IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
London Road, MITCHAM, CR4 4ED

Seen from its junction with London Road

Maps from the start of the 20th century show a number of houses along London Road with large gardens stretching back into what is now this park. The largest of these was Baron House, named after Oliver Baron JP, an 18th century barrister. During the 1920s, much of the site became a large gravel pit. Subsequently the pit filled with water and was then reinstated with such items as old buses and trams, before being levelled in the 1930s for playing fields. In the mid 1980s, a campaign was started to preserve the area as a park and it was formally opened as London Road Playing Fields in April 1992. The flats on the right are in London Road.

Station Court, a Listed Building of c.1800, served as an entrance and booking office for the now-closed Mitcham railway station during much of the time for which it was open to traffic between 1856-1997. In 2000 the railway was replaced by the tramway that now operates from Wimbledon to Croydon and beyond. It is sometimes claimed that the building seen here was built for the Surrey Iron Railway, a horse-drawn plateway which existed between 1802-1846, but there is no evidence to support this.

This building already existed in the days of the Surrey Iron Railway, but when the steam railway was opened in 1870 it was bought for use as the station house for Micham station, and continued in this use until the station became de-staffed in the 1970s, after which it reverted to commercial use. Now the railway has been converted to a tram line, and the tram stop is where the station platforms formerly were.

The bridge under London Road was only wide enough for one track with its overhead line.

Maps from the start of the 20th century show a number of houses along London Road with large gardens stretching back into what is now this park. The largest of these was Baron House, named after Oliver Baron JP, an 18th century barrister. During the 1920s, much of the site became a large gravel pit. Subsequently the pit filled with water and was then reinstated with such items as old buses and trams, before being levelled in the 1930s for playing fields. In the mid 1980s, a campaign was started to preserve the area as a park and it was formally opened as London Road Playing Fields in April 1992. The flats on the right are in London Road.

Maps from the start of the 20th century show a number of houses along London Road with large gardens stretching back into what is now this park. The largest of these was Baron House, named after Oliver Baron JP, an 18th century barrister. During the 1920s, much of the site became a large gravel pit. Subsequently the pit filled with water and was then reinstated with such items as old buses and trams, before being levelled in the 1930s for playing fields. In the mid 1980s, a campaign was started to preserve the area as a park and it was formally opened as London Road Playing Fields in April 1992. The flats on the right are in London Road.

Because two-way tram tracks had to fit through a narrow cutting and bridge previously used by single track full size trains, the 2 tracks have been interleaved.

An EMU at Mitcham Railway Station. The station closed after the last train ran on 31 May 1997. Mitcham tram stop replaced the station, and is located on the same site. The London Road, A217, passes over the bridge in the background.