diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http.py
index 8d05907f1..1efebb939 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/handlers/http.py
@@ -8,4 +8,12 @@ else:
 
 
 # backwards compatibility
-HttpDownloadHandler = HTTP10DownloadHandler
+class HttpDownloadHandler(HTTP10DownloadHandler):
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        import warnings
+        from scrapy.exceptions import ScrapyDeprecationWarning
+        warnings.warn('HttpDownloadHandler is deprecated, import scrapy.core.downloader'
+                      '.handlers.http10.HTTP10DownloadHandler instead',
+                      category=ScrapyDeprecationWarning, stacklevel=1)
+        super(HttpDownloadHandler, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)