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 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 close to Tooting Bec includes a block of 1930s Art Deco flats called Du Cane Court. There's also the Heaver Estate which can be found in Tooting, which comprises substantial homes. It was constructed inside the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by local Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham is positioned amongst four south London commons, namely Clapham Common to the north, Wandsworth Common to the west, Tooting Graveney Common towards the south as well as the connecting Tooting Bec to the east.
During the Second World War, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly affected by air raids on London. Families sheltered in the tube station throughout 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 around 64 people today. Ian McEwan describes the event in the novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.
