TOOTING BEC & TOOTING BROADWAY
Northern Line (Morden*)

A lively, colourful multicultural area – plus the Commons where you can watch the waterfowl or swim at the famous Lido.
















TOOTING BEC Tooting Bec station itself is of some interest. Designed by Charles Holden in the 1920’s, it has a cleverly angled ticket hall, with a large chandelier and windows containing the Underground logo. Leave by the right hand exit and you will see an identical station opposite. Have a look at the top of the pillars – there’s the Underground logo again!














To get to the Commons, less than ten minutes’ walk away, you need to walk round the front of the station in order to cross to Tooting Bec Road. Before you do so, look to the left for a view of the decorative facade of the Roman Catholic church of St. Anselm (1933). One of the first buildings you will come to on your way to the Commons is the Christian Education Centre. Once a convent school, this eighteenth-century house has had unfortunate alterations to its once-beautiful Venetian windows. While on the subject of windows, you might be amused to see the advertisement for sash windows on the doors of the small business premises just after some modern flats. Further down the road, on the other side is Patio, a garden centre (No. 100 ). Next to it is a small eighteenth-century building, once a lodge to a long-gone Georgian mansion. The lodge housed an estate gardener, and the modern business is situated on the site of the old glasshouses, thereby carrying on a centuries old horticultural tradition. The street then becomes residential, the houses having a wealth of ornamentation of various kinds.



Tooting Bec Common begins at Elmbourne Road where the houses are adorned with large terracotta plaques. The name of the Common comes from Bec Abbey in France, which was given land in this area after the Norman Conquest. At the beginning of the path into the Common are some carved dead trees – I particularly liked the seat in the form of a sheep. There is a large circular sunken area of vegetation with a mound – once an island - in the middle of what was previously a yachting pond. Although it is now completely dry, it is a pleasant spot, with a wooden walk-way all round. Further on the common is mainly given over to football pitches and the like. However, continuing to Dr. Johnson Avenue takes you to more interesting parts. This avenue of oak trees marks the boundary between Tooting Graveney Common (the name comes from the River Graveney) and Tooting Bec Common. The trees were planted in the late seventeenth century to commemorate a visit by Elizabeth I and the road was named after Dr Johnson as he knew the area well from his friendship with the Thrale family at their nearby house, Streatham Park. If you walk diagonally through the car park here you will soon come to another very large lake (this time with plenty of water) which you can wander round and enjoy the ducks, moorhens, coots, etc. At the end of the Common, (about fifteen minutes’ walk from Elmbourne Road) is the famous Lido, the largest outdoor freshwater swimming pool in England. Opened in 1906 it has been modernized while retaining some of its early features.






Rather than walk all the way back to the Tube you might want to take a bus, but once at the station again it is worth going left down the Upper Tooting Road for five minutes to see the wonderful engraved glass of the newly-refurbished King’s Head – an excellent example of exuberant Victorian pub architecture. Opposite the pub is an old brick police station – shame it has lost its lamp. As you cross Noyna Road on the way back, look up to see an old Meggezone advert painted high on the wall. Tooting is a fascinating mix of reminders of the past and a colourful multicultural present.

TOOTING BROADWAY Tooting Broadway station is the same design as Tooting Bec, but only a single building. Note the statue of Edward VII, paid for by public subscription in 1911. A large flower stall next to it makes this an attractive corner. Turn left down Mitcham Road. On the traffic island is an enormous green gas lamp/ventilator with direction posts to Wimbledon and London. A little further along in a parade of small shops No. 30 has a couple of unusual relics of the early twentieth century. Look up at the curved white corbels and you will see the word ‘Como’ underneath a relief of a ship. On the other side of the shop-front we have ‘Travel’ and a steam train – no click of the mouse to order your tickets in those days! At No. 50 is the Granada Bingo Club. This was once a cinema and its interior is considered so architecturally important that it is one of the few such buildings to be listed Grade I. If it is open for a Bingo session you will be able to go into the foyer and catch a glimpse of the opulent surroundings that were popular in the 1930’s. It was designed by Fyodor Fyodorovich Kommisarzhevsky, a Russian set designer and director, and was a real picture ‘palace’, somewhere to escape from the drudgery of everyday life. Tours can be made by arrangement, and it is usually open on the London Open House weekend which takes place every September. Opposite in more sober mode is the neat red-brick Edwardian public library.

Further down the road at the junction with Church Lane is a curious monument (1823) commemorating the fact that an artesian well and pump was paid for by the ‘principal inhabitants’ of the parish. It was known as the Parish Pump and was in use up to the end of the 19th century. Cross over to see this and the church of St. Nicholas behind it. This is a Commissioners Church built of stock brick in 1833. The graveyard is large and pleasantly leafy, but is connected with an infamous story of Victorian poverty and neglect, as a stone plaque on the south wall explains. It commemorates the 118 children who died in a cholera epidemic at a Tooting pauper children's asylum in 1849. This establishment, which contained 1,400 children, was a notorious 'baby farm' with an open sewer running through the grounds. The scandal following these deaths inspired Charles Dickens to draw further attention to such institutions in 'Bleak House'. The memorial was created in 1989 following a petition by the pupils of nearby Broadwater Junior High School, saddened by the fact that although these poor children are known to have been buried in this churchyard, they have no marked grave.

If you walk five minutes further you will come to St. Boniface, a Roman Catholic Church (completed 1927). The façade is a remarkable mixture of styles – including Egyptian style capitals.

Time now to return to Tooting Broadway Station, but before leaving the area turn left into Tooting High Street where there are some eighteenth century terraced houses worth having a look at – their dignified elegance a contrast to the zingy bustle and colour of the Upper Tooting Road.

Photos:
Eighteenth-century terraces: Common
St. Anselm: garden centre
Window advert
Glass, Kings Head pub
travel agent:cinema: signpost
Library:pump:St. Boniface

*If you are travelling south outside peak hours you will have to change at Kennington to pick up a Morden train - usually a very quick and easy connection.
MAP

Tooting is just one walk from the many to be found at London Tube Rambles. There are architectural gems, beautiful country views, historic places and whacky buildings to be found, even in the most unpromising areas covered by the Greater London Underground stations. Usually the places listed are within a mile of the Tube - often only five minutes walk away. If you reached this as an individual page via a search engine, you might like to go to www.londontuberambles.co.uk to see the other destinations explored . You'll be amazed at what's out there!

© DR2008