Balham is a district in south London within 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 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 along with the roads coming off it. The southern part of Balham which is close to Tooting Bec features a block of 1930s Art Deco flats referred to as Du Cane Court. There's also the Heaver Estate which is in Tooting, which comprises substantial houses. It was constructed 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 to the north, Wandsworth Common to the west, Tooting Graveney Common to the south and the connecting Tooting Bec towards the east.
In WWII, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly affected by air raids on London. Men and women sheltered inside the tube station through the raids, but a bomb fell in the High Road and through the top of the Underground station, bursting a water and gas mains and killing about 64 people. Ian McEwan describes the event as part of his novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.