Balham
Balham is a district in south London in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The settlement features within the Domesday Book as Belgeham. Bal means ‘rounded enclosure’ and ham a homestead, village or river enclosure. The location 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 close to Tooting Bec features a block of 1930s Art Deco flats named Du Cane Court. There's also the Heaver Estate which is in Tooting, which comprises substantial houses. It was built inside the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by nearby Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham is located in between 4 south London commons, namely Clapham Common to the north, Wandsworth Common to the west, Tooting Graveney Common towards the south along with the connecting Tooting Bec towards the east.
During WW2, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly damaged by air raids on London. Families sheltered inside the tube station through the raids, but a bomb fell in the High Road and through the rooftop of the Underground station, bursting a water and gas mains and killing around 64 individuals. Ian McEwan describes the event in his novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.
