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, now part of Brighton and Hove. It is probable 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.
After the Romans departed, the main road through Streatham remained an important route to the south. From the 17th century it was adopted as the
main coach road to Croydon, and then on to Newhaven. 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 (and its traffic) has shaped Streatham's development.
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 mediaeval parish covered a wider area including Balham and Tooting Bec.
Streatham appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Estreham. Domesday is Middle English for Doomsday and came into use in the 12th century. It was
held by Bec-Hellouin Abbey (in Normandy) from Richard fitz Gilbert - aka Richard
de Tonbrige. (fitz Gilbert was a Norman lord who participated in the Norman Conquest of 1066. He was styled "de Tonbrige" (Tonbridge) amongst other "names"
from his land holdings.) Its Domesday assets were: 2 hides, 1 virgate and 6½ ploughlands of cultivated land and 4 acres (1.6 ha) of meadow and
herbage (mixed grass and bracken). Annually it was assessed to render £4 5s 0d to its overlords.
Until 1889, the current area of Wandsworth was part of the county of Surrey. In 1855 the Wandsworth District of the Metropolis was formed comprising
the parishes of Battersea (excluding Penge), Clapham, Putney, Streatham. Tooting Graveney and Wandsworth. Battersea was removed from the district in
1888. In 1900 the remaining district became the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth and Battersea became the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea.
The London Borough of Wandsworth was formed in 1965 from the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea and the Metropolitan Borough of
Wandsworth, but excluding the former parish of Clapham and most of the former parish of Streatham which were transferred to the London Borough of
Lambeth. (Many of us remember being dragged kicking and screaming from Wandsworth to Lambeth without moving home.) The areas to the west of Clapham
Common in the current borough of Wandsworth are often incorrectly referred to as Clapham, but are in fact part of Battersea parish.
Until 1889, Surrey included the present-day London borough of Lambeth. When it drew the boundaries for the London boroughs, the government initially
suggested that the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth and the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark be merged into a new borough; the southern and eastern
sections of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth (including Clapham, Streatham and Tooting) would form another. South Shields town clerk R.S. Young
was commissioned to make final recommendations to the government on the shape of the future London boroughs. (Was there no local who was capable of
reviewing the boundaries of the boroughs in South London?) He noted that the Wandsworth council
opposed the partition of its borough. (Obviously didn't protest vigorously enough.)
However, Wandsworth's suggestion to merge Lambeth with the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea was rejected by
both councils involved. Young believed that residents of Clapham and Streatham would be more familiar with Brixton than with Wandsworth, and recommended
that a new borough be formed from the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth and six wards and portions of two others from the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth.
Spring 2020