A map showing the Tooting ward of Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough as it appeared in 1916
Tooting has been settled since pre-Saxon times. The name is of Anglo-Saxon origin but the meaning is disputed. It could mean the people of Tota, in which context Tota may have been a local Anglo-Saxon chieftain.[3] Alternatively it could be derived from an old meaning of the verb to tout, to look out. There may have been a watchtower here on the road to London and hence the people of the look-out post.[3]
The Romans built a road, which was later named Stane Street by the English, from London (Londinium) to Chichester (Noviomagus Regnorum), and which passed through Tooting. Tooting High Street is built on this road. In Saxon times, Tooting and Streatham (then Toting-cum-Stretham) was given to the Abbey of Chertsey. Later, Suene (Sweyn), believed to be a Viking, may have been given all or part of the land. In 933, King Athelstan is thought to have confirmed lands including Totinge (Tooting) to Chertsey Abbey.[4]
Tooting appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Totinges: Lower Tooting was held from Chertsey Abbey by Haimo the Sheriff (of Kent) when its assets were 1 church, 2+1⁄2ploughlands of land and 5 acres (2 hectares) of meadow. Its people were called to render £4 per year to their overlords. Later in the Norman period, it came into the possession of the De Gravenel family, after whom it was named Tooting Graveney. Until minor changes in the 19th century it consisted of 2km2 (3⁄4sqmi).[5] The ancient parish of Tooting Graveney included the southern part of what is now Streatham.[6]
Upper Tooting, or Tooting Bec (for centuries administered as part of Streatham), appears as a manor held by the Abbey of Hellouin Bec, in Normandy, thus acquiring the "Bec" in its name. Its domesday assets were 5 hides. It had 5+1⁄2 ploughlands and so was assessed as rendering £7.[7]
As with many of South London's suburbs, Tooting developed during the late Victorian period.[8] Some development occurred in the Edwardian era but another large spurt in growth happened during the 1920s and 30s.
1902: Tooting Library opened as a one-storey structure. A second storey was added in 1906.[9] In 2012 the library was extended and refurbished[10]
Since the creation of the Tooting seat, it has been held by Labour, often with a marginal result against a Conservative Party challenge. Although the constituency boundaries include wards represented by both Labour and the Conservatives, the Tooting ward itself can be regarded as a Labour stronghold, electing a full slate of councillors from the party.
Demographics
Tooting has a large British Asian community and has gained the nickname "land of the curry mile" due to the concentration of South Asian restaurants.[15]
It also has several bus links, with routes to and from Central London, Richmond, Croydon, Sutton and Kingston amongst others.[18]
Tooting Broadway tube station is currently being considered by TfL as a stop on the future Crossrail 2 development. In addition to relieving congestion on the Northern Line, this would provide Tooting with a rapid and direct connection to major London stations such as Clapham Junction, Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Euston.[19]
As previously mentioned, Totterdown Fields estate has considerable historical significance, being the first "cottage estate" within London and later protected from redevelopment through its designation as a conservation area. Within the London Borough of Wandsworth, Tooting has the fourth-highest number of social housing accommodation after Roehampton, Battersea and Southfields in that order.[21] Notable large post-modern estates within the area are the: Aboyne/Holborn and Hazelhurst with smaller estates including: Bevill Allen Close, Burtop Road, Copeland House, Flowersmead, Newlands and Tooting Grove.[22]
Open spaces
Sun over Tooting Common
A large open area, popularly known as the Tooting Commons, lies at the northern end of Tooting. Historically this was two separate open spaces: Tooting Graveney Common (formerly part of Tooting Graveney parish), and Tooting Bec Common (formerly part of Streatham parish). The commons are home to Tooting Bec Lido,[23] which is 91.5m ×30m (300ft ×98ft).
Sport
Tooting shares two football clubs with nearby Mitcham: Tooting & Mitcham FC and Tooting & Mitcham Wanderers FC.
Tooting has two indoor markets, with numbers of permanent stalls. The entrances of both are situated on the same street, Tooting High Street, only a few metres apart. They both have many types of outlets, but since the 2010s have also developed a focus on street food stalls. Tooting Market is the smaller of the two; the other, The Broadway Market, is one of the largest of London's indoor markets, having more than ninety stalls, and has been active since 1936.[25]
In André Charlot's West EndrevueThe Charlot Show of 1926, Jessie Matthews and Henry Lytton, Jnr. sang "Silly Little Hill", which features the lyric "there's no fishing, there’s no shooting dear / and no cyclists fresh from Tooting dear", which they also recorded that year.[31]
The BBCcomedy series Hugh & I (1962–67) was set in the fictional Lobelia Avenue in Tooting.[32]
The BBC comedy series Citizen Smith (1977–80) was set in Tooting and popularised the cry "Freedom for Tooting!". The lead character in the series, Wolfie Smith (Robert Lindsay), was the founder of a fictional revolutionary socialist political organisation, the Tooting Popular Front.[33]
Balham is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as Belgeham.
Streatham is a district in south London, England. Centred 5 miles (8 km) south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
Wandsworth is a London borough in southwest London; it forms part of Inner London and has an estimated population of 329,677 inhabitants. Its main named areas are Battersea, Balham, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth Town.
The Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth was a Metropolitan borough under the London County Council, from 1900 to 1965.
Tooting Broadway is a London Underground station in Tooting in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South London. The station is on the Northern line, between Tooting Bec and Colliers Wood stations and is in Travelcard Zone 3.
Tooting Bec is in the London Borough of Wandsworth, south London, England.
Tooting is a constituency created in 1974 in Greater London. It is represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2016 by Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan, a member of the Labour Party.
Furzedown is a ward, in both the districts of Streatham and Tooting, wholly in the Tooting Parliamentary Constituency, within the London Borough of Wandsworth in South West London. It is a mainly residential area close to Tooting Commons, which provide a large open space including Tooting Bec Lido.
Tooting Bec Lido is an open-air fresh water swimming pool in South London. It is the largest fresh water swimming pool by surface area in the United Kingdom, being 100 yd (91.4 m) long and 33 yd (30.2 m) wide.
Streatham Park is an area of suburban South West London that comprises the eastern part of Furzedown ward in the London Borough of Wandsworth, formerly in the historic parish of Streatham. It is bounded by Tooting Bec Common to the north, Thrale Road and West Road to the west and the London to Brighton railway to the east.
Graveney School is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status in the Furzedown area of Tooting, southwest London, England. The school has a partially selective admissions policy. At the beginning of 2015 Graveney was assessed in an Ofsted inspection report as outstanding.
The A217 is a road in London and Surrey in England. It runs north–south. It runs from Kings Road in Fulham, London, crosses the Thames at Wandsworth Bridge, then passes through Wandsworth, Earlsfield, Summerstown, Tooting, Mitcham, Rosehill and Sutton Common in Sutton, then Cheam. Then, widened as a dual carriageway, comes Belmont, a suburban district built on a slope rising southward. On the North Downs in Surrey the road then skirts past Banstead and through its late 19th century offspring villages particularly Burgh Heath and Kingswood, Surrey. It then crosses the M25 motorway at Junction 8, then, returning to single carriageways, passes through the castle town of Reigate. It then cuts through the green buffer farmland of two rural villages and terminates at the road network at Gatwick Airport's northern perimeter.
The Tooting Commons consist of two adjacent areas of common land lying between Balham, Streatham and Tooting, in south west London: Tooting Bec Common and Tooting Graveney Common.
The A214 is a part primary, part non-primary A road in London, England. It runs from Wandsworth to West Wickham.
Brixton Hundred or the Hundred of Brixton was for many centuries a group of parishes (hundred) used for meetings and taxation of their respective great estates in the north east of the county of Surrey, England. Its area has been entirely absorbed by the growth of London; with its name currently referring to the Brixton district. Its area corresponds to London Boroughs: Southwark, Lambeth, Wandsworth and parts of Lewisham, Merton and Richmond upon Thames.
Wandsworth was the name of a borough constituency created in 1885, abolished in 1918, covering the vast bulk of today's London Borough of Wandsworth in South London but excluding Battersea. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the UK Parliament.
The Falconbrook was a stream that rose in Balham and Tooting, draining much of those parishes then the south and west of the larger district of Battersea including Clapham Junction to enter the London reaches of the Thames. Before doing so it briefly formed the border of Wandsworth Town, reflected in the SW11/SW18 boundary today.
Garratt Lane is a long street in the London Borough of Wandsworth, part of the A217 road. It connects Wandsworth High Street to Tooting Broadway and is approximately 4 kilometres long. It passes through the Earlsfield and Summerstown neighbourhoods which were fields of Wandsworth before their development in the late 19th century.
Wandsworth was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London, England from 1855 to 1900. It was formed by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and was governed by the Wandsworth District Board of Works, which consisted of elected vestrymen.
Totterdown Fields was the first London County Council cottage estate built between 1901 and 1911 It contained 1244 individual houses built over 38 acres (15 ha). The estate was designated a conservation area, on 19 September 1978.
↑ Parker, Oliver (Director) (21 October 2011). Johnny English Reborn (Motion picture). Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
↑ "24 hours in A&E". St George's, University of London. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
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