Balham
| Balham | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Balham High Road | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ285735 |
| Location: | 51°26’36"N, 0°9’9"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | SW12 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Wandsworth |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Battersea |
Balham is a town in Surrey which has long since been become a mere neighbourhood deep within the greater conurbation stretching out from London.
History
The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as Belgeham. Bal refers to 'rounded enclosure' and ham to a homestead, village or river enclosure. It was held by Geoffrey Orlateile. Its Domesday Assets were: 1½ ploughs, eight acres of meadow. It rendered (in total): £2.[1] The Balham area has been settled since Saxon times. Balham Hill and Balham High Road follow the line of the Roman road Stane Street to Chichester – (now the A24 road). Balham is recorded in several maps in the 1600s as Ballam or Balham Hill or Balham Manor. The village was within the parish of Streatham. Large country retreats for the affluent classes were built there in the 18th century; however, most development occurred after the opening of Balham railway station on the line to Crystal Palace in 1856.
Second World War air raid
On 14 October 1940 Balham tube station was badly damaged by air raids on London during World War II. People took shelter in the tube station during the raids. A bomb fell in the High Road and through the roof of the Underground station below, bursting water and gas mains and killing around 64 people.[2] This particular incident was featured in Atonement, a 2001 novel by Ian McEwan.[3][4] An image of the aftermath is of the No. 88 bus which had fallen into the bomb crater.[5][6]
Geography
Balham encompasses the A24 north of Tooting Bec and the roads radiating off it. The SW12 postcode, the area served by the Balham post office, includes the southern part of Clapham Park or known as Clapham South and the Hyde Farm area, both east of Cavendish Road as well as a small detached part of Clapham south of Nightingale Lane and part of Battersea (the roads north of Nightingale Lane). The southern part of Balham, towards Tooting Bec, near the 1930s block of Art Deco flats called Du Cane Court and the area to the south of Wandsworth Common, comes under the SW17 postcode. The Heaver Estate lies to the south of Balham in Tooting. The Estate mainly comprises substantial houses, was built in the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House and was the work of local Victorian builder, Alfred Heaver.
Balham is situated between four south London commons: Clapham Common to the north, Wandsworth Common to the west, Tooting Graveney Common to the south, and the adjoining Tooting Bec Common to the east – the latter two historically distinct areas are referred to by both Wandsworth Council and some local people as Tooting Common.
Other nearby areas include Tooting, Streatham, Brixton, Battersea, Wandsworth Common, Clapham South or the southern part of Clapham Park.
References
- ↑ Surrey Domesday Book
- ↑ "14th October 1940: Disaster at Balham Tube station". ww2today.com. http://ww2today.com/14th-october-1940-disaster-at-balham-tube-station.
- ↑ "Atonement by Ian McEwan". the Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/sep/29/ianmcewan.
- ↑ John Mullan. "Atonement: metanarrative". the Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/mar/29/ianmcewan.
- ↑ "London Blitz: Bomb Sight interactive map created". BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20637222.
- ↑ Halley Docherty. "Second world war in Google Street View". the Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/may/20/second-world-war-google-street-view-nazis-paris-london-blitz.
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