Green Homes Grant – everything you need to know Published: 07/07/2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a £2bn Green Homes Grant in England for energy-saving home improvements including insulation and double glazing. Under the scheme, the … Read this article
Balham
Balham is a district in south London inside the London Borough of Wandsworth. The settlement features in 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 along with the roads coming off it. The southern part of Balham which is close to Tooting Bec includes a block of 1930s Art Deco flats known as 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 nearby Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham is located among 4 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 towards the east.
During WWII, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly affected by air raids on London. Individuals 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 around 64 people today. Ian McEwan describes the event in his novel ‘Atonement’, published in 2001.