The Forgotten Animal Painters of Tooting: William and Sidney Wombill

by Philip Bradley

William and Sidney Wombill were professional artists who lived in Tooting for over 70 years.  William painted over 2,000 paintings and his son Sidney painted the winners of the Epsom Derby, but today they are largely forgotten and much of their work is lost. Come and hear Karen Ellis-Rees talk about her research into the lives, work and home of the Wombills. 

The meeting is on Tuesday 11th June at 7.30pm and will be held at The United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW17 9NQ. (5 minute walk from Tooting Broadway tube).

Tooting Bec Asylum Remembered?

by Philip Bradley

Tooting Bec Hospital closed in 1994. It was demolished and redeveloped as The Heritage Park estate on the edge of Tooting Common. In the 91 years it was open, thousands of patients and staff passed through it’s doors. Many of the patients died there rathe than moving back to be with their families or to the Workhouse or to another asylum.

How should this hospital be marked or remembered? What was life like there for patients and staff?

Come and hear Philip Bradley and Liz Sayce talk about the history of Tooting Bec Hospital at The Woodfield Pavilion, Tooting Bec Common, SW16 1AP on Saturday 1st June at 11am.

This event is part of The Heritage Day organised by the Woodfield Pavilion and is also part of the 2024 Wandsworth Heritage Festival. Further details here.

To book a ticket on Eventbrite, book here:

Beating The Bounds Of Tooting Graveney Parish: The Walk May 2024

by Philip Bradley

Tooting History Group members and supporters will be “Beating The Bounds” of Tooting Graveney Parish next Sunday, 19th May 2024. The walk is based on a description of the boundaries recorded in 1884. This is a walk THG has done before in 2018 and 2019 and it is interesting to see which buildings are still there and which have disappeared.

There will be a break for lunch in Tooting Town Centre from approximately 12.30-2pm. We will be leaving from the Selkirk pub at 2pm for the afternoon part of the walk and arriving back at Amen Corner by 3.30pm. (ie before the football starts at 4pm!)

• Sunday 19th May, 10.30am • Free • Booking not required

• Meet at Amen Corner (opposite Sette Bello Restaurant), SW17 9JE

This walk is part of The Wandsworth Heritage Festival which starts on 18th May and runs for three weeks. For details of all festival events, see here .

Beating The Bounds Of Tooting Graveney Parish (1884 Style)

by Philip Bradley

In July 1884, the Tooting Ratepayers Association met and heard a detailed description of the boundaries of Tooting Graveney Parish. At our May meeting, we will explore this 1884 description and hear which buildings are still there 140 years later and which have disappeared. Where were the Watercress beds, the brickfield and Mr. Mann the hairdresser? How much was spent to beat the bounds of Tooting Graveney in 1850? Come and hear Philip Bradley tell the story of the Tooting Graveney Parish Boundaries and how they used to be beaten at our next THG meeting on Tuesday May 14th 2024 at 7.30pm.

And on Sunday May 19th , we will be walking the 8 mile boundary of Tooting Graveney Parish. Starting at 10.30am at Amen Corner, SW17 (Opposite Sette Bello restaurant), we will be progressing round the Parish, stopping to see which buildings and features survive from 1884 and which have disappeared. There will be a break for lunch in Tooting Town Centre and we should finish back at Amen Corner about 3.30pm.

This event is part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival. Further details of the Heritage Festival can be found here.

Public Transport Comes To Tooting

by Philip Bradley

When did trolleybuses come to Tooting? Where could you get to for 1d? Were there really horse drawn buses through Tooting. Our next meeting on Tuesday 9th April at 7.30pm will be a talk by John Chilvers on the coming of public transport to Tooting.

We will be meeting at The United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW17 9NQ (Tooting Broadway Tube).

We hope you can join us.

Tooting History Quiz Night

by Philip Bradley

The Tooting History Quiz night will be open to all at our next meeting on Tuesday 10th October. 50 questions on Tooting past and present. There will be prizes and refreshments and Tooting facts to inform and entertain. Teams of up to five people welcome-if you don’t have a team, we will match you up on the night. Free entry for members-guests £2 donation. We hope to see you at The United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW17 9NQ at 7.30 on the 10th October.

In Their Own Write: 19th Century South London Pauper Voices

by Philip Bradley

Our monthly meeting in July will be addressed by Dr. Paul Carter from the National Archives at Kew. He will be talking about the records of 19th Century workhouse inmates, particularly from the Wandsworth and Clapham Union which covered Tooting. So what lead to complaints or petitions from Workhouse inmates? How were the complaints investigated by the Poor Law Commissioners?

The talk is on Tuesday 11th July starting at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, Tooting SW179NQ. (Tooting Broadway tube). Everyone is very welcome.

The Lost Museums Of Wandsworth Walk

by Philip Bradley

The London Borough of Wandsworth doesn’t have a local museum. But it does have a collection of 10,000 + items in a basement on West Hill, most of which have been there since March 2008. There have been Wandsworth Museums in the past and this walk on Friday May 26th will be passing some of those sites. Beginning at Putney Library, Disraeli Road, we will be going down to West Hill, onto the former Young’s brewery site and Wandsworth Town Hall and finishing at the old Court House building in Garratt Lane.

More information about the Wandsworth Museum Action Group here

More information about the Wandsworth Heritage Festival here

Caroline Ganley: A Battersea Political Superstar

by Philip Bradley

Our next monthly meeting on Tuesday November 8th is a talk about Caroline Ganley, a leading political figure in Battersea from the 1910s to the 1960s.

Come and hear Sue Demont (Battersea Society) speak about her life and times.

“Caroline Ganley (1879 – 1966) was the ultimate multi-tasker long before the term was invented.  A hard-up mother of three who left school aged 14, she went on to become one of the first female magistrates in Britain, the first female President of the London Co-operative Society, and Battersea’s first woman MP. Her achievements were acknowledged during her lifetime, but her remarkable story is strikingly absent from the history books of the 20th century.  Drawing on Ganley’s own unpublished memoir, this short book is a first step toward reclaiming that story. “

You can order Sue Demont’s book here.

The meeting is at our usual venue: United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, Tooting, SW17 9NQ.

(Tooting Broadway Tube, 280 264 57 270 355 44 77 333 G1 buses)

Tooting’s Roman Road: July Monthly Meeting

by Philip Bradley
July 2022 Meeting Flyer

The A24 is the main road through Tooting today. 2000 years ago, the route was laid out by the Roman invaders from Londinium to Noviomagus Reginorum (present day Chichester). It was named Stane Street by the Anglo-Saxons (Stone Street) and it’s route can still be traced from London to the Sussex Coast. Come and hear Robert Entwhistle (Author “Britannia Surveyed”) at our July monthly meeting.

We meet at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ at 7.30pm on Tuesday 12th July 2022.

E & A Wates Go Into The PPE Business

by Philip Bradley

Our last monthly meeting in March was an excellent talk by Roger Wates from the well-established Tooting firm E & A Wates. He has just sent me news on what the company is doing during lockdown, which is quite amazing.



NHS staff wearing the reusable visors during COVID-19, April 2020. Visors have been delivered to 21 hospitals including St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Photo reproduced with permission.

In its 120th year, SW London interior specialist E & A Wates has switched their workshop furniture restoration work from high quality reupholstery to critical personal protective equipment (PPE).

E & A Wates showroom and workshop are temporarily closed in response to Coronavirus (COVID-19). This week, with teams working at a safe distance behind the scenes, E & A Wates have supplied and cut foam to assist in making over 4,300 visors for NHS frontline staff within 21 hospitals in London and neighbouring counties with potential for another 2,500 components if required.

The visors are being made in conjunction with a prop maker Faye Jones and over 60 colleagues who crowdsourced the project so the visors can be donated to NHS hospital staff, the visors can be sterilised and reused after each shift. So far the group have made 6650 visors with 3200 planned for production this Easter weekend




Upholsterer Tomas Kilty works in isolation at E & A Wates workshop in Streatham, London cutting foam to make reusable visors for NHS staff during COVID-19. Photo © E & A Wates
Foam headbands at E & A Wates workshop in Streatham, London ready to be delivered to the visor-making team (60 separate makers) who have distributed 3990 visors (3165 to London Hospitals and 825 to neighbouring counties) made a further 2660 and have planned production of 3200 this Easter weekend during COVID-19. Photo © E & A Wates

Tooting Bec Asylum Remembered-

by Philip Bradley

Plaque Unveiling And Book Launch

Saturday 27th September 2025

Tooting History Group members and residents of the Heritage Park Estate in Tooting have been researching the history of Tooting Bec Asylum/Hospital for the last eighteen months. Wandsworth Council have now agreed to erect a Green Plaque at the Estate to remember the hospital and it’s residents and staff. And Tooting History Group is publishing a book to record the history of the hospital to coincide with the unveiling,

The Green Plaque will be unveiled at 2pm on Saturday 27th September 2025. Part of the original wall to the Asylum is still there, by the pedestrian entrance to the Heritage Park Estate at the corner of Tooting Bec Road and Franciscan Road.

The book “Tooting Bec Asylum Remembered 1903-1995” by Karen Ellis-Rees and Annie Caulfield will be launched on the same day at the Pavilion, Tooting Bec Lido, Tooting Bec Road, SW16 1RU. We will be at the Pavilion (rear of Lido car park) from 3pm. (249/319 bus)

You will be able to buy a copy of the book for £5.

What was Tooting’s Bottomless Pit? Is Tooting Graveney A “Watery Place”? Why is W.E.Morden Important In Tooting’s History?

by Philip Bradley

At our monthly meeting on Tuesday 9th September you will hear THG members Geraldine Kelly, Karen Ellis-Rees and Philip Bradley give short talks and tidy up the answers to these questions.

There will also be a display of recently acquired black and white photos of Tooting taken in the
1950s and 60s by Ronald Kipps.

The meeting is on Tuesday 9th September at 7.30pm in the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road,SW179NQ.
(Tooting Broadway Tube)

South London’s Greatest Show-Place: The Tooting Granada

by Philip Bradley

The Tooting Granada (“Buzz Bingo”) is the only Grade 1 listed building in Tooting and the only Grade 1 listed Cinema in the UK. Richard Gray is a historian of Cinema architecture and will be telling us about “South London’s Greatest Showplace” through it’s history, architecture and entertainment. We will be showing clips of early films shown at The Granada. He will also speak about some of the other seven cinemas of Tooting and their demise.

Richard is the author of “Cinemas in Britain-A History of Cinema Architecture”

The talk is on Tuesday 8th July at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ

The Music Hall Artistes Of Lambeth Cemetery

by Philip Bradley

Our next talk will be on “The Music Hall Artistes of Lambeth Cemetery”
This is jointly organised by Tooting History Group and the Friends of Streatham Cemetery
How did over 250 music hall artistes and entertainers come to be buried in Tooting? What was life like as a music hall artiste in Victorian and Edwardian times? What songs did they sing? What acts did they perform?
Join Karen Ellis-Rees of London Overlooked/Tooting History Group, Peter Winbourne and Di Berry for an evening of stories and song about the once shining music hall stars who now rest in Lambeth and Streatham Cemeteries. This presentation of words and music will take place in the Chapel of Lambeth Cemetery on Blackshaw Road.


Friday 27th June 7.30pm

Chapel, Lambeth Cemetery, Blackshaw Road, SW17 0DH (Entrance between Fountain And Bertal Roads)

Tickets £6

Booking required – book via https://bit.ly/4bSPVxQ

Light refreshments

This event forms part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival 2025. You can find details of all the Wandsworth Heritage Festival events here

Wimbledon In Sporting History

by Philip Bradley


Plough Lane, Wimbledon has been the site for many sporting events over the years. Professional football, greyhound racing, speedway and stock car racing have all had their day, and in the last three years,  AFC Wimbledon have returned to a brand new stadium to continue the sporting tradition. 

Come and hear John Lynch (Founder & Managing Director Wimbledon in Sporting Heritage) and Jon Stevens give us a history of Wimbledon’s Sporting Heritage and some of the memorable sporting occasions that have occurred down Plough Lane at our next meeting:

Tuesday 13th May at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ. (Tooting Broadway tube)

Members free, guests £2. Light refreshments.

Even if you are not interested in sport, this talk is bound to be a fascinating account of the passion and commitment generated by the different sporting activities that have been happening in Plough Lane for over 100 years.

We look forward to seeing you there.