Category Archives: Roads

Peter Waterman’s refreshment hut by the Red House

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Peter Waterman, British and European welterweight boxing champion and elder brother of the actor Dennis Waterman, later ran a refreshment hut on Mitcham Common beside the Red House — serving football supporters near the dressing rooms off Croydon Road / Red House Road.

Born in Stepney on 8 December 1934, Waterman boxed from boyhood, won the ABA light-welterweight title in 1952, fought for Great Britain at the Helsinki Olympics that year, and as a professional took the British welterweight title (1956) and the European title (1957). After a hard fight with Dave Charnley in April 1958 he underwent brain surgery and never boxed again. He died suddenly in Islington on 16 January 1986, aged 51.

The Mitcham Common Conservators’ minutes pick up his Common story a couple of years later. On 14 September 1960 the Board recorded that Mrs Edwards had transferred the Refreshment Licence to Mr Peter Waterman, of 48 Palace Road, Streatham Hill, and granted him a three-year licence for the hut.

In January 1961 he asked for tarmac near the dressing rooms and drive-in, offering an extra £1 a week. Through the early 1960s the Board dealt with higher fees for car-park and football trade, earlier Sunday opening, and — in places where the OCR reads “Mr Waterson” — almost certainly the same licensee. By 1967–68 there were Public Health complaints about the huts at the Red House; meetings followed with Waterman and Merton Council, and the Council was expected not to press further once remedial work was done.

In May 1969 the licence was to be determined and tenders advertised, with the present licensee free to tender. The café remained a recurring Environmental Health item into the late 1970s. On 8 March 1978 the Clerk spoke to Mr Waterman’s Manager about the café and parking. On 7 June 1978 the licence was terminated: the police were content with closure, citing safety with lorries on Croydon Road. On 5 September 1979 the Board noted that the café had been emptied and that Waterman’s Manager should be told the structure was to be destroyed — the site tied in the index to the disused lorry park by Red House Road.

Local memory still links Waterman’s stand with match-day crowds near the Red House (properly the Jolly Gardeners on Mitcham Road / Croydon Road at the Croydon end of the Common — the “Blue House” opposite being the Ravensbury Arms). The minutes do not mention his boxing career or his better-known brother; they show a long-serving Common licensee whose hut served footballers and spectators until the late 1970s, when road safety and health concerns closed that chapter.

Sources: Mitcham Common Conservators Board minutes (esp. 14 Sep 1960; 11 Jan 1961; 1962–63 fees; 1967–68 Public Health; 14 May 1969; 8 Mar & 7 Jun 1978; 5 Sep 1979); Wikipedia / contemporary boxing notices for career outline; local naming of the Red House (Jolly Gardeners).

Anstey

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A house and market garden that was reached by a track on the west side of Cedars Avenue, and occupied by Mr Pinnock and family.

1955 OS map Anstey

The name ‘Anstey’ was discovered in this news article:

Source: Mitcham Advertiser, 26 January 1928, p. 1 (British Newspaper Archive; rights holder unknown).

Death of Miss Pinnock.

Mitcham Market Gardener Bereaved.

The funeral took place at Mitcham Cemetery on Wednesday of Miss Annie A. Pinnock, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Pinnock, of Anstey, Cedars-avenue, Mitcham.

Miss Pinnock, who was forty-three, had been in indifferent health for some time, but her death on Saturday was totally unexpected. She became seriously ill on the previous Wednesday. Her death is deeply regretted by a wide circle and especially by the Vicar and members of St. Mark’s Church, where she had been an active worker for many years.

Mr. and Mrs. Pinnock are among the best known and most respected inhabitants of Mitcham, where Mr. Pinnock has been in business as a market gardener for over twenty years. Previously he was in the employ of Messrs. Mizen Bros. Mr. and Mrs. Pinnock have resided in Mitcham over half a century.

The funeral service was conducted at St. Mark’s Church by the Rev. W. K. Roberts, who also officiated at the graveside.

The chief family mourners were Mr. and Mrs. Pinnock (father and mother), Mr. W. Pinnock (brother), Mr. W. Webb (uncle), Mrs. Gillingham and Miss Gibson.

The many beautiful floral tributes included wreaths from all members of the family, Ald. A. Mizen and the Misses Mizen, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Mizen, Mr. Edward Johnson Mizen, Mrs. Hicks and family, Mrs. Edwards, Messrs. T. and Charles Turner, Mrs. Huntingford and family, Mr. Pinnock (Hammersmith) and family, Mr. and Mrs. Cottis (cousins), Mr. and Mrs. A. Webb (cousins).

Sold around 1930 according to this news article:

Source: Mitcham Advertiser, 5 January 1950, p. 5
(British Newspaper Archive; rights holder unknown).

Obituary

Mrs. M. Pinnock

At the age of 90, Mrs. Mary Pinnock, of 3, Mitcham Garden Village, died on New Year’s Eve.

The funeral service takes place to-day (Thursday) at St. Mark’s Church, at the opening of which, 50 years ago, Mrs. Pinnock was present. She rarely missed a service there. The service will be conducted by the Vicar, the Rev. A. E. Smart. Interment will be in the parish churchyard.

For most of her life Mrs. Pinnock and her late husband lived in St. Mark’s Parish, and had a flourishing market garden business off Cedars Avenue. The land was sold about twenty years ago, when the Pinnocks retired, and is now covered with houses. Mr. Pinnock, like his widow, died in the Garden Village. Mrs. Pinnock was a member of the Red Cross and the Darby and Joan Club, which meets in St. Mark’s Parish Hall. She was active in the district until a few weeks before Christmas.

Her brother, Mr. Thomas Turner, a retired Mitcham postman, who lives with her son in St. George’s Road, is 92.

Source: Mitcham Advertiser 2nd January 1930
Right margin torn; missing letters restored in the transcription below (notably “East Ward”).

Mr. Thomas Pinnock.

Mitcham Octogenarian Market Gardener Retires.

Mr. Thomas Pinnock, who has been a market gardener in Mitcham for over half a century, retired from business this Christmas at the age of eighty-three.

Mr. Pinnock is a Wiltshire man and came to Mitcham to work for the late Mr. Thomas Allen, of Sherborne Farm, Eastfields. Later he was employed by the late Mr. Edward Mizen, father of the three partners of the firm of Mizen Bros., for whom he worked twenty years. Since then Mr. Pinnock has been in business for himself at Cedars-avenue, where he did a great deal of the work himself. He has enjoyed excellent health. Few men are more respected, especially in the East Ward where all Mr. Pinnock’s days in Mitcham have been spent. He well remembers the lavender blooming in hundreds of acres in Mitcham, and helped to grow it himself.

Mrs. Pinnock, who is a Mitcham woman, is not so old as her husband by thirteen years. At present she and her husband are enjoying a long and well deserved holiday in Yorkshire.

5th November 1936 Mitcham Advertiser

Mr. Thomas Pinnock

Death of Mitcham’s Oldest Market Gardener.

Mitcham has lost its oldest nurseryman and market gardener by the death on Tuesday of Mr. Thomas Pinnock, aged ninety.

He was a market gardener in Mitcham for over half a century—until his retirement seven years ago. He died in Mitcham Garden Village.

Mr. Pinnock was a Wiltshire yeoman farmer’s son and he came to Mitcham to work for the late Mr. Thomas Allen, of Sherborne Farm, Eastfields. Later he was employed by the late Mr. Edward Mizen, father of Messrs. Mizen Brothers, for whom he worked twenty years. Afterwards he started in business as a market gardener and nurseryman in Cedars-avenue, Common-side East, where he remained till he retired.

Mr. Pinnock enjoyed excellent health throughout his long life. He enjoyed life itself and a joke as much as anything. Always cheery and ready to tell a good story, he was a very popular member of the Garden Village circle, and he was esteemed generally, especially in the East Ward, where all his working life in Mitcham was spent. He remembered when lavender bloomed in hundreds of acres of Mitcham, and he helped to grow it himself.

Mrs. Pinnock is a Mitcham woman and is younger than her husband by thirteen years. She has received many messages of sympathy.

The funeral will take place on Saturday. Mr. Donald S. Drewett, Upper Green, Mitcham, is carrying out the arrangements.