Morden

This article is about the area of London, for alternative meanings see Morden (disambiguation).

Morden
Administration
Borough:	Merton
County:	Greater London
Region:	Greater London
Nation:	England
Other
Ceremonial County:	Greater London
Traditional County:	Surrey
Postal County:	Surrey

Morden is a place in the London Borough of Merton. It is located approximately 10 miles South-southwest of central London between Merton Park (to the north), Mitcham (to the east), Sutton (to the south) and Worcester Park (to the west).

Origin of name

Morden gets its name either from the Saxon words "Mawr" (high) and Don (a hill), or possibly "The Den on the Moor".

A brief history of Morden

Early history

Human activity in Morden dates back to the prehistoric period when Celtic tribes are known to have occupied areas around Wimbledon, London, but the first significant development in Morden was the construction of the Roman road called Stane Street from Chichester to London.

The route of Stane Street through Morden followed the current A24, London Road up Stonecot Hill from the south west crossing Morden Park to the west of the current dual carriageway road and passing through the pitch and putt golf course and the grounds of St Lawrence's Church. The road then descended the other side of the hill towards the town centre passing west of the Underground station and crossing the north corner of Morden Hall Park heading in the direction of Colliers Wood and Tooting. Small Roman artefacts, mainly coins and pottery, have been found at various locations within the area although there is no evidence of any settlement.

Ethelstan the Etheling, son of Ethelred the Unready, left "land at Mordune" to the abbey of Christ and St. Peter in his will of 1015, which became the site of the first Saxon parish church of St Lawrence. Later in the 11th century Morden is mentioned in the Domesday Book when it belonged to Westminster Abbey and just 14 people lived in the area.

The Garth family

The manor and village remained abbey property until the dissolution of the monasteries in Henry VIII's reign when the manor was sold to Sir Richard Garth. The Garth family owned the land and maintained their connection with the parish for the next four centuries, living at Morden Hall Park until the 1870s.

The prominence of the Garth family is recorded locally in the name of Garth Road, Lower Morden and the former Garth School. The two lions included in the present civic arms of the London Borough of Merton are taken from the arms of Sir Richard.

19th Century

**Morden's Population**
19th Century		20th Century
1801	512	1901	960
1811	549	1911	1,202
1821	638	1921	1,355
1831	655	1931	12,618
1841	685	1941¹	war
1851	628	1951	35,417
1861	654	1961²	68,011
1871	787	1971²	62,872
1881	694	1981²	61,108
1891	763	1991³	n/a
no census was held due to war includes Merton census data no longer relates to parish boundaries
source: UK census

Despite the rapid suburban development of nearby Wimbledon occassioned by the arrival of the new railways constructed in the mid 19th century, Morden remained a rural parish throughout the 19th century. Whilst the population of Wimbledon grew hugely from 1,591 in 1801 to 41,652 in 1901, the population of Morden was 512 in 1801 and, one hundred years later, had grown to just 960.

The first Ordnance Survey map of the parish produced circa 1871 shows the small village of Morden clustered around St Lawrence’s church at the top of the hill on the road from London to Epsom (now the A24, London Road/Epsom Road). Approximately half a mile to the west of the main village and the grounds of Morden Park stood the hamlet of Lower Morden.

Close to the church were the George Inn (a 17th century coaching inn which remains, in a much modernised form, as part of a national pub restaurant chain) and the estate of Morden Park.

The other main public house in the village was the Crown Inn, located to the north east of the village, in the direction of Mitcham. In 1871, the Crown Inn stood with a small cluster of cottages on Crown Road. The site of the inn is now occupied by the fourteen-storey 1960s office block Crown House. The rest of what is now the commercial centre of Morden was fields.

In the late 19th century the principle industry remained agriculture, although some industrial activity did exist along the river Wandle where watermills ground tobacco to snuff and a varnish works existed close to present day Martin Way.

20th Century

The first two decades of the 20th century saw little change in the village with industry still mainly agricultural in nature. It was not until 1926 when Morden Underground station opened as the terminus of a new extension of the London Underground's Northern Line that the fast and direct route to central London opened up the village for suburban residential development.

To complement the new station, a garage was constructed on the other side of London Road, adjacent to the railway cutting and, in 1932, Morden Cinema was built next to it on the corner of Aberconway Road. Around the station a new commercial centre grew quickly as shops sprang up along London Road and Crown Lane, including a large Co-operative Society department store. The Co-op, cinema and garage were all demolished in the 1980s or 1990s.

Away from the new commercial centre of Morden, the fields were rapidly divided into building plots and laid out for new housing. In the next fifteen years most of the parish was covered in new suburban homes. Further transport improvements came with the construction of a new Southern Railway branch line from Wimbledon to Sutton via South Merton and Morden South which opened in January 1930. As a result of the new transport links the population of Morden experienced a sudden leap from 1,355 in 1921 to 12,618 in 1931.

One of the main residential developments in the 1930s was the St Helier estate, built by the London County Council to house workers from inner London and named in honour of Lady St Helier an alderman of the LCC. The estate was the largest local authority development in south London and has its road names arranged in alphabetical order, from the north-west corner (Abbotsbury Road) to the south-east corner (Woburn Road). Reflecting the previous ownership of the land by Westminster Abbey, all are named after religious establishments. Most of the St Helier estate now lies in the London Borough of Sutton.

Today

Little of the earlier rural character of Morden survived the suburban expansion, although the area has excellent provision of parks and playing fields, many of them created from remnants of the former country estates. It is, for the most part a pleasant popular suburb.

Local landmarks

St Lawrence Church, Morden

Morden Hall Park

Morden Park

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has built the largest mosque in Western Europe in Morden (in London Road on the site of the former Express Dairy depot), and it was opened in October 2003.

Nearest tube station:

Morden Underground station

Nearest railway stations and tramlink stops (in approximate order of proximity):

Nearest places:

External links

Map of the area on Mapquest.co.uk