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1950 news items

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Friday 6 January 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

TOO FOND OF LIFE TO COMMIT SUICIDE
Mitcham man’s fate at Beachy Head
Foul play involved? Asks coroner
Frank Grimwood, a Mitcham man, was found beneath Beachy Head. His wife said he was too fond of life to have taken it, a farthing was all that was found on him, and his injuries were consistent with a fall. The coroner could not say whether it was accident or suicide, and asked whether foul play was involved. Grimwood’s brother, who had seen him in Eastbourne, gave evidence.

HELPING THE YOUTH OF MITCHAM
Mitcham Council take first steps at The Canons
After a request from Mitcham Youth Council, the Town Clerk and the Borough Engineer were to meet the youth officer, Mr T. Baptie, about rooms for youth work. The Canons, already used by the Boy Scouts several nights a week, was the building being looked at.

TAKE IT FROM US
Playtime in planning
A letter from the Ministry of Town and Country Planning was read as a sign that the Government might no longer carry out the Greater London Plan. In Mitcham that plan depended on moving industry, including works at Willow Lane, off land wanted for housing.

COMMUNITY CENTRE PLAN
Pollards Hill details
There was still no news of a grant for the Pollards Hill community centre. The finished scheme was described as ambitious, with a swimming bath and a children’s playground, but the clubroom was the part wanted first.

NO DEMAND FOR ALL DAY OPENING
Pollards Hill Society debate licensing laws
Pollards Hill Society debated whether licensed houses should be allowed to open all day. Mr A. W. Pink spoke against all-day drinking, and the society’s next debate was set for eight o’clock at Sherwood House.

ALLOCATION OF HOUSES
Motion for common system rejected
A proposal that housing authorities should share one points system, so that applicants with no residential qualification were treated alike, was rejected.

BORN ON NEW YEAR’S DAY
A baby was born on New Year’s Eve at Woodlands, Mitcham’s maternity home, to Mrs Aviss, of Homewood Road.

HER BAG SNATCHED
A woman walking along Eastfields had her bag snatched by a young man who came up to her on a bicycle.

ONLY 10 C.D. RECRUITS
The chairman of the Civil Defence committee told the Council on Thursday that recruiting in Mitcham for the new Civil Defence Corps was very low.

COLLISION AT CROSS-ROADS
Mitcham driver fined
Thomas William Pernacott, of Locks Lane, Mitcham, a driver for 25 years, was fined £2 with £3 3s. costs at Mitcham on Monday for driving without due care. At a cross-roads in Thornton Road he sounded his horn twice; a lorry slowed, and his van still went on.

COUNCIL WANT EMPTY HOUSES TO BE REQUISITIONED
The Council was told of empty houses that could be taken over for families who had been evicted.

LABOUR PARTY WELCOME 1950
Tom Braddock, M.P., was there
Gorringe Park Labour Party held a New Year social. The sitting Member, Mr Tom Braddock, was among those there.

Friday 13 January 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

TAKE IT FROM US
The battle begins
With the General Election date settled, the paper said Mitcham’s three main parties would be given room to state their case. The fight would be between Mr Tom Braddock, the Labour M.P., and Mr Robert Carr, the Conservative. Mrs Doreen Page was standing for the Liberals. The Communists were not putting up a candidate and meant to support the Socialists rather than split the left vote.

CAUTIOUS MR. CARR
All sides are ready
The campaigns were already under way. Mr Carr was described as cautious about how he would fight the seat.

HOW BATHS WATER IS KEPT CLEAN
“Uncle Charlie” got into mischief
The baths superintendent set out how the water was kept clean, in a week when Singlegate Working Men’s Club had also given its annual children’s party.

Friday 20 January 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

BUT LIBERALS START
No mud slinging
The paper said the political storm would not break in Mitcham until 7 February, when Mr Tom Braddock and Mr Robert Carr would both be in the field. In 1945 Braddock had polled 26,910 and the Conservative 19,742, a Labour majority of 7,168. Mrs Doreen Page, the Liberal candidate, was asking local firms for the same help the other parties expected.

MR. CARR WARY ABOUT EXPENSE
Both the Socialists and the Conservatives were watching what they spent. The legal allowance was about £450, which the Labour agent, Mr Thomas, said should still leave a margin, and Mr Carr was not going to set foot in Mitcham for the campaign until his adoption meeting.

GIRL ASKED MAN IF THEY COULD GO AWAY
Dismissed
A widow, Mrs Pearce, summoned a man of the same address in Chapel Road for assault on New Year’s Day. The bench held there was not enough evidence to commit him for trial.

Friday 27 January 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

CHURCHES TO QUESTION ALL THREE CANDIDATES
Christianity and the nation
Mitcham’s churches invited the three prospective candidates to the Baths Hall on Thursday 2 February. Questions drawn up by the vicars and ministers were to be put through the chairman. There were to be no posters, so that the meeting could not be taken as part of any candidate’s campaign.

LIBERALS MAY HIRE CARAVAN
Tories will be barred
Labour will have last big word
If the Liberals could not rent committee rooms near the middle of Mitcham they would hire a caravan, their agent, Mr Browne, said. The Conservatives hoped to bring down a speaker of Cabinet rank, and were planning a large meeting for 14 February. Labour had booked Harold Laski. Early voting was expected on 23 February, and the parties were not to have the use of schools or other public halls for meetings.

FLATS IN MITCHAM
Council scheme for Elm Nursery site
A housing-committee scheme for the Elm Nursery site provided for 102 two-bedroom maisonnettes, 20 two-bedroom flats and 70 three-room flats, with ceiling heights cut so that the rents could be kept within the Council’s limit. Surrey’s planning consultants had raised points the borough did not think it could meet.

BOYS CHASED BY DETECTIVE
Tools worth £5 were reported stolen from a garden on Sunday. A sergeant saw two boys wandering there; Detective-Sergeant Read followed them onto a bus, and one was later found crouching behind a garden gate. They said they had been looking for a club.

SUCCESS STORY OF AMY SHUARD
Amy Shuard, 25, had signed a contract with the Sadler’s Wells company. She sang on Tuesday. Her first lessons had been paid for while she was a girl at school in Morden, where Miss Norris was a teacher.

MEN IN KHAKI UP FROM ALDERSHOT
Men from the Aldershot area boxed at Mitcham Baths on Wednesday of the previous week in what the paper called Mitcham Boxing Club’s best bill of the season. Sixteen bouts were fought and the programme still ran until 11 p.m. The writer gave pride of place to a loser: 35-year-old Pte Dowdleish, of the Army Catering Corps, making his first appearance for five years, stayed the course against Ron Kenchington of Earlsfield.

CADET TO FLY TO BERLIN
Cadet Flight-Sergeant F. T. Field, of Lammas Avenue, Mitcham, was to fly to Berlin on 8 February as a guest of the R.A.F. He had been nominated by his comrades of No. 2157 (Mitcham) Squadron, A.T.C.

Friday 3 February 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

INDUSTRY AND HOMES MUST BALANCE
Criticisms of the move to Crawley
Provisional plans for the expanded towns were before Surrey County Council. Mitcham was told not to look to Crawley for a quick end to its housing list: people were not to apply until their own authority had said who should go, and new industry had to be balanced with the homes.

COUNCILLOR BAKER WALKS OUT
By-election for the Council
At the housing allocations, Councillor Baker walked out after a dispute about the principle on which tenancies were being given. Alderman Jack Fitch, the oldest member of Mitcham Council and Mayor when Mitcham became a borough, had sent in his resignation because of ill-health. The Mayor and others paid tribute to him.

SLOWNESS ALLEGED
Several members complained that the Council was slow in rehousing people. One case was quoted of a family who had been on the list for eight years.

MANY HAPPY RETURNS
The paper wished many happy returns to Robert, Wilfred and George, the two-year-old triplet sons of Mr and Mrs J. Mara, of Heaton Road, Mitcham.

YOUTH CLUB AND A PARTY
The Coastaliers youth club were refused the hall they wanted unless they could meet a cost of £20. They had been told the arrangements were cancelled when the bills were already printed.

Friday 17 February 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

ELM NURSERY PLANS CHANGED
The Council had substituted a fresh plan for the Elm Nursery site after Surrey County Council treated the Fair Green area as a shopping centre. Rents were still argued over: a wage of £7 was said to be too high a bar for applicants.

£1 NOTE FROM A HANDBAG
A girl, Warr, was remanded on bail for a week at the South-Western Magistrates’ Court, accused of stealing a £1 note from Mrs Emma Miller. The owner missed the note from her handbag and questioned the girl.

ABOUT THOMAS
Sitting M.P. in the wilderness
In the last week before polling day the paper ran a profile of Mr Tom Braddock, to help readers decide how to vote. He had grown up near the Oval, of a Lancashire family, left a job rather than drop his politics, sat on the St Helier division of Surrey County Council, and had been the only Socialist not to support the vote on the devaluation of the pound, because nothing was being done to protect the lower paid against the cost of living.

Friday 3 March 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

ROBERT CARR WINS
86 per cent voted
Conservative increase was 12,139
Thursday’s poll was the biggest Mitcham had seen: 62,800 electors voted, 86 per cent of the electorate and 16,148 more than in 1945. Most of the extra votes went to the Conservatives, who raised their 1945 poll by 12,139. Mr Tom Braddock, the sitting Member, topped his own 1945 vote by 145 and still lost. The Liberal vote was too small to decide the seat.

NEW APPOINTMENT FOR MR. CLAY
Establishment officer and treasurer
The Borough Treasurer, Mr E. C. Clay, was to be appointed Establishment Officer as well. The Council was told it was fortunate to have him to carry both jobs.

GLEBE ESTATE FLATS
On the Glebe Estate, where a hundred flats were under construction, the Council was told that progress was not what it should be. The contractor had not been getting on with the work, and nobody yet knew what the rents would be.

CHANGE YOUR ORANGE CARDS
Reminder for insured persons
About 5,000 insured people in the Clapham and Balham areas were reminded to exchange orange National Insurance cards between 6 and 11 March. Grey, blue and straw cards were not yet due. Anyone who had moved in the last year was told to write the new address on page three, or the next contribution card might not arrive.

Friday 24 March 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

TENDER FOR THE BURIAL GROUND
Mitcham Corporation invited tenders for an extension of the London Road burial ground, including deep sub-soil porous sewers and footways. Forms were to be had from the Borough Engineer at the Town Hall, and tenders endorsed “Tender for Extension of London Road Burial Ground” had to be in by noon on 3 April 1950. The Corporation did not bind itself to accept the lowest or any tender.

Friday 7 April 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

NEXT MAYOR OF MITCHAM
Ald. Thomas Arthur East chosen
Alderman Thomas Arthur East, leader of the Independent group, was chosen as the next Mayor. He was 53, first elected for the old East ward, and his family had been connected with Mitcham for about a hundred years. He was a member of Mitcham Chess Club and had long been involved at the Stadium.

POLLARD’S HILL SCHOOL
The argument over a school for Pollards Hill went on. The County Council had been invited to state its needs and had not replied for two years, while the borough laid the estate out. A proposal to put the school behind Recreation Close, in Wide Way, about half a mile off, was opposed locally; Alderman Norris said most of the objections came from people who were already housed, and that Mitcham families would lose out if the scheme were held up.

LICENSING OF PRIVATE BUILDING
The Housing Committee resolved that licensing of private building works had outlived its use, and copies were sent to Mr Robert Carr, M.P., and to the Association of Municipal Corporations. Councillors Gifford and Fido had the resolution taken out, arguing there was still a shortage of timber and little unemployment in the trade. Councillor Bradley called that “a lot of jolly nonsense” and said there was more timber in the country than in 1939.

Friday 14 April 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

MITCHAM WILL HAVE TWO MAY QUEENS AGAIN
Deidre Atkins was candidate-elect of the May Festival Society, chosen by ballot at the society’s annual meeting, and Betty of Merrie England was to be crowned on the Cricket Green. The sixteen-year-old London May Queen would crown Betty, and about fifty Mitcham children were to take part, with the band of the 4th East Surrey (Mitcham Methodist) Company of the Boys’ Brigade. On 6 May the Mayor of Mitcham was to crown Deidre on the same Green, while Betty went on to represent Mitcham among the London May Queens at Hayes. Helen Murphy, 15, of Hatfield Gardens, and Lorna Tilley were also named.

WHERE TO GET YOUR NEW RATION BOOK
Readers were told to take the old ration book, and the identity card if it did not already carry the right details, to the food office. An identity card due for renewal before 21 May could be dealt with at the same time, and new tea coupons would come with the new book.

Friday 21 April 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

PETROL INCREASE
Mr Robert Carr called the new petrol tax “a thoroughly bad tax” because it would put up industrial costs. A Mitcham paint firm told the Mercury it would mean about 4d. a gallon on paint and would touch them by five to ten per cent.

RAIN AT THE FAIR GREEN
The May Queen’s afternoon on the Fair Green was hit by a downpour just before the crowning. Mrs Ericson cut the cake. The new queen wore her dress despite the weather.

ALBERT BRIGGS AND HIS LANCASTER
Albert Briggs was pictured with his scale model of a Lancaster bomber, in a report of a model-aircraft meeting at which a model crashed and the cause was looked for.

Friday 28 April 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

THE HALL IS NOT A GOOD FINANCIAL PROPOSITION
A hall used by a local association needed a new store hut and a new drugget for the floor. It was said not to be a good financial proposition, but the courts filled a real need and the case for keeping them had been thoroughly gone into.

Friday 5 May 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

MAYOR-ELECT AT THE COUNCIL
The Mayor-elect was before the Council on Thursday. On the works hooter, the paper said people who could afford an extra five minutes might put the alarm clock away, but the hooter would still sound.

Friday 12 May 1950

“SHE DID NOT CHEAT AT PARISH WHIST”
Mrs Hart, the misère queen, wins £300
Mrs Rosemary Hart was awarded £300 after being accused of cheating at a parish whist drive two years earlier. The slander was spoken in the hall while she was present. She said whist had been her life, that she played for love of the game rather than prizes, and that she would not play on the night of the verdict. She had kept a sweet shop, and had been ready to sell up.

Friday 19 May 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

ALBERT PRICE
Death from the war
A verdict of death from the war was recorded at Sutton on Albert Price, 54, a dock labourer of Sunshine Way, Mitcham. His widow, Florence May Price, said he had been gassed in the first war and discharged in 1917, and had had chronic bronchitis and asthma ever since. A pension of 16s. was later cut to 8s., and for 27 years he had no pension until Mr Tom Braddock took the case up. He had been out of work for four years. On the Wednesday his wife gave him a sleeping tablet; he was still asleep next day, their daughter fetched the doctor, and he was dead when the ambulance reached the hospital. The doctor said he died from fibrosis of the heart, consistent with exposure to a toxic gas.

Friday 26 May 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

BENNINGA’S COACH TO BRIGHTON
Benninga’s staff lined up outside their coach on Saturday for the firm’s outing to Brighton.

Friday 2 June 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

ALD. T. A. EAST READS THE DECLARATION
Alderman T. A. East read the declaration undertaking to carry out his duties as Mayor to the best of his capacity. He paid tribute to the retiring Mayor for her dignity and impartiality, and said that if he could match her efficiency the prestige of the borough would not suffer.

Friday 30 June 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

METHODISTS PROPOSE A DESIGN FOR MODERN TIMES
Do you like this church?
A new Methodist church was proposed for the Fair Green, to replace the building destroyed in the blitz. The design, in brick and concrete, was by Mr Mills, who had also designed the Colliers Wood Methodist Mission, and it was among those accepted by the Royal Academy for its architectural exhibition. Work still depended on town planning consent and on the Methodist Church, from which the local church hoped for a grant.

YOUNG CONSERVATIVES
Mitcham Young Conservatives, with Mr E. Trotman, the divisional chairman, in the chair, decided to meet every Thursday at 7.45 p.m. at the Elmhurst Cafe in Streatham Road.

Wednesday 5 July 1950

The Evening News

LONDON TRAMS ARE TO GO
London trams-buses switch will take two years, to cost £9 million, says Lord Latham
South London’s trams were to start coming off the streets at the end of September, when the first stage of replacement by buses would be finished. Lord Latham, chairman of London Transport, said the whole change would take two years and cost more than £9 million. About 1,000 buses were to replace 830 trams over more than 100 miles of route, in a nine-stage plan that included Greenwich, Deptford and Southwark.

THE FISHING INDUSTRY
The Government had outlined the help it meant to give the white-fish industry. The Evening News said the proposals were still not clear, despite a statement by Mr Attlee in the Commons the day before, and that North Shields, as one of the chief fishing ports, was directly concerned.

CANADA LIVING COST AT PEAK
Canada’s official cost-of-living index rose another 1.4 points in May, to a record 165.4, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics reported. Higher meat prices were blamed.

A WALK-OUT AT WALLSEND
All the welders at a Wallsend yard walked out about 2 p.m. after a claim was refused, and met in a cafe. Most went home after a meeting of more than three hours. Shop stewards would not comment afterwards, for fear of aggravating matters.

WALLSEND TORIES PICK CANDIDATE
Preparing for a snap election, Wallsend Divisional Conservative executive recommended Mr Gerard Cuthbert Crangle as prospective candidate. He was a Sunderland man, then a staff speaker-driver at the Conservative area office in Newcastle, and had helped in elections since he was a boy.

Friday 7 July 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

MR. TOM FRANCIS’ GIFT
Lantern slide story of Mitcham
Mr Tom Francis, of London Road, Mitcham, gave his collection of lantern slides of Mitcham to the borough, to be kept in the Public Library. Councillor E. Gulliver, chairman of the Library Committee, called it unique, and Councillor T. Ruff, a former chairman, said it was probably the finest pictorial history of Mitcham that could be produced.

Friday 11 August 1950

Daily Herald

ACID STREAM KILLS MAN
Henry Harris, 47, of Cavendish Grove, Lambeth, died of burns and shock in Wilson Hospital, Mitcham, after the bung blew out of a drum of phenol-carbolic acid at the factory of James Ferguson and Sons, Prince George’s Road, Mitcham, and a stream of acid struck him and two others in the face. Charles Knight was kept in for observation. A third man went home after treatment. The pressure of gas had forced the bung out.

Mitcham News & Mercury

MITCHAM FAIR OPENS TOMORROW
Mitcham Fair was to open the next day, with the Mayor performing the opening ceremony.

CRICKET WEEK
Saw W. G. on the Green
Lindley and Ide, Mitcham’s opening batsmen, were pictured leaving the pavilion at the start of Cricket Week. Another feature recalled W. G. Grace on the Green, and old Mr Drewett coming to watch.

THOUSANDS OF VISITORS ON BANK HOLIDAY
But where were the decorations?
Bank Holiday brought thousands of visitors, but London Road was in its ordinary dress. The paper asked why there were no decorations, noted that nurseries had stopped selling vegetable and tomato plants, and suggested geraniums and other summer flowers for window boxes, and a competition for the gayest house, for the sake of people coming to the cricket and of motorists passing through.

HIT BUS DRIVER ON THE NOSE
Pleaded guilty
A man pleaded guilty to hitting a bus driver on the nose.

Friday 18 August 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

MR G. SHEPPARD DIED IN HIS FAVOURITE CHAIR
Remembered when Mitcham Fair had only one roundabout
Mr George Sheppard, a gas-works pensioner, died in his favourite chair at home on Tuesday. He had started farm work at nine, liked to talk about the old Mitcham lavender, and remembered the Fair when it had a single roundabout.

Friday 6 October 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

MY RIDE ON THE LAST TRAM
The last tram on route 34 made its final run on Saturday night, in pouring rain. Only a handful of people were waiting at the start. At the first stop someone asked “This the last tram, mate?”, a few more got on, and two police cars followed the car all the way.

Tuesday 10 October 1950

Daily Express

WE ARE SURPRISED, SAY THE LIBERALS
Frank Byers, chairman of the Liberal Party Executive, said the decision not to oppose Clement Davies at Montgomery had come as a complete surprise. The Tory vote there had fallen by more than 3,000 at the last election, and he treated the phrase “for the time being” as an empty threat.

VISHINSKY AND THE UNO ARMY PLAN
Andrei Vishinsky waved an olive branch at the United Nations, but British and American diplomats were suspicious and thought he had been caught in the middle of a Soviet peace offensive. The Western plan, introduced by Mr John Foster Dulles, was to give the United Nations armed forces so that it could prevent another Korea.

DEAKIN TO SEEK A RISE FOR DOCKERS
Mr Arthur Deakin, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, said an official claim was to be made for higher dockers’ wages. Unofficial leaders had been agitating for weeks for a “Dockers’ Charter”, including a rise from 19s. a day.

OLD GLORY
Charles Ralls, commander of an ex-servicemen’s group in New York, accused Washington of a plot to replace the Stars and Stripes with the United Nations flag, after sewing kits were sent to farmers’ wives so that they could make the flags at home.

Friday 24 November 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

WANDLE FLOODS INVADE PHIPPS BRIDGE
Water enters four shops
“Came in just like a wave”
Residents call for action
The Wandle flooded the Phipps Bridge area of Colliers Wood and Mitcham. Water welled into the roadway, traffic was slowed, and extra police were sent in. Four shops were flooded. A boot repairer went downstairs at a quarter past four and found himself paddling before he realised the noise was water against the door; he spent two hours bailing out his kitchen. One woman said that when she opened the door it came in just like a wave. The paper said the river was no longer pretty, that its water was often discoloured and sometimes smelt, and that people who had put up with the floods for years wanted something done.

4,500 ON THE HOUSING LIST
Councillor A. E. Mingay said 4,500 names on Mitcham’s housing list were being considered this year, and that anyone above that number would have to wait until another year. One household of eight, five of them grown-ups, was cited. A complaint of insolence by a council housing employee was left over until full details were given.

Thursday 30 November 1950

The Advertiser

NEW SCHOOL ON SITE OF ANCIENT HOUSE
£100,000 building planned for historic Hall Place
Legends of a famous landmark
Plans were being prepared for a new Mitcham County School for Boys, estimated at £100,000, on the site of Hall Place in Church Road. An official of Surrey’s education department told the Advertiser there were more urgent projects, and little prospect of an early start. Hall Place, home of Sir Cato and Lady Worsfold, had been demolished. Before it came down, thieves had already taken lead and other fittings, and they came back even after the site was fenced. Secret chambers and passages were part of the local legend of the house.

Saturday 2 December 1950

150 YEARS OF PAINT MAKING
Firm of world repute
Thomas Parsons and Sons Ltd., of Church Road, Mitcham, were about to complete 150 years, for most of that time with their main factory in Mitcham. The firm, known for paints, varnishes and colours, also had factories in Dublin and Glasgow, and 55 men on the books had between them more than 1,760 years’ service. A man who had just finished 50 years at the Church Road factory spoke at the firm’s first dance and cabaret, held at the Baths Hall on Friday before the Mayor and Mayoress, the directors and about 300 employees. Mrs George Parsons, a director, and the only daughter of Sir Alfred and Lady Newton, presided.

Friday 29 December 1950

Mitcham News & Mercury

MITCHAM BABIES MEET THE MAYOR
Mitcham babies and their mothers met the Mayor and Mayoress, Alderman T. A. East, at a party arranged with the Food Office. With them were Mrs Dalton, Mr W. Dalton, chairman of the Mitcham Food Control Committee, and the Medical Officer of Health.

REV. GEORGE LUBBOCK
Wind and snow did not deter old folk
Wind and snow did not keep the old people away from an outing with the Rev. George Lubbock.

STANDARD UPHOLSTERY STAFF DANCE
Standard Upholstery Co. Ltd. held its Christmas staff dance at Kennards on Saturday. Mr Ben Hensher was among those pictured with the party.

Growing up in Mitcham in the 1950s And 1960s

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The following has been kindly provided by Jeff Brooks, which is his own account of growing up in Mitcham in the 1950s And 1960s.

I was born in The Woodlands Maternity Home in Devonshire Road, Colliers Wood, in July 1952. The Home was opened in 1924 and, in 1938, the staff comprised a Matron, two Sisters, two Staff Nurses and three Pupil Midwives. It closed in 1971 . The site is now occupied by The Woodlands House Care and Nursing Home. Apparently, I was born on a boarded-over bath as the “ birthing “ beds were all in use ! Seven years after the end of World War II, these were often grey and difficult times in Mitcham and the rest of the UK – food rationing did not end until 1954.

Just five months after I was born,” The Great Smog of London “ enveloped Mitcham and many other parts of the metropolis. The “ pea-souper ” lasted from Friday 9th. December until Tuesday 13th. December. Contemporaneous figures estimated the number of people killed as a result of the smog at c. 4,000 but more recent estimates give the number at c. 10,000 – c. 12,000. Many others suffered respiratory problems. I ( understandably ) do not remember this event but was probably coughing in my pram. The Clean Air Act of 1956 introduced measures to reduce air pollution and to increase the use of smokeless fuels but it took a number of years for these to have significant effect.

My family home during the 1950s and 1960s was at 94, London Road, Mitcham, opposite Figges Marsh, between Crusoe Road and Pitcairn Road. The three storeyed Edwardian house ( originally 14, Sibthorp Terrace / Villas before re-numbering in the 1930s ), had been rented by my mother’s family, the McKenzies, for many years. Indeed, my mother had been born in the house in 1920. The top floor and part of the middle floor were always sub-let to a variety of lodgers. I can clearly recall being entrusted to walk to the agents, Leonard, Davey and Hart, at The Fair Green, to pay the monthly rent, holding very tightly on to the old pound and, maybe, ten shilling, notes. A visit to Leonard, Davey and Hart was like stepping back into the Victorian era – dark wood panelling, an oppressive atmosphere and a single clerk in the outer office sitting behind a sturdy wooden desk laden with ledgers. This clerk only had one arm ( I always supposed that the other had been lost in WW II ) and he had difficulty in tearing the rent receipt off at the perforated edge. I wondered whether to offer to help him but was too scared to ask and I left the office as quickly as I could and returned to the twentieth century.

Originally, the terrace of houses covered the whole space between Crusoe and Pitcairn Roads but those at the northern end were destroyed by enemy bombs during World War II and replaced by new housing, as were the houses between Pitcairn Road and Swains Road. A resident of 9, Pitcairn Road, was killed as a result of enemy action on 25th. September 1940. Opposite the McKenzie house, on Figges Marsh, was an air raid shelter which was not demolished until the 1970s.

The house next door to 94, number 96, housed the local doctor’s surgery on the ground floor. The entrance was in Crusoe Road. In the 1910/11 Street Directory the surgery of the house ( then 15, Sibthorpe Terrace and named “ Oakdene “ ) was occupied by Williams Wm. Archelaus, Physician and Surgeon. Doctors that I recall in the 1960s are Dr. Canning and Dr. Stroud. There was no appointment system in those days – it was first come, first served. The long, narrow waiting room had two rows of chairs facing each other. On arrival, a patient took the first chair available. When a bell rang, signifying a doctor’s availability, the patient at the front of the seated queue entered the surgery and everyone else, coughing and spluttering, shuffled along one seat. A perfect environment for the spreading of germs !

My earliest memory is of falling off my tricycle on a path on Figges Marsh when I was, probably, about three years old. I have vague memories of milk and, maybe, bread being delivered by horse-drawn carts. Certainly, Youngs Brewery beer was delivered to The Gorringe Park Arms pub just a couple of hundred yards away at Tooting Junction by dray horses at the time. Most daily beer deliveries by horse stopped in 1997, although pubs in and around Wandsworth continued to be served by horse-drawn carts until the Brewery closed in 2006. As I was growing up, I often wondered why Tooting Junction was so-called as it was not a railway junction. Some years later, I learnt that it was once a junction with a separate line to Wimbledon via Merton Abbey Station in addition to the line via Haydons Road. The station was renamed as Tooting in 1934 but the term , “ the Junction “, remained in use by the local community.

Shopping was “ up the Junction “, some shops on the Mitcham side of the border ( which runs along the course of the River Graveney ) and some on the Tooting side. The first supermarket in the vicinity was Victor Value, in Mitcham Road, Tooting which opened in the late 1950s. Victor Value stores were predominantly based in C2 ( skilled working class) and D ( working class ) categories of the demographic classification used in the UK. The company sold its outlets to Tesco in 1968. Much of our family’s shopping was undertaken in Genery’s Store in Grenfell Road, Mitcham – my parents’ first home, after their marriage in 1940, was in the first floor flat above the shop. As a youngster I was allowed by Rose Genery to operate, under supervision, the ham slicing machine behind the counter. Little reference to Health and Safety ! Rose also allowed me to take a biscuit, usually a Bourbon, from the sack of mixed biscuits on the floor.

In line with the majority of the adult population at the time, both of my parents were smokers. I was regularly sent to Ward’s on the corner of London Road and Arnold Road ( later managed by the unforgettably named Harry Bender ) or Baker’s on London Road near to the turning for Finborough Road for 20 Kensitas cigarettes ( and a couple of packets of Trebor Mints ) for my mother and a half an ounce of Old Holborn and a packet of Rizla papers for my father. No age restrictions then on purchases. Maybe, if I had been good, I could also purchase a bar of Crunchie or Fry’s Five Boys chocolate for me.

My father, Ray, was a Vitreous Enameller, working in the Stewart and Gray factory in Swains Road (sometimes known as Lane) . He worked long shifts ( 6.00 am – 6.00pm ) and , sometimes, night shifts ( 6.00pm – 6.00 am ). An early memory of mine is of rushing down to the factory on my Mobil scooter to meet him from a day shift and being allowed to stamp his card, 6.01 pm, in the clocking in/out machine. At weekends he was able to take me around the site, showing me the furnaces, the wind tunnel, the Paint Shop and the Frit Shop ( frit is a mixture of fused materials, such as silica, used in enamel making ). I was also able to watch him lean over a huge vat of acid ( don’t know what acid it was ! ) and lower a string bag of dirty old pennies in and see them emerge shining bright and golden. Magic! I don’t recall a lot of Health and Safety in operation at the time! Stewart and Gray relocated to Wellingborough in Northamptonshire in the late 1960s.

As with most women at the time, my mother, Dorothy, did not work during the 1950s and early 1960s , apart from a few hours on a Saturday afternoon in the tea bar at the local amateur football club, Tooting and Mitcham United in Sandy Lane. I believe that for each shift at the ground (probably 1.15pm- 4.15pm ) she was paid 7/6d. ( 37 1/2p ), which she considered to be her “ pin money “. I fondly remember, especially on cold afternoons, going in to the tea bar, with my good friend, Richard, to get a crafty free hot blackcurrant juice and, if lucky, a couple of Rich Tea or Ginger Nut biscuits. Later in the 1960s, my mother worked part-time in Pascall’s Sweet Factory and the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society’s bakery, both factories in Streatham Road, and J F Renshaw and Co. Ltd., in Locks Lane. Fond memories of misshapen sweets from Pascall’s, hot bread from the RACS bakery and macaroons and, sometimes, petit fours from Renshaws. I also had a spell, as a “ Saturday boy “, cleaning the floors and ovens, in the RACS bakery in 1967/68. I recall that my first wage packet for an 8-hour day ( 8.00am – 4.00pm ) was 29/6d. ( £1-47 ½ p ) and being affronted to learn that I had to pay a few pence in National Insurance contributions. My wages were collected from the Pay Office where, just a few years earlier, in 1962, an RACS employee had been shot and killed in an armed robbery ( George Thatcher was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang but this was commuted to life imprisonment and he served 18 years in prison ). None of the factories where my mother and I worked survived to the present day.

My mother’s Saturday afternoons at Sandy Lane engendered in me a life-long passion for the football club and I spent many hours on the terraces during the 1960s. I was considered to be too young to attend the big FA Cup matches of the 1958/59 season ( Pathe News highlights of the win against Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic and the draw against First Division Nottingham Forest are available on YouTube), but my older brother, Graham, was there and my mother was in the tea bar serving the thousands ( 14,300 for the Forest game ) of spectators. The club was formed by the amalgamation in 1932 of Tooting Town FC (founded in 1887) and Mitcham Wanderers FC (founded in 1912). The ground had previously been part of a market garden and Tooting Town FC acquired some onions on purchase – these were dug up and sold for 7/6d, (37 1/2p ) – it has been recorded that this item was recorded on the 1922/23 Club balance sheet as the first contribution to the Ground Improvement Fund ! As the merged club’s ground had previously been occupied by Tooting Town the new united name had “ Tooting “ preceding “Mitcham” despite being located in Mitcham and M preceding T in the alphabet ! The, previously mentioned, Harry Bender displayed posters of the club’s forthcoming matches in his shop and, not being a follower of football, generously gave the season ticket he received for the advertisement to me ! The club relocated from Sandy Lane to Bishopsford Road in 2002 and four of the streets on the housing development built on the old site were named after famous Tooting and Mitcham United players – Hasty Close, Slade Way, Pearson Way and Stepney Close. The move saw the club formally leave Mitcham, as the new location is just over the border (along the course of the River Wandle) into Morden. I have written two books about the club – “Tooting On the Move – A Farewell to Sandy Lane, Home of Tooting and Mitcham United FC from 1922 – 2002” ( published in 2002 , currently out of print ), and “ We Woz Robbed In ‘59 – A Record of Tooting and Mitcham United FC’s Epic 1958/59 Season, set to a background of social events of the time “ ( published in 2018 , still available, cover price £10-00 – contact me on brooksjeff18@aol.com for details ).

My education began at Bond Road School in 1957 – no nursery or pre-school for me. The Primary School Head Teacher was the memorably named Miss Crang. Her counterpart in the Junior School was Mr. Shelton, who would “ slipper “ ( one step down from a caning ) children, including me on occasions, for misdemeanours. Other teachers I recall were Miss Clarke, Mrs. Singer and Mr. Ebenezer ( known as “ the bald-headed geezer “ ). Although The Clean Air Act was on the statute book , I can recall walking home along London Road in thick, unpleasant smogs, feeling my way along the fences of houses to ensure that I did not stray into the road ( the last London smog took place in December 1962 ) and being instructed by my mother to close the front door quickly to keep the smelly, yellow wisps of smog out of the house. Even so, some always seemed to penetrate into the hallway. Walks home were usually more pleasant, especially in the Summer months, with the floral displays at Tamworth Farm Recreation Ground ( more commonly known as just “The Rec. “ ). As I walked past Monarch Parade I tried, with little success, to envisage The Holborn Industrial Schools which had been built on the site in 1856 as part of the Mitcham Workhouse complex and which my mother remembered and had described to me. The buildings were demolished in the early 1930s. Opposite the Schools was St. George’s Pond – this must have been drained at about the same time as the Schools were demolished. On this site, Mitcham Public Library was built and opened in May 1933. I have special memories of the separate Children’s Library on the Armfield Crescent side of the Library, where my passionate and life-long love of books and literature began.

One day in 1961, Routemaster buses were being introduced on the 220 route through Mitcham to West Croydon ( they had been used on other routes in London since 1956). This was an exciting event and I waited to get one, letting plenty of “ ordinary “ buses pass. I arrived at school late and was, I am sure, suitably reprimanded. The 220 diesel bus had replaced the 630 trolleybus in July 1960. Other buses I could get along London Road were the 44, the 64, the 77, the 80 and the 88. If I chose to walk home, I could use my bus fare in Mayhew’s, near the London Road entrance/exit to Bond Road School, and choose a liquorice sweet from the “ penny tray “.

One of my proudest memories of Bond Road School is of being selected for the 1962/63 school football team. I recall being taken to Tring’s Sports Shop in Monarch Parade to be measured up for the kit – white shirts, black shorts. I am sure that a team photograph was taken but, alas, I do not have a copy. Matches against local schools were played on midweek afternoons and I was always pleased when my class’s lesson was interrupted for the names of the boys ( sadly, no girls’ teams in those days ) who were playing to be called out. The first halves of matches were played in front of few spectators ( maybe some Mums and Dads ) but, by the time the second half commenced, the school day had ended and the touchlines were packed with noisy children, lustily chanting “ 2-4-6-8, Who do we appreciate ? , B-O-N-D, Bond ! “. I still have my hand-written record of matches played that season – victories versus The Star School, St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s, Links Road, St. Mark’s and a draw and a loss to Fortescue Road. It is likely that the number of matches played was lower than most seasons due to “ The Great Freeze” of 1963 ( ice and snow in London from 26th December 1962 until 6th March 1963 ). In the Mitcham Schools Cup competition, Bond Road lost to Pollard’s Hill – this was a big disappointment to me as the Final was always played at the Sandy Lane ground of Tooting and Mitcham United FC with its large grandstand and banks of concrete terracing. My regret must have been somewhat assuaged as the Borough’s Annual Sports Day was also held at the ground and I do recall running in a race there. I must have done OK at Bond Road School as I passed the 11-Plus examination in 1963 and moved to Mitcham County Grammar School for Boys on Commonside East.

I enjoyed my time at the Grammar School, despite having to wear short trousers for the first term and a cap until the age of 16 ! In retrospect, it seemed to operate more like a public ( ie. private ! ) school than a state school. There was a big emphasis on academic achievement, discipline and hierarchy. Teachers were known as Masters, often wearing gowns, and fellow pupils addressed by surname only. In addition to Masters, discipline was enforced by Prefects and by Senior Prefects who, like Masters, were also entitled to wear gowns ( I made it to Prefect status, with gold braid around the edges of my blazer, but never attained the Senior level ). Hair length and adherence to the uniform policy were strictly monitored. Nicknames were prevalent – Masters such as “ Boggy “ Marsh, “ Hum “ Harper, “ Slag “ Dixon, “ Taffy “ Greenall, “ Spike “ Richards and “ Scruff “ Purbrick as well as the Headmaster, “Crippen” ( after the notorious murderer ) Bingham. Mr. Boagey needed no nickname. All the teachers were male and addressed as “ Sir “ – until Frau Schmidt arrived to teach German ! I clearly remember “ Crippen “ ordering me to get my hair cut when it was just touching my collar and, obediently, going to the barbers’ straight after school.

I represented the school at Athletics and Tennis but the real accolade was to be picked for the Rugby Team and I was proud to be selected and to wear the green and lavender hooped shirts. Sadly for me, football was not formally played at the school but every break-time saw a tennis ball being kicked around in the playground and every lunchtime saw a few informal, and fiercely contested, kick-abouts on Mitcham Common near The Three Kings’ Piece. However, there was one football match which took place near The Mill House on the Common in March 1969 – Staff v School ! I was selected for the School team. A report was included in the 1969 edition of the Yearbook, “ The Mitchamian “, written by teacher, “ Syd “ Perks ( “Syd “ was more like “ one of the boys “ than a Master ). The report details a 2-1 victory for the Staff under the headline “ Staff Pulverise School “. Apparently, “ at the final whistle three cheers were given by the dejected school team for the winners “ but I don’t remember this ! One sporting activity I didn’t enjoy was cross-country running on the Common. The agony was often slightly ameliorated by surreptitious calls at a friend’s house on Commonside East for a quick and refreshing lemonade or orange juice ! And, at least, the final stretch was downhill along the Beehive Bridge.

Our rugby matches were played on the Playing Fields in London Road, near (then) Mitcham Station and (now) Mitcham Tram Stop, behind Baron, Fenning and Gedge Courts. This was a fair walk from Commonside East, down Cold Blows, past the Cricket Green and along London Road. At the time, the school also used the facilities now occupied by The Toby Carvery at Park Place, Commonside West for athletics, cricket and tennis. This was still known as “The News of The World Sports Ground”, which had been built in 1924, but vacated by the newspaper group in the early 1960s. A common sight at school rugby matches was the Headmaster, C R Bingham, driving his blue Rover across the grass at the Playing Fields and parking right by the pitch where the First XV were playing. In 1968 Mr. Bingham was replaced as Headmaster by Mr. B F Atherton. This heralded a more liberal regime. Hair became longer and some boys even sported beards ( sadly, I was still at the “ bum fluff “ stage ).

As my friends and I grew into our teenage years and we got a bit bolder, we began to socialise in the Mitcham area. Initially, some tentative forays inside Leo’s Milk Bar on London Road near The Cricket Green and, then, The Three Kings’ pub or, more regularly, The King’s Head ( more commonly known as The Burn Bullock ) pub by The Cricket Green where pints of Double Diamond were bravely supped. In the upstairs bar on a Friday evening, “Aunty Marjorie” ( a friend of my mother’s family and not a real aunt to any of us ) would belt out tunes on the “ old Joanna “ accompanied by the Grammar School boys ! There were also trips to “ the pictures “ ( first girlfriend time ), mostly to the Tooting Granada – there were four other cinemas in Tooting ( the Astoria, the Classic, the Mayfair and the Vogue ), or the Majestic at The Fair Green in Mitcham . Live music in the area at the time was rare , although The Granada had hosted many famous singers and bands in the 1950s and the early 1960s – Frank Sinatra ( his UK debut ), Johnny Ray, The Andrews Sisters, Pat Boone, Guy Mitchell, Cliff Richard and The Drifters (pre-Shadows days ), The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Gene Vincent (his UK debut), Dusty Springfield, James Brown, Roy Orbison, The Kinks, The Who, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and many more. The last concert at the historic venue was given by The Bee Gees in April 1968. Jerry Lee Lewis also ventured into Mitcham headlining two shows at The Majestic on 14th. May 1962, supported by Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, The Viscounts, Vince Eager, The Echoes, Mark Eden, Danny Storm and Buddy Britten. My cousin, Barbara, was at The Beatles show at The Granada in 1963 but my first taste of live music was a trip to The Royal Albert Hall in 1969 to see Simon and Garfunkel.

We also made occasional forays to the Top Rank Suite in Croydon and The Bali Hai Discotheque in the Streatham Ice Rink in a ( largely vain ) attempt to meet girls. Slightly more successful were Monday Ballroom Dancing nights at the, more sedate but exotically named , Palais de Danse in London Road near Mitcham Station. Ballroom dancing even though this was, supposedly, “ The Swinging Sixties “ ! I regularly attended the St. Mark’s Youth Club in St. Mark’s Road for table tennis etc., followed by “ six of chips “ , ( 6d., 2 ½ p ), worth of chips, with a bit of “ crackling “, from Hutton’s Fish and Chip Shop at The Fair Green.
I left the Grammar School in July 1969 after completing my “ A “ Levels. This was also the end for the School ( established in 1922 ) as it then merged with Eastfields School on Grove Road, Mitcham on the old Mizen’s Nursery site, next to Pain’s Firework Factory ( which had relocated to Salisbury in 1966 ). The site in Commonside East was occupied by the St. Thomas of Canterbury Roman Catholic Primary School. Famous Old Boys of the Grammar School include the athlete Brian Hewson, who won the gold medal in the 1500 metres at the European Championship in Stockholm in 1958 and represented Great Britain in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games and Alan Simpson ( who, sadly, died in 2017 ) of scriptwriting fame with Ray Galton ( “ Hancock “ and “ Steptoe and Son “ ). In 2012, I proposed to the Comedy Society of Great Britain that a plaque be erected at the site where Alan and Ray met in 1948 – the Milford Sanatorium, near Godalming, in Surrey, where they were both recovering from tuberculosis. The blue plaque was unveiled by Paul Merton, with Alan and Ray in attendance, on 1st. July 2013.

So, the decade of the 1960s came to an end – a much different world and a much different Mitcham from the start of the 1950s decade. World events during this period included the on-going Cold War and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the assassination of J F Kennedy, the discovery of DNA, the launch into space of the Soviet satellite Sputnik and Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon. In Europe, the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1956 ( without UK participation ), forming The Common Market.

In the UK, 1951 saw The Festival of Britain on London’s South Bank as well as the defection of the Communist spies, Guy Burgess and Donald McLean, to the Soviet Union. In 1956 the repercussions of the Suez Crisis, and its links to the themes of imperialism and decolonisation, were a big topic of debate . Race riots took place in London’s Notting Hill and in Nottingham in 1958. The 1960s was a period of much liberalism – the relaxation of censorship laws (after the unsuccessful trial of D H Lawrence’s book, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover “, for obscenity ), the repeal of the death penalty and the decriminalisation of homosexual acts between consenting adults. There were many societal changes in the fields of youth culture ( eg Teddy Boys ), fashion, music, class, consumerism, employment, industrial relations, immigration, race relations etc. The Profumo Affair in 1963 encapsulated many of the changes and another Communist spy, Kim Philby, defected to the Soviet Union that year. And, of course, England won the World Cup in 1966 ! In politics, the 1950s started with a Labour Government, under the leadership of Clement Attlee, and the end of the 1960s also saw a Labour Government in power, under the leadership of Harold Wilson. In the intervening years, the country had seen 13 years of Conservative government, under the leadership of Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold MacMillan and Alec Douglas Home.

And Mitcham saw changes too. Its status changed from being a Municipal Borough of North East Surrey to being a constituent part of The London Borough of Merton in 1965, a result of the Local Government Act of 1963. Many old buildings were demolished, often being replaced by new housing developments, such as the Phipps Bridge Estate. The gas works in Western Road closed in 1960. The Majestic Cinema on the corner of St. Mark’s Road had shown its last films, “ Pit of Darkness “ starring William Franklyn and “ What A Whopper “ starring Adam Faith, in November 1961. The building then housed the Alpha Bingo Club. And the seemingly interminable debate about the traffic at the Fair Green continued !

Jeff Brooks
January 2022