The census of 6 June 1841 was the second national census of England and Wales and the first to record the names of every individual in each household. For the area around Wandsworth Common, the returns survive in the HO 107 series at The National Archives.
This section presents transcriptions of the Enumeration District descriptions — the preamble pages written by each enumerator to define the geographical boundaries of his district before the enumeration began. These descriptions, which have not previously been transcribed, are invaluable for understanding the topography of the area before the Victorian building boom transformed it. They also preserve place-names — courts, lanes, farm names, inn names — that have since entirely disappeared.
High Street, the Plain, Frogmore, Point Pleasant, Garratt, West Hill, Thames Bank
HO 107/1069/1–4 · Registrar: Whitfield Foster · SR District: Wandsworth & Clapham
Bridge Road, Bolingbroke Place, High Street, Nine Elms, Battersea Fields, Clapham Common, Lavender Hill, St John’s Hill
HO 107/1046/2–6 · Registrar: Thomas Chapman · SR District: Wandsworth & Clapham
Epsom Road, Wheatsheaf Lane, Balham Hill, Streatham Hill, Streatham Common, Mitcham Lane, Tooting Common
HO 107/1068/1–2 · Registrar: Whitfield Foster · SR District: Wandsworth & Clapham
Wimbledon Park (Earl Spencer’s deer park), Wimbledon Common, Church Lane, Ridgway, Newlands Farm
HO 107/1069/5 · Registrar: John Kelly · SR District: Kingston
Included as contextual material — the Spencer estate’s Wimbledon Park connects directly with the Common enclosure battles of the 1860s–70s.
Clapham Common, Clapham Old Town, Clapham Park
TNA piece reference to be confirmed · SR District: Wandsworth & Clapham
The south-west side of Clapham Common adjoins the research area and features in several Battersea EDs. The Wandsworth & Clapham Union Workhouse (East Hill), though in Wandsworth, fell within the Battersea Registrar’s District, suggesting administrative overlap between the two parishes.
Putney High Street, Putney Heath, Lower Common, East Putney, Roehampton
TNA piece reference to be confirmed · SR District: Kingston
Putney adjoins Wandsworth to the west and shares the same stretch of the Thames riverside. Putney Heath borders Wimbledon Common and is relevant to the wider story of south London open spaces. The ED descriptions have not yet been sourced or transcribed — noted here as a signpost for future researchers.
The 1841 census was taken on the night of Sunday 6 June 1841. It was administered through a network of Superintendent Registrar’s Districts, each divided into Registrar’s Districts and then into individual Enumeration Districts. Each enumerator walked his district in the days before census night, delivering blank household schedules; after census night he collected them and copied the entries into his enumeration book.
Unlike later Victorian censuses, the 1841 returns do not record relationships within households or precise birthplaces — only whether each person was born within the county of their current residence. Ages for adults were rounded down to the nearest five years. Nevertheless, the 1841 returns are a uniquely vivid snapshot of these parishes on the eve of the railway age and the great suburban expansion that followed.
The enumerators’ schedule descriptions transcribed here — the boundary definitions written before enumeration began — have not previously been transcribed or published. They constitute a primary source for the historical topography of this part of Surrey.
Transcriptions made June 2026. Original documents held by The National Archives, Kew (HO 107 series). © historyofwandsworthcommon.org