Category Archives: Buildings

Birches House

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In Birches Close off of the Cricket Green, this locally listed Queen Anne-style building was constructed for Sir Isaac Wilson. The land and house were bequeathed on his death ‘for the well-being of Mitcham residents’ and used for health purposes; with the inception of the NHS in 1948, the site was absorbed and became under the control of the local Primary Care Trust.

In 2020, it is occupied by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). A notice on the front door states that the entrance to the CAMHS is at the rear.

Photo taken 10th August 2020.

2005 The Birches

Photo taken 18th December 2005

Minutes of the Housing Committee
7th September 1945
page 607

The Town Clerk reported that upon “The Birches” being vacated by the executors of the late Sir Isaac Wilson a requisition notice had been served, following which a communication had been received from the Surrey County Council to the effect that the property is being purchased by that authority for the use of the nursing staff for the tuberculosis wards at Cumberland House and for the accommodation of a small number of hospital patients, and asking whether, in view of this, the requisitioning notice could be withdrawn. The Town Clerk reported that he had intimated to the Surrey County Council that no further action would be taken and that the requisition notice would in consequence be cancelled.

From the Mitcham Advertiser, 1st November 1945, page 1

AN EXPENDITURE of £1,320 to provide furniture and equipment for one doctor, six senior staff and two maids has been approved by Surrey County Council in connection with “The Birches,” Mitcham, recently purchased by the Council from the estate of the late Sir Isaac Wilson to accommodate staff at Cumberland House Hospital, Mitcham, which adjoins the house.

Minutes of meetings held by the Mitcham Borough Council are available on request from the Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre at Morden Library.

Holborn Military Hospital

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The Holborn Union Workhouse was taken over as a Military Hospital in 1916:

From the Mitcham Advertiser, 4th August, 1916:

WOUNDED SOLDIERS FOR MITCHAM.

We understand that the War Office has taken over the Holborn Institution, Western Road, for the purpose of using it as a hospital for wounded soldiers. It is suggested that the present inmates will be transferred to the Workhouse at Belmont.

1893 OS map

From “Mitcham Histories No. 14 ‘Upper Mitcham and Western Road'” by E.N. Montague of the Merton Historical Society, page  94:

In 1919, after the last of the soldiers had left, a memorial tablet was set in the wall to the right of the main gate, and unveiled by Lady Worsfold of Hall Place. The inscription read “Holborn Military Hospital, Mitcham 1916-1919. To the glory of God and Sacred to the memory of those who gave Their lives in the Great War”, and listed the names of 22 men and one nursing sister who had died there. When what remained of the former workhouse reception building was being removed by demolition contractors in the late 1960s the memorial was salvaged by the writer, and taken into safekeeping by Merton Historical Society.

This memorial tablet is now in storage in the custody of Merton Local Studies Centre. The names that can be worked out from the photo on Merton Memories (see below) are:

Merton Memories Photos

Memorial stone
Entrance in Western Road

News Articles

From the Belfast Telegraph – Monday 09 September 1918, via the British Newspaper Archives, which requires a subscription.

NO SIGN OF THE TRACTOR.

At Marlborough Street Police Court, London, Sydney Moore (32), automobile engineer, giving an address at Manchester, was charged on remand with obtaining £150 from George Godfrey by false pretences. Godfrey, a private in a Reserve Garrison Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, at present an inmate of the Mitcham Military Hospital. It was stated that, seeing an advertisement in a daily paper headed “Urgent Work of National Importance,” he replied to it, and received an answer that if he ordered a tractor plough for land work this would be considered work of national importance, and his release from the Army could be obtained through the Ministry of National Service. He sent a cheque for £150 for a tractor, but had not received it or the return of his money, nor had he heard anything as to his being released.

The advertisement was issued by a firm in Regent Street. Evidence was given that the Ministry of National Service knew nothing of the firm and that the company’s paid-up capital was £2, its nominal capital being £5,000.
The accused was remanded.

Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.