Wallington, London

Wallington
Wallington  Wallington shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ294645
London borough	Sutton
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WALLINGTON
Postcode district	SM6
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Carshalton and Wallington
London Assembly	Croydon and Sutton
List of places: UK • England • London

Wallington is a town in the London Borough of Sutton situated 10.3 miles (16.6 km) south south-west of Charing Cross. Prior to the merger of the Municipal Borough of Beddington and Wallington into the London Borough of Sutton, it was part of the county of Surrey.

History

The name "Wallington" derives from the Anglo Saxon "Waletone", meaning "village of the Britons". Wallington appears in Domesday Book of 1086 and was held by William the Conqueror. Its domesday assets were: 11 hides. It had 2 mills worth £1 10s 0d, 11 ploughs, 8 acres (32,000 m²) of meadow. It rendered £10.

Guy Portelli's sculpture "English Lavender" (1999) in Wallington town centre

The historic village was situated somewhat to the north of the current town centre around what is now Wallington Bridge over the River Wandle.

What was then called "Carshalton" railway station was opened in 1847 in the open fields to the south of Wallington because the owner of Carshalton Park objected to it being built near to Carshalton village. This acted as a spur to the development of the area and in the 1860s Nathaniel Bridges created a prestigious housing estate of gothic revival villas (architect E. L. Brock) and a new church (Holy Trinity). The area around Holy Trinity Church is known as Wallington Old Town. In particular Clifton Road, Belmont Road and Park Road exhibit some imposing Victorian and Edwardian villas. This southward development continued towards Woodcote and by the time of the First World War the section of Woodcote Road to the south of the station had become the new high street.

The Municipal Borough of Beddington and Wallington was created in 1915 and a town hall (architect Robert Atkinson) and public library were built in Wallington town centre in the 1930s, as was the fire station in Belmont Road.

Wallington County Grammar School (for boys) was opened on London Road, close to Beddington Park in 1927.

Wallington was an important centre for the production of lavender oil until about the time of the First World War. This is remembered in a number of ways, for example:

• There is a large sculpture at the junction of Woodcote Road and Stafford Road representing a lavender plant.
• The Christmas lights also represent lavender plants.
• One of the local lavender farmers - John Jakson of Little Woodcote Farm - lent his name to a public house in Woodcote Road.

Today

Since 2007 Wallington has enjoyed something of a mini boom with several new retailers being attracted to the town, including Tesco Express and Caffé Nero. These are in addition to high street names already represented, such as Sainsbury's, Boots, W.H. Smith, Dorothy Perkins and Pizza Express. In addition, many major banks, estate agencies and building societies are represented in the town. This boom may have been fuelled in part by the recent construction of two separate, major luxury flats developments just across the main road from the railway station.

A farmers' market is held on the second Saturday of each month. This is usually located outside the old town hall, but occasionally in the car park at Shotfield.

Transport

Wallington is well served by bus, coach and rail connections, and it is possible to reach London's two major airports - Heathrow and Gatwick - in less than an hour by car, or a little longer by public transport.

Bus

A variety of bus services are available from Wallington. For accurate information to find exactly each stop check the Transport for London website as it will lead to you to all the changes going on and how to re-route. This will give you a rough guideline to the buses available in the local area.

• 127 - to Purley, Carshalton, Mitcham, Tooting Broadway
• 151 - to Carshalton, St Helier, Sutton, Cheam, Worcester Park
• 154 - to Croydon, Carshalton, Sutton, Morden
• 157 - to Crystal Palace, Croydon, Morden
• 407 - to Caterham, Purley, Croydon, Sutton
• 410 - to Crystal Palace, Norwood, Croydon, Beddington
• 455 - to Beddington, Waddon, Croydon, Purley
• 463 - to Coulsdon, Beddington, Mitcham
• 612 - to Wallington Boys' School
• S4 - to Roundshaw, Sutton, St Helier
• X26 - to Croydon, Carshalton, Sutton, Kingston, Heathrow.
• 627 - to Wallington Girls' School

All services listed above go through Wallington town centre, except for the 407 and X26 which pass through Wallington Green.

Wallington was served by the N213 night bus (which ran from Kingston to West Croydon) until 4 July 2009 when the N213 was discontinued in favour of making the main 213 route a 24 hour service. This route is between Kingston and Sutton only, thus not serving areas such as Wallington, Carshalton and the Roundshaw estate. This decision led to a campaign by local young people to reinstate the N213 service.

Coach

National Express services 025 from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport and [Brighton]], and 027 from Victoria to Chichester also serve Wallington.

Rail

Services operate from Wallington to London Bridge and Victoria via West Croydon and to Epsom and beyond via Sutton.

The northbound platform extends over the bridge that crosses Woodcote Road. The road immediately below this bridge occasionally floods during heavy rain and achieved some notoriety on 20 July 2007 when it was severely flooded, making it impassable for several hours.

A faster service to London Bridge via Wallington was introduced in May 2010. This stops at Waddon, West Croydon and Norwood Junction and then runs non-stop to London Bridge, shaving several minutes off the previous journey time.^{[citation needed]}

Famous residents

• Mervyn Peake's father bought a medical practice at 55 Woodcote Road in 1923, and "Woodcroft" was his home until the early 1930s. He lived there for five years when he inherited the house on the death of his father in 1953, but sold the house for development when he moved to Chelsea.

• Nick Ross, television presenter.

• Eileen Shanahan, Irish poet, lived with her family in Blenheim Gardens.

• Neil Ardley, jazz pianist and composer, was born in Wallington.

• Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds was born in Wallington and lived on Demesne Road.

• Will Owen, Member of Parliament for Morpeth, County Durham, also lived in Wallington.

• Giles Marshall, Ex-Conservative spin bowler, current head of 6th of Sutton Grammar School.

• David Weir, Paralympic gold medalist lives on the Roundshaw estate.

• Gary Mason, former British Heavyweight Champion Boxer, who lived in Wallington before his untimely death on Sandy Lane South whilst riding his bicycle, on 6 January 2011.

• Linsey Dawn McKenzie, English glamour model, pornographic actress and minor celebrity.

Education

Primary education

• Bandon Hill Primary School
• Amy Johnson Primary School
• Foresters Primary School
• Highview Primary School
• Holy Trinity C of E Junior School
• Holy Trinity C of E Primary School

Secondary education

• Wallington County Grammar School
• Wallington High School for Girls
• Wilson's School

All three secondary schools are highly rated grammar schools, with one (Wilson's School) the highest achieving state school - including all state grammars - in Britain. See the London Borough of Sutton article for further details of education in the borough.

External links

• Wallington, London at the Open Directory Project