Author Archives: Wade

Gas to electric street lighting – 1959 list of road names

From the Mitcham News & Mercury, 27th November 1959.

BETTER lighting is planned for over 120 Mitcham roads, The council are due to start Stage 15 of the programme
to replace gas lamps by electricity. The roads affected are:

Arnold Road
Ashtree Avenue
Avenue Road
Bruce Road
Borough Road
Bank Avenue
Belgrave Road
Belgrave Walk
Batsworth Road
Benedict Road
Barnard Road
Baker Lane
Byards Croft
Blake Road
Boistead Road
Crusoe Road
Crossways Road
Century Road
Chapel Road
Church Path
Clarendon Grove
Cedars Avenue (remainder)
Cambridge Road
Church Walk
Commonside East (Tamworth Villas)
Carew Road
Collingwood Road
Chilmark Road
Dovedale Rise
Dalton Avenue
De’Arn Gardens
Dorset Road
Downe Road
Edenvale Road
Edmund Road
Eveline Road
Eldertree Way
Eldertree Place
Ebenezer Walk
Finborough Road
Friday Road
Fountain Place
Fox’s Path
Fountain Road
Firtree Avenue
Feltham Road
Fieldgate Lane
Frimley Gardens
Glebe Avenue
Gladstone Road
Green Lane
Gaston Road
Greenwood Road
Galpins Road
Heaton Road
Hawthorne Avenue
Harwood Avenue
Heyford Road
Hilary Avenue
Hassocks Road
Island Road
Inglemere Road
Kenmare Drive
Kingsmead Road
Lavender Grove
Laings Avenue
Leonard Road to Lilian Road
Lilian Road
Lymington Close
Leather Close
Lammas Avenue
Milton Road
Masefield Close
Moffat Gardens
Marsh Avenue
Montrose Gardens
Marian Road
Middle Road
Middle Way
Miles Road
Mortimer Road
New Close
Nursery Road
Oakwood Avenue
Oxtoby Way
Oxford Close
Portland Way
Peartree Close
Plummer Lane
Pentlands Close
Pembroke Road
Raleigh Gardens (part)
Rowan Crescent
Roman Close
Rosemead Avenue
Robinhood Close
Robinhood Lane
Rodney Road
St. Marks Road (Ravensbury Close)
Shrewton Road
Sirdar Road
Stanley Gardens
Stanley Road
St. Barnabas Road
Seaton Road
Stainbank Road
Sibthorp Road
St. George’s Road
St. Olaves Walk
Sunnymead Walk
St. Mark Road (Southview Cottages)
Taylor Road
Tynemouth Road
Thirsk Road
Taffey’s Row
Tonstall Road
Vicarage Gardens
Woodley Close
Woodland Way
Walnut Tree Avenue
Westfield Road
Warminster Way

Ownership of Mitcham’s Town Greens

In the Metropolitan Commons (Mitcham Supplemental) Act of 1891, Mitcham Common, Upper Green, Lower Green, Figges Marsh and Beddington Corner came under the ownership and control of the Board of Conservators.

1894 OS map Mitcham Common

1894 OS map Upper Green

1894 OS map Lower Green

1894 OS map

The Mitcham Urban District Council Act 1923 allowed the Mitcham Urban District Council (UDC) to buy from the Conservators the open spaces of Upper (or Fair) Green, Lower (or Cricket) Green, Figges Marsh , Three Kings Piece and Canons Piece. These open spaces were then referred to in this Act as the “Mitcham Greens”.

In 1934, the Mitcham Urban District Council was changed to the Mitcham Borough Council. A notice by the Privy Council Office, published in The Advertiser on 17th May 1934, included the ‘Property and Liabilities’ of the District Council.

In 1964 Mitcham Borough Council became part of the London Borough of Merton.

The Greater London Council Commons Registration Act 1965 refers to Mitcham Common as exempt from registration, but does add the “Town Greens” of Figges Marsh, Upper Green, Lower and Cricket Green.

The current GIS map of freehold properties in Merton shows that the Lower Green hasn’t been registered.

This uses data from the Land Registry, under Open Government Licence: “This information is subject to Crown copyright and database rights 2024 and is reproduced with the permission of HM Land Registry.”

Map produced with QGIS

But Figges Marsh is registered. In this QGIS screenshot, its INSPIRE-ID is 50743328, which can be used with the Land Registry property search.

Title SGL721122 was obtained, which shows that Figges Marsh was registered in 2011:

Summary

Figges Marsh, one of the Town Greens, was owned by Merton Council while it was unregistered.
In 2011 the Council registered the land.
The C register has references to utility companies.

It is possible then that this Town Green was only registered with the Land Registry because of access needed by utility companies.

Lower Green West and Cricket Green remain unregistered as there may have been no access required by such companies.

Ordnance Survey Maps are reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland, reuse CC-BY.