Three Kings Piece

A Memory of Mitcham.

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 and island. I don't think it was very deep, maybe a foot or two, with a lot of gooey mud on the bottom. It's been there for at least 300 years according to local history. I used to go to the pond at different times of the year as something was always happening. In Autumn it was at its most colourful with the trees on the island at the end of the pond changing its mantle and colours. The swans that lived on the pond usually disappeared around this time. We would use our home made nets, made of long thin bamboo sticks with one of Mum's old stockings threaded through a loop of wire stuck in the end of the bamboo. We would try to catch "tiddlers". If we caught any we would take them home in a jam jar that had a string tied around the ribbed top and looped over the jar to form a handle. It was very rare that we did, more in the spring though, then mostly "frogspawn." We would take the frogspawn home, no doubt to the horror of our Mums, so we could watch them hatch into tadpoles. When it got to the stage of the tadpoles growing legs we would be told in no uncertain terms to "take them back to the pond" where they would turn onto frogs.
Winter came and we would go down to see if the pond would freeze over. More times than not it only had little bits of thin ice floating on the top, but a few times it froze over completely. Then we would hope that it got thick enough for us to walk on to get to the island. This never seemed to happen so I never got to see what was on it.
In Spring we went to the pond with our stale bread, lucky that Mum didn't need it to make bread pudding. We knew that the swans had their nest there as in the spring we would see the cygnets following their parents about on the island and swimming on the pond. We would get great enjoyment out of breaking up the bread into small pieces to feed the swans. Now and again we would pop a piece into our own mouths. The swan population never seemed to increase, even though they had young ones every year, so I presumed that the young ones went off to other areas in the autumn when they were bigger.
Summer, during the school holidays, was when the fairground came to Mitcham. They put up their rides and stalls at the end of the common between Commonside East and Commonside West over the road next to The Kings Pond. We were very excited when it came and our parents would take us on a Saturday night. I liked the night the best as all the stalls and rides were lit up, their bright lights glittered and gleamed against the sparkle of the colourful boards advertising their wares. The music coming from the carousel, the big wheel and the merry-go-round, as well as the dodgems, kept everyone in a holiday mood. My favourite ride was the carousel with the model horses where you dreamed of "galloping into the unknown" even though you were going around and around till the ride stopped. Also the ride that had chairs attached to chains hanging from the roof of the stall. As the ride gathered speed the chairs would gradually go further out until you felt you were flying through the air. If Dad was in a generous mood he would take us for a ride on the dodgems. One at a time of course, so he would have two or three rides, depending on how old my sister was at the time or if she was with us.
There were only a few lights on the Main Roads so when it got really dark the fairground practically glowed. Once I went to the fairground during the day with a friend. The ground was littered with pieces of paper, used tickets, and other rubbish that got thrown away on the ground and not in the rubbish bins. You didn't seem to notice all the rubbish during the night visits to the fair.
It was very disappointing and I never went to the fairground again during the day. It had lost its magic for me during the day and I preferred to remember our outings when we went at night with our parents, and all the bright lights.