Tag Archives: London Road

Air Raid shelters in 1948

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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.

1950 : Glebe Estate Flats construction concern

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Mitcham News and Mercury
3rd March, 1950, page 1

Glebe Estate Flats
Scheme “Causing Some Anxiety”

CONCERN at progress on the Glebe Estate where a hundred flats are under construction was expressed by Mitcham’s Housing chairman (Ald. C. A. Norris), at Tuesday’s Council meeting.

“This scheme, ill advised in the first place, seems doomed to failure and is causing us some anxiety,” he said. They hoped the contractor would pull the thing round and give them some units of accommodation.

No-one knew what the rents would be. Figures varying between 45s. to 60s. a week had been mentioned. He hoped there would be enough people on the local housing list willing to pay these high rents.

A report of the Borough Surveyor (Mr. Riley Schofield) states that progress on the site is not satisfactory, but the architect informed him that the position did not warrant the exercise of his power under Clause 19 of the conditions of contract to serve a notice that the contractor was not proceeding with the work with reasonable diligence.

The amount of work had improved considerably during last two months. average weekly value of builders’ work in January including the Christmas holiday was approximately £1,500. The December figure was £1,000 and the highest figure prior this was £900 in August.