The River Graveney in Tooting

Tuesday 12 April 2022

The River Graveney through Tooting has formed a boundary since Anglo-Saxon times. It has also been an open drain, a peril to travellers, a flood-risk and an inspiration to poetry. Come and hear all about the River Graveney at the next meeting of the Tooting History Group. Philip Bradley (Chair, Tooting History Group) will be giving a short talk.

The Mercenary River

Tuesday 10 May 2022

Our May monthly meeting will be a talk by Nick Higham on his recently published book, The Mercenary River. He tells the story of the development of London’s water supply from the Middle Ages to the present day. For centuries London, one of the largest and richest cities in the world, struggled to supply its citizens with reliable, clean water. The book tells a tale of remarkable technological, scientific and organisational breakthroughs; but also a story of greed and complacency, high finance and low politics.

Nick Higham’s book uncovers the murky tale of how the most powerful steam engine in the world was first brought to London, the extraordinary story of how one Victorian London water company deliberately cut off 2,000 households, and the details of a financial scandal which brought two of the water companies close to collapse in the 1870s. And it asks whether today’s 21st century water companies are an improvement on their Victorian predecessors.

Nick Higham is a retired BBC journalist and he will be signing copies of his book at the end of the talk.

Streatham’s 41

Tuesday 14 June 2022

At our next meeting we will be hearing from the Sugar & Spice Heritage Project, based in Tooting, and also from John Brown talking about the V1 Campaign in Streatham during the Second World War.

Tooting’s Roman Road in the Conquest of Britain

Tuesday 12 July 2022

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 its route can still be traced from London to the Sussex Coast.

Come and hear Robert Entwhistle (author Britannia Surveyed) at our July meeting.

A Legacy of Empire: Windrush Generation and Their Relationship to the British State

Tuesday 11 October 2022

October is #BlackHistoryMonth, and Tooting History Group will be hearing from Juanita Cox about the experiences of members of the Windrush Generation.

Juanita is a research fellow at the School of Advanced Studies at The University of London. Using Oral History techniques, she has undertaken detailed research on the experiences of The Windrush Generation who came to Britain from the Caribbean from the late 1940s onwards and the gap between the portrayal of Britain to potential migrants and the reality that they actually experienced.

Caroline Ganley: Battersea MP, LCC Councillor, Battersea Councillor

Tuesday 8 November 2022

Our next monthly meeting 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. “