WANDLE VALLEY CONSERVATION AREA
THE PARKS: MORDEN HALL
& RAVENSBURY SUB-AREA 5: CHARACTER ASSESSMENT Amended Draft, revised following public consultation.
New text shown underlined and deleted text shown struck through.
All photographs of Morden Hall Park are included with the permission of the National Trust the owners and managers of the Park.
1 CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3 BACKGROUND 3 STRUCTURE OF THE DOCUMENT 3 LOCATIONAND EXTENT OF THE CONSERVATIONAREA 4 SUB-AREA 4 AGE OF BUILDINGS MAPS 5 HISTORY 9 HISTORIC DEVELOPMENTAND ARCHAEOLOGY 12 ARCHAEOLOGY 15 LAND USE 15 BUILDINGS 16 PLOT WIDTHSAND BUILDING HEIGHTS 21 DISTINCTIVE AND TRADITIONAL BUILDING MATERIALS AND LOCAL DETAILS 22 OPEN SPACES 25 Quality of Open Spaces and Means of Enclosure 25 STREETAUDIT 29 Park Furniture 31 NEUTRALAREAS 33 NEGATIVE FEATURES 34 CONSERVATIONAREA PROPOSALSAND POLICY 36 SPECIAL GUIDANCE 39 NEED FORADDITIONAL PLANNING CONTROLS 40 REVIEW OF THE CONSERVATIONAREA BOUNDARY 40 ADDITIONAL READING,REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 44
2 INTRODUCTION describing the special context to which any new development will need to The designation of conservation areas relate. is a legislative duty of local authorities. These areas comprise "areas of This Character Assessment for the special architectural or historic Wandle Valley Conservation Area has interest, the character or appearance been prepared by the Council's Design of which it is desirable to preserve or and Conservation Team in accordance enhance". Local authorities also have with Guidelines issued by English a duty to from time to time to review Heritage and Planning Policy Guidance whether any further designations are Note 15. needed. The Wandle Valley STRUCTURE OF THE Conservation Area was originally designated by the Counci in DOCUMENT November 1990 and was extended in Because of its size and linear nature the April 2000. Wandle Valley conservation area, whilst BACKGROUND having a unifying theme linked to its history, development and links to the The Government's Planning Policy River Wandle, does vary in character Guidance Note 15: Planning and the along its length. The area has, therefore Historic Environment (PPG 15) been sub-divided into a series of smaller advises local authorities to discernible sub areas which have their periodically review existing own special identities and which form conservation areas and their recognisable zones or groups of boundaries. PPG 15 also advises buildings within the area as a whole and local authorities to define and record, that have their own specific historical as clearly as possible, the special background and/or defining features. architectural or historic interest that The character assessment for the justifies each conservation area's Wandle Valley Conservation Area has designation, through an assessment therefore been structured to comprise a of the elements that contribute to an general appraisal document covering area's character. the whole of the conservation area Character assessments are useful tools supported by a series of more detailed that not only set out the specific appraisals of each of the individual sub- characteristics for which an area has areas. been designated as a conservation This appraisal covers Sub Area 5: area, but also help the Council to assess Morden Hall and Ravensbury Parks and the impact of development proposals on should be read in conjunction with the the character or appearance of a whole area character appraisal. The conservation area. They also provide a appraisal is not intended to be useful framework within which property comprehensive and the omission of any owners and developers can work when particular building, feature or space designing new development or planning should not be taken to imply that it is of alterations to buildings, within no interest. conservation areas, by setting out and
3 LOCATIONAND EXTENT OF THE SUB- AREA
This area extends over areas of Ravensbury Parks and also the parkland along the course of the Wandle Watermeads Housing Estate which was between Phipps Bridge and Mitcham. built within the former grounds of These represent surviving parts of the Mitcham Grove. The sub-area includes former estates of large houses that once Morden Hall the only one of these former occupied areas close to the River houses to survive, although there are Wandle comprising Morden Hall and remains of Ravensbury House visible
4 Sub Area 5: The Parks - Age of Buildings Maps
Morden Hall Park - Key Plan
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Conservation Area Boundary
Historic Park
5 Morden Hall Park -Inset Map 1
Key: Conservation Area Boundary Statutory List Local List
Medieval Pre-1700 1700-1749 1750-1799
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6 Morden Hall Park -Inset Map 2
Key: Conservation Area Boundary Statutory List Local List
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Key: Conservation Area Boundary Statutory List Local List
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8 within Ravensbury Park and a surviving The Estate was bequeathed by Gilliat former stable block located on the south Hatfeild to the National Trust in 1941 in side of Wandle Road to the south of order to secure it intact for future Ravensbury Park just beyond the generations and it, therefore, survives as conservation area boundary. The sub- open parkland. The estate includes a area also embraces the sites of three number of other historic buildings surviving water mills, Ravensbury Mill including Morden Hall, Morden Cottage, and two former Snuff Mills within Mill Cottage, Morden Snuff Mill and the Morden Hall Park and there is evidence Stables. The park extending over some of water milling in the area from the mid 124 acres represents an oasis of 13th Century onwards and past tranquility amidst the busy London industrial activities included tobacco suburbs. and snuff manufacture, calico Morden Hall Park contains many of the bleaching and printing. The site of other historic estate buildings, including Ravensbury printworks is immediately two 18th-century cottages, a stable adjacent to the conservation area to the block, gathered around the two water north of Ravensbury Mill. mills, which until 1922 were used for HISTORY grinding snuff. One of the mills buildings, the Snuff Mill eastern block, has recently Morden Hall and Ravensbury Parks been converted into an Environmental were both once part of the former Educational Centre by the National Trust estates of Morden Hall and Ravensbury providing a study centre for children and House respectively. groupsfromthe local a wide area. Morden Hall Morden Lodge Morden Hall was built in 1770 by The present Morden Lodge occupies the Richard Garth on land formerly owned site of an earlier house, also called by Westminster Abbey. The ownership Morden Lodge. This was the home of of the Hall and the Morden Estate financier and philanthropist Abraham passed to Gilliatt Hatfeild’s son, also Goldsmid. The son of a Dutch merchant Gilliatt,in 1872. Gilliatt Hatfeild jnr who settled in this country around 1763 actually lived in Morden Cottage, within and who set up business with his brother the grounds of Morden Park, as it was Benjamin as bill brokers in London. Both apparently better suited to his Bachelor were noted for their public and private existence than the Hall. He was a keen generosity, and he had a part in founding huntsman and fisherman and he the German and Dutch Jews Hospital in converted and adapted many of the Mile End. The Goldsmid brothers were estate buildings to suit these interests on very intimate terms with the Royal and the grounds were used as a deer Dukes, the sons of George III, who park. The Hall has seen a variety of uses visited Morden Lodge on a number of from a family home to a boarding school occasions. The Prince of Wales came to for young gentlemen and a military the house's opening party in 1806, and hospital during the First World War, on another occasion the Duke of Sussex Council Offices and most recently it was drove back from Morden in the same fully restored and converted into a carriage as Hymon, a famous pastry- public house and restaurant.
9 cook, “disguised for the journey as a day staff yard. The foundations of the distinguished foreigner”. Abraham manor house can still be seen amongst Goldsmid was also a close friend of dense young woodland and ivy. Admiral Nelson and Lady Emma The original alignment of Morden Road Hamilton and supported Emma used to pass through the Park, following Hamilton after Nelson’s death from the route of the present day Ravensbury whom he eventually purchased Merton Lane. It passed directly in front of the Place. Manor House and crossed the Wandle Emma rewarded his friendship with a gift on a small bridge. In the mid-18th century of a round tortoiseshell box made from the then owner of the estate, John wood from HMS Victory and with a Arbuthnott, applied successfully for the crystal intaglio of Vice-Admiral Horatio road to be diverted further west, along its Nelson (1758-1805) set in the lid, this is present route. Mr Arbuthnott also set currently held by the National Maritime about laying out the gardens of the Museum in Greenwich. Manor and developed walks along the banks of the river. A circular walk ran Goldsmid was, however, forced into around Ravensbury Meadow, the open bankruptcy due to losses in connection grassland area in the centre of the Park, with a Government loan he jointly made which may have been used for calico with Barings Bank and he committed bleaching and drying or as a hay suicide in 1810. It seems that shorly after meadow. Diversions to the river, to this the Lodge was demolished and the supply water to the calico factory, were present smaller Regency building also made around this time. constructed. Another occupier of Morden Lodge was George Matthew By the late 19th century the Manor house Hoare, the son of Henry Hoare who built had fallen into ruin and a substantial Mitcham Grove. mixed conifer and broadleaf woodland had developed around the house and Ravensbury Park along the banks of the Wandle. In the Ravensbury Park was once part of the early 20th century the former Ravensbury Manor an Estate dating Ravensbury Park Estate was partitioned back to the 13th Century and on which and sold for residential development. the 18th Century Ravensbury Manor Faced with increasing development House stood. pressure and recognising the recreational potential of the area, the In the 17th and 18th centuries the Urban District Councils of Mitcham, and Ravensbury Park area was an important of Merton and Morden jointly purchased industrial area. Ravensbury Mill was the remaining grounds of Ravensbury located on the banks of the Wandle at Manor in 1929 to set aside as a public the western end of the site and a calico park. The park was formally opened on factory was established to the north, just 10th May 1930. outside the current park boundary. At this time the site formed part of the The surrounding area became Ravensbury Park Estate of Ravensbury increasingly urbanised in the years Manor. The Manor House stood on the following the establishment of the Park. northern bank of the Wandle, Changes in the Park itself have been immediately to the south of the present more gradual and most of the Park
10 remains substantially as it was when first Wedderburn, King’s Counsel, later Lord opened although there will be some Loghborough who defended Clive of encroachment following the approval of India against the charge of a medical centre development in the impeachment in 1773. Mitcham Grove area currently occupied by the paddling was acquired in 1784 by Henry Hoare a pool and former café off Ravensbury senior Partner in the well-known family Lane. The lake in the eastern part of the banking firm and also a shareholder in Park was originally created for drainage the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone purposes in the 1970's as part of the Iron Railway. His Great Uncle Henry landscaping around the Watermeads Hoare built Stourhead in Wiltshire, to housing development and at this time designs of the Architect, Colen the riverside walk was extended Campbell. eastwards as far as Bishopsford Road. Following Henry Hoare’s death in 1828 The area around Ravensbury Mill has the house was purchased by Sir John also been modified, with a new weir and Lubbock, head of the banking firm of by-pass channel to the Mill added and Lubbock & Co, who moved there from filling and simplification of other High Elms in Down, near Bromley and watercourses. Significant tree loss, who stayed there until his death in 1840. including some very large London plane After Sir John’s death his only son John trees, occurred during the Great Storm William Ruddock the renowned of October 1987. astronomer and mathematician To the north west of Ravensbury Mill demolished and rebuilt the former family there was a house set back from the home at High Elms and moved there in current Morden Road was an old cottage 1842, however, Mitcham Grove possibly dating from the late 18th or remained in the family’s ownership until early 19th Century this fell into disrepair 1865, the year of John William’s death. It and which was eventually demolished in appears that they let the house to the 1980s. George Parker Bidder, another well known Mitcham resident and his family who were the last occupiers of the house and who stayed there until 1864 when they moved into their new home, Ravensbury Park House, off Bishopsford Road. Bidder was a well known Engineer of his day, ranking with Rennie, Brunel and the Stephensons and became a close friend and Partner Mitcham Grove of Robert Stephenson. The eastern part of the park comprises It seems that Mitcham Grove was remnants of the grounds of an demolished shortly afterwards. Part of Elizabethan Manor House, Mitcham the former grounds were acquired jointly Grove, once one of Mitcham's finest by the Urban District Councils of houses. Between 1774 and 1784 the Mitcham and of Merton and Morden in house was owned by Alexander 1930.
11 Ravensbury Manor House and west of the Wandle. There is evidence of a development to the south- The remains of the 18th Century east of Ravensbury Mill off a road Ravensbury House survive within the roughly following the alignment of park on what is believed to have been Ravensbury Lane crossing the River to the site of the earlier medieval manor the east of Ravensbury Mill. Otherwise, house of Ravensbury. the area was predominantly agricultural The Wandle riverside was famed in the at this time, with the area divided up into eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for fields. the market gardening of medicinal herbs, watercress and other crops. It was also important in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for calico bleaching and printing; the area to the south of the park close to Morden Road was formerly occupied by calico bleaching beds. Ravensbury Mill
Ravensbury Mill was once a tobacco and snuff mill dating from the early 19th Century. The northern single storey extension is a remnant of an earlier 18th Century mill building. George Parker Bidder had a lease on the building in the latter part of 19th Century. It is believed to have been the last working waterwheel on the Wandle having been Rocque’s Map, 1741 - 5 used up until the 1960s to provide power for lighting of the mill. The building, which is Grade II Listed, was converted During the early 18th Century maps into residential use during the 1990s, show the development of Morden Hall save for the older north wing and the and The Grove in Mitcham and their surviving mill wheels which are hoped to associated grounds along with further eventually provide a home for the industrial development to north of the Wandle Industrial Museum. Wandle at Ravensbury Printworks and also the Mitcham Linoleum and Floor HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT AND Cloth Works to the South of Morden ARCHAEOLOGY Road. Morden Road is shown in the current alignment with the river crossing Historic maps suggest that the earliest immediately in front of Ravensbury Mill development within this sub area were to its west. Maps also show Ravensbury the two mills at Ravensbury and within Farm located on the south bank of the the Snuff Mills within the modern Wandle immediately to the east of Morden Hall Park and the scattered Ravensbury Mill at this time. To the settlement of early Morden to the south
12 North of the conservation area and shown on Rocque’s 1741-5 Map in the Morden Road is also evidence of an old vicinity of Ravensbury Mill and some gravel pit. Much of Morden Hall Park brickwork footings are still visible within and areas beyond were used as a Deer the Park in this area. Park during this time and Ravensbury Towards the end of the 19th Century Park formed part of the grounds of Ravensbury Park House was developed Grove House, later named Mitcham on a site now occupied by Watermeads Grove House. High School with extensive grounds to the south of the Wandle which included an observatory. By the early 20th Century Ravensbury Park House was converted into a convalescent home and much of its ground parceled up for residential development it was demolished by the mid 19th Century. In the early 20th Century another house, Ravensbury Manor, was developed immediately to the south of the river on a Ordnance Survey 1896 site now occupied by 1-20 Park View in Wandle Road with an associated stable The 1896 and later maps indicate the block immediately opposite on the south site of the remains of a “Manor House” side of Wandle Road. This house was close to the north bank of the Wandle also demolished by the mid 20th immediately to the south-east of Century, however the stable block Ravensbury Printworks, although little survives and is included on the Council’s evidence exists of the appearance of local list of buildings of architectural or this house, it appears that it could be in a historic significance. similar location to one of the buildings
Ordnance Survey 1916 Ordnance Survey 1953
13 Mitcham Grove House also shown to station. It too was demolished in the later have survived until the early 20th part of the 20th Century. The areas Century, but part of is grounds survived to form Ravensbury Park. Part of the site of Mitcham Grove House was also developed for commercial use in the form of the Locomotors coach works and an associated sports ground which eventually provided the site for the construction of the Watermeads Estate. The last survival of Mitcham Grove House appears to have been a small lodge building that stood on the corner of the modern London Road and Rawnsley Avenue on a site now occupied by an Electricity sub-
Aerial Photograph - 1988
around the Wandle remained primarily agricultural until well into the 20th Century and it wasn’t until the inter-war period that rapid suburbanisation occured largely spurred by the growth of the railways. The Parks remained largely undeveloped until the 1970s Aerial Photograph - 1971
14 when the Watermeads Estate was built estates of former large country houses. on the site of the former sports grounds The decline in milling along the Wandle this was the last encroachment into the resulted in much reduced commercial parkland which is now protected by its activity, although pockets of commercial Metropolitan Open Land designation. activities do survive to the north of the conservation area based on Morden ARCHAEOLOGY Road. Following periods of under use The sub area is of great significance and in the case of Ravensbury Mill near archaeologically largely due to its dereliction new uses have been found proximity to Mitcham Common and the for the historic mill buildings, residential evidence of Saxon burials excavated to and community in the case of the north of the Wandle between the Ravensbury and office and community River and the modern Morden Road, in the case of the snuff mills in Morden details of which are provided in the main Hall Park. This part of the conservation appraisal document. area does however remain largely as parkland with only one major area of Archaeological investigations were also residential development based on the carried out at Ravensbury Mill in 1992 in Watermeads estate. Morden Hall Park is connection with the housing currently owned and maintained by the development on the Mill site. This National Trust along with the many revealed a series of post-medieval historic building within it and as a result timber structures or revetments in the they have been preserved in uses north-east part of the site that may have associated with the park it activities and been associated with activity along the management. Morden Cottage also north bank of the River Wandle. Brick- within Morden Hall Park has been lined, vaulted channels were found in converted into offices and is used by a the north-west part of the site dating local environmental trust. The area is, from the mid-late 18th century. There therefore, now almost entirely in purpose was probably to control water recreational and educational uses flow under an earlier building which was associated with the river and possibly a predecessor of the present surrounding parks with some residential mill which is situated to the south-east of areas. The parks and the River itself the structures. On the south-west side of form part of a Green Corridor linking the river, a shallow stream channel and Colliers Wood to Mitcham and Sutton its flood plain were recorded running beyond. Thenatural landscaping and north-west to south-east across the site; ecological diversity of the area combine this had been leveled up in post- to make an important passive medieval times. recreational resource within the Borough of Merton. LAND USE
Historically land use within this sub-area combined small pockets of industrial activity focused on the two water mills set with a much more rural setting of the 15 BUILDINGS wing with more Gothic styling linking it to the adjacent Snuff Mill building The main buildings of significance to this (Eastern Block). The building has a part of the conservation area comprise shallow pitched, slate hipped roof to Morden Hall and the surviving buildings eaves. The entrance itself is slightly of the Estate within Morden Hall Park projecting in the form of a crenellated and the two surviving water mills. Most porch with a slightly pointed arched of the buildings within this sub-area, doorway. The windows are vertical apart from the newer residential sliding sashes with narrow glazing developments at Watermeads and to bars to the ground floor and French the east of Ravensbury MIll, are either casements with wrought iron Statutory or locally listed. balconies above. The stuccoed wing Within Morden Hall Park are a number has a crenellated parapet with of former estate buildings. traceried pinnacles and the windows have dripmould details. Morden Hall is a late 18th, early 19th Century building, originally the Manor House of Morden and the seat of the Garth Family, it is Listed Grade II. It was rendered externally in the mid 19th Century and also extended. Its styling is classically Georgian with tall sliding sash windows and a shallow pitched slate roof, set behind a parapet. It has a classical porticoed entrance with Doric columns accessed through an open half courtyard. Former Snuff Mills comprising two late 18th, early 19th Century blocks located on either side of the mill race. Built of stock brick with weatherboarding to the upper floor of the eastern block with steeply pitched slate roofs, gable to the eastern block and hipped to the western block. The windows have segmental arches over and comprise a combination of casements, and horizontal sliding sash windows to the ground floor of Morden Cottage, also Listed Grade II the western block. There is a cast is an early 19th Century building iron wheel, without paddles, affixed combining traditional to the west face of the eastern block. weatherboarding with a stuccoed The eastern block has a projecting
16 single storey tobacco drying oven a double-height arched covered with segmental brick barrel-vaulted entrance with a hipped slate roof roof. Other significant features supporting a clock tower with an include the double height timber open bell stage surmounted by a tall doors with double doors at ground pinnacle. and first floor levels. The Mill Cottage an early 19th Century two storey brick with timber boarding to the upper floor. The roof is covered in slate and hipped to eaves. The windows a re Georgian style double-hung, vertical sliding sash windows with slender glazing bars. It has a simple timber door without a porch.
Other buildings within the Park include: - The stable block comprising stables and storage buildings arranged around a walled open courtyard with
The Bothy, a humble single storey cottage probably dating from mid to late 18th Century. Timber framed with painted timber weatherboarding and a prominent projecting brick chimney stack next to the main entrance. It has a prominent hipped roof with plain red clay tiled to eaves. The roof continues down over the front door to form an open porch supported on slender timber columns one of which is supported by the chimney projection. The windows are simple small cottage style casements. Morden Lodge, a two storey Regency Villa, with basement,
17 occupies the site of a larger Georgian House, Built of brick finished with stucco the building has a shallow pitched hipped slate roof with deep bracketed eaves and a simple porch supported on Doric columns. Ground floor windows are large vertical sliding sash windows divided into small panes with narrow glazing bars. The upper floors comprise French windows set behind part of a linear group of former estate decorativ buildings also built into the enclosing e metal wall which are a distinctive feature of guard this part of the Park. The relationship rails set of buildings to the high brick walls is a into the particular feature of Morden Hall reveals of Park. the openings.
The Gardens, A late 18th/early 19th century building with a later 19th Century addition. The early section is built of warm red brick and the later of yellow stock bricks with red brick string courses. The brickwork to the early section appears to have been painted at some time which has been removed but the bricks have been discoloured by pale residue. The early section backs onto the wall of Morden Hall Park is also characterised the former kitchen garden, now byfour three early 19th century Lodge occupied by the Garden Centre, buildings located around its perimeter. shop/café and car park and forms Built of a pale gault brick, with a sooty
18 patina from pollution, with shallow which have a distinctive Greek “key” pitched gabled roofs roofs with pattern. prominent barge boards, Morden Lodge has been rendered externally and Ivy Lodge has been much altered. Built into the wall fronting Morden Hall Road are Sadler’s End and Red Cottage, built of red brick with slate pitched roof, the front elevation actually forms part of the wall enclosing the Park with openings punched through to for the windows and doors.
To the east of the River Wandle is the Morden Hall Garden Centre set within the former walled garden to Morden Hall. Much of the area of the former walled Not forming part of Morden Hall Park but garden is presently occupied by the backing onto it are a group of buildings garden centre, Café/Shop and car park, Located on the north-west side of but a number of significant features Morden Road is a group of buildings survive including the original perimeter comprising the most westerly Lodge, walls and the clair-voyee of cast iron White Cottage, the Surrey Arms Public railings along the southern boundary House and the Morden Hall Scout HQ, all of which, apart from the public house,
19 form part of Morden Hall Park. Historic the main boarded timber doors to the maps suggest that White Cottage was entrance which have now been adapted once one of a semi-detached pair of for the residential conversion. The cottages with a similar pair immediately building has a shallow pitched, hipped to the west. The buildings within this slate roof. Windoes are cast-iron group are varied in date, style and casements divided into small panes. The character ranging from the local mill is significant for the retention of two vernacular of which White Cottage, 15ft diameter iron undershot water dating from the late 18th Century, is a wheels, dated I.C.R./1884, and of the rare survival. This is a timber framed "Poncelot" type (after invention by building with timber weather-boading J.C.Poncelot, 1824): each have curved painted white and with a double pitched sheet-iron buckets and cast or wrought- plain tiled London style roof. The Surrey iron draft; wooden pit wheel to left, Arms public house was built in the 1930s probably re-used and of earlier date. in the “Jacobethan” style with a lofty tiled The site of the mill complex was roof and leaded light windows both of developed as part of the residential which contrast with the more utilitarian conversion with a pair of 3 storey blocks and functional design of the 1960s Scout of flats set on either side of the mill pond HQ building. To the east of the Surrey linked with a new bridge. The new Arms historic maps indicate that there buildings reflect the scale and styling of was originally another detached house the traditional industrial architecture which was demolished in the 1980s. characteristic of the mill itself and this Across the road is Ravensbury Mill a approach reflects the character of the formersnuff and tobacco mill converted area. The buildings themselves have into residential use with an area set been designed to replicate some of the aside for a local industrial museum. The detailing of the existing building in many main two-storey block dates from circa respects, particularly in terms of 1880 with an earlier single storey wing to materials used and the shallow pitched the north-east. Constructed of yellow roof forms. However the domestic style stock brick with cambered, red-brick timber window forms and the relatively arches over large industrial window crude soldier course arches over the openings and the main entrance range door and window openings do not reflect which originally comprising a pair of hoist the quality of the historic building. doors with a iron-crane hoist over above
20 Within Ravensbury Park is the former horizontal bands of cladding panels and Cafe adjacent to the paddling pool to the with a flat roof set behind a parapet set south of Morden Road and Ravensbury behind the upper band of cladding Lane. The site is defined along it's panels. Whilst the quality of the northern boundary by a section of high development has been diminished by a brick wall which is a surviving structure lack of consistent fenestration and from the grounds of Mitcham Grove - boundary treatments, the relationship of Ravensbury lane probably aligns with the built development to the surrounding the original route of the main road before landscaping and adjacent Ravensbury it was diverted to its present alignment Park contributes to the character of the via Ravensbury Mill. Permission was conservation area. been granted in 2006 for redevelopment of the Café site and childrens play area for a multi-use health centre, nursery and new café which whilst mainly providing for the retention of the historic wall, will require some demolition of the locally listed structure . Watermeads housing estate is described (and illustrated) in Pevsner's - London South as one of the most attractive housing developments of the 1970s. This comprises a development of Other buildings include the Morden Hall houses and flats arranged in a Garden Centre main building and meandering three-storey ribbon set associated sheds and storage/office within landscaped grounds that once buildings. Mainly steel framed formed part of Mitcham Grove grounds. glasshouse construction these buildings Distinctively different in terms of design reflect the character of garden buildings from other buildings in the area the and whilst not particularly significant development has a strong horizontal architecturally do fit into their parkland emphasis with continuous bands of setting. timber framed windows separated by Also within the area of the former Kitchen Garden is the National Trust
21 café,a traditionally detailed brick which is a feature of this sub-area building with a wide porch and shallow particularly within the parks. pitched roof and does not detract from The Mill buildings which are also two the over character and appearance of storey, have a prominence within the the conservation area. area due to their larger scale as PLOT WIDTHSAND HEIGHTS compared with the more domestic proportions of the of the estate buildings This sub area is mainly characterised by which is emphasised by the larger the informal arrangement of buildings storey heights and more industrial scale set within parkland or within informal, of the buildings themselves. mainly spacious plots. The relationship between buildings and high walls enclosing and within the Parks is also a significant contributing characteristic. The way the river watercourses wind their way through the area linking the larger Mill buildings also contributes significantly to the area's character. Buildings within and adjacent to Morden Hall Park and at the western end of Ravensbury Park are predominantly two or single storey, the tallest building being the White House which is three DISTINCTIVE AND storeys. To the east is the Watermeads TRADITIONAL BUILDING development which in contrast MATERIALS AND LOCAL comprises an articulated continuous DETAILS three-storey block comprising narrow terraces of flats and houses that winds By far the most through a wider unified landscape of the prevalent building former grounds of Mitcham Grove material is a rather than within individual plots. This traditional clay stock reflects the characteristic relationship brick work from between built form and open space which the majority of buildings and associated structures such as the walls enclosing and sub-dividing the parks are built. A number of the Lodge buildings are constructed from white Gault brick, which weather in a distinctive way. A
22 number of buildings, including Morden windowsto the domestic buildings with Hall and Ivy Lodge (below) have been steel "Crittall" windows to the main block rendered and painted mainly white. of Ravensbury Mill.
There are also a significant number of timber framed buildings with weatherboarded exteriors, usually in combination with some brickwork, The main roofing materials is Welsh usually in the form of a plinth. slate with some plain clay tiling with some pantiles to the small workshop buildings with Morden Hall Park. Roofs are generally pitched, either hipped or with gables, often with prominent bargeboards. The Watermeads housing development, however, has flat roofs.
Significant local details include the tall decorative chimney stacks to the Morden Hall Park lodge buildings. These have decorative corbelled faience cornice caping details and moulded banding and projecting plaques between each chimney pot also Windows are predominantly timber in pale cream faience. sashes, casements and French
23 the clock tower marking the entrance to the stable courtyards. The detailing of the chimney stack and adjoining porch of the Bothy is also distinctive.
Many of the historic buildings retain internal features such as stable divides and troughs which are of historic importance.
Other details include: - the crenellated parapets to Morden Cottage; and
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