Balham

For other uses, see Balham (disambiguation).

Balham
Balham High Road
Balham  Balham shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ285735
- Charing Cross	4.5 mi (7.2 km)  NNE
London borough	Wandsworth
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	SW12
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Battersea; Tooting
London Assembly	Merton and Wandsworth
List of places: UK • England • London

Balham ( /ˈbæləm/) is a neighbourhood of south London, England, and is part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and the London Borough of Lambeth.

History

The Polish Roman Catholic Church of Christ the King

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as Belgeham. Bal refers to 'rounded enclosure' and ham to a homestead, village or river enclosure. It was held by Geoffrey Orlateile. Its Domesday Assets were: 1½ ploughs, 8 acres (32,000 m²) of meadow. It rendered (in total): £2. The Balham area has been settled since Saxon times. Balham Hill and Balham High Road follow the line of the Roman road Stane Street to Chichester – (now the A24 road). Balham is recorded in several maps in the 1600s as Ballam or Balham Hill or Balham Manor. The village was largely within the parish of Streatham, although land to the north was part of Battersea. Large country retreats for the affluent classes were built there in the eighteenth century; however, most development occurred after the opening of Balham railway station on the line to Crystal Palace in 1856. Bal (meaning rounded enclosure) and ham (meaning homestead, villege or enclosure, land in a river bend).

On 14 October 1940 Balham tube station was involved in bombing raids which took place in London during World War II. People took cover in the tube station. A bomb landed directly on top of the station bursting water and gas mains killing 64 people. This particular bomb was featured in Atonement, a 2001 novel by Ian McEwan.

Geography

Most of Balham is in the London Borough of Wandsworth, although the SW12 postcode, coterminous with Balham, includes the Hyde Farm area east of Cavendish Road within Lambeth.The southern part of Balham, towards Tooting Bec, near the 1930s block of flats called Du Cane Court and the area to the south of Wandsworth Common, comes under the SW17 postcode.

Balham is situated between four south London Commons: Clapham Common to the north, Wandsworth Common to the west, Tooting Graveney Common to the south, and the adjoining Tooting Bec Common to the east – the latter two historically distinct areas are referred to by both Wandsworth council and some local people as Tooting Common.

Other nearby areas include Tooting, Streatham, Brixton and Battersea.

Economy

Balham's town centre has a variety of bars and restaurants. In May 2006, Waitrose, the supermarket subsidiary of the John Lewis Partnership, opened a store in Balham.^{[citation needed]} There is also a large Sainsbury's supermarket in the centre of Balham with its own car park and 181 spaces.

Culture

The first Balham Food Festival took place from 10 to 14 July 2011, featuring a range of events including restaurant taster menus, a hog roast and a Jamaican cookery demonstrations.

Demography

The Polish population in Balham has hugely increased since 2006, though Balham has been one of the centres of the community in London since World War II. The White Eagle Club is a thriving Polish community centre, and its traditional Saturday night dance ("zabawa") draws people from across London. Opposite the White Eagle, the small Polish Catholic church is filled to overflowing on a Sunday.

Today the Somali, Pakistani and Brazilian communities are also well represented in the wards making up modern Balham.

Landmarks

The Bedford is a pub venue for live music and comedy on Bedford Hill; performers at the 'Banana Cabaret' have included Eddie Izzard,Jo Brand and Al Murray. The pub has won various awards including The Publican Music Pub of the Year 2004, The Morning Advertiser Pub of the Year 2004 and The Evening Standard Pub of the Year 2002. In 1876, the building (then named "The Bedford Hotel") housed the Coroners inquest into the notorious unsolved murder of Charles Bravo, a resident and lawyer who was poisoned, possibly by his wife.

Bertie and Boo Coffee Shop won the 'Best Neighbourhood Coffee Shop' 2009 for the Love London Awards.

Balham was one of the few districts in South East England to have an independent record store that survived the growth of music store chains such as Our Price and HMV; Record Corner was located just across the road from Waitrose. However, Record Corner eventually closed in 2003.

One of the few independent bookshops left in London, My Back Pages (named after the song on Bob Dylan's 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan), is a shop which stocks second-hand, antiquarian and new books. The shop opened in 1991. In 2008, the shop was listed in The Guardian's list of London's finest bookshops.

Du Cane Court is a distinctive local landmark with its Art Deco design

Du Cane Court is the largest block of apartments in Europe built for private occupation rather than as social housing. Its 676 flats range from studios up to 4-bedroom penthouses. The block has had a number of notable residents, including comedian Tommy Trinder, actress Dame Margaret Rutherford, model/showgirl Christine Keeler and, currently, comedian and writer Arthur Smith. Scenes from Agatha Christie's Poirot were filmed in the building.

Balham, Gateway to the South is a comedy sketch performed by Peter Sellers and written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden as part of a BBC radio series called Third Division.

The Bedford Hill area of Balham was associated with street prostitution throughout the seventies and eighties. The problem has been greatly reduced.

Balham has its own library and leisure centre.

Transport

Balham has a railway/tube interchange station, Balham tube station and Balham railway station, in zone 3. The origin of the phrase "Balham – Gateway to the South" was a Southern Railway advertisement dating from the 1926 opening of the tube station.^{[citation needed]} The stations connect Balham to both the City of London and the West End.

Notable people born in Balham

• Percy Fender (1892) Surrey cricket captain, World record holder and England Test all rounder.
• Acoustic duo Turin Brakes.
• John Marco Allegro.
• John Sullivan, writer of Only Fools and Horses was born in Balham.
• Ainsley Harriot, TV chef.
• Jimmy Hill, sport pundit and former footballer.
• Derek Fowlds, television actor (Yes, Minister, Heartbeat (UK TV series))
• Brian Paddick, the candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the 2008 London Mayoral Election.
• Dame Margaret Rutherford, actress.
• Captain Sensible, rock musician (The Damned).
• Matthew Strachan, composer and lyricist.
• Bob and Margaret, cartoon characters

Notable comedians who live in Balham

• Arthur Smith.
• Andy Zaltzman.
• Jeremy Hardy.
• Stewart Lee and Richard Herring once lived in Balham, as did their former Fist of Fun colleague, the comedy writer Peter Baynham.
• Jack Dee once lived in Balham and can still be seen walking his dogs on Wandsworth Common.

Notable people who used to work in Balham

• Tiggy Legge-Bourke taught at a nursery school in Balham before becoming nanny to Princes William and Harry
• Author DBC Pierre wrote his first novel while living in Balham