Balham
Balham is a district in south London in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The settlement features inside 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 along with the roads coming off it. The southern part of Balham which is near Tooting Bec features a block of 1930s Art Deco flats referred to as Du Cane Court. There is also the Heaver Estate which can be found in Tooting, which comprises substantial houses. It was built within the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by nearby Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham is positioned in between 4 south London commons, namely Clapham Common to the north, Wandsworth Common to the west, Tooting Graveney Common towards the south plus the connecting Tooting Bec to the east.
During WW2, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly affected 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 roof of the Underground station, bursting a water and gas mains and killing around 64 people. Ian McEwan describes the event in his novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.
