Category Archives: Roads

New Close

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Built in 1936/7, a council housing estate originally of 95 houses and 3 flats.

The road is off the west side of Phipps Bridge Road, between numbers 142 and 144. It is a cul-de-sac and is shaped like a flattened oval. Two houses on the left are numbers 1 and 3, then the even numbers, from 2 to 152, continue around the outer side of the oval anticlockwise towards a block of flats at the tramstop end. The houses numbered odd are in the inside of the oval, numbered from 5 to 47, also anticlockwise. See illustration below:

New Close house numbering.

The map above shows that the estate had its own fire alarm post (FAP), next to number 2.

The land was bought for £14,475 from Messrs Clarkson by Mitcham Borough Council for rehousing people made homeless by the Explosion, and for their slum clearance programme.

1935 New Close Clarksons Land sale to Mitcham

1935 Map of land bought by the Council

From the Mitcham News & Mercury, 29th May, 1936:

“Laying out of housing estate”

Reporting on the lay-out plan of New Close Housing Estate, the Borough Engineer, Mr Riley Schofield, said it allowed the erection of 135 houses. The density on the land purchased, viz. 9.70 acres plus one half of the width of Phipp’s Bridge road, and one half of the railway, a total of 11.149 acres worked out at 12.1 houses per acre.

A portion of the estate accommodating 36 houses might not be proceeded with, leaving 99 houses for immediate development.

It was proposed to erect a disinfection house, to be isolated in the south-east corner of the property.

The size of the houses provided for a living-room, scullery, W.C., and bathroom and larder on the ground floor and three bedrooms on the first floor and for the provision of a shed at the rear of each house. A proportion of the houses to have more than three bedrooms.

The Council approved the plan.

Housing Committee, Thursday, October 10th, 1935

LAND, PHIPPS BRIDGE.

-Messrs. Chart, Son and Reading reported that they had been in communication, on behalf of the Council, with Messrs. Clarkson for the acquisition of 9 1/2 acres in Phipps Bridge Road, and that the terms upon which Messrs. Clarkson were prepared to sell were, that the total sum to be paid for the land should be £14,475, and that of this sum £12,047 should be paid upon possession being given of 8 acres 0 roods, 5 perches, and that the balance of the purchase money should be paid on vacant possession being given of the remainder of the land either on the death of Mrs. Clarkson or earlier if Mrs. Clarkson ceases to occupy New Close House. The Town Clerk reported that these conditions had been referred to the District Valuer for his observations, and a report had been received from the District Valuer stating that he was prepared to support an application for a loan at this figure.

Resolved. That the Council be recommended to purchase the site at the price quoted, and that application be made to the Minister of Health to sanction a loan of £14,600 for this purpose.

Source: Proceedings of the Council and committees, Mitcham Borough Council, Volume 1 1934-35 pages 980-1

Finance and General Purposes Committee
Tuesday, 21st July 1936

8. Nameing of New Street
– That in lieu of “New Close” suggested in the report of the Housing Committee, the name of “Jarrow Road” be substituted.

Source: Proceedings of the Council and committees, Mitcham Borough Council, Volume 2 1935-36 page 841

Highways, New Buildings, Lighting and Public Works Committee
Thursday, October 14, 1937

New Close Estate.
-It was Resolved, That his worship the Mayor be asked to hand over officially the New Close Housing Estate to the Housing Committee on Saturday, October 23.

Source: Proceedings of the Council and committees, Mitcham Borough Council, Volume 3 1936-37 page 1065

November 12, 1937

New Close Housing Estate

– The Borough Engineer reported that he had received a quotation from the Wandsworth Gas. Co. for the carcassing required for 95 houses and 3 flats for gas services, amounting to £176 12s., and that he had also received an offer from the company to supply 98 slightly used reconditioned gas cookers at the reduced price of £5 each.

Resolved, That the quotation and offer submitted by the Wandsworth Gas Co. be accepted and the order placed accordingly.

Source: Proceedings of the Council and committees, Mitcham Borough Council, Volume 3 1936-37

Mitcham Advertiser – Thursday 30 December 1937

NEW CLOSE GARAGES The Housing Committee approved the Borough engineer’s suggestion to construct six sheds on the New Close housing estate on an area adjacent to the disinfestation house, to be available as garages. The cost is estimated at £60.

Mitcham Advertiser – Thursday 30 December 1937
From the minutes of Housing Committee
11th December 1947
page 151

PIGEONS

The tenant of 36, New Close, has erected a 15-ft. long pigeon loft without first having first obtained the Council’s permission. I shall be glad of the Committee’s instructions.

I am, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
B. THRUPP
Housing Manager

Resolved – That the tenant be instructed to remove forthwith the pigeon loft which has been erected without permission.

News Articles via the British Newspaper Archive

Streatham News – Friday 12 September 1958

Stole scrap metal A 68-year-old labourer, said to have lived nearly all his life in the Mitcham area and to have previously been of good character, was fined £10 at Wallington when he admitted stealing 63 lb. of scrap lead and copper cables, worth £2 from his employers, London Electricity Board at Mitcham. He was William Robert Brice, New Close, Mitcham.Det.-sergt. Sabin said that Brice, who had been employed by the board since 1951, should have taken the scrap parts of the cables to a depot at Sandy Lane, Mitcham. But when he went to Brice’s home he found 63 lb. of the cable in a shed. Brice told the court: “I just made a folly. I am very sorry. I have lost a good job over it.”

Streatham News – Friday 14 April 1950

Fewer Tenants Owe Rent Arrears Highest On Post-War Estates

A statement of the rents owing on Mitcham Council’s housing estates show that arrears have decreased on almost every estate since last year. Arrears are still highest on the post-war estates, where 299 of the 1,743 tenants owed a total of £567 7s. at March 1 this year. In March 1949 the amount was £733, owed by 392 tenants. On the pre-war estates 243 tenants owe a total of £357 as compared with 299 tenants owing £520 last year. The greatest number of tenants in arrears are those in requisitioned properties. Ninety of them owe a total of £153, but last year 122 owed £311. Arrears on the Pollards Hill Estate are also heavy: those on the Arion bungalows showing a slight increase on last year. The total owing now is £78 compared with £63 then, but arrears on the houses have dropped from £192 to £158. On the pre-war estates tenants most heavily in arrears are those at Bordergate, Swain’s Farm and New Close.

The name ‘New Close’ can be traced back to the 17th century. Deeds published in the Harvard Law Library mention a lease from that Richard Garth for ‘New Close’.

Lease, 1633, January 19. 8 Charles I. 1 Item : parchment ; 42 x 58 cm.

SUMMARY:

Lease between Richard Garth, esq., of Morden (Surrey) and Dame Dorothy Capell of Morden of a new brick house in Morden, with all out houses, barns, etc., with 1 adjoining close called “the Marsh Close,” containing 5 acres, another called “New Close,” containing 5 1/2 acres, another called “Great Parkelandes,” containing 13 acres, another called “Little Parkelandes,” containing 8 acres, another called “Grube Close,” containing 3 acres, and another called “Water Dens,” as now it is enclosed, containing 8 1/2 acres; except and always reserved all woods, timbers, and trees now standing, etc., with all hunting, for 21 years (if she live so long) from last Michaelmas, at the annual rent of £30 5s. Signed: Dorothy Capell.

WITNESSES: Edward Straynge, James Grantham, William Mathewe.

NAMES: I. Garth, Richard. R. Capell, Dorothy, Dame. III. Straing, Edward. IV. Grantham, James. V. Mathew, William.

SUBJECTS: I. Deeds—England—Surrey. 2. Deeds—England—Morden. 3. Surrey (England)—Charters, grants, privileges. 4. Morden (England)—Charters, grata, privileges.

Source: Harvard Law Library, though this text is no longer online
Retrieved: 2007
This text can also be seen online as part of a Google Books search.

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

1952 : Village Relics Are Fast Disappearing

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From the Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser of 16th October, 1952

VILLAGE RELICS ARE FAST DISAPPEARING

New building is changing the face of Mitcham

NEW FLATS TO REPLACE GLEBE VILLAS

GRADUALLY the few remaining relics of the Village of Mitcham are disappearing before the advance of the town-makers and other developers. The revolution, begun well within the memory of the oldest inhabitants, and quiescent during the war years, is now very active again. Not the least among those responsible for the changes are the borough council, whose ranges of fiats tower into the sky from Pollards Hill to Figges Marsh, and from the Fair Green to the Cricket Green.

In place of the long line of Glebe Villas in London Road which are being razed to the ground will rise a continuation of the huge block of Glebe estate flats, which will then be completed.

Glebe Villas, a row of three-storey, roomy and dignified semi-detached houses of the Victorian type, with bay windows, were built by George Hill, who was born in the Elizabethan house that once stood opposite the Hall Place, now itself no more.

George Hills was the father of the last of the beadles of the parish and Parish Church. A tradition remains that the bricks used in Glebe Villas were made in Mitcham.

Some of the best-known families in the village occupied the houses fifty years ago. They were in that part of central Mitcham and the London Road known and named as Whitford Lane, and Whitford Gardens opposite keeps that name green in the memory.

It was inevitable that sooner or later, Glebe Villas would go the way of the estates that once stood opposite, and the way of London Road, Lower Mitcham, from the Cricket Green to old Mitcham station and the River Wandle.

CHANGES
In living memory

Virtually all the changes have taken place within living memory. They include the disappearance of Holborn Schools and the erection of Monarch Parade at the Figges Marsh end of the road, the wiping out of Mizen Brothers’ extensive nurseries and the building of Elm Court flats and the development of the market garden land on which the central library, the adjoining shops and the baths now stand.

In its turn the Fair Green has been developed, though it still retains much of its old village appearance and character.

The latest change is taking place at the corner of Cranmer Road, opposite The Canons, where the last section of the old causeway and the last of the old timbered collages that once decorated that corner of the Cricket Green are doomed to disappear. The inevitable change there began in strength when Carlton’s market gardens became the site of Bramcote Avenue and Denham Crescent. A half-century earlier, Mitcham Park displaced the fields and lovers’ walks which the oldest inhabitants remember and whose passing they regret.

Beyond the Cranmer corner another great change in the aspect of Central Mitcham began with the razing of Cranmer House, the erection of Wilson Hospital and Mitcham County School for Girls, and the development of the Cesars Walk estate.

In that upheaval disappeared one of the finest of Mitcham’s ancient monuments — the centuries old tithe barn.

On the site now owned and occupied by Cranmer Motors Limited, formerly stood Piccadilly, now almost forgotten except by natives approaching their century. Piccadilly was nought but a couple or so of little wooden cottages in an alleyway leading to fields. The wood-framed Cramner Restaurant, which faces the obelisk in The Cannons marks the entrance to the Piccadilly that was.

It is all destined to disappear in the reconstruction and modernisation of Cranmer Corner, now proceeding. Quite recently a new sewer has been laid under the premises, including part of the Catholic Church to prevent the flooding of basements of the houses and business premises nearby, a nuisance endured for years.

Several derelict premises, one-time shops, cottages and a printing works, are being swept away, and on their site will be built, the enlargement of the Cranmer Motor Works and service station.

“I think the public generally will agree that the new Cramner Corner will be an improvement on the old Cranmer Corner.” said Mr. V. Cole, a son of a former Mayor and Mayoress of Mitcham, and the proprietor of Cranmer Motors Ltd.