Installing a Mobility Bathroom in the UK Published: 03/09/2026 A mobility bathroom can make washing, showering and using the toilet safer and more manageable. However, a successful installation involves much more than replacing a … Read this article
Balham
Balham is a district in south London within the London Borough of Wandsworth. The settlement features in 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 also the roads coming off it. The southern area of Balham which is near 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 built within the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by local Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham is located between four south London commons, namely Clapham Common towards the north, Wandsworth Common towards the west, Tooting Graveney Common towards the south and 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. Individuals sheltered in the tube station during the raids, however a bomb fell in the High Road and through the rooftop of the Underground station, bursting a water and gas mains and killing around 64 people. Ian McEwan describes the event in the novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.