Streatham
Streatham is a district in south London in England that lies south of Charing Cross. It falls mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending westward into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
Streatham formed part of Surrey before becoming part of the County of London in 1889, and then of Greater London in 1965.
The London Plan identifies the area as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
History
Streatham means "the hamlet on the street". The street in question, the London to Brighton Way, was the Roman road from the capital Londinium to the south coast near Portslade, today within Brighton and Hove. It is likely that the destination was a Roman port now lost to coastal erosion, which has been tentatively identified with 'Novus Portus' mentioned in Ptolemy's Geographia. The road is confusingly referred to as Stane Street in some sources and diverges from the main London-Chichester road at Kennington.Streatham's first parish church, St Leonard's, was founded in Saxon times but an early Tudor tower is the only remaining structure pre-dating 1831 when the body of the church was rebuilt. The medieval parish covered a wider area including Balham and Tooting Bec. The southern portion of what is now Streatham formed part of Tooting Graveney ancient parish.
A charter states that in the late seventh century, land in Streatham and Tooting Graveney was granted by Erkenwald and Frithwald to Chertsey Abbey, a grant which was later confirmed in the time of Athelstan in 933.
File:Chertsey Breviary - St. Erkenwald.jpg|alt=manuscript image of a Saxon saint|thumb|St Erkenwald is recorded as granting land in the area to Chertsey Abbey.
Streatham appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Estreham. It was held by Bec-Hellouin Abbey from Richard de Tonbrige. Its Domesday assets were: 2 hides, 1 virgate and ploughlands of cultivated land and of meadow and herbage. Annually it was assessed to render £4 5s 0d to its overlords.
After the departure of the Romans, the main road through Streatham remained an important trackway. From the 17th century it was adopted as the main coach road to Croydon and East Grinstead, and then on to Newhaven and Lewes. In 1780 it then became the route of the turnpike road from London to Brighton, and subsequently became the basis for the modern A23. This road have shaped Streatham's development.
Streatham Village and Streatham Wells
The village remained largely unchanged until the 18th century, when its natural springs, known as Streatham Wells, were first celebrated for their health-giving properties. The reputation of the spa, and improved turnpike roads, attracted wealthy City of London merchants and others to build their country residences in Streatham.In spite of London's expansion, a limited number of developments took place in the village in the second half of the nineteenth century, Streatham Vale sprung up to the South later still and the small parade of shops by Streatham Common Station has become known colloquially as Streatham Village.
Wellfield Road, which had previously been known as Leigham Lane, was renamed to reflect its role as the main route from the centre of Streatham to one of the well locations. Another mineral well was located on the south side of Streatham Common, in an area that now forms part of The Rookery, where it can still be seen and visited within the formal gardens.
Streatham Park or Streatham Place
In the 1730s, Streatham Park, a Georgian country mansion, was built by the brewer Ralph Thrale on land he bought from the Lord of the Manor – the fourth Duke of Bedford. Streatham Park later passed to Ralph's son Henry Thrale, who with his wife Hester Thrale entertained many of the leading literary and artistic characters of the day, most notably the lexicographer Samuel Johnson. The dining room contained 12 portraits of Henry's guests painted by his friend Joshua Reynolds. These pictures were wittily labelled by Fanny Burney as the Streatham Worthies.Streatham Park was later leased to Prime Minister Lord Shelburne, and was the venue for early negotiations with France that led to the Peace Treaty of 1783. Streatham Park was demolished in 1863.
Park Hill
One large house that survives is Park Hill, on the north side of Streatham Common, rebuilt in the early 19th century for the silk merchant, William Leaf. His architect was John Buonarotti Papworth. It was later the home of Sir Henry Tate, sugar refiner, benefactor of local libraries across south London, including Streatham Library, and founder of the Tate Gallery at Millbank. Tate engaged Robert Marnock to re-model the grounds, which were listed at Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England in 1987. The house later became a convent, St Michael's.Urbanisation
Development accelerated after the opening of Streatham Hill railway station on the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway in 1856. The other two railway stations followed within fifteen years.Some estates, such as Telford Park to the west of Streatham Hill, were spaciously planned with facilities like tennis clubs. Despite the local connections to the Dukes of Bedford, there is no link to the contemporary Bedford Park in west London. Another generously sized development was Roupell Park, the area near Christchurch Road promoted by the Roupell family. Other streets adopted more conventional suburban layouts.
Three more parish churches were built to serve the growing area, including Immanuel and St Andrew's, St Peter's and St Margaret the Queen's.
Frederick Wheeler's Terraces
At the end of the 19th Century the heart of the old heart of the village of Streatham was sweepingly remodelled to the architectural designs of the young local architect Frederick Wheeler FRIBA, creating the streetscape which remains to this day.Between 1884 and 1891 a comprehensive scheme of four-storey, Queen Anne Revival style shop houses was designed by Wheeler and built by the local firm Hill Brothers. Running down from the High Road as it diverges south from Mitcham Lane and past Streatham Green the parade continues, almost unbroken, to the entrance of Streatham Station. The scheme meets, visually, at the bottom of the steep hill and cross-roads known locally as 'The Dip' in a pair of matched developments named The Broadway and The Triangle on what is now Gleneagle Road. South of this junction the development continues with Wheeler's Queens Parade terrace of 1885 rising up towards the railway bridge and Streatham Station.
This long run of matching red-brick parades, topped with high red-brick 'Dutch gables' and decorative chimney stacks all enlivened by decorative plasterwork, banded brickwork and multiform timber sash and tripartite dormer windows, was noted by Pevsner. Wheeler's comprehensive development also included Streatham Hall, which served for some time as the local town hall in the early 1900s, standing at 344 Streatham High Road between 1888 and its demolition in 1980.
A surviving parade of shops fronting Streatham Green on Mitcham Lane has also been ascribed to Wheeler, who contributed a large number of other buildings to the local area including the Methodist church on Riggindale Road, Sussex House on the corner of Tooting Bec Gardens and the large houses built on the Manor Park and Woodlands estates as well and the discreet electricity substation in a "15th century Gothic style" beside the English Martyrs Church on Mitcham Lane.
Wheeler later went on to find fame with his Arts & Crafts influenced St Pauls Studios residences for bachelor artists, on Talgarth Road, Hammersmith.
There is now a mixture of buildings from all architectural eras of the past 200 years in the Streatham conservation area.
The inter-war period
After the First World War Streatham developed as a location for entertainment, with the Streatham Hill Theatre, three cinemas, the Locarno ballroom and Streatham Ice Rink all adding to its reputation as "the West End of South London". With the advent of electric tram services, it also grew as a shopping centre serving a wide area to the south. In the 1930s large numbers of blocks of flats were constructed along the High Road. These speculative developments were not initially successful. They were only filled when émigré communities began to arrive in London after leaving countries under the domination of Hitler's Germany. In 1932 the parish church of the Holy Redeemer was built in Streatham Vale to commemorate the work of William Wilberforce.Retail decline and recovery
In the 1950s Streatham had the longest and busiest shopping street in south London. Streatham became the site of the UK's first supermarket, when Express Dairies Premier Supermarkets opened its first store in 1951; Waitrose subsequently opened its first supermarket in Streatham in 1955, but it closed down in 1963.However, a combination of factors led to a gradual decline through the 1970s and a more rapid decline in the 1980s. These included long term population movements out to Croydon, Kingston and Sutton; the growth of heavy traffic on the A23 ; and a lack of redevelopment sites in the town centre. This culminated in 1990 when the closure of Pratts, which had grown from a Victorian draper's shop to a department store operated since the 1940s by the John Lewis Partnership, coincided with the opening of a large Sainsbury's supermarket half a mile south of the town centre, replacing an existing, smaller Sainbury's store opposite Streatham Hill railway station.
Several recent additions, such as Argos, Lidl and Peacocks, are located in new retail spaces on the site of Pratt's but, in common with other high streets, retail recovery has been slow, and a substantial proportion of vacant space has been taken by a growing number of restaurants, bars and coffee shops.
In August 2011, Streatham was selected as one of the areas to benefit from Round 1 of the Mayor of London's Outer London Fund, gaining £300,000. Later, Streatham was awarded a further £1.6 million, matched by another £1 million by Lambeth. The money from this fund was spent on improving streets and public spaces in Streatham. This includes the smartening up of shop fronts through painting and cleaning, replacing shutters and signage as well as helping to reveal facilities behind the high street such as The Stables Community Centre. Streatham Library has also undergone a £1.2 million refurbishment. The Tudor Hall behind the library was brought back into public use as The Mark Bennett Centre providing a meeting and performance space. Streatham Skyline introduced new lighting to highlight some of Streatham's more attractive buildings and monuments with the aim of improving safety and the overall attractiveness of the area.