Borough in London, England
Merton
Lord Nelson's love nest, the Wombles' home turf and the world's most famous grass tennis courts all sit in one south-west London borough.
Key information
- County
- Greater London
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 215,000, 2021 Census
- Known for
- Wimbledon tennis, Wimbledon Common and the Wombles, Nelson's Merton Place, Mitcham lavender
- Famous people
- Horatio Nelson, Emma Hamilton, William Wilberforce, Walter de Merton
- Football clubs
- AFC Wimbledon
About Merton
Nelson's secret country retreat
In 1801 Horatio Nelson bought a country house called Merton Place, on the Surrey fields south of London. He shared it with Emma Hamilton, and their daughter Horatia lived there. It was the closest thing Nelson had to a family home. He left for Trafalgar from here in 1805 and never came back. Merton Place was demolished in 1821, and the land was built over. Nelson Road, the Nelson Health Centre (which replaced the old Nelson Hospital and opened in 2015) and other local names are what remain of the story. So Merton's name was already famous before the modern borough took it.
The priory that gave Oxford a college name
Long before Nelson, Merton was a religious powerhouse. Merton Priory was founded in 1114, and in 1236 barons and bishops met there to agree the Statute of Merton, one of the earliest pieces of English statute law. Its best-known clause refused to change English law to match that of the Church. Thomas Becket is said to have been educated there. Walter de Merton, a royal chancellor and later Bishop of Rochester, gave his name to Merton College, Oxford, in 1264. The priory was dissolved under Henry VIII and its stones were reused, some of them reportedly at Nonsuch Palace. Its chapter house foundations were first excavated in 1921, and after later excavations they were preserved beneath Merantun Way when the road was built.
Strawberries, whites and SW19
Wimbledon is the part of the borough the world knows. The Championships began in 1877 and moved to the current Church Road site in 1922. Grass courts, strict all-white clothing and strawberries and cream are the traditions that define the fortnight. Outside the tournament, Wimbledon Village is a prosperous high street with a pub-lined edge on the Common. The area has its own quiet rhythm for fifty weeks of the year. It also has a football story. Wimbledon FC won the FA Cup in 1988, beating Liverpool. After the FA approved the club's relocation to Milton Keynes, supporters formed AFC Wimbledon in June 2002. The move itself came in September 2003. AFC Wimbledon now plays at Plough Lane, back in the borough where it began.
Why the Wombles live on the Common
Wimbledon Common is where Elisabeth Beresford's Wombles live. They pick up litter and recycle anything they find, which makes them local environmental heroes. The books first appeared in 1968 and the TV series turned Great Uncle Bulgaria and Orinoco into household names. The Common also has a windmill, built in 1817. Robert Baden-Powell wrote part of Scouting for Boys there in 1908, so a corner of this south-west London Common is a Scouting landmark. William Wilberforce, the anti-slavery campaigner, also lived in Wimbledon.
Lavender, cricket and a Tube terminus in Mitcham and Morden
Mitcham was once the centre of English lavender growing. Its fields supplied perfumers and apothecaries, and the scent of Mitcham lavender oil was famous across Britain. The fields are long gone, but the heritage survives in names and community gardens. Mitcham Cricket Green is among the oldest cricket grounds in the country, with a claim to play going back to the late 1600s. Mitcham Fair is held in the area every August. Morden is the southern end of the Northern line. Beside it is Morden Hall Park, a former snuff-milling estate with a river and a water wheel that is now a National Trust park.
William Morris's workshop on the Wandle
The River Wandle powered mills all along the borough's edge. At Merton Abbey, William Morris set up his works in 1881, where he printed fabrics, dyed cloth and wove tapestries. Liberty fabrics were also printed nearby. His designs still hang in galleries and houses around the world. The old mill site is now a market and craft area on the river, a reminder that this part of London was an industrial valley as well as a leafy suburb. Of Merton's many stories, the Wandle is the one that links them all: monks, mills and Morris all used the same river.