16 Sep
Damp proofing
Caterham, Whyteleafe - CR3
Enquiry from: Nisia S
Start Date: Immediate
Small storage cupboard within a let business property damp proofed
Balham
Balham is a district in south London inside the London Borough of Wandsworth. The settlement appears within 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 along with 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 is also the Heaver Estate which can be found in Tooting, which comprises substantial houses. It was constructed inside the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by local Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham is positioned 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 towards the east.
During WW2, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly damaged by air raids on London. People sheltered inside the tube station throughout 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 individuals. Ian McEwan describes the event in his novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.
