We’ve had people calling us greedy, and saying they hope my children are visiting food banks and starving.

“The police are dealing with it. Nobody has yet come and said it to my face but it’s a matter of time. Someone has threatened to burn down our building.

“If you get a few idiots who want to be heroes – why should we have to go through that? It’s just nuts how people take a football club so seriously.

“It’s an emotional time for us. We’ve got children and grandchildren. My Dad has 14 grandchildren. We’re a big family and we live off the company. When people threaten our family, it’s not nice.”