Balham
Balham maps (2 available)
Map of London
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
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Balham books (18 available)
Balham memories
Read and share memories of Balham and London inspired by Frith photos
the Green Dolphin Cafe
My grandfather bought Smiths Car Showroom after the war when it was the Green Dolphin Cafe. I can remember going to the cafe in the 1950s when I was small. I think it is now a windows showroom.
Contributed by Mrs C Fanning
London memories
the Green Dolphin Cafe
My grandfather bought Smiths Car Showroom after the war when it was the Green Dolphin Cafe. I can remember going to the cafe in the 1950s when I was small. I think it is now a windows showroom.
A memory of Balham contributed by Mrs C Fanning
Childhood walk
This could be my mother and me! I was 5 in 1951 and remember visiting the pond to 'feed the ducks'. The common became a wonderful playground durig my childhood, everything from 'the wild west' to 'army battlefields'. It was safe, we would spend all day playing without fears or worries. The important thing was to avoid the 'Parkie' (Park Keeper), what a memorable age.
A memory of Tooting Bec contributed by Martin Foulser
Running on the Common 1980s
During the '80s I lived in Streathbourne Road, just a couple of houses in from the Common. Weather permitting I would run in the evenings. One dark evening in the late autumn I ventured onto the Common. Running in the grass near the Lido, I tripped over a couple who were lying there shagging beneath a tree. I am afraid I gave the chap an awful kick in the ribs,and I took a frightful spill. When I got to my feet, the poor chap staggered to his, rubbing his side and looking fit to be tied. Needless to say we were both put out by this unfortunate turn of events, but before either of us had a chance to utter a ...read more here
A memory of Tooting Bec contributed by Donald Campbell
Extracts From Balham & London books
High Street North is a
relatively undistinguished
and typical London
suburban shopping street:
the exuberance of the Town
Hall complex is forgotten.
The Midland Bank on the
corner of Caulfield Road
(right) is one of their 1920s
Classical-style single-storey
buildings that add quality to
many High Streets. On the
left the taller Victorian brick
buildings were demolished
in the 1970s and replaced
by bland flat roofed ones.
An extract from from"London Living Memories".
We pass under the River Thames via the Blackwall Tunnel - the northbound side dates from the 1890s, an early
project of the LCC, which was established in 1888. East Ham was in Essex until 1965, but since the mid 19th
century very much a part of greater London. Here we approach East Ham’s town centre along the busy North
Circular Road, which seems in places merely a casual linkage of suburban roads. These terraces of neat
Edwardian bay-windowed houses survive, and lead towards the Town Hall with its tower.
An extract from from"London Living Memories".
Our tour now heads north-east to Greenwich to a much grander building. The Royal Naval Hospital, a
counterpart to the Chelsea Hospital for soldiers, began as a rebuild of Greenwich Palace by Charles II in the
1660s, but it changed direction in the 1690s. The second pediment from the right is Webb’s 1660s work. In
1873 it became the Royal Naval College; when that closed, in the 1990s it became part of Greenwich University.
In the distance are the chimneys of Greenwich Power Station of 1902-10.
An extract from from"London Living Memories".
St John’s Church, by Benjamin Ferrey, was completed in 1853 as the centrepiece of Angell Town. It has a fine
Perpendicular-style tower with chequer-work battlements and elegant corner pinnacles. The 1850s houses
between it and the photographer were demolished in the 1970s and replaced by a large council housing estate,
Peckford Place. The lime trees in front of the church survive, and have matured well.
An extract from from"London Living Memories".
Angell Town was an estate of 1850s Italianate villas, mostly semi-detached, built on curving roads centred on St
John’s church, whose 1853 tower is crowned by four pinnacles. This view is from an upper balcony of Eldon
House, one of the eleven-storey blocks of council flats built c1960 on the Loughborough Estate. Nearly all the
villas have since been demolished and replaced by four-storey council flats in yellow stock brick. In the distance
we can see the Houses of Parliament, the Victoria Tower and Big Ben.
An extract from from"London Living Memories".