Balham
Balham is a district in south London inside the London Borough of Wandsworth. The settlement appears inside the Domesday Book as Belgeham. Bal signifies ‘rounded enclosure’ and ham a homestead, village or river enclosure. The area 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 part of Balham which is close to Tooting Bec includes a block of 1930s Art Deco flats referred to as Du Cane Court. There is also the Heaver Estate which is in Tooting, which comprises substantial homes. It was constructed in the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by nearby Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham is positioned among four south London commons, namely Clapham Common towards the north, Wandsworth Common towards the west, Tooting Graveney Common to the south as well as the connecting Tooting Bec to the east.
In WW2, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly damaged by air raids on London. Individuals sheltered inside the tube station throughout 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 about 64 people today. Ian McEwan describes the event in the novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.
