Mitcham
Mitcham Clocktower was built in 1898 and renovated in 2016.
Mitcham Location withinGreater London
Population	63,393 (2011 Census)[1]
OS grid reference	TQ285685
London borough	Merton
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MITCHAM
Postcode district	CR4
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Mitcham and Morden
London Assembly	Merton and Wandsworth
List of places UK England London 51°24′03″N0°09′06″W / 51.4009°N 0.1517°W /51.4009; -0.1517

Mitcham is an area within theLondon Borough of Merton inSouth London, England. It is centred 7.2 miles (11.6 km) southwest ofCharing Cross. Originally a village in the county ofSurrey, today it is mainly a residentialsuburb, and includesMitcham Common. It has been a settlement throughout recorded history.

Amenities includeMitcham Library andMitcham Cricket Green. Nearby major districts areCroydon,Sutton,Beddington,Wimbledon,Morden,Tooting,Streatham,Norbury andColliers Wood. Mitcham, most broadly defined, had a population of 63,393 in 2011, formed from six wards includingPollards Hill.^[2]

Mitcham is in the east of theLondon Borough of Merton, bounded by boroughs ofWandsworth,Croydon,Lambeth andSutton. TheRiver Wandle bounds the town to the southwest.^[3] The original village lies in the west.Mitcham Common takes up the greater part of the boundary and the area to the south part of the CR4 postcode is in the area ofPollards Hill. Some of the area which includes Mitcham Common and parts of Mitcham Junction are in the CR0 postcode area.

Thetoponym "Mitcham" isOld English in origin and meansbig settlement. Before theRomans andSaxons were present, it was aCeltic settlement, with evidence of ahill fort in the Pollards Hill area. The discovery of Roman-era graves and a well on the site of the Mitcham gasplant evince Roman settlement. The Anglo-Saxon graveyard on the north bank of the Wandle is the largest discovered to date, and many of the finds therein are on display in theBritish Museum. Scholars such as Myres have suggested that Mitcham and other Thames plain settlements were some of the first populated by theAnglo-Saxons.

What became the parish lands could have hosted theBattle of Merton, 871, in which KingEthelred of Wessex was either mortally wounded or killed outright. TheChurch of England parish church ofSt Peter and St Paul dates from the earlyKingdom of England. Mostly rebuilt in 1819–1821, the current building retains the original Saxon tower. TheDomesday Book of 1086 lists Mitcham as a smallfarming community, an implied estimate of 250 people, living in twohamlets: Mitcham, the area today being Upper Mitcham; and Whitford (Lower Green).

The Domesday Book records Mitcham asMichelham. It was held partly by the Canons ofBayeux, partly by William, son of Ansculf and partly by Osbert.^[4] Its domesday assets were: 8hides and 1virgate. It had ½mill worth £1, 3½ploughs, 56 acres (23 ha) ofmeadow. It rendered £4 5s 4d, at a time when apound sterling still implied something similar to a pound of silver. The area lay in theAnglo-Saxon county subdivision ofWallingtonhundred.^[5]

During her reignQueen Elizabeth I made at least five visits to the area.John Donne and SirWalter Raleigh also had residences here in this era. It was at this time that Mitcham became gentrified, as due to the abundance oflavender fields Mitcham became renowned for its soothing air. The air also led people to settle in the area during times ofplague.

Whenindustrialisation occurred, Mitcham quickly grew to become a town and most of the farms were swallowed up in the expansion. Remnants of this farming history today include: Mitcham Common itself; Arthur's Pond on the corner of Watney's Road and Commonside East, and named for a local farmer; Alfred Mizen School (Garden Primary School), named after a local nurseryman charitable towards the burgeoning town; and the road New Barnes Avenue, replacing part of New Barn(e)s Farm.

Manylavender fields were in Mitcham, andpeppermint and lavender oils were alsodistilled. In 1749 two localphysic gardeners, John Potter and William Moore, founded a company to make and market toiletries made from locally grown herbs and flowers.^[6] Lavender features on Merton Council's coat of arms and the badge of the local football team,Tooting & Mitcham United F.C., as well as in the name of a local council ward, Lavender Field.

Mitcham was industrialised first along the banks of the Wandle, wheresnuff,copper, flour,iron anddye were all worked. Mitcham, along with nearbyMerton Abbey, became thecalico cloth printing centres of England by 1750.Asprey, suppliers of luxury goods made from various materials, was founded in Mitcham as asilk-printing business in 1781.William Morris opened a factory on the River Wandle at Merton Abbey. Merton Abbey Mills were theLiberty silk-printing works. It is now a craft village and its waterwheel has been preserved.

Activity along the Wandle led to the building of theSurrey Iron Railway, the world's first public railway, in 1803. The decline and failure of the railway in the 1840s also heralded a change in industry, as horticulture gradually gave way tomanufacturing, withpaint,varnish,linoleum andfirework manufacturers moving into the area. The work provided and migratory patterns eventually resulted in a doubling of the population between the years 1900 and 1910.

In 1829, Miss Mary Tate donated land and money to build almshouses on the site of the former Tate family home in Cricket Green. The buildings were designed in a Tudor style by John Butcher and established to accommodate twelve poor widows or spinsters of the parish. Miss Tate was the only surviving member of the Tate family, who had lived from about 1700 in a large mansion on the site of the almshouses.^[7][8] The gardens at the rear of the property were originally provided for the use of residents, but later informally rented out as allotments.^[9]

Mitcham became a borough, within a two-tier council system, on 19 September 1934 with the charter of incorporation being presented to the 84-year-old mayor, R.M. Chart, by theLord Lieutenant of Surrey,Lord Ashcombe.^[10]

Social housing schemes in the 1930s included New Close, aimed at housing people made homeless by a factory explosion in 1933^{[citation needed]} andSunshine Way, for housing the poor from inner London.^[11] This industry made Mitcham a target forGerman bombing duringWorld War II. During this time Mitcham also returned to itsagricultural roots, with Mitcham Common being farmed to help with the war effort.^{[citation needed]}

From 1929 the electronics companyMullard had a factory on New Road.^{[citation needed]}

Postwar, the areas ofEastfields,Phipps Bridge andPollards Hill were rebuilt to provide cheaper more affordable housing.^{[citation needed]} The largestcouncil housing project in Mitcham isPhipps Bridge Estate.^{[citation needed]} Further expansion of the housing estates in Eastfields, Phipps Bridge and Pollards Hill occurred after 1965. In Mitcham Cricket Green, the area lays reasonable, although not definitive, claim to having the world's oldestcricket ground in continual use, and the world's oldest club inMitcham Cricket Club.^[12]

The ground is also notable for having a road separate the pavilion from the pitch.^[12] Localfolklore claims Mitcham has the oldestfair in England, believing it to have been granted acharter by Queen Elizabeth I, a claim never proven.

Literature

Nimrod, sporting writer of the early 19th century, advocated against the grazing on grass of racehorses. He finds a very fast donkey chaise, investigates the donkey's owner and finds it is a Mitcham blacksmith, who never turns out the donkey in summer onto Mitcham Common but keeps it fed with oats and beans as if a hunter racing horse.^[13]

Mitcham appears in local variants of mildly vulgar rhymes of 18th and 19th centuries, all beginning with:

"Sutton for good mutton"^[14]

One variant ends with "Mitcham for a thief", another "Ewell" which is opposite in direction. An author noted for another genre,James Edward Preston Muddock as Dick Donovan pennedThe Naughty Maid of Mitcham in 1910.

Mitcham is home to a large area (460 acres) of South London's open green space in the form ofMitcham Common, studded with a few ponds and buildings.

The buildings comprising the Windmill Trading Estate have existed in one form or another since 1782. The Mill House Ecology Centre and theMiller & Carter steakhouse (previouslyHarvester, and the Mill HouseBrewers Fayre pub before that) are located near the site of an old windmill, the remnants of which still exist.

The Seven Islands pond is the largest of all the ponds, created followinggravel extraction of the 19th century.^[15] The most recent, Bidder's pond, was created in 1990 and named afterGeorge Parker Bidder.

• 
  Eagle House, Mitcham
• 
  Old Mitcham Station
• 
  Mitcham Library, London Rd
• 
  Elm Lodge, Cricket Green
• 
  Mitcham Methodist Church
• 
  St Barnabas Church
• 
  The White House, Mitcham
• 
  The Burn Bullock
• 
  The White Hart Public House
• 
  Mitcham Vestry Hall

• TheCanons. House originally built in 1680; it was the home of the family Cranmer until it was sold to the local council in 1939. The name originates from an Augustinian priory that was given this site in the 12th Century. The pond next to which it is located and the dovecote (dated at 1511) both predate the house.^[16]
• Eagle House, built in 1705. Eagle House is a Queen Anne house built in the Dutch style on land formerly owned by Sir Walter Raleigh. It is on London Road, Mitcham, the grounds forming a triangle bounded by London Road, Bond Road and Western Road. The building was commissioned by themarrano doctor Fernando Mendes (1647–1724), former physician to King Charles II.
• Mitcham Common Windmill, a post mill dating from 1806.
• Old Mitcham Station, on theSurrey Iron Railway route. Now called Station Court, the building was a former merchant's home and is possibly the oldest station in the world.
• The TateAlmshouses, built in 1829 to provide for the poor by Mary Tate.
• The Watermead Fishing Cottages.
• Mitcham Vestry Hall, the annex of which now houses the Wandle Industrial Museum.
• Mitcham Public Library, built in 1933.
• Elm Lodge, 1808. This listedRegency house was occupied by Dr. Parrott, a village doctor, in the early 19th century, and for a short time by the artist,Sir William Nicholson. The curved canopy over the entrance door is a typical feature of this period.^{[citation needed]}
• Mitcham Court. The centre portion, first known as Elm Court, was built in 1840, the wings later.Caesar Czarnikow, a sugar merchant, lived here ca. 1865–86 and presented the village with a new horse-drawn fire engine. SirHarry Mallaby-Deeley, M.P., conveyed the house to the borough in the mid-1930s. TheIonic columned porch and the ironwork on the ground floor windows are notable features.
• Renshaw's factory, amarzipan factory, founded in 1898 in theCity and thus one of the earliest in the country, which came to Mitcham in 1924.^{[citation needed]} It was on Locks Lane until 1991, when the company moved its operations toLiverpool. The factory was featured in three 1950s BritishPathé News shorts. The building has lent its name to the area where it stood, Renshaw Corner.
• Poulters Park, Home to Mitcham Rugby Union Football Club
• Imperial Fields,Tooting & Mitcham United F.C.'s home ground.
• Mitcham Methodist Church was designed by the architect Edward Mills (1915–1998), and built in 1958–9. Regarded as the best surviving work by the most successful Nonconformist architect of the period. A radical and inspiring building that was forwarded by the 20th Century Society for listing as it was under threat. Grade II listed on 5 March 2010.^[17]
• St Barnabas church, Gorringe Park Avenue, Mitcham. Built in the gothic style, on 17 May 1913 the foundation stone of the church building was laid, and on 14 November 1914 the church was consecrated – by the bishop of Southwark. The architect was HP Burke-Downing. The building is still in use as an Anglican church. Both the church itself and the adjacent parish hall are Grade II listed.
• The White House, Mitcham on which the wall plaque says: "This 18th Century house was renovated in the Regency style in 1826 by Dr. A.C. Bartley, a village doctor, whose daughter wrote reminiscences of old Mitcham. The house remained in his family until 1919. Fluted Greek Doric columns support a slightly altered porch with a bowed front." It is Grade II listed.^[18]
• The Burn Bullock, a public house, London Road, Mitcham is a three-storey Grade II listed building originally called the King's Head Hotel. The front of the building dates from the 18th century whilst its wing dates from the 16th and 17th centuries.^[19] It is named afterBurnett Bullock, a well known, former cricket player from the locality.^[20][12]
• The White Hart public house is Mitcham's earliest recorded inn, rebuilt in 1749–50 after serious fire damage. The central porch, with frieze and balustrade, is supported by four Tuscan columns. Stagecoaches used to start from a yard at the rear. It is Grade II listed. It is located in London Road, opposite Cricket Green.^[21]

• John Donne –Jacobean poet and churchman^[22]
• James Chuter Ede – politician, MP for Mitcham 1923, resident till 1937, laterHome Secretary^[23]
• Michael Fielding andNoel Fielding –The Mighty Boosh comedians and brothers^[24]
• Mike Fillery –Association football^[25]
• David Gibson – cricketer^[26]
• Florence Harmer – historian^[27]
• Neil Howlett –opera singer^[28]
• Banaz Mahmod, 20, anIraqi Kurd, victim ofhonour killing in 2006^[29]
• M.I.A. – singer, songwriter and rapper^[30]
• Peter D. Mitchell — Nobel prizewinner, born in Mitcham in 1920^[31]
• Michael Moorcock — author^[32]
• Ramz (rapper) - singer, rapper^[33]
• Slick Rick – East coast Rapper, born in Surrey, moved to USA aged 11^[34]
• Alex Stepney – formerManchester United footballer and 1968 European Cup winner^[35]
• Herbert Strudwick – cricket wicket-keeper^[36]
• William Allison White – recipient of theVictoria Cross^[37]
• Faryadi Sarwar Zardad –Afghan warlord; lived in Mitcham for a time, later convicted and imprisoned for war crimes^[38]

Mitcham and Morden (Westminster Parliamentary Constituency)

• Population – 103,298^[39]

Ethnic Group^[40]

• White

British – 40,608, Irish – 1,840, Gypsy or Irish Traveller – 161, Other White – 12,899

• Mixed/Multiple Ethnic Groups

White and Black Caribbean – 1,862, White and Black African – 856, White and Asian – 1,163, Other Mixed – 1,444

• Asian

Indian – 4,536, Pakistani – 5,054, Bangladeshi – 1,484, Chinese – 1,169, Other Asian – 10,194

• Black/African/Caribbean

African – 9,036, Caribbean – 7,029, Other Black – 1,912

• Other Ethnic Group

Arab – 670, Other ethnic group – 1,381

Religion^[41]

• Christian – 57,665
• No Religion – 17,677, Religion Not Stated – 6,887
• Muslim – 11,046
• Hindu – 8,400

Buddhist – 862,Sikh – 252,Jewish – 147, Other Religion – 362

Gender^[42]

• Female: 52,237
• Male: 51,061

Mitcham is served by two railway stations:Mitcham Junction andMitcham Eastfields. Mitcham Eastfields was the first suburban station to be built in 50 years in the area.^{[citation needed]} Both stations are served byGovia Thameslink Railway'sSouthern and Thameslink brands with trains toSutton,Epsom,London Victoria,London Bridge (peaks only) andSt Albans.^[44][45]

Trains on the Thameslink route from Central London continue on via theSutton Loop Line to Sutton andWimbledon back towards Central London.Tramlink also serves Mitcham with four stops in the area;Mitcham Junction,Mitcham,Belgrave Walk andPhipps Bridge. Trams provide a direct service toWimbledon,Croydon,Beckenham Junction andElmers End from Mitcham and alsoNew Addington with a change at Croydon.

Bus services operated byLondon Buses are available from Mitcham. These includenight buses toAldwych andLiverpool Street in central London.^[46]

National Express services 028London Victoria toEastbourne, 025 London Victoria toBrighton andWorthing viaGatwick Airport, 026 London Victoria toBognor Regis and A3 London Victoria to Gatwick Airport hourly shuttle all stop at Mitcham (Downe Road/Mitcham Library bus stop)^[47]

• "Merry Making at Mitcham".Wayback Machine. TheUniversity of Sheffield's National Fairground Archive. Archived fromthe original on 21 December 2004.
• "Making Merton".Merton Council. Archived fromthe original on 26 April 2009.
• "A Brief History of Merton by John Precedo: Part 1 – Romans to the Norman Conquest".Wayback Machine. Tooting Community Website. Archived fromthe original on 13 April 2005.
• Eric Norman Montague (1976).The 'Canons' Mitcham. Merton Historical Society.ISBN 0-9501488-3-0.
• Eric Norman Montague (2001).North Mitcham. Merton Historical Society.ISBN 1-903899-07-9.
• Eric Norman Montague (1996).The Historic River Wandle: Phipps Bridge to Morden Hall. Merton Historical Society.ISBN 0-905174-25-9.

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