Tag Archives: 2010

Gray’s Yard

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Premises that was at 230 London Road, Mitcham, as the winter headquarters for the travelling showmen of Harry Gray and his family.

View of the yard looking north:

Photo taken by Eric Montague in 1975. Reproduced by kind permission of the Merton Historical Society. Image reference mhs-em-um-8

The following is an excerpt from Eric Montague’s book Mitcham Histories : 14 Upper Mitcham and Western Road, page 11:

for nearly half a century the winter headquarters of Harry Gray and family. Before World War 2 the site also had a Walls ice cream depot and, before that a house of ‘Georgian’ appearance called Mitcham Lodge College.

1952 OS map reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland. Reuse CC-BY. Site of yard shown bounded by red lines.

Also see newspaper article from 1955.

No. 228 next door was a small office occupied by car hire firm Kandy Kars during the 1970s.

The yard was vacated by the end of the 1990s, and the a block of flats was built with the address of 19 Holborn Way, being the by-pass road that opened to traffic in March 1992. The block was named The Harry Gray Building, and a plaque on the wall can be seen from the pavement, as shown in this photo:

From Apple Maps, 2021.

Denham Crescent

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Road off east side of Bramcote Avenue, both of which were built in 1935 on land that had been the market gardens of Mr W. Carlton.

possibly taken in 1935 after the road had been built – the view is looing south along the longest part of the road

Google StreetView of the road:

The road is a square rather than a crescent, as can be seen in this 1954 OS map.

1954 OS map

The houses are numbered odd, from 1 to 67, on the outer part of the square, and even from 2 to 28 on the inner part. The first house, no. 1, and the last house, no. 67, are physically attached to terraces in Bramcote Avenue, with the entrance door facing Denham Crescent. Odd numbered houses all have the postcode CR4 4LZ, and the even numbered houses have CR4 4LY.

The pair of semi-detached houses in the south corner, no.s 47 and 49, were demolished and a smaller pair built allowing access to a new road, called Canons Close, two pairs of semi-detached houses. Planning application 09/P2248, which had around a dozen objections, was given permission on 25th June 2010:

Demolition of existing properties at 47-49 Denham Crescent and the construction of 6, four bedroom semi detached houses with accommodation over 2 storeys and the roofspace including a pair of properties adjacent to 45 Denham Crescent with a new road providing access to four semi detached properties at the rear of the site.

The houses in Canons Close all have the postcode CR4 4FJ.

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