Colliers Wood
| Colliers Wood | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 The River Wandle at Merton High Street | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ269706 |
| Location: | 51°25’13"N, 0°10’33"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | SW19 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Merton |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Mitcham and Morden |
Colliers Wood is a suburban village Surrey, to the east of Merton, with which it is contiguous in the metropolitan conurbation. This is a mostly residential area, but has a busy high street around Colliers Wood tube station on London Underground's Northern Line. The high street is part of the A24, a major road route roughly following the Northern Line, running from London through Tooting and other areas. The Colliers Wood ward had a population of 10,712 in 2011.
The village has three parks: a recreation ground, the National Trust-owned Wandle Park, which covers an area of approximately 11 acres, and the more informal Wandle Meadow Nature Park. Colliers Wood United F.C. is a semi-professional football club founded in Colliers Wood but now based in nearby New Malden.
History
Colliers Wood takes its name from a wood that stood to the east of Colliers Wood High Street, approximately where Warren, Marlborough and Birdhurst Roads are now. Contemporary Ordnance Survey maps show that this wood remained at least until the 1870s but had been cleared for development by the mid-1890s.
The twelfth-century ruins of Merton Priory were considered by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as a possible British candidate for World Heritage status. Henry VI was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey in 1429, and king of France at Notre-Dame de Paris in 1431. He was reported to have been "crowned" at Merton Priory in 1437, but this was more of a 'crown-wearing' ceremony than a coronation, rather as the King wears the Imperial State Crown at the State Opening of Parliament every year.
Close to Merton Priory is the market and heritage centre at Merton Abbey Mills, the former Liberty & Co. dyeworks on the bank of the River Wandle. The Wandle was reputed to have more mills per mile than any other river in the world, having 90 mills along its 11 mile length. William Morris, at the forefront of the Arts and Crafts Movement, located the Morris & Co. factory at the Merton Abbey Works after determining that the water of the Wandle was suitable for dyeing. The complex, on 7 acres, included several buildings and a dyeworks, and the various buildings were soon adapted for stained-glass production, textile printing, and fabric- and carpet-weaving.[1] The works closed in Autumn 1940. The site is now a supermarket complex.
The world's first public railway, the Surrey Iron Railway, which was initially horse-drawn, passed through Colliers Wood on its route from Croydon to Wandsworth, between 1803 and 1846.
In July 2010, the first of London's Cycle Superhighways opened, with a continuous bicycle lane known as CS7 originating in Southwark Bridge, in the centre of London, and terminating in Colliers Wood. The route was originally intended to continue to South Wimbledon.[2]
Colliers Wood Tower
Colliers Wood is visually dominated by the "Colliers Wood Tower", built in 1966. Originally named the "Lyon Tower", it was originally occupied as the headquarters of property company Ronald Lyon Holdings but has also been known as "The Vortex" and "Brown & Root House". The architects for the building were Bader and Miller. When being built, the tower reached the third storey before an error in construction was discovered and it was demolished to begin again.
The tower was voted the ugliest building in London in a 2006 BBC poll[3] and one of the 12 ugliest in the UK in an early 2005 Channel 4 poll for its programme Demolition.[4] The same BBC poll quoted an architect working for Golfrate Property Management, the current owners, as saying the building was due a make-over and new lease of life.
By 2009, the ground and first floor windows and doors had been boarded up, and green netting attached across each end to prevent falling debris causing injury to passers-by.[5] Demolition of the adjacent spiral car park began in April 2010,[6] but due to complications with an electrical substation was halted soon after, with half the car park still standing. But by June 2011 the car park had been demolished entirely.
In 2022, The London Borough of Merton started emergency inspection of the building after footage revealed a glass panel had fallen from a residents window.[7][8]
-
The Colliers Wood Tower -
The Colliers Wood Tower - unoccupied -
New cladding Summer 2016
Sport
- Football: Colliers Wood United F.C.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Colliers Wood) |
- Colliers Wood Residents Association - Local Residents Association for Colliers Wood, with updates on local news, activities and community groups.
- Colliers Wood Community Centre
References
- ↑ Parry, William Morris, p. 57
- ↑ "Cycling Revolution London". http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/roadusers/Cycling/cycling-revolution-london.pdf. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ↑ "BBC Poll - Most Hated Building". Bbc.co.uk. https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2006/05/25/most_hated_building_feature.shtml. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ↑ "Demolition". Channel4.com. http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/D/demolition/worst2.html. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ↑ "Colliers Wood tower to stay despite falling masonry, drugs and ...". Yourlocalguardian.co.uk. 30 April 2009. http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/wimbledonnews/4330472._Will_we_ever_be_rid_of_the_Colliers_Wood_tower__/. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ↑ "Bulldozers move on to site of "ugly" Colliers Wood tower". Thisislocallondon.co.uk. 6 May 2010. http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8137764.Bulldozers_move_on_to_site_of__ugly__Colliers_Wood_tower/. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ↑ "Dramatic video captures glass panel fall 12 storeys from high-rise apartment in South London". ITV News. 30 June 2022. https://www.itv.com/news/london/2022-06-30/glass-falls-12-storeys-from-high-rise-window-in-colliers-wood.
- ↑ mertonzb (2022-06-28). "Colliers Wood Tower updates" (in en-US). https://news.merton.gov.uk/2022/06/28/statement-on-colliers-wood-tower/.