Tag Archives: Wates Ltd

Mitcham Stadium

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Sports stadium, which occupied around 8 acres, north of Eastfields Road and opposite the football ground in Sandy Lane, was built in 1935 and was sold to property developer Wates Ltd in 1955.

1952 OS map

1953 aerial photo showing football and rugby posts on the field. Fernlea Road is on the left, with Sandy lane at the top.

Mitcham Borough council minutes of 6th December 1934, volume 1, page 89, record a letter received from Mr S.E. Parkes:

26. LAND, EASTFIELDS.

Read letter from Mr. S. E. Parkes stating that he had had under consideration a scheme for the
utilisation of the disused gravel pit in Eastfields Road for the purpose of a Rugby football ground, and asking whether any objection would be raised by the Council in connection with
the user of this land for the purpose under the provisions of the Town Planning Scheme.

Resolved, That Mr. Parkes be informed that no objection will be offered by the Council.

A detailed history of the stadium can be found at the Gandermonium blog.

Mitcham News & Mercury, 18th May, 1935

Norwood News, 6th September 1935, showing construction of one of the two stands. 300 tons of steel was used in each stand, and by comparison, the Majestic cinema had 350 tons.

Norwood News, 6th September 1935 advertising the opening of the stadium the next day.

In addition to rugby, Irish games such as hurling were played at the stadium.

Also charity events were held there such as this 1937 fete in ad of the Wilson Hospital:

ad from 1937 Mitcham Cricket Club Yearbook

In 1954, the stadium was called ‘A White Elephant’ in this article in the 1st July issue of the Mitcham & Tooting Advertiser:

The site was sold to Wates Ltd who built housing with Guyatt Gardens, Ormerod Gardens, Fowler Road, Priestley Road with Roper Way connecting to Eastfields Road.

Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser, 26th May 1955, page 1.

House for sale ad in 1965 referred to the former Mitcham Stadium.

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

2,000th post-war council home built in 1955

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Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser
Thursday, 7th July 1955

TWO THOUSAND HOUSES – AND NOBODY NOTICED

Housing chairman unable to give Phipps Bridge date

‘Impossible to say when work will start’

Mitcham Council have built their 2,000th post-war permanent home – but no one realised it at the time.

It happened a few weeks ago. Calculations show that the 2,000th home is a flat on the Ravensbury Estate.

When the town’s 1,000th post-war home was opend at Pollards Hill several years ago, there was a special celebration to mark the event.

Up to date, 2,128 permanent houses have been provided by the council since 1945. In addition, 345 temporary Arcon bungalows were erected shortly after the war, as well as 107 short-term hutments.

Now, the council are waiting to go ahead with their big Phipps Bridge redevelopment programme. They plan to build 636 new flats and houses at a cost of more than £1.75 million on land at present occupied by the closed-down dust destructor and old property.

Planning problems

Ald. Fido said it was impossible to say when work would start. There had been delays because of planning problems. It had been hoped to obtain the Mitcham Stadium site for building to fill in the gap until the Phipps Bridge scheme could go ahead.

The eight-acre stadium site has been bought by Wates Ltd., the local building firms, who intended to build blocks of flats there.

Because of shortage of land the council’s future building plans – apart from Phipps Bridge – are restricted to one or two small sites such as Pitcairn Road where 17 flats and houses are to be built, and Inglemere Road where a dozen flats are to go up.

Work in progress

A number of old people’s bungalows and flats are being, or will be, built on existing estates. These include 17 cottage flats on the Short Bolstead Estate, where work should start soon. The Elm Nursery Estate will be completed when 20 homes for old people have been erected, and work is in progress on 36 more at the Glebe Estate.

In addition Mitcham has 184 flats under construction at the Banstead joint housing estate.

The 2,500th home was celebrated in 1956, see Completion of 2,500th Post-War Dwelling

See also this Engineering website about the Arcon design, and this website for details about Nissen huts, or ‘hutments’.