Balham
Balham is a district in south London inside 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 and the roads coming off it. The southern area of Balham which is near Tooting Bec has a block of 1930s Art Deco flats named Du Cane Court. There's also the Heaver Estate which can be found in Tooting, which comprises substantial homes. It was constructed in the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by local Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham lies between 4 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 WW2, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly affected by air raids on London. People sheltered in the tube station during the raids, however 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 in the novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.
