A 5¼ mile circular walk from Mitcham Junction Station/Tramstop around Mitcham and including a section of the River Wandle Trail. There are several pubs on the route plus cafes at Fair Green. Please take care on this walk as there are a number of busy and awkward road crossings plus narrow roads with heavy traffic in some places. In contrast you are likely to have the green spaces to yourself!

From the station/tramstop exit into Carshalton Road and go to the left either through the Gunsite area of the common (keeping parallel with the road) or cross and go along the road.
During WWII the Gunsite was an anti-aircraft battery with 6 guns, concrete ammunition bunkers and quarters for the gun crews. At the Goat Road junction the Tramway Path joins from the right. This follows the route of the Surrey Iron Railway(1803), a track along which horse-drawn wagons could travel between Croydon and Wandsworth on payment of a toll.

Take the path going across Mill Green then follow Mill Green Road around to the right.
The Green is bisected by the Beddington Effluent Carrier and there is a ditch of the River Wandle on the western edge. A school was built on the Green in the 1840s and houses in the 1880s. Both were demolished in the 1930s.

Go left at Middleton Road cross and go right into Watermead Lane to follow the Wandle Trail.
This goes past playing fields and the remains of Bishopsford House (on the left) and the National Trust's Watermeads Nature Reserve (on the right). At the end of this section is a view of the weatherboarded Fisheries Cottages.

Cross Bishopsford Road and go a short distance to the right then continue the Wandle Trail through Ravensbury Park to the left. When the children's playground comes into view go across to the right of this and exit the park into Morden Road. Go right along this road and just past Travis Perkins take the footpath to the left crossing tram tracks with care. Continue along the path but look out for a gate on the right. Go through this into the park and go to the left following the path through. Exit into and continue along Church Path.
The medieval church of St Peter & St Paul was rebuilt in 1822 to the design of George Smith.

Go right along Church Road and left through Love Lane. At the end cross Western Road then Holborn Way to Fair Green.
The annual fair was held here until 1923 when it was moved to Three Kings Piece on the Common. The clock tower of 1898 replaced the village pump. It was refurbished and moved in 1994.

At the clocktower go left along the paved section of London Road.
On the left is the King's Arms and on the right the White Lion of Mortimer (formerly the Buck's Head). At the end is a view of a Victorian (1892) school building, the only survivor from the Holborn Union Workhouse complex and Eagle House built in 1705 and home to the physician of Catherine of Braganza. To view these closer cross St Mark's Road then London Road.

Return to the clocktower and go left at Fair Green
Majestic Way recalls the cinema of 1933 closed in 1961 and replaced with a supermarket.

Continue along Upper Green East and Commonside East.
In the 1880s numbers 25/27 were the premises of the vet and farrier. On Commonside East are Claredon House and Prospect House. Opposite are Newton House and The Lawn. The 18th century Three Kings pub was rebuilt in mock Tudor style in 1928. The 300 year old pond is stream fed and was once known as Heathernderry Pond.

From Commonside East take the path to the right across the recreation ground crossing Commonside West. Continue along the signed footpath or walk through the sports ground keeping parallel to rejoin the path further along. Follow the path across the cricket ground.
The footpath follows an old pathway known as Cold Blows. The first cricket match here was recorded in 1711. The path ends opposite the Vestry Hall of 1887 built on the site of the village lock-up. It became a Town Hall in 1934.

Go left at London Road, cross at the lights and go behind the Cricketers pub.
The pub was destroyed by WWII bombing in 1940. The Fire Station was opened in 1927 prior to which the engine had been kept at the Vestry Hall. A Sunday School was built in 1788 which became a National School in 1812, an elementary school 1870-97, parish rooms until 1987 and is now flats/studios. The green also has the War Memorial.

Walk behind the Vestry Hall
The Vestry Hall annex currently houses the Wandle Museum (see below)

Cross London Road at the junction to the left
Elm Lodge of c1807 (pictured in header) has often been used by local doctors.

Follow the road Cricket Green to the right
The White House is late 18th century and Mitcham Court c1824. Across the cricket green are views of (right to left) the Burn Bullock pub (originally the King's Head), the cricket pavilion (across the road from the pitch!) and Mary Tate's Almshouses built in 1829 for 12 elderley women on the site of the Tate's house.

Just past the Methodist Church go left into the grounds of the Canons. Take the path around to the right.
The Canons (built in 1680) was the Cranmer family home until 1939 when it was sold to the council.

Go through the gap to the right of the house
The dovecote dates to 1511. The pond is an enlarged monastic carp pond.

Go anti-clockwise around the pond then through to the car park. Exit to the right into Madeira Road. Cross to the tarmac road running across the green opposite and follow this to the right. Cross and go left along Cranmer Road
The Wilson Hospital was opened in 1928 and occupies the site of The Cranmers. Mitcham Garden Village was built for the elderley in 1928-32.

Just past the village take the path to the right crossing Willow Lane further along. The path emerges in Carshalton Road opposite Mitcham Junction Station/Tramstop.

© london-footprints.co.uk 2009

Resources
Mitcham - A Pictorial History by Eric Montague
Merton Town Trail No 7 Mitcham - Merton Historical Society
Village London by Andrew Duncan
Retracing the First Public Railway (SIR) by Derek A Bayliss
The Gunsite and Mill Green by Mitcham Common Conservators
The Wandle Trail

MITCHAM COMMON The Warden's Office, Mill House Ecology Centre, Windmill Road, Mitcham CR4 1HT. Tel 020 8288 0453.

WANDLE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM Vestry Hall Annex, London Rd CR4 3UD. Tel 020 8648 0127
Displays relating to the River Wandle. Open Wed 1-4 & 1st Sun 2-5. Small admission charge.

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