Tag Archives: London Road

E. Bywaters Butchers

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170 London Road, Mitcham, from 1980 to 2000.

E. Bywaters butchers shop, photo kindly provided by proprietor via Facebook Mitcham History Group.

Number 170 London Road was originally called number 2 Eveline Villas, and in the 1925 street directory was occupied by butcher Ernest Reeve, who was still at this address in the 1938 street directory.

1929 clip from Merton Memories photo 51782, copyright London Borough of Merton.

This ad from 1979 shows the butchers shop was run by S.J. Theobald:

1979 SJ Theobald butchers at 170 London Road

S.J. Theobald was also listed at this address in the 1967 chamber of commerce handbook.

From 1983/4 proprietor Edward Bywaters produced an initial run of 50 diaries, later in batches of 100, which he gave free to customers, called ‘The Mitcham Diary’. He also produced calendars for catering customers. This was paid for by advertising, which included an ad for his business, such as this one from the 1986 diary:

Zion Congregational Chapel

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A chapel that was in Western Road, the site of the present Lidl store.

Image courtesy of Collage - The London Picture Library - http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk

1978 Image courtesy of Collage – The London Picture Library – http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk

1910 OS map shows ‘Chap.’ (chapel) and ‘Sch.’ (school). The site is occupied by Lidl (in 2017).

The chapel and a Sunday school next to it was built in 1819. It was deconsecrated in 1930 and sold off and used by light industrial companies. Around 80 bodies were reburied in the new London Road cemetery.

The building was demolished in the late 1980s.

Source: Mitcham Histories : 14 Upper Mitcham and Western Road, by Eric Montague, chapter 9 ‘Zion Chapel’.

From the Mitcham Advertiser of 1st May 1914 :

One of the old landmarks is Zion Congregational Church, which this week celebrated its 95th anniversary with a series of successful gatherings. For close on a century good useful work has been carried on, and the church has a record for long service. It used to be known simply as Zion Church, one of the real old Independent churches. The Rev. R. Richman, the present minister, has served in that capacity for 34 years, more than one third of the church’s existence.

Mr Richman is a well known and highly respected figure in Mitcham. His work has not been confined to the church alone, for he has always taken a keen interest in the local government, and he has served on the Parish Council. He is still a member of the school managers, and in that direction does good work. In his church he is surrounded by body of zealous workers, many of whom have been engaged there for a long period of years, in fact one at least can boast of a longer record than the pastor himself, and that is Mr Gardener, the secretary of the Sunday school, who has held that post for 39 years.

This has been quite a week of presentations in Mitcham. On Monday night a presentation was made to Mr A. Gardener at Zion church in recognition of his 25 years service as a deacon. He is also Superintendent of the Sunday school. The name of Gardener has been associated with Zion Church for years. Mr Gardener’s mother was a descendant of the Huguenots. Yet another presentation at Zion Church was to Mr Simmons, another deacon, who has also been treasurer of the church, this week celebrated his silver wedding, he having been married at Zion Chapel 25 years ago.

For more details of the early vicars, see the ‘Mitcham entry in the Story of Congregationalism in Surrey‘.

Married at the old Zion chapel on 13th January 1883, was Mr and Mrs Robinson Henery AMBROSE, who celebrated their golden anniversary at the Mitcham Garden Village on 13th January, 1933, according to the Mitcham News & Mercury of that date. They were active members of the Salvation Army.

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