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Streatham, with Balham
from Brayley’s Topographical History of Surrey

Edward Wedlake Brayley, A Topographical History of Surrey, vol. III (London: G. Willis, 1850), Brixton Hundred, pp. 427–436.

Transcribed in full, keeping Brayley’s spelling, capitals and punctuation, and checked line by line against the printed pages. The original page numbers are shown in grey, like this: [428]. Brayley’s footnotes are numbered as in the book and collected at the end; passages he set in small type are shown slightly smaller. This volume was issued in 1850, but the text was written in the 1840s and brought up to about July 1847, so “the present vicar” and the like mean then, not now.

[427] It is probable that this parish obtained its name, (as Manning supposes), from it situation on the line of the Roman road called Stane-street; Streat-ham signifying the home or dwelling on the road. There are no traces of the road observable at present; but there is reason to believe that it passed by Old Croydon, on the west side of Broad-Green, and by Thornhill-Hatch and the manor-house, whence it extended to Newington, and there joined the Watling street from the coast of Kent. In the Domesday book, the name of this place is written Estreham; but in subsequent records, Stretham; and more recently, Streatham. It borders, northward, on Wandsworth, Battersea, and Clapham; on the east, on Lambeth; on the south, on Croydon and Mitcham; and on the west, on Tooting and Wandsworth. The soil consists partly of clay, and partly of gravel, but chiefly the latter. A saline mineral spring was discovered in a field in this parish, in 1660; and Lysons says, it was much used as a cathartic medicine towards the close of the last century.¹

No less than four manors called Estreham (Streatham) are noticed in the Domesday survey, besides the manors of Totinges (Tooting Bec), and Belgeham (Balham), both which are in this parish; but the Estrehams in the hundreds of Walton and Kingston were, apparently, not connected with the manor now under description: the details are as follow:—

“In Brixistan Hundred, Ansgot holds Estreham of the Bishop of Baieux. In the time of King Edward it was held by Edwin, who could remove where he pleased. It [428] was then assessed at 1 hide, as at present. There is 1 carucate of arable land; and there are two villains. It is, and was, valued at 25s.”

“In Walton Hundred, the Earl of Mortaign held Estreham. In the time of King Edward, it was assessed at 5 hides; now, at nothing. Harold then held one hide and a half; and the Canons of Waltham, one hide and a half. Three socmen held 2 hides, and they could transfer the land as they pleased. The arable land comprises 2 carucates. There are three villains, and three bordars, with two carucates and a half. In the time of King Edward, it was valued at 30s.; and afterwards, at 15s.; now, at 43s.”

“In Kingston Hundred, Haimo the Sheriff holds Estreham of the Abbot of Chertsey. Ulward held it in the time of King Edward; and could remove where he pleased. Then it was assessed at 1 hide. There is 1 carucate of arable land: and there are two bordars. It is, and was, valued at 20s.”

“In Brixistan Hundred, the Abbot of St. Mary de Bec holds, by gift of Richard de Tonbridge, Totinges, which Estarchar held of King Edward. It was then assessed at 11 hides: now, at 1 hide. The arable land amounts to 4 carucates. Two carucates are in demesne: and there are five villains, and four bordars, with 3 carucates. There are ten acres of meadow. It was valued, in the time of King Edward, at 100s.; and the same at present; but when received, at 20s.”

“The Abbot also holds of Richard, Estreham, which Erding held of King Edward. It was then assessed at 5 hides: now, at 1 hide. There are 3 carucates of arable land, and 1 carucate is in demesne; and there are four villains, and five bordars, with 2 carucates. There is a chapel, which yields 8s. There are 4 acres of meadow; a wood furnishing ten hogs; and for herbage, one hog out of ten. In the time of King Edward, it was valued at 50s.; and afterwards, and at present, at 60s.

“In Brixistan Hundred, Goisfrid Orlateile holds Belgeham, without any grant from the King, and without warrant. Anschil held it of Earl Harold. It was then assessed at 5 hides; now, at nothing. The arable land amounts to 2 carucates. One is in demesne; and there are one villain, and one bordar, with half a carucate. There is one bondman; and 8 acres of meadow. In the time of King Edward, it was valued at 6 pounds; afterwards, at 20s.; and now, at 40s.”

The Manor of Tooting-Bec, or Tooting-Beck.—The manors of Totinges and Estreham, mentioned as having been held by the abbot of Bec, in Normandy, appear to have been afterwards consolidated, forming the present manor of Tooting-Beck. Though the two estates were not originally held on the same terms, yet the monastic brethren obtained permanent possession of both, while the descendants of Richard de Tonbridge retained the superiority, at least until the reign of Edward the Third. From the Escheats of the 8th of Edward the Second, it appears that the prior of Okebourn, in Wiltshire, which was an alien cell belonging to the abbey of Bec, held the manors of Tooting-Beck and Streatham, by the service of one knight’s fee, of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, who fell at the battle of Bannockburn. On the final seizure and suppression of alien priories, when Henry the Fifth declared war against France, in the second year of his reign, this manor became vested in the crown.

The king granted Tooting-Beck to his brother, John Plantagenet, duke of Bedford, who held it until his death, September 14th, 1435; and as he had no children, this estate descended to his nephew, king [429] Henry the Sixth, who granted it to John Ardern, for the term of ten years, at an annual rent of 19l. In 1441, the king founded Eton college, and he assigned this manor towards the endowment of that institution; but after his dethronement in 1460, his successor, Edward the Fourth, resumed several of the grants to that college; and he assigned to Lawrence, bishop of Durham, for his life, the priory or manor of Totyngbeke, parcel of the priory of Okebourn, with the advowson of the church of Streatham.² This estate reverted to the king, probably in exchange for other lands; and in the 5th year of his reign, he settled it on John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, master, and Sir John Scott and others, wardens of St. Mary’s guild, in the church of Allhallows, Barking, near the Tower, for the support of priests, to pray for the soul of king Edward the Fourth and others, and for the reparation of St. Mary’s chapel in that church. Guilds and chantries having been suppressed in the reign of Edward the Sixth, this manor and the advowson, in 1553, were bought by John Dudley, earl of Warwick, at twenty-two years’ purchase. It afterwards belonged to the family of Pakenham; and in 1599, the estate was sold by Henry Pakenham, esq., to Sir Giles Howland, knt. His descendant, John Howland, esq., died seised of the manor and advowson in 1686, leaving an only daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, who in 1695 was married to Wriothesley, marquis of Tavistock, afterwards duke of Bedford. From him this property descended to Francis, 5th duke of Bedford, who died unmarried in March, 1802. That nobleman, about the year 1790, conveyed the manor-house and grounds to his brother, the late unfortunate Lord William Russell (who was murdered by his valet), when he first became a candidate to represent this county. All the remaining part of the Bedford property in Streatham, except the advowson of the church, has been since disposed of. The manor of Tooting-Beck, with all its rights, privileges, hereditaments, &c., was sold by John, 6th duke of Bedford, in June 1816, to the late Richardson Borradaile, esq., and the late Maxamilian Richard Kymer, esq.; and it is now held in equal moieties by Mrs. Kymer, and Robert Hudson, esq., of Clapham-common, who derived his interest in the manor by purchase from the representatives of Mr. Borradaile, in 1843.

The manor-house,³ which stood at the corner of Streatham common, on the Croydon road, is supposed to have been built by Sir Giles Howland, whose arms (viz. Arg. two bars, Sab. in chief three lions rampant, of the second), and those of his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John [430] Rivers, (Az. on a fess engr. Arg. thereon a fess charged with three roses, betw. as many swans ppr. naiant), were upon the gate-house turrets. After being sometime occupied by Lord Wm. Russell, the estate was sold to Lord Deerhurst (afterwards 7th earl of Coventry), who pulled down the old mansion, and fitted up a villa for his own residence out of the green-house and some of the offices. It is now the property and in the occupation of John Grey, esq., who bought it of the representatives of the late countess of Coventry. That lady died in January, 1840: she was the 2nd daughter and co-heir of the late Sir Abraham Pitches, knt., of Streatham; whose mansion is now the residence of Matthias Attwood, esq., M.P. for Whitehaven. After the sale to Lord Deerhurst, another house at Streatham, which had been fitted up by David Macnamara, esq. (the duke’s auditor), who died in 1800, was purchased by the duke of Bedford for his brother, Lord William Russell. This is now in the possession of John Bradbury, esq.

The Manor of Leigham’s-Court.—This manor appears to have been granted by Ela, the wife of Jordan de Sackville, to the prior and convent of Bermondsey, about 1152; and in the 30th of Edward the First, 1302, a writ was issued to inquire whether a lease of two carucates of land here to Thomas Romeyn and Julian his wife, would interfere with the rights of the crown; and the return was, that such a lease would not be to the disadvantage of the king, because the monks held the land in frank-almoigne, and that the value was five marks a year. After the suppression of the monastery, Henry the Eighth, in the 36th of his reign, granted this manor to Henry Dowes, clerk, who seems to have alienated Leigham’s Wood, in Streatham, which in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth came into the possession of John Bowyer. In 1560, the 2nd of Elizabeth, William Dowes, vicar of Allhallows, Barking, London, conveyed this manor to John Southcott, esq., afterwards a Justice of the Common-pleas; whose son and heir, John Southcott, esq., of Bulmer, in Essex, alienated it to Sir Matthew Carew, knt., LL.D., a master in Chancery; and in 1610, it was transferred in the same manner to John Howland, esq., of Streatham, who died seised of it in 1621; and from whose family it was conveyed by the marriage of an heiress to that of Roberts. In 1752, George, duke of St. Albans, married Jane, the sole heir of Sir Walter Roberts, and thus became owner of this estate. On the decease of the duchess without issue, in December, 1778, the duke, with the concurrence of his grand-nephew and heir-apparent, George Beauclerk, esq., made a settlement of this property on themselves for their joint-lives, with remainder to the latter, in fee. In 1785 they sold Brockwell-green farm, in Streatham, to Edward, lord [431] Thurlow, the then lord-chancellor; and in 1789, the manor was bought by the same nobleman.⁴

Lord Thurlow erected a spacious mansion at Knight’s-hill, which is a detached part of the parish within the manor of Lambeth, and bounded by Lambeth and Camberwell. He died on September 12th, 1806; having devised a part of his estates to trustees, for sale. Attempts were made to dispose of the Leigham estate by auction, and afterwards by private contract; but no offers having been made acceptable to the trustees, an act of parliament was obtained in 1809, to enable them to sell portions of the land for buildings; to dispose, also, of the manorial right in the copyhold tenements, &c., and make other arrangements with a view to render the property more compact, and increase its relative value. Since that time, the mansion-house has been pulled down, and the many buildings erected here now form a distinct hamlet. The manor of Leigham-court was purchased from Lord Thurlow’s devisees in 1836, by Beriah Drew, esq., of Streatham, together with two hundred and thirty-three acres of land; and that gentleman, in 1839, was at the expense of making the new road, called Leigham-court road, through this estate. Another part of Lord Thurlow’s property was bought by John Geo. Fuller, esq., who has erected thereon an elegant villa.

Advowson, &c.—This benefice is a rectory in the deanery of Southwark. In the Valor of Edward the First, it was rated at 6 marks and 40d. (4l. 3s. 4d.); paying a pension of 20s. to the prior of Okebourn. In the King’s books, it is valued at 18l. 13s. 9d. yearly; paying 7s. 7½d. for synodals, and 2s. 7½d. for procurations. The duke of Bedford holds the advowson. The Registers commence with the year 1538; and have been generally well kept. Under the date April 19, 1545, the burial is entered of “Richard Adams, the Hermit”; and there is still a place in this parish called Hermitage-bridge, crossing a small stream. The marriage of Wriothesley, marquis of Tavistock, to Elizabeth, the heiress of the Howland family, in the chapel at Streatham-[manor] house, “in the presence of the grandfathers and grandmothers, and other nobility,” on May 23rd, 1695, is also registered. Another entry records the birth on Sept. 30th, 1710, and baptism on the 20th of the following month, of their third son, John, who became 4th duke of Bedford, and was celebrated for his abilities as a states- [432] man. He was sent as ambassador plenipotentiary to the court of France, in 1762, where he negociated the treaty of the Peace which was ratified in the ensuing year.⁵

Rectors of Streatham in and since the year 1800:—

Richard Bullock, D.D. Instituted in 1784: died in 1809.
Herbert Hill, A.M. Instituted January 17th, 1810: died in October, 1828.
John Wing, A.M. Instituted March 25th, 1829: resigned in the same year.
Lord Wriothesley Russell, A.M. Instituted in 1830: resigned in 1835.
Henry Blunt, A.M. Instituted May 12th, 1835: died July 20th, 1843.
J. R. Nicholl, A.M., chaplain to the Bishop of St. David’s. Instituted in 1843.⁶

There are two Churches in Streatham parish, viz., St. Leonard’s, which stands on elevated ground near the middle of the village, and Christ-church, a recent building near the upper part of Brixton-hill. St. Leonard’s, which, possibly, may occupy the site of the ancient chapel noticed in the Domesday book, is supposed to have been rebuilt in the fourteenth century; and it was again rebuilt in the year 1831, with the exception of its tower and shingled spire. The latter was consumed by fire early in the morning of Sunday, the 3rd of January, 1841, occasioned by its being struck by lightning during a terrific thunder-storm.⁷ Shortly after, the tower was repaired and heightened, and crowned by an octagonal spire of brick, stuccoed. The whole building is in the pointed style, and has a light and elegant appearance, both from the character of its architecture, and its commanding situation. The interior consists of a nave, north and south aisles, and a chancel; the latter terminates in a semi-hexagon, having a decorated window of four lights in each face. The pulpit, which is of oak, and finely carved, belonged to the former church. In the western gallery is a good organ, by Bishop.

Among the sepulchral memorials here which were removed from [433] the old church, is a greatly-mutilated figure of a Knight in mail and plaited armour, under a pointed-arched canopy: this is supposed to have been wrought in the fourteenth century; but for whom intended is unknown.—Near the east end are two marble tablets, with inscriptions, in elegant Latin, written by Dr. Johnson, recording the memory and virtues of Hester-Maria Salusbury, daughter of Sir Thos. Cotton, bart., of Combermere, and mother of Mrs. Thrale (afterwards Mrs. Piozzi), and Henry Thrale, esq., of Streatham-park. Mrs. Salusbury died in 1773, aged sixty-six years; and Mr. Thrale in 1781, at the age of fifty-three. Among those of more recent date is a monument of white marble, by Flaxman, commemorative of Mrs. H. M. Hoare, the third daughter of Mr. Thrale, who died in 1824. It represents an expiring female attended by an angel, and several mourning figures, beautifully executed.—In the church-yard is a large square mass of masonry, with a cross of gray marble laid upon the top, covering the burial vault of Alex. Edw. Murray, 6th earl of Dunmore, who died on the 15th of July, 1845, aged forty-one years.

Christ-church was built in 1841; and consecrated by the bishop of Winchester, on November the 19th in that year. The expense of its erection, about 8000l., was chiefly defrayed by the voluntary subscriptions of the parishioners, aided by a grant of 1,300l. from the Church commissioners. It is of a peculiar character, both in design and construction, and more impressive from singularity than beauty. Its style has been called the Byzantine, or Eastern-Romanesque; yet some of its features indicate the transition from the Norman into Early-English; whilst the lofty bell-tower attached to the south-eastern extremity reminds the antiquary of the far-famed campanile of St. Mark’s church, at Venice. In the western façade are three deeply-recessed arched entrances, slightly pointed; the central doorway opening to the vestibule and nave, and the lateral ones leading to the galleries. Over the middle recess, in the intermediate space between that and the gable of the roof, which is crowned by a gilt cross, is a circular window ornamented with tracery, composed of intersecting triangles, surrounded by a radiated border, and involving the cipher J.H.S. This border, as well as the headings of the arched entrances, &c., is formed by thin red bricks, and thus from their contrast with the warm stone-colour bricks of which the church is constructed, imparting a polychrome character to this front. The upper portion of the tower is similarly wrought; and its pyramidical spire-like termination exhibits a kind of inlaid surface of a chevron pattern. This campanile is 15 feet square, and 113 feet in its entire height: it is surmounted by [434] a vane. The interior of the church forms a parallelogram of 85 feet 6 inches long by 57 feet wide; but the length is further extended, eastward, by a semi-circular absis eleven feet in depth, which is crowned by a semi-dome, and lit by nine narrow windows. In the three central of these is the Transfiguration of our Saviour, in richly-stained glass, by Willement, the gift of J. G. Fuller, esq.—This church was designed by James W. Wild, esq., and built under his superintendence. The Rev. Wodehouse Raven, A.M., was appointed minister in 1841; and his stipend of 646l. 15s. arises from the pew-rents.

Besides the above churches, in Streatham are two other places of worship, viz., a Wesleyan chapel, and a chapel for Independents.

The Village of Streatham is formed by an almost continuous range of villas and other respectable dwellings, extending from Brixton-hill, on each side of the road, towards Mitcham and Croydon, for nearly a mile and a half in length. Many detached villas and mansions have also been built in different parts of the parish. The inhabitants are supplied with water from the reservoir of the Lambeth Water company on Brixton-hill. The South-metropolitan Gas company have recently brought their mains into Streatham village; and the Phœnix Gas company, into the hamlet of Upper Tooting in this parish.

The daughters of the late Mr. Thrale erected four Almshouses in Streatham for the use of poor widows; and there is an endowment for keeping them in repair. Various charitable donations, but not of considerable amount, have been given at different times for the distressed; of which 240l. in the navy 5 per cents. was bequeathed by John Richard Ripley, esq., in 1819, for the relief of six poor men and women, not receiving parochial alms. Near the extremity of the village, on the Mitcham road, are the National Schools, a neat structure in the Elizabethan style, which has been lately built for the instruction of about one hundred children of either sex, on a plot of ground given by Mrs. Kymer. There are other Schools at Brixton-hill and Tooting.—The number of acres in this parish is 2770; of which, about 720 are arable, 1560 meadow, 240 commons and roads, and 250 houses, gardens, &c.

On the southern verge of the small common between Streatham and Tooting, is Streatham Park, as now called, which was the seat of Henry Thrale, esq. (an affluent brewer, of Southwark), the intelligent and amiable friend of Dr. Johnson, who during fifteen years was his almost constant guest. Mrs. Thrale was highly distinguished for her conversational and literary talents. She was married, secondly, to Gabriel Piozzi, esq., an Italian musician, by whom the villa and surrounding grounds were considerably improved. After the decease of [435] Mrs. Piozzi in 1821, this estate was sold to a family of the name of Phillips; and it is now occupied by their tenant, Wm. Tarte, esq.

The Manor of Balham.—This manor, anciently called Belgeham, and Balgham, is now included in the parish of Streatham, although it is noticed in the Domesday book as if connected with Clapham. It then belonged to Geoffrey de Orlateile, who is stated to have held it without warrant from the king. The cultivation of the land had, probably, been neglected after the Conquest, as the manor was valued at 6l. in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and afterwards at 20s. only; but when in Orlateile’s possession its worth is said to have been 2l. Nigel de Mandevile (a younger son of Goisfrid de Manneville, who held Clapham at the time of the survey), gave two hides of land in Balgham to the Cluniac monks of Bermondsey, in 1103. In the reign of Stephen this manor appears to have belonged to Pharamus de Bolonia, lord of Clapham; whose daughter and heiress, Sibil de Tingria, confirmed a grant of one hide of land in Balgham, belonging to the manor of Clapham, made by one of her ancestors to the abbey of Bec, in Normandy.⁸

In 1542, 33rd of Henry the Eighth, John Simondes obtained a crown lease for twenty-one years, of lands, meadows, and pastures, called Balams, in the parishes of Streatham and Clapham; and from the Patent-rolls of the 2nd and 3rd of Philip and Mary, it appears that Balham, with other estates, was granted for life to Ann Seymour, duchess of Somerset, widow of the Protector Somerset, executed in the preceding reign. In 1587 or 1588, Queen Elizabeth granted “the farm of Balams, in Streatham,” to Edward Williams, on lease; and in the 16th of Charles the First, Wm. Smith died seised of a messuage so called, which he had lately purchased of Nathaniel Bostock. At the commencement of the last century this manor came into the possession of the Du Cane family; to whom it still belongs.

At Balham-hill, on the Tooting road, now an important suburban hamlet in this parish, a proprietary Chapel-of-ease was erected in 1807, and first opened in 1809. The patronage is vested in trustees; but the ministers nominated are subject to the approbation of the rector of Streatham. The present curate, who was licensed in 1829, is the Rev. W. H. Mogridge, A.M.—In this neighbourhood are numerous villas and other handsome residences, which are chiefly occupied by opulent merchants and gentlemen connected with the commercial interests of London.

The mansion and estate called Bedford-hill has been recently purchased and is now occupied by William Cubitt, esq., the candidate [436] for the representation of Andover, Hants, and sheriff-elect for the city of London. In 1802, this property was conveyed, under the designation of Cowy’s or Charrington’s farm, and then consisting of nearly 166 acres of land, with appurtenances, was conveyed by the Bedford family to Thomas Graham and James Graham, esqrs., partly in trust; and it was eventually transferred to the late Richardson Borradaile, esq., who erected the present house, with suitable offices, &c. In 1843, the devisees of that gentleman finally conveyed the estate to Robert Hudson, esq., of Clapham; by whom, shortly afterwards, it was sold to Mr. Cubitt. The grounds are extremely pleasant; and the conservatory is one of the best in Surrey.—Most of the land in this neighbourhood is in a state of rapid transition from agricultural to building purposes.⁹

Transcribed by Philip Boys, with Claude, October 2026. Build 1.