Next THG Meeting: Suffragettes and Beyond

Tuesday 13th February.

Our next meeting is Tuesday 13th March at 7.30pm in The United Reform Church, Rookstone Road, Tooting , SW17 9NQ. We will be talking about memories of the Irish Community in Tooting.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 18th April at 7.30pm. Geraldine Kelly will be talking about the history of allotments in Tooting. We look forward to seeing you at the United Reform Church, Rookstone Road, Tooting, SW17 9NQ. A map of the venue is here.

How much would you pay for Tooting Bec Common? Who was the first Common Keeper? Could you hang your laundry out on the common? Come and find out next Wednesday, 30th May, 2-4pm at The Furzedown Project, 93, Moyser Road, SW16 6SJ. The talk is part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival which starts Saturday 26th May. More details of the Festival here.

Tooting Commons have a long and controversial history of legal, political and financial conflict. Who runs the Common? Is it a Common or a park? Who sets the rules? How was it used in wartime?  As part of The Wandsworth Heritage Festival, join Tooting History Group on a leisurely walk round the Common to hear about some of the extraordinary people and events that have helped to create this much-loved open space.

The walk is part of the HLF-funded Tooting Common Heritage Project and takes place on Saturday 9th June at 2.30pm. Meet at the newly refurbished fountain on Tooting Bec Road near the junction with Dr. Johnson Avenue.

Tooting Commons Research Latest

Our June 2018 Monthly Meeting

Dr Samuel Johnson was a regular visitor to the Streatham Park Estate next to Tooting Bec Common where he met with Mrs. Hester Thrale and her circle. He had his own room set aside and would drink up to 23 cups of tea a day. But what did they talk about? Come to our July meeting and find out.

Dr Cassie Ulph from Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, will be talking about “Mrs Thrale and Dr Johnson: The Strange Story of the Mistress of Streatham Park and  man-of-letters Dr Johnson” at our next meeting on July 10th at 7.30pm. Venue details here.

The ancient parish of Tooting Graveney was the smallest parish in the county of Surrey. And we have an account from 1884 of the boundaries of the parish and the properties you would pass when beating the bounds. So 134 years later, we are going to beat the bounds of Tooting Graveney. We won’t be borrowing half a dozen young schoolboys to undertake the more perilous parts of the walk, which the vestry did in 1884. Nor will we be beating the five remaining Parish Boundary markers with willow fronds. But we will stop at the older buildings of interest, the boundary posts, and perhaps one or two hostelries. And catching a glimpse of Tooting growing from a small rural village in Surrey to the expanding suburb of London it had become by the end of the nineteenth century.

We are doing the 6 mile walk on Saturday 14th July, meeting at 11am at Amen Corner at the junction of Mitcham Road and Southcroft Road.

Come and join us for a celebration of 120 years of the cafe on Tooting Bec Common. Next Bank Holiday Monday, 27th August at 3pm. The Mayor of Wandsworth will cut a birthday cake.

Details of where to find the cafe are here.

How many cinemas did there use to be in Tooting? Which Tooting Cinema is Grade 1 listed, the only cinema in Britain to be rated this highly? Come and hear about the heyday of cinemas in Tooting from Richard Gray of the Cinema Theatre Association at our October monthly meeting. The talk is on Tuesday October 9th at 7.30pm at The United Reform Church, Rookstone Road, SW17. You can find more information about the Cinema Theatre Association here.