Author Archives: mitchamcricketgreen

Cricket Green Conservation Area boundary walk a great success

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To celebrate Civic Day (22 June 2013), Mitcham Cricket Green Community and Heritage organised a walk around the boundary of the Cricket Green Conservation Area.

Even a walk around the edge of the Conservation Area allowed us to look at a large number of fascinating things. For example in our 5 kilometer (3 mile) walk we saw:

  • Mitcham Garden Village. Built in the 1930s to house older people of Mitcham (locally listed)
  • The Wilson Hospital. Built 1928 and with a fabulous facade – and still functioning as a health centre with a GP surgery on site (locally listed)
  • The Parish Church. Built in the early 19th Century and replacing an earlier 13th Century church. (Grade II* listed)
  • The Vestry Hall. An imposing Victorian building on the site of the Mitcham stocks and lock-up. Once the centre of government for Mitcham. When Mitcham  became part of Merton the headquarters moved to Wimbledon for a short time, then to its current location in Morden (locally listed)
  • The Wandle Industrial Museum. A fascinating local museum that’s just celebrated its 30th year of operation.
  • Milestone. Marking out the distances to local landmarks, and now sadly largely illegible, this is being restored by Mitcham Cricket Green Community and Heritage as one of our Heritage Lottery Funded projects (Grade II listed)
  • Cricket Green. We glimpsed a view of the Cricket Green – the place where cricket has been played longer than any other – more than 300 years!
  • Cold Blows. An ancient trackway whose name gives a clear indication of how it can feel on chilly, windy days.
  • Three Kings Pond and Three Kings Piece. This green is the site of the Mitcham Status Fair – a very historic fair indeed.

Lunch after the walk involved its own element of history as it took place in the Toby Carvery that looks over the News of the World sports ground. The Carvery occupies what was once one of the three Great Houses of Mitcham – the 18th Century Park Place.

In the photo below the happy walkers stand outside a World War II bomb shelter in Mitcham Garden Village.

Mitcham Cricket Green Ward boundary walk Civic Day June 2013 Mitcham Garden Village

What next for the Cricketers pub?

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The future of the Cricketers pub remains in doubt following a planning application to convert the building into seven flats.

This follows a long and successful campaign to prevent demolition and large scale redevelopment of the site for private housing.

The Cricketers has been used as a public house for over 200 years and building was only permitted on this ancient green because it was for community use.

We are asking Merton Council to continue this centuries old tradition.  The future of the island site at the heart of our conservation area needs to be considered as a whole – with the Cricketers, Vestry Hall and Fire Station all supporting community life.

This is a point re-enforced in the Cricket Green Charter which we drew up earlier this year with local councillors and Merton Council.

Read our views on the latest planning application here and let Merton Council know what you think of the latest development proposals – email planning.representations@merton.gov.uk. You can find out about the application at Merton Council’s web site here.

Mitcham tram stop crossing has finally reopened

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We’re celebrating the re-opening of the Mitcham tram crossing after a year long campaign.

The crossing was closed as part of works to dual the tram line last year.  It was never re-opened despite being a designated public right of way and the route has been blocked by ugly steel barriers ever since.

London Tramlink has a policy of reducing the number of crossings along its route and was intent on closing this one despite replacing the steps.

Our campaign to keep the crossing open was backed by local councillors and Merton Council and the groundswell of opposition has changed London Tramlink’s mind.

We are delighted that this important route in the local path network has been restored.

Mitcham tram crossing reopened May 2013

Cranmer School development proposals – our response

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The growing school population has resulted in plans for a new building at Cranmer School to accommodate a 50% increase in the number of pupils.

The new building runs along the boundary with the Wilson Hospital and it is a concern that this is prominently located in the green corridor which links open spaces in the area. The design is striking and has a green roof (made of sedum plants).

We have welcomed the general approach while encouraging a more sympathetic design to the main frontage.  A serious concern is the impact on the school run which is already a source of major disruption even before the school grows in size.  To address this we are asking for any planning permission to include a school travel plan that is agreed with the local community and reduces the impact to below current levels even after school numbers have increased.

This will need a clear commitment to monitoring and enforcement to be effective – something which has failed to materialise in other parts of the Borough.

A final comment is that we have discovered a large number of basic errors and weaknesses in the reports used by Merton Council to support the application and suggested they tender again for their consultancy work.

You can read our comments on the planning application here

Galvanised steel fencing along Willow Lane wholly inappropriate

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If you read our earlier post about the Council opening up Willow Lane to traffic you will know that we are concerned by the impact on this semi-rural lane of the new kerbs, yellow lines and a remarkable 26 (yes – 26!) new road signs.

We posted some photos of the works at our Flickr site. 

And we made a formal response which you can find here.

We have now made a new representation which focuses specifically on the plan to erect 2.5m high galvanised steel fencing along the edges of Willow Lane.

Not only are the proposals unclear on where this fencing is to be placed (though three different areas are suggested), we believe such fencing is wholly inappropriate for the semi rural setting and totally wrong for the border of Mitcham Common.

These photos illustrate the newly opened up Willow Lane and the kind of fencing  which is proposed.

Willow lane fencing photos April 2013

Read our response on the fencing in full here.

Cricket Green Charter published

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We launched the Cricket Green Charter at the Mitcham Community Forum on 15 April. 

This was developed through the Tune In Cricket Green workshop with local residents, organised in partnership with Merton Council and our local ward councilors.  The full report of the workshop is now available and can be downloaded here. 

The 21 point Charter sets out our ambitions for the future of Cricket Green for the first time.  We want it to be used to guide all future policies and planning decisions.

The rich story of Cricket Green told through its buildings, open spaces and people should set the standard and makes development in the area a privilege.

The Charter asks that all development is required to show how it matches up to the quality of Cricket Green and contributes positively to its future. We look forward to working with Merton Council and others to bring it to life.

You can read the Cricket Green Charter here.