Fair Green

A Memory of Mitcham.

I lived in that stange area of Mitcham known as Lonesome, situated between the level crossing at Eastfields and the bottom of Streatham Vale. It was a sort of 'No Man's  Land'. My schooling from 1951- 1957 took place first at the wooden Infants School in Grove Road and then next door at the Junior School. It must have been someone with a perverse sense of humour who selected the uniform colours of brown and yellow. It used to take 20 minutes to walk from our house in Eldertee Way to the Fair Green. Once over the level crossing you came to 'the flats'. I remember delivering papers to Laburnum and Penfold Courts. After the flats there was a small alley which led to St Mark's Road. At the Fair Green the Majestic cinema stood, we used to go to the Saturday morning ABC Minors' Club after buying sweets at the 'Honeysuckle' sweet shop opposite. In the same parade of shops were a barbers (Sado's) an undertakers and a record shop (Cloakes?). There were the two pubs, The King's Arms and The Buck's Head, on opposite corners of the road leading to The Swan. The shops which I can recall are of course Tring's where you could buy toys and electrical goods, I got my first bike from there, Krett's bespoke tailors and Ralph's which I think is where Rag, Tag and Bobtails the pet shop is.

After school we would go to the swimming baths. They used to hold up boards with the locker numbers on when it was time for you to leave, we were always complaining that we'd only been in there for half an hour. After swimming we always bought broken biscuits in Ralph's.

There was a bicycle shop (Dyne's? ) opposite Woolworth's where we would gaze longingly at the air pistols and sheath knives displayed in the window. I also recall a pawn shop, but can't remember the name. The Fair Green itself was always a source of traffic congestion, even in those days and recent visits have, alas, shown that despite the many different schemes that have been tried it's far worse now than it ever was.

On the corner of Montrose Gardens was a chandler's shop called Gutteridge's where I would buy straw and food for my Guinea Pig. Some days there would be a deliciously sweet sickly smell of toffee from Randall's (remember the peanut brittle and coconut ice?). Opposite Gutteridge's was Strowger's where we bought hardware, it had an amazing blend of smells, paraffin, putty, paint, grass seed. My aunt used to work at the Carlton Restaurant which I thought was posh, as other places which sold meals were called 'caffs'. Sam's next to Gaydon's Gent's outfitters where I was taken by a policeman for a cup of tea after seeing an old lady run over by a lorry outside the Buck's Head. The beautiful frontage of the Conservative Club next to the Mitcham news and Mercury office which was demolished and replaced by a supermarket. Francis's, another outfitters in London Road opposite the old Post Office.
I now live in the south of France, but still visit my mum who now lives in Colliers Wood, I always try and spend some time to walk around Mitcham as it holds so many memories for me, but each time I visit just a little bit more has disappeared.