Tag Archives: Edward Mizen

39 and 41 Feltham Road

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Between Armfield Crescent and Feltham Road, with allotments on both sides, a pair of semi-detached houses, numbered 39 and 41.

The stone tablet on the front read

Carry Close Cottages
1894

These were built by Edward Mizen in 1894, as part of the Elm Nursery.

1953 OS map

News Articles

Mitcham News & Mercury, 18th June, 1971:

As 3,700 wait for Council Houses –
COTTAGES LIE EMPTY

‘A meeting place for vandals’

WITH 3,700 people waiting for council houses, Merton Council have been accused of wasting the accomodation they do have.

Residents in Feltham Road, Mitcham renewed their complaints this week about No. 39. They say the two semi-detached cottages could house two families but instead theylie empty and are fast becoming a regular meeting place for the area’s vandals.

Boards nailed across the windows have been torn aside and the glass smashed. The upstairs windows have become targets for stones and air rifles and inside doors hang from their hinges and plaster has been hacked from the walls.

But despite this the roof appears sound and, say the residents, the cottages could soon be made habitable again.

Mr William Adams, a retired baker, remembers them before they were taken over by the council: “They were beautifully kept and the gardens were a picture to look at,” he said.

“But since there have been council tenants living there it has gone down and down.”

HALF-WAY

Mr Adams’ complaint was not against council tenants in general but more against the housing department who used it as a half-way house.

They used it as emergency accommodation for people they could not give permanent accommodation. As a result families stayed there for only two or three weeks before getting proper council houses.

These short term tenancies meant the cottages often remained empty for weeks at a time. Last summer they were left for six weeks and the vandals moved in.

“TERRIBLE”

“It was terrible,” said 68 year old Mrs Daphne Adams. “We could see them smashing the windows and playing about inside and when we told them to go away they threatened us. More than once we had our own windows broken.”

So the council nailed the boards across the windows. Then in February this year they offered the house to 26 year old mother of two Mrs Marie Stewart.

The tenancy was to be a permanent one and Mrs Stewart was thrilled. She had been living in half-way houses for nine months.

But when she saw the cottage she refused point blank to move into it.

Broken bottles and rotting rubbish were piled against the front door. Inside there was no heating or running hot water. Light leads stretched to the floor and the outside lavatory was nailed up.

She went straight back to the housing department and with Communist candidate Miss Jean Geldart, told them just what she thought of it. “It’s a slum,” she said. “A tramps’ doss place.”

Since then she has been found somewhere to live, but the incident moved the council to declare the property unfit to live in and, in effect, leave it to the vandals.

And the vandals have been quick to take up the invitation.

LADS AND GIRLS

“They are always about the place, larking about and lighting fires. Even the little children from St. Mark’s primary school go in there now. And late at night I’ve seen young lads take their girls in,” said Mr Adams.

He complained to his new Labour councillor, Mrs Vera Bonner and she has taken it up with the housing department. But until she has a reply she will not bring it up in the council chamber.

However the housing department know all about No. 39 Feltham Road. Indeed it has been a thorn in their side for some time.

The housing manager, Mr A. Brown has two choices: Do it up or knock it down. He realises it cannot be left as it is.

NOT QUICK

But until he knows what the Town Planning department propose for the land he cannot do anything and it is understood the planners have not been quick in making up their minds.

The surrounding land has lain waste since the allotment scheme there was abandoned and the site is ripe for development.

But there is no point in building on it if the Loop Road plan comes into operation in the 1980s. In that case it would be more profitable to redecorate the cottages and recoup the money in rent.

Everything hinges on the decision of the Town Planners and the housing department were still waiting on Monday.

Tom Francis

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Mitcham News and Mercury 28th August 1953

Mr. THOMAS FRANCIS, head of a family of four generations, died at his daughter’s home at
Warlingham on Saturday.

He was 81.

Born over his father’s shop in London-road, Mr. Francis lived in Mitcham for nearly 80 years, until he retired in April, 1951. Mitcham past and present was his lifelong interest. He was a member of the old Parish Council, a former chairman of Mitcham Civic Society and a former president of the Chamber of Commerce. He was a vice-president of the Civic Society.

Mr. Francis left his own memorial — an extensive collection of historical Mitcham slides, which he presented to Mitcham Borough Libraries. The Francis collection were largely taken from his own negatives, which dated from about 1890. Of the slides, many were taken by the wet-plate process, about 1865-70 by a professional photographer named Drummond and a number made by John R. Chart. A few were gals to him by old friends and some were given by photographers.

FIRST CAMERA

The first camera Mr. Francis’ used for his hobby was of the mahogany box type with a rackwork lens —the type once in common use by beach photographers. In the old days he played regularly in the Upper Mitcham v. Lower Mitcham cricket matches, and when the Wednesday XI was revived in 1925, there were few matches he missed. Between the wars he and his son Tom both used to play.

During the last war he was injured when his house was bombed and later, as a result, he had to have an eye removed.

“He was Mitcham. He lived for Mitcham.” said Mr. Stephen Taylor, on employee of his for many’ years.

Mr. Francis was on the Committee of Wilson Hospital from its foundation and until the hospital was taken over by the State.

He received part of his education at the Mitcham Lodge College, next to London-road Schools, Dr. Smith was the principal. Later he went to the Quaker School at Saffron Walden in which he was also a member of the Society of Friends.

His memory was a treasury of local recollections, both of characters of Mitcham village days and of incidents of village life.

From his childhood he could recall being taken for drives in broughams and wagonettes. One of these ended with the vehicle being stuck in a pond in Morden-road. On other occasions a drive took him through water about a foot deep at Hackbridge.

Other memories were of Quaker meetings at the Mitcham Manor House, cycling expeditions with Alfred and Ernest Mizen, and of Mitcham Fair, when performing bears were on show.

In his youth the “Old Squirt,” the village fire engine was kept in a cage on Lower Green, where the Town Hall now stands.

The business in London-road which bears the name Francis, was started by a Mr. Fitt in 1830 and was taken over by Mr. Francis’s parents in 1870. He began in the business in 1886.

His Quaker funeral at the Cricket Green Methodist Church on Tuesday was attended by the Mayor of Mitcham (Coun. E. E. Mount), Ald. and Mrs. T. L. Ruff, Mr. S. Chart (former Town Clerk), Dr. A. H. Shelswell, Mr. C. J. Farrell (Div. Education Officer), Mr. H. J. Dorrett (Rotary Club), Mr. Dick Gifford (chairman of the Civic Society), Messrs. R. Culmer, J. Pillinger and F. Cole (Mitcham Cricket Club). Mr. S. Taylor (Horticultural Society), Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Bailey, Mr. W. Dalton and representatives of the Society of Friends School at Saffron Walden.