05 Aug
Window shutters
London - W3
Enquiry from: Jasmina A
Start Date: Immediate
Two bay windows shutters and one bathroom window
Balham
Balham is a district in south London within 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 location 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 known as Du Cane Court. There is also the Heaver Estate which can be found in Tooting, which comprises substantial houses. It was built inside the grounds of the old Bedford Hill House by local Victorian builder Alfred Heaver.
Balham is located among four south London commons, namely Clapham Common to the north, Wandsworth Common to the west, Tooting Graveney Common towards the south along with the connecting Tooting Bec towards the east.
In WW2, on 14th October 1940, Balham tube station was badly damaged by air raids on London. Families sheltered inside the tube station during the raids, however a bomb fell in the High Road and through the roof 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.
