Twenty years ago today I brought you my very first Random Borough report from the London borough of Merton. But it was fairly brief - most of my posts were back then - so two decades on I'm having another go to do Merton justice. Yesterday somewhere sporty and somewhere pretty, tomorrow somewhere famous and somewhere random, and today somewhere retail and somewhere historic.
Somewhere retail: Colliers Wood
I can't do Merton Abbey Mills again because that was 2004's choice. I was going to do Wimbledon's main shopping mall, Centre Court, but I see they've changed the name to Wimbledon Quarter and that's lost all the magic. So instead I went to the ultimate Wandleside shopping cluster.
The Colliers Wood retail hub is massive, sells everything the big chains offer and comes in three separate chunks. You could easily walk between the car parks but I suspect most people drive.
Biggest of all is the Sainsbury's/M&S megastore, which was a SavaCentre when it opened in 1989 and the largest hypermarket in the UK. It sits beside the Wandle on the site of the William Morris Printworks where carpets, tapestries, wallpaper and stained glass were manufactured to the highest Arts and Crafts standards. Think on that as you cross the footbridge over the river preparing to buy absolutely nothing so erudite. The two conjoined stores are built on stilts, partly to prevent flooding but mainly to be able to fit the car park underneath, so there's an escalator to ride on the way in and a proper travelator on the way out. The upper balcony round the atrium is mostly pointless since the Fresh Kitchen cafe closed in 2022 so the security guard at me looked suspiciously as I walked a full circuit.
Not many shopping centres include a medieval chapter house, but if you head out the back to the subway under the flyover you'll find one lurking there. It's all that's left of Merton Abbey (1114-1538), despoiled first by Henry VIII, then by a railway station and most recently by the A24. Judging by how close a pylon stands to the site, it seems destructive infrastructure has really got it in for the poor old Chapter House. Normally you can visit every Sunday from April to September, and one day you should, but be aware the season's starting late this year while they get the drains fixed and fit brighter lighting. [report from 2015]
The Priory Retail Park lies just across the Pickle Brook, a minor braid of the Wandle, on the site of former watercress beds. I did find an information board on the walk over which I hoped would tell me more, but sadly the panel had almost entirely eroded, the legs had toppled and the whole thing was retreating into a bush. The big shed here is bookended by a Currys and a Dunelm, but the big draw for Sainsbury refuseniks is the Aldi in the middle. Fine dining is not supported but if you want something with onion rings there's a Hungry Horse called Kiss me Hardy (named after former local resident Admiral Nelson). Best not linger here.
Beyond the crossroads is the third part of the retail triptych, the Tandem Centre. Think of it as a U-shaped warehouse with a vast car park in the middle and a ring of bollards around the edge to prevent anyone driving through the glass frontage. Pedestrians are afforded a single narrow path across the middle. The units include Next, New Look and Nando's, plus a Lidl for even greater supermarket choice, indeed enough big chains for uninspired families to enjoy a proper till-feeding afternoon out. I realise I'm only writing about this in a surprised way because I live in inner London and we don't drive to sheds, everywhere else does, but Colliers Wood is out on a limb even for the suburbs. by tube: Colliers Wood; by bus: 57, 131, 152, 200, 219, 470
Somewhere historic: Surrey Iron Railway
One thing about Merton is that it has properly dense industrial heritage. The Wandle Valley was a crucible of early manufacturing thanks to watermill power, with calico works, tanneries, gunpowder factories and paper mills amongst the early arrivals. The Wandle Industrial Museum (open on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons) keeps these stories alive. Many such businesses were linked by the Surrey Iron Railway - arguably Britain's first significant railtrack, although more accurately a horse-drawn "plateway" used to transport minerals, building materials and farm produce.
The Surrey Iron Railway ran for nine miles between Wandsworth and Croydon and was commercially successful for all of seven years before the Croydon Canal opened in 1809 and swiped its business. Here's a map of the route, here's a detailed old school website and here's an 18 page historical treatise from 1995. 200 years on pretty much nothing of the SIR remains bar its alignment, so I thought I'd try walking that south from Colliers Wood to the edge of the borough. The first mile was quite dull, running invisibly parallel to Church Road, so I won't bore you with that. Instead let's pick up the trail at Mitcham Parish Church, a fine building from a similar era (although best not linger on the fact they knocked down a 13th century church to build it).
To follow the railway take Church Path south past two attractive old terraces, one from 1865 and the other from 1904. But that's it for 'pretty' on this walk because the two long paths that lie ahead are far from attractive. The first is Baron's Walk, and as you survey the fingerpost at the first fork yes I'm sorry, that is the miserable-looking alleyway to the right. It bends unloved around the outside of a waste processing centre, with hundreds of skips and bales visible on the far side of a line of spiked railings... and smellable too thanks to the unmistakable sub-citrus whiff of decay. To the left a crumbly green fence shields the recreation ground you probably should have walked through instead, and eventually a much older brick wall hems you in too. The path doesn't precisely track the original alignment of the railway, merely very near enough, but we're coming up on a modern means of transport that follows it precisely.
Yes it's the Croydon trams, which from 'just after Belgrave Walk' to 'just before Waddon Marsh' replace the actual railway which replaced the SIR. You can't walk along the tram tracks, obviously, but you can follow a parallel footway called Tramway Path for most of what follows. Above Mitcham tram stop it has proper semi-detached houses and parking, then swings across and traces the northern side of the tracks instead. I arrived at school-chucking-out time so had to fight against a flow of fussing mums, independent ten year-olds and scooter riders emerging from the back of Cranmer Primary. The path then narrows somewhat past the backs of several gardens before reaching a narrow bridge across the tracks. The tram in my photo has just departed Mitcham Junction, whereas Tramway Path now veers off to the right (past that lone lamppost) following the SIR's branch line to Hackbridge.
This isn't much more pleasant, to be honest, again between the backs of houses and something semi-industrial but at least with a stripe of woody undergrowth to act as a distraction. Also the smell wafting over the fence is now briefly baked goods, not rotting refuse, so that's a plus. Folk who live on Carshalton Road can't park out front because that's Mitcham Common so instead they have garages back here, a long chain of them in not always the best condition. The depot hidden behind the barbed wire on the right is briefly revealed as a construction company's Consolidation Centre, i.e. where they store their materials, and quite frankly it's a relief when this back alley eventually curves out onto the common beside a Chinese fusion restaurant. I was saved from following the final mile because the borough boundary intruded and I'm not allowed to write about Sutton, and what I think I've learnt is don't try to walk the Surrey Iron Railway, just ride the tram. by tram: Mitcham
