View from Glen Albyn Road

Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 1 May 2015

View from a third-floor balcony, along Thursley Gardens to Queensmere Road. Details which might easily go unnoticed are the grey stone gables of the former Southlands College - visible just behind the left-hand end of the white-painted buildings in Queensmere Road. I have known this area for more than half a century, during which time it has been developed at far greater residential density. The original Victorian settlement was quite sparse - grand houses along just a few roads, like Albert Drive and Inner Park Road. Development in the 1920's and '30's took the form of smaller - but still substantial - properties along Bathgate Road, Victoria Drive, Princes Way and elsewhere. In the 1950's and '60's grand houses, stables and orchards gave way to extensive local authority housing. Glen Albyn Road was laid out by Wandsworth Borough Council at that time. Thursley Gardens is one of many smaller streets that arose in later years as residential in-filling took place.

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