Category Archives: Cricket Green Conservation Area

News of the World Houses

Houses built along Madeira Road and Commonside West, possibly between 1922 and 1926.

These photos, taken in May 2016, show houses along Commonside West. Most of the houses in Madeira Road have been extended to the front with porches etc.

Commonside West

Commonside West

Commonside West

Commonside West

This photo is from the 1926 article referred to below.

1926 NotW Houses

Architects CULPIN and BOWERS

COST: Approximately £600 per house.

MATERIALS: The external 9 inch brick walls are covered up to the cill levels of the first floors, above which the front has a projecting stucco band and a felt-floated cream-white plaster finish; the chimney stacks are faced with red sand-faced bricks; the window casements throughout are of wood; the halls and sculleries have red composition floors, and the roof is covered with variegated sand-faced plain tiles.

Source: an unnamed architectural magazine being sold on ebay


Building application no. 350 submitted by the News of the World for ’28 cottages, Commonside East (sic) and Madeira Road’ was approved by Mitcham Urban District Council on 12th September, 1922. Source: Proceedings of the council Volume VIII 1922 – 23.


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

Canons Lodge

Locally listed December 1992, by Merton Council:

This is a small single storey detached Lodge, which dates from around 1870. The Lodge forms part of the original wall which surround the grounds of the Canons House, and it marks the point where the original entrance to the grounds once stood. The Lodge faces towards the original entrance drive, (with a projecting bay window) while it displays an almost blank wall to the main road. The building materials use include stock brick, (in part painted over), and roof tiles. The design of the building does not relate to that of any others in the vicinity. The main features of interest relate to the orientation of the building, and to its function as a Lodge for the Canons. No subsequent changes are evident.

This 1953 OS map shows the building was at the entrance road to the Canons.

Photos taken May 2016
20160516 Canons Lodge 1 smaller

20160516 Canons Lodge 2 smaller

20160516 The Lodge Madeira Road


In 1890, owner occupier was George Pickles.

Source: Ancestry.com. Surrey, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1945 North East Surrey, Wimbledon, page 437.