Living in Colliers Wood: area guide to homes, schools and transport

This south-west London suburb on the Northern line has plenty of shops, well-rated local schools and quiet streets of Victorian and Edwardian terrace homes that appeal to first-timers and families forced out of pricier Tooting, Balham and Clapham.
Anthea Masey27 January 2017

The River Wandle was once the powerhouse of London and its fast-flowing waters drove more than 100 mills, producing everything from flour to animal feed to snuff. At the point where it runs through Colliers Wood at Merton Abbey Mills it became the manufacturing hub of the Arts and Crafts movement, producing stained glass, textiles, tapestries and carpets for William Morris and prints for Liberty.


The Wandle still rushes through Colliers Wood, although today this south-west London suburb is better known for its giant shopping centre - now shared by Sainsbury’s and M&S, but famous when it opened as SavaCentre in 1989 for being the largest hypermarket in the country - and for the giant tower block opposite the Tube station, once nominated as London’s ugliest building, which now sits stripped to its bare bones as it awaits conversion into flats.


The shopping centre was built on the site of the medieval Merton Priory founded in 1117. Thomas Beckett and Walter de Merton, the founder of Merton College, Oxford, were both educated there. In the 13th century the priory was a favourite with Henry III and became a place where laws were passed and taxes were collected until it was dissolved in 1538 by Henry VIII. The remains of the chapter house, which can still be seen, are open several times a year and a local trust has plans to build a visitors centre.


Today Colliers Wood has shopping at its heart. As well as those big branches of Sainsbury’s and M&S, there are two edge-of-town-style shopping centres with large units that are fronted by car parks and house branches of high street chains, including eateries and cafes.


If Colliers Wood’s shopping scene is dominated by the car, the inhabitants of its quiet streets of mainly modest terrace houses are reliant on the Northern line for their daily commute and, unlike further up the line in more desirable Clapham and Balham, there is normally a seat to be found in the morning rush hour.


What there is to buy in Colliers Wood
“Collywood” as its residents affectionately call it has a combination of modest Victorian, Edwardian and later terrace houses, some of which have been converted into flats. There are pretty flat-fronted Victorian cottages on Wandle Bank overlooking the river, with modern flats to be found in Lyon Way and close to the northern edge of Wandle Park. Estate agent Noel Lawrence, of the local branch of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, says three-bedroom terrace houses sell for between £550,000 and £750,000, with one-bedroom modern flats from £350,000 to £450,00 and two-bedroom flats for between £375,000 and £550,000.

Travel
Colliers Wood Tube station is on the Northern line with trains to the City and West End. Haydons Road train station has half-hour trains to Waterloo with a change at Wimbledon, and Thameslink trains to St Pancras taking around 45 minutes with stops at Blackfriars, City Thameslink and Farringdon. Both stations are in Zone 3 and an annual travelcard costs £1,520.


The area attracts

first-time buyers in the 30 to 40 age bracket who have been pushed down the Northern line from more expensive areas further up the line such as Clapham, Balham and now Tooting.

What there is to rent in Colliers Wood
Rental manager Ashley Napier, also from the local KFH branch, says most renters in Colliers Wood are either young couples or sharers. Modern-one bedroom flats start at around £1,400 a month and two-bedroom flats from around £1,600 a month, or £1,800 with two bathrooms. Sharers expect to pay from £2,200 upwards for a three-bedroom house.

Postcode

Colliers Wood is in the SW19 Wimbledon postcode which covers a large area containing the whole of Wimbledon, Merton Park and Southfields. It strays into CR4, the Mitcham postcode, on its southern boundary.


Best roads

Those closest to Tooting, such as Norfolk Road, Park Road and Wilton Road.


Up and coming
Noel Lawrence tips Runnymede and Liberty Avenue off Christchurch Road opposite the Tandem Centre, where there are underappreciated Thirties semi-detached houses that would benefit from having their period features reinstated. Flats in these two roads sold last year for between £250,000 and £325,000 and one house went for £485,000.

Staying power: Noel Lawrence says buyers are now “future proofing” what they buy by looking for potential to extend into a loft or doing a side return. “It means people are now staying longer in places like Colliers Wood. There is also a very popular primary school, Singlegate, which gets an “outstanding” rating from Ofsted.”

What’s new
The infamous Colliers Wood tower voted London’s ugliest building in a BBC poll in 2006, and which many local people hoped would be demolished, is finally being converted into homes and shops by developer Criterion Capital, which has owned the building since 2000. Variously known as the Lyon Tower, after the flamboyant property developer Ronnie Lyon, and the Brown & Root Tower, after its occupier between 1971 and 1995, this grim 17-storey block has planning permission for 177 flats with another 68 in a new block between the tower itself and the Underground station. There will be shops on the ground floor. Criterion Capital is expected to apply for a further new-build block to the south of the tower. The flats will be for market rent, and will be available by the end of the year.

In the High Street, Colliers Wood is to get a new library in Cavendish House where developer Rocco Homes is building 60 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats of which six will be for shared ownership. The development is scheduled for completion in summer next year.

Other schemes in the pipeline include a mixed-used development in Christchurch Road for 54 flats and ground-floor shops; a development of 16 houses and 32 flats by housing association L&Q in Western Road on a former scrapyard site, and a proposed mixed commercial and residential development in East Road.


The only development currently for sale is Barton Mews (call KFH New Homes on 020 3792 6838), a gated development off Effra Road of seven three- and four-bedroom mews houses with prices ranging from £875,000 to £1,375,000.

Council

Merton council is Labour-controlled and Band D council tax is currently £1,397.25.

Images: Daniel Lynch

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants

Colliers Wood is dominated by shopping with large branches of Sainsbury’s and M&S under one roof and two retail parks - Priory Retail Park and the Tandem Centre - with branches of Currys, PC World, Next, Clarks, TK Maxx, Argos, Sports Direct, Boots and chain coffee shops and restaurants Starbucks, Nando’s, Frankie & Benny’s and Burger King. Corleone is a pizza and pasta restaurant; Istanbul Meze Mangal serves Turkish food, and the Charles Holden is a popular local pub serving standard pub fare, all in the High Street.

There are shops, cafes and restaurants and a weekend crafts market at the historic Merton Abbey Mills complex but this is far from the vibrant place it was 10 years ago and is becoming very run down, although Japanese restaurant Rock Star Sushi Bar gets rave reviews.

In the High Street, Coffee in the Wood is the local independent coffee shop and Burge & Gunson describes itself as “London’s largest independent bathroom specialist”.

Open space
The River Wandle runs through Wandle Park and the Wandle Meadow Nature Park. The Recreation Ground has a paddling pool, children’s playground, tennis courts and flower garden, while Lavender Park has a multi-sports pitch and a toddlers’ play area. The Wandle also runs through nearby National Trust-owned Morden Hall Park which has a garden centre, café, shop, second-hand bookshop and craft workshops.

The Wandle Trail is a 12-mile walking and cycling trail along the Wandle from the Thames at Wandsworth to Carshalton in the Surrey suburbs.

Popular Deen City Farm in Windsor Avenue keeps cows, chickens, ducks, goats, rabbits, ferrets, an alpaca and a barn owl. It also offers a community food growing project and a riding school.


Leisure and the arts
The Colour House Theatre at Merton Abbey Mills puts on a pantomime, children’s shows, comedy and music events and hosts the AbbeyFest, covering an annual two-month summer entertainment programme.

The nearest council swimming pool is at Wimbledon Leisure Centre in Latimer Road. There are also swimming pools at Virgin Active’s two local branches in North Road and Watermill Way.

Three things about Colliers Wood
What connects roads in Colliers Wood with a strange menage à trois?
In 1801 Britain’s greatest naval hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, bought Merton Place, a house on what is now the south side of Merton High Street, for £9,000 for his mistress, Emma Hamilton. When he was not at sea, Nelson lived there with Emma and her much-older husband Sir William Hamilton. Nelson referred to the house as “dear, dear Merton” and Emma called it “Paradise Merton”. Nelson departed from the house for the Battle of Trafalgar where he died in 1805. Afterwards Emma Hamilton ran into financial difficulties and tried to sell the house; it was eventually demolished in 1823. On the north side off Merton High Street, Trafalgar Road, Hardy Road, Nelson Road, and Hamilton Road commemorate the connection.

Why was Colliers Wood once known as Singlegate, a name which lives on in the name of a local primary school?
Colliers Wood sits on the A24, the former Stane Street, an ancient Roman road. There was a toll booth – hence the name Singlegate - at the point where the road crossed the River Wandle.


Where in the area is one of London’s newest hydroelectric plants?
The National Trust has installed an Archimedes’ screw hydroelectric turbine on the River Wandle in Morden Hall Park, a short distance south of Colliers Wood. It generates enough electricity to power 18 houses and lights the park’s café and shop. This kind of turbine works on a short fall of water.

Schools

Primary

Singlegate in South Gardens, the most popular local state primary school, gets an “outstanding” rating from Ofsted. Rated “good” are: All Saints CofE in East Road; Garfield in Garfield Road; Merton Abbey in High Path; and where Colliers Wood merges with Mitcham there are Haslemere in Brooklands Court; The Priory CofE in Queen’s Road and Bond Primary School in Bond Road.

Secondary
There are no state secondary schools in Colliers Wood; the nearest is the very popular Graveney (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Welham Road in Tooting which gets an “outstanding” rating from Ofsted. Other nearby state secondary schools that get above-average results at GCSE are: Ricards Lodge High (girls, 11 to 18) in Lake Road, Wimbledon; St Mark’s CofE (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Acacia Road, Mitcham; Rutlish (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Watery Lane, Merton; Burntwood (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Burntwood Lane, Wandsworth; Wimbledon College (boys, ages 11 to 18) in Edge Hill, Wimbledon and Ursuline High School RC (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Crescent Road, also in Wimbledon.

Private

The two top nearest private schools are both in Wimbledon; they are Wimbledon High (girls, ages four to 18) in Mansel Road and King’s College School (boys, ages 11 to 18 with girls in the sixth form) in Southside Common.