Author Archives: Wade

1972 Pollards Hill Design Award

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Design Award For Pollards Hill Estate

Mitcham’s Pollards Hill Estate has won a major architectural award for Merton.

The £4 million complex of 562 houses and 288 flats has already aroused great interest among local authorities and architects.

And this week Merton’s Borough Architect, Mr Bernard Ward, revealed that his architects have been given the South East Region Award of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Mr Ward, Borough Architect of Merton since 1965, regards this as one of the highlights of his career. But it was, he emphasised, a team job from five men in his department.

“I am very pleased. It’s quite an achievement as there are only 13 regions throughout Great Britain to which the Institute make their awards.”

He believes the award has been made on the basis that Pollards Hill houses a large number of families without the architects having to resort to high-rise blocks to do it. Those who have visited the estate since it was completed have been surprised at the spacious surroundings in which so many people can be accommodated.

This was his team’s objective when they first presented their ideas to the council’s Housing Committee four years ago.

Problems

“We wanted to build an estate which was mainly composed of houses and not flats. They said that if this could be done then it would be ideal. So
we went ahead,” explained Mr Ward.

There was plenty of head scratching, thinking and discussing among his staff before the final design was produced.

“A lot of designs hit the waste paper basket before we came up with the right one,” he explained.

Both Mr Ward and his team were aware that the huge tower blocks built by many
local authorities in the past were neither pleasant to look at nor to live in. But there was the council’s long housing waiting list to consider.

Both had to be taken into consideration before the final plans for Pollards Hill were produced.

Once this had been approved, there were few architectural problems.
“The only problem we had was to do the job within the budget for the project,” he said.

Altogether the team worked on the design for four months. They were a good team he said. It was a pity that most of them had now left Merton and gone their separate professional ways in the last two years.

Unique

But the experience they had in the design of one of the first estates where homes have been provided for 100 persons per acre would, he believed, stand them in good stead in their present jobs.

When the first tenant moved in on January 28, 1971, Pollards Hill was regarded, in architectural circles, as almost unique.

Merton Council had managed to house hundreds of families while adding to the quality of the environment. This is not achieved by many local councils in their battle to reduce housing lists.

The estate borders South Lodge-avenue, where previously there had been hundreds of prefabs, built as temporary post-war accommodation for bombed-out families.

Now, the long streamlined honeycomb of houses and flats which stretch up to the borough boundary is an attractive replacement.

The award is to be presented at a special ceremony at Merton Town Hall in October.

Source: Mitcham News & Mercury, 8th September, 1972 page 1

Bamboo House

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Chinese restaurant that was at 249 London Road, corner of Langdale Avenue, from 1960 to December 2021.

From the Daily Mirror, 8th April, 1965

The Chop Suey Revolution

In a thousand heated cellars all over Britain bean shoots are being grown.

About every five days, they are cut and cooked in Chinese restaurants to help feed the traditional fish-and-chips Englishman who has been contentedly swept into the chop suey revolution.

These been shoots threaten not only the traditional fish and chips. They can – added by today’s frightening meat prices – strike a blow at the equally traditional steak and chips market.

For years London has had its famous and expensive Chinese restaurants.

Now “eating Chinese” is sweeping not only London suburbia but the whole of the provinces – with restaurants which have the strange quality of being strictly classless.

In them you will find the bank manager, the solicitor, the dock worker, hungry teenagers and busy housewives all trying this new value-for-money way of eating.

There are nearly 2,000 Chinese restaurants in England today. There are 400 concentrated in the Midlands, 100 within a 40 mile radius of Manchester.

Why this chop suey revolution?

The immediate, but not the only, answer is that they are cheap, almost ridiculously cheap.

Where, outside the Chinese restaurant, can you get a delicious, satisfying, three-course meal, plus tea or coffee,
for as little as 4s. 6d., with no service charge.

Where, except in a Chinese restaurant, can you get a huge plateful of exquisite food, served on an immaculate tablecloth, in pleasant surroundings, for 3s.?

How can the Chinese provide meals so cheaply?

One of the reasons is the entirely different approach of the Chinese towards eating.

They rarely use any meat except pork and chicken. But these are so deliciously served with wonderfully flavoured vegetables – bean shoots, spring onions, tomatoes, celery, bamboo shoots, spinach and white cabbage – that nobody misses the traditional steak.

Then, of course, many restaurants save on labour costs, operating on a family basis.

It is not unusual to find grandparents, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law and cousins, all working together with no regard for working hours, wages or days off.

A wonderful example of this is in a modest Chinese restaurant in Mitcham, Surrey.

Here, in the “Bamboo House,” 45-year-old Mr. Pui Cheung opens seven days a week with members of his family as his chief assistants.

Mr. Cheung arrived in England eleven years ago by boat from Hong Kong with very little money in his pocket, and for six years he worked in restaurant kitchens and then as a waiter.

Five years ago he risked his savings and got a mortgage to open his Chinese restaurant.

Today he has paid off his mortgage and is saving hard to expand.

He regularly serves more than 300 4s. 6d. lunches between midday and 3 p.m.

He employs an 18-year-old boy, Lai Fong, solely to look after and grow fresh bean shoots from seed in huge wooden tubs in an immaculate transformed coal cellar.

He told me: “I often use 100lb. bean shoots on Saturday nights alone, and I can only keep pace with the demand by growing them on the premises.”

Most Chinese restaurants do the same — it’s handier and cheaper than buying outside.

The popularity and standard of food values can be judged by the fact that local housewives now collect Mr. Cheung’s three-course 4s. 6d. meals to take home for the family.

Shiu-King, the owner’s strikingly good-looking wife, supervises the kitchen. His elder son Ching Kwong is her deputy, his daughter-in-law, Choi King, is a waitress, his 21-year-old son Yick Kwan is the deputy chef and his 19-year-old daughter Oi-ling, is a waitress.

Inflation adjusted, four shillings and sixpence in 1965 is around £4 in 2016.

From the local Guardian, 30th March 2010

A pioneer of Asian cuisine in London, who opened Mitcham’s first Chinese restaurant, has died.

Pui Cheung was the owner of the Bamboo House in London Road. He was born in Hong Kong but later moved to Shanghai where he married his wife Siu King.

His grandson, Paul Cheung, said: “It was truly a family business as all concerned have helped change the way people dine out on Chinese food.”

Mr Cheung, who had four children, died on March 3 at the age of 90. A service to mark his life was held on March 18 in Morden.

From their Facebook Page on 8th December 2021:

Dear Customers,

Since 1960, Bamboo Restaurant has had the pleasure of serving you fresh and authentic Chinese cuisine.

We regret to inform you that our last day of business will be Christmas Eve, Friday 24th December 2021. We apologise for the short notice. Due to the expiry of our lease, we will have to close earlier than intended. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you — our wonderful customers — for all of your loyalty and support over the last 20 years under our management.

Our opening hours will remain the same until we close. Please call or email us to make a booking.

We wish you all the best for this Christmas & the coming new year and we hope to see you all before we close our doors for the last time.

Kind regards,

Peter, Paula, Linda, Nigel and everyone else at Bamboo Restaurant.