The Sutton loop: Tooting and Sutton

This is another blogpost about the Sutton loop.

The Sutton loop has fifteen stations, and I've slowly been working my way through blogging about all of them. However, I still have arguably six left. Over the past few weeks, I've been visiting them and taking photos, with the sole intent of getting them over and done with.  

I've decided to split the remaining two posts into the westward and eastward chunks. Today, I'm focusing on:

• Tooting 
• Sutton Common
• Sutton 

And tomorrow, it will be the turn of: 

• Mitcham Eastfields
• Mitcham Junction
• Hackbridge

Hope you enjoy these posts!

Tooting

I quite like Tooting, although the area around the station isn't the most notable historically. Down near Tooting Broadway or Bec, you'll find the blossoming seeds of gentrification - here, it's mainly residential, with the high street consisting of a Lidl as its apex. 

 

Tooting station has been here since 1894, initially named Tooting Junction but became simply Tooting in 1938, although there was an even older Tooting Junction station here which existed from 1868 to 1894. The former station is site of the aforementioned Lidl. 

Tooting station gets 747,000 passengers annually, whereas Broadway gets 12 million and Bec gets 6 million. As such, it's probably easy to claim that Tooting doesn't need three stations, especially as the one named directly after the place is by far the least popular. Yet for Sutton loop standards, I think it's respectable. Besides, Tooting's location isn't really the greatest, hemmed in by housing and not even having a footbridge until earlier this year. It does have ticket barriers, though, which are commonly a rarity on the loop.

    

In terms of what there is to see, I was actually going to blog about Tooting almost two years ago, and these photos date back to that dreary December time. There's the River Graveney here, a small stream which becomes the Norbury Brook (and which I've blogged about before), and which merges into the Wandle nearer Haydons Road. It's not the most impressive necessarily, blocked off by fences here and there, but it's nice to consider Tooting has a subtle idyllic river carving it.

     

As a callback to the St Helier post, Tooting is one of five Sutton loop stations which doubles as a bus terminus. The other ones are Streatham, Sutton, and Wimbledon, along with St Helier. 

I can't say much more about Tooting - all the interesting stuff is found closer to Broadway, which I blogged about a while ago -  yet there is the old police station, currently being converted into high-rise flats, of course, as well as Amen Corner. There is a more famous Amen Corner in central London, and the history of the Tooting Amen Corner - a small road bending off the A217 - is debated.

I like the idea of the beating of the bounds being the reason for its name. Here, boundary posts, which marked the borders of individual parishes, would be beaten every seven years to reaffirm their meaning and the land they marked out. Supposedly in Tooting, the parish members who carried out this ritual would end it by saying a prayer, and loudly announcing "Amen!" afterwards. And it can't be a coincidence that Wandsworth and Merton happen to border each other around here, can it? 

Sutton Common

Occasionally in these posts, I have mentioned the strange naming of the stations: 

The station name is somewhat unusual as it's not the only station in Merton, and it's not even that southerly compared to the rest of the borough. 

    

However, Sutton Common might be the worst - there is no current common land called Sutton Common. There was once a Sutton Common, admittedly, spanning the area currently occupied by the suburbs of Rosehill and Benhilton, and it was renowned for highwaymen and robberies during the 17th and 18th centuries, as this classic rhyme reminisces:

"Sutton for mutton, Carshalton for beeves, Epsom for whores, Ewell for thieves"

(Sutton was also rather agricultural at the time, which explains the mutton. Or maybe it was an attempt at a half-rhyme.)

These acts mainly occurred along the road from London to Sutton, which is now the A24, and as this book states, included the robbery of "five coaches and a chaise, [...], they took from one Gentleman a Watch which he valued very much". Who knew Sutton could be so thrilling?

    

Come 1810, the common was enclosed to reduce criminality, and over time, the area became developed and now the last remaining traces of the common are at Reigate Avenue Recreation Ground, where the Pyl Brook still flows, and Rosehill Parks West and East, amongst other green spaces here. When the railways came in 1930, initially as planned extensions of the District, and then Northern lines, housing began to expand here, and the rather residential Benhilton grew in size.

 

Now, you'll have noticed that on no occasion in these new posts have I actually been on the Sutton loop. I decided to rectify that by catching the train to Sutton, though I didn't particularly intend to end up there. I got down to the platform, touching in despite the lack of ticket barriers, and joined nine other passengers. There are 247,000 passengers who use Sutton Common station annually, and I'd just become one of them. Sure, the station's unstaffed, but that didn't stop volunteers putting up anti-graffiti posters which were clearly mocked up in Word. One train to St Albans passed, another to Sutton quickly followed, and I entered for an exciting chance to take the railway.

Now I will admit that there is a rather major catch to this - I took the loop during a construction work period, so the train went to Sutton and then stopped there. Even if the in-train announcements said the train was continuing up to Streatham, reality wouldn't partake, and I got off at Sutton. Waste of £1.60. So whilst I have been on the Sutton loop, arguably I haven't actually gone around it yet. Maybe that's for a future post.

Sutton

Sutton, alongside Tooting, Wimbledon and Streatham, is one of the key destinations for passengers on the loop. It's the second busiest station, behind Wimbledon, on the loop, and has about 4.5 million passengers annually. That's rather impressive considering Sutton only has National Rail services, including trains to Epsom and further on to Croydon and Victoria. Wimbledon has the District line, too! (Though if not for early 20th century plans being scuppered, Sutton would also have the Tube.)

 

The station's been here since 1847, initially opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, with the line from Mitcham Junction coming in 1868 and the line from Wimbledon coming in 1930. Therefore, I can also say that the Sutton loop's birthday is the 5th January, and somehow I never realised this before writing this post. Happy 95th birthday!

As with most suburban towns, Sutton was initially a minor village until the railways came, and its connections were so impressive that accelerated growth was inevitable. In 1881, there were around 10,000 residents; in 1931, that was about 28,000; today, it's about 59,000. This growth was also partly due to Sutton's aforementioned location on the road, which led to various coaching inns being built in the area, such as the Cock Hotel. A painted rooster still adorns a crossroads sign at the start of the high street. 

I didn't spend long in Sutton - it's a rather unremarkable area, and whilst I doubt the borough as a whole is the least interesting in London, that doesn't change the fact that the high street itself isn't all too exciting. It is pedestrianised and has all the shops you'd expect, including a Wilko which still stands dormant, though actually travelling round Sutton is a slight headache with the one-way system there. Look above the KFC on Benhill Avenue and you'll see a frontage for Sutton Market Place; there is still a local market here, with various stalls outside the large ASDA, and I think this is particularly charming.

   

However, all good things must come to an end - Sutton, the town centre, isn't all that large, and though the shadow of St Nicholas Church looms nearby, there isn't much else to Sutton aside from the shops. It's a standard borough centre, and as with some borough namesakes, I doubt Sutton is the most interesting region. Better to go to Carshalton or Cheam if you want the village charm combined with history.

Come back tomorrow for the final act!