The origins of the name Balham can be traced back to a mention as a point on the boundaries of the Battersea-Wandsworth in the year 957.
Du Cane Court Photo © Photographer Colin Jenkins
Until the 18th Century Balham was a small village accompanied by mansions and villas belonging to wealthy merchants. A ribbon of development stretched from Clapham down Balham Hill from the 1870s. St Marys Church dates from 1808 although it only became an independent parish in 1855. The area changed rapidly once the railway arrived in the 1850s with large houses continuing south along the high road.
The 1890s saw the development of the Heaver estate and Bedford Hill although Tooting Bec common had been bought by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1879 to preserve it from spreading development. Trams arrived in 1903 and the Northern Line extension from Clapham Common to Morden opened in 1926. In the 1930’s the building of the Art Deco Du Cane Court marked a high point in genteel serviced accommodation.
