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Mitcham
Mitcham maps
Historic maps of Mitcham and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Mitcham maps
Mitcham area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Mitcham and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Mitcham
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memories of Mitcham.
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Three Kings Piece
I don't know why we called it Three King's Piece but in the mid 50's to the early 60's when I was growing up, that was what we called it. I lived in the flats in Armfield Crescent and when we went to Three Kings Piece we went the back way. Down St Marks Road to Baker Lane, on the corner was St Marks Chuch, to Hilary Avenue. At the end of the avenue was an alley-way. It had a high wall on one side with broken glass embedded on the top and the blank sides of houses on the other. I don't know what was on the other side of this long wall as the broken glass on the top of the wall was a deterrent to climb up and see what was there. At the end of the alley-way was Commonside East and the Three Kings Inn.
Over the road opposite the Inn as Three Kings Piece with its pond... Read more
The Cricketers Arms And The Town Hall
I always remember the Cricket Green as the lazy hazy days of summer. My father played cricket here, I don't remember the name of his team, but we had to sit and watch him. I liked it when the crocuses poked their heads out of the ground at the beginning of the season. They would appear in glorious colour in all the corners of the green, with the cricket pitch in the middle. We were never allowed to play on the green. If we wanted to run around or fly our kites on a bit of grass we went to Commonside East or Commonside West, just up the road, where there was plenty of room and no one to tell us off.
The cricket green was reputed to have been played on since the 17th century, but the first recorded match was in 1711.
Along one side of the green was the clubhouse, but we never went in there. On the Main Road side the Town Hall sat, like a... Read more
The Bucks Head And London Road
Opposite the Majestic Cinema, you can just see the Tudor brickwork of the Bucks Head Inn, on the London Road corner. It was very rare that my Dad would go in, but we would be sent there at certain times of the year. A seafood stall, parked beside the pub on a Sunday, would sell cockles, whelks, winkles, mussels, shrimp and jellied eels. My Dad would give my sister and I , or my brother Robert, some money to buy half a pint of winkles and quart pint of shrimps for tea. After getting them home it would be our job to use a needle, take the eyes out of the winkles, then stick the needle in it's "head" and slowly unwind the winkle from its shell. Mum would put them in a dish and add vinegar. Lo and behold if we "broke" the winkle as we were getting them out of the shell. They were a special treat and we would miss out on them... Read more
The Majestic Cinema
Between the tree and the cinema you can see the roof and top floor of one of the blocks of flats in Armfield Crescent so we did not live far from the cinema. When we were small we were given a shilling to go to the Saturday morning pictures - The ABC Minors we were called. We even had a song we sang before the films began. Sixpence was used to get into the cinema and we had sixpence to spend on lollies or ice cream that was sold from the counter between the entrance and the doors into the theatre. It was always noisy in that area where you would meet up with other kids you knew and see where they were going to sit. I remember the westerns with Hoppalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid and The Masked Ranger with Silver, his horse, and his sidekick Tonto. I also remember the cartoons Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Donald Duck and all those Warner Bros... Read more
The 40/50s
It was the 118 bus Colin. It went from Clapham Common to Mitcham Cricket Green. I also remember well those wonderful Leo's ice lollies. After those awful slabs of lard between 2 wafers that went soggy they were magic - Walls's! My family moved from Northborough Road to Rosemead Avenue in March 1940 as all the Lcc schools were closed. My sister and I went to Pollards Hill School. Both of my brothers went there or to Alfred Mizen some 10 years later. I went on to Rutlish in 1946 on the 152 bus from Fair Green up Western Road past the school and the gas works when we all held our noses. The first love of my life went to Western Road School, her name was Lileen Townsend and her father was a coal merchant. She gave me my first kiss ....aah.
I recall the first post war Mitcham Fair at Three Kings which took over from the fair which was held on the road to Thornton Heath.... Read more
Church Path And The People That Lived There.
I was born in Collierswood Maternity Home, a very short time before it was bombed during the Second World War. The year was 1944. My family being homeless were housed in requisitioned properties in Mitcham. We were among the many poor families that seemed to have been moved from one house to another. We finally found ourselves, unknown to us, entering the last house we were ever to occupy in Mitcham. We were to remain there for over twenty years. As luck would have it, the council had found us a house in Church Path, the London Road end. Because the street was a cul- de-sac we seemed to have adopted a very close knit society, both parents and children. As I continue to write this, the memories simply come flooding back, including the names of the children I grew up with: Heather and Gilbert Allen, Mary and Tommy Sommerford, Lilly and Sidney Parker. Then came the kids from Broadway Gardens, Ian Robinson, Franky Fyfoot (Nobber) and his younger brother... Read more
Re: Family Plot
My grandmother Annie Alice Lawrence born 1886 Mitcham is buried in a family grave with her parents George Lawrence born 1854 Mitcham and Sarah Anne Lawrence born 1856 (Duke) Beddington. My grandmother Annie married Thomas Baker born 1885 Mitcham and was a Master Builder. My grandparents lived at Newton House, 1 Commonside West and had one daughter my mother Lois June Lawrence Baker born 1921 Mitcham.
Coffee Stall at The Cricket Green Run by Lil Inglis Aka James
In all my years of looking at books and memories of Mitcham there is no mention of my mum's coffee stall at Mitcham Cricket green opposite Burn Bullocks pub also known as the Kings Head. As a boy I remember being with my mum as she worked on my uncle's coffee stall. She would tell me that of all the famous people that would stop and have their teas and hot pies and sandwiches as well as guardsmen and also at Derby races time as there was a horse trough there.
We lived at Bull Yard and my Gran, Louisa Inglis or known as Granny James lived at the farmhouse at the corner of Frimley Gardens. My dad worked for my gran on her pig farm in Sutton. I was a pupil The Star school from 1941-1947 and went to Western Road Secondary school. People always laugh at me when I say the actor Johnny Briggs (Coronation St's Mike Baldwin) used to go to The Star school, am... Read more
