Home Intercom System in Balham

Balham

Balham is a district in south London inside the London Borough of Wandsworth. The settlement features within the Domesday Book as Belgeham. Bal signifies ‘rounded enclosure’ and ham a homestead, village or river enclosure. The region has been settled since Saxon times, and Balham Hill and Balham High Road follow the line of the Roman road Stane Street to Chichester.

Balham encompasses the A24 north of Tooting Bec and also the roads coming off it. The southern part of Balham which is near Tooting Bec includes a block of 1930s Art Deco flats known as Du Cane Court. There's also the Heaver Estate which is in Tooting, which comprises substantial homes. It was built in the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by nearby Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.

Balham is located between four south London commons, namely Clapham Common towards the north, Wandsworth Common to the west, Tooting Graveney Common to the south and also the connecting Tooting Bec towards the east.

In WWII, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly damaged by air raids on London. Individuals sheltered in the tube station during the raids, but a bomb fell in the High Road and through the roof of the Underground station, bursting a water and gas mains and killing around 64 people today. Ian McEwan describes the event in his novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.