Tag Archives: Commonside West

Air Raid shelters in 1948

Mitcham Borough Council minutes, volume 15, 1948-49, page 95 :-

The Borough Engineer submitted the following report: –

December 3, 1948.

To the Chairman and Members of the General Purposes Committee.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Air Raid Shelters.

In accordance with the instructions of the Committee I give below a list of shelters which have not yet been demolished :—

  • Morden Road (Deer Park Gardens).
  • Commonside West.
  • Commonside East.
  • Manor Road.
  • Rowan Road.
  • Figges Marsh S.
  • Figges Marsh N.
  • Manship Road.
  • Moffatt Gardens.
  • Cranmer Road.
  • Fair Green.
  • Carshalton Road.

Home Office sanction to the making safe of the shelters has just been received and negotiations are proceeding with the contractors, Messrs. J. Sullivan, Ltd., whose tender (in the sum of £603 15s.) was forwarded, in July, to the Home Office for approval.

Personal note: I remember in the mid 1960s the air raid shelters at the southern end of Figges Marsh and on the north side of Cranmer Road near the junction with Carshalton Road.

Commonside West houses near Windmill pub

A postcard from around 1910 shows houses on either side of the Windmill pub:

c1910 Commonside West

An OS map of 1932 shows the houses and the pub marked as P.H. :-

1932 OS map

The 1925 street directory describes the occupants, from north to south, starting at Cold Blows (not named, but mentioned as footpath to lower green):

.. footpath to Lower green ..

George Oliver NASH (North Lodge)
Lawrence Thomas BODLE, builder (Avenue Cottage)
James JORDAN
Alfred KILLICK
Harry LOCK
George WEST
Benjamin HILLS
Thomas HIGGS, confectioner
James BOXALL, beer retailer
Charles Thomas SEARS
George SAWYER
Mrs ODELL
John THOMPSON, dairy
William Charles HINES
News of the World Sports Ground (Leonard WHITE, hon. sec.) (Park Place)

The beer retailer is the licensee of the Windmill pub.

The houses before the Windmill aren’t shown on the 1950s OS maps, but two to the south are. See 51 and 52 Commonside West.