Category Archives: Buildings

120 to 154 Morden Road

120 to 154 Morden Road, Mitcham CR4 4DB, is a terrace of shops with flats above. It is on the north side of Morden Road, at the right hand side of the entrance to Deer Park Gardens. To its right is Ravensbury Path, which crosses the tram line and connects to Church Path.

Photo taken December 2017.

The tower is on the west end of the block. It houses the stairwell leading to the first and second floors. Photo taken December 2017.

Locally listed June 1994, Merton council says:

This is a terrace of inter war shops with flats over, which is built of brick. It is a three storey building, in which the top floor is contained within a mansard roof. The main frontage contains little of particular interest except for the glazed green tiles on the steeper of the slopes of the mansard roof. The end of the terrace has an unusual round tower feature surmounted by a pyramidal roof with the same green tiles. The brickwork on this tower also contains small details of interest. The chimneys at each end of the building are also of some interest, as they follow a curved line at first floor level. It should also be noted that almost all of the original details relating to the shopfronts has now been lost, and that original windows have almost all been replaced. The end elevation which is of greatest interest is disfigured by a large advertising hoarding.

Some of the original wall design is now visible due to changes in signs above the shops.

Photo taken December 2017.

1952 OS map

Stanmore Motors was at number 120. It is listed in the 1954 and 1971 telephone directories as MITcham 2796, and 01-648 2796.

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

Gardeners Arms Pub Sign

The Gardeners Arms pub, 107 London Road, Mitcham, had a heraldic style sign hanging from a post in the centre of the wall on the upper floor. In November 2017, the sign couldn’t be found by the new landlord.

There are three photographs on Merton Memories, and none show a sign attached, for example, this one from 1989:

Clip from Merton Memories photo Mit_21_11-2 copyright London Borough of Merton.

This undated black an white photo shows flower baskets hanging from the wall:

Clip from Merton Memories photo Mit_21_11-1 copyright London Borough of Merton.

The late Eric Montague, of the Merton Historical Society, took a slide of 109 & 111 London Road in 1966, and this included the pub, which has no sign.

A 1973 photo on the Collage collection also doesn’t show the sign:

1973

The only photograph found so far showing the sign is from Google Street View, from 2008:-

The sign is blurred when zooming in, but what can be seen is shield with a blue background, a white chevron with two objects above and three or more below. The shield has two supporters, one of which may be a gardener. The Surrey Coats of Arms, online at the Surrey History centre website, have been searched for Mitcham arms, and none of these have a field of blue with a white chevron.

Street View of 2012 shows no sign:

2012