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Commonside West:
Park
Place. Plain late Georgian. Four-window front with doorway with engaged
Ionic columns, facing away from the road.
Later additions.
Commonside East
modest cottages and houses in a mixture of brick and weatherboarding, the
type once to be found all over Mitcham.,
Prospect House opposite, c18, reconstructed, with bay-windows,
17, early c 19, with pediment over a single
bay, a little grander than the others
145 Beehive
Mitcham Common,
Mitcham Common. Managed by Merton Council for the Mitcham Common Board of Conservators. Infilling until
recently, grassland and ponds on Cedars Avenue, Watney Road and Windmill Road.
Filled in Arthur's pond. The common was threatened and residents' action
campaign, rare moths, toads, frogs, etc. This greatly modified relic of heathland is basically triangular and
sliced by numerous roads including Croydon Road, which divides the large golf
course from the smaller recreational area.
A chequered past of unsympathetic management seems to be on the wane.
Once a large common, extending from Waddon Marsh, four neighbouring parishes
used it for pasture and disfiguring gravel digging. George Parker Bidder QC is
the most well known of several vigorous campaigners against the resulting
despoliation of the common whose efforts lead to the setting up of a Board of
Conservators which bought out the lords of the manors. However, within less
than 50 years they had allowed the dumping of vast amounts of rubbish and in
turn found themselves pressured by the formation of the Mitcham Common
Preservation Society. Old battle lines were redrawn in 1984 when new proposals
for dumping were agreed by the agents of the Board, LB Merton Parks Department.
However, this threat was averted (as have been various landscaping schemes
around Seven Island Pond) and a more recent plan shows a welcome attempt at
some conservation management. Relic heathland can be found on the edge of the
golf course where heather and dwarf gorse grow. Other flowering species that
have kept a foothold include tormentil, restharrow, petty whin and orchids. The
common once extended to Waddon Marsh and some areas still reflect this damp
past, albeit only seasonally. The encroaching woodland is composed of willow
and birch, and ash provides cover for birds, some unusual like stone-chats and
barn owls. It is for butterflies that Mitcham Common is, however, best known,
with 21 species recorded ranging from the familiar tortoishells to rarities
like the four-spotted, silverhook and wormwood shark.
Seven islands ponds. Three ponds remain
due to former gravel extraction. The largest, Seven Island Pond, harbours bogbean.
earth mound created in the 1950s.
Three King's Piece,
Fairground. Mitcham green is a well-known nursery of cricketers. A popular pleasure fair, long established at Mitcham,
is now held annually (on 12-14 August) on that part of Mitcham Common called Three Kings Piece.
Ravensbury Arms on site
of Blue Houses built for Surrey Iron Railway personnel
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