Category Archives: Roads

Mount Road

Road of council housing built after World War 1 between Western Road (opposite the junction with Lavender Avenue) and Church Road. First mention in electoral registers is for 1922.

Named after Councillor H.L. Mount JP, district chairman in 1920. It was an attempt at being a ‘Garden Village’ development with low density and cottage style homes.

House numbering is from east to west, i.e. from Western Road to Church Road. Even numbers are on the south side of the road, from 2 to 86; and odd numbers are on the northern side of the road, from 1 to 69.

The centre part of the road split around an oval shaped green. Before being named Mount Road the road was referred to in council minutes as the Oval Road. During the second world war, this green space was converted to allotments for the war effort. This clip, from an aerial photograph by the RAF in 1946, shows the outline of the plots.

clip from Merton Memories photo 31375, copyright London Borough of Merton.

This green was sold by Merton council to property developer Costain Homes (Southern) Ltd for £2,515,241 in 1988, and subsequently built upon. (Source: Merton Council minutes, 1988 volume 24, Development Committee, page 238, 29th September 1988). Houses built on this oval plot are numbered from 101 to 153 sequentially.

1933 OS map

Mount Road on Google street View, from Western Road end. The houses on the left were built in 1988/9 on the oval green mentioned above.


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


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

Lock’s Lane

Road that runs south-eastwards from junctions with Streatham Road and London Road, twoards Eastfields Road. It was named after Lock’s Farm, at the Figges Marsh end, according to J.D. Drewett, in his ‘Memories of Old Mitcham’.

In this OS map from 1893, the part now called Eastfields Road is shown as Tamworth Lane:

1893 OS map

These street directories describe the road from Figg’s Marsh:

1896

George DAVIS, greengrocer
2, Mrs Rhoda GILBERT, laundress

Grange Villas:

1, James NEW
4, John W. BEARDWELL

Primrose Cottage, James MIZEN

Note that what is today called Eastfields Road was once part of Tamworth Lane and hence the Primrose Cottage listed in Lock’s Lane is the same as the one in Eastfields Road.

1904-5

Henry WOODS, pig dealer

2, Mrs Emma SCHMIDT, laundress
James FLEMMING
Charles WELLER
Clement BELCHER
Richard TOOGOOD
Edward THUMWOOD, carman

1910-11

The Mitcham Steam Laundry Co.
Henry WOODS, pig dealer

2, Robert John BULL, laundry
Clement BELCHER
Thomas DAVIS, decorator
Richard TOOGOOD, confectioner
George William TURNER, carman

1915

This directory disagrees with the 1914 electoral register that has Toogood and Rosemary Villas in Eastfields Road.

John HARDING, laundry
The Mitcham Steam Laundry Co.

… here are Carew & Lansdell Roads

Mrs H. TOOGOOD, confectioner

Rosemary Villas:

10, Charles WILSON
9, John GODDEN
8, James SULLIVAN
7, George HEPWORTH
6, Henry WOODS
5, Edwin LUMB
4, John Frederick WADE
3, Andrew DUNNING
2, Samuel AULT
1, William BENSTEAD

George William TURNER, carman

The 1925 street directory describes the road as from Streatham Road to Eastfields Road:

John F. RENSHAW & Co. Ltd., almond specialists

Brookborough Cottages:
John Frederick SCOTT
William EDWARDS

Vine Cottages:
2, Walter MILLER
1, Mrs PENNIGER

Marsh Cottages:
2, Joseph BATES
1, Thomas Joseph WOODING, verger St Marks, Upper Mitcham
St. Mary’s (Balham) Social & Lawn Tennis Club (H.G. Brightwell, hon. treasurer)
Star Laundry (J.J. HARDING, proprietor)
Thomas TRICKER

The 1935 OS map shows that Marsh and Firtree Avenues have now been built off the south side of Locks Lane. The confectionaery factory shown is that of John F. Renshaw, which made marzipan and supplied almonds for cakes etc.

1935 OS map

References in Newspapers

West London Observer – Saturday 30 April 1887

WANTED, by a Respectable Young Man, regular employment of any kind ; not with horses.— Apply, W. B., 11, Lock’s Lane, Mitcham.

World War 1 Connections
Private William Henry Tricker