Motspur Park

Template:Infobox London place Motspur Park, also known locally as West Barnes is a suburb in South West London situated across the boundary between the London Borough of Merton and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. It owes its identity to the railway station of the same name, which has four trains an hour to London's Waterloo, and to the adjacent parade of small shops. Two prominent gas holders, which are used to store the consumer gas supply for south west London stand just south of the shopping parade and can be seen from a wide area.

Two of London’s minor natural water courses run through the area. The Beverley Brook runs south to north through its centre and its smaller tributary the Pyl Brook runs parallel further to the east. These have in the past given rise to some local flooding.

History

The district was historically known as West Barnes and was rural right up to the end of the nineteenth century when the railway station was built. Two local lanes, West Barnes Lane and Blakes Lane, represent remnants from this rural era. The barns referred to were those at the western end of Merton Abbey's estates and were just north of West Barnes Lane's junction with the modern Crossway.

Large mansions and farms are the only habitation shown on the 1871 map of the district [1] with no station or residential districts.

The railway itself was constructed through the locality in 1859 but the station was not added until the early twentieth century.

In 1927 the Kingston Bypass (A3) was opened just to the north forming a distinct northern boundary to the district. This was one of the first purpose built fast motor roads in Britain. The major junction at Shannon Corner was for years a significant landmark in south west London. The building of this road brought speculative house building on open land throughout its length and it stimulated the development of Motspur Park.

The area was developed as a suburb in the years between the first and second world wars. Most houses were of the "terraced" style, typically of six houses joined together, each with three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and two living rooms and a kitchen downstairs. The area also attracted a number of playing fields at the time of its development. These remain and have given the area a large amount of green open space.

The local public house The Earl Beatty[2] celebrates David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty who commanded a large part of the British fleet at the Battle of Jutland in the First World War.

The biggest local employer for decades was the Decca gramophone record company. In 1929 this was employing 700 people, and making up to 60,000 records a day at its factory in Burlington Road, New Malden. Other local employers from that era were, at Shannon Corner, the Shannon typewiter company and the Venner timeswitch company [3], maker of Britain's first parking meters. Also close to Shannon Corner were Carter's Seeds [4] and Bradbury Wilkinson, a security printing company, maker of banknotes for many of the world's smaller countries.

Sydney Charles Wooderson set the then world mile record of 4min 6.4sec at Motspur Park's University of London Athletics ground on August 28, 1938.

During World War Two a single stick of bombs was aimed at the railway station by a German bomber but missed its target and destroyed houses in Marina Avenue and Claremont Avenue.

Caitlin Thomas, the widow of the poet Dylan Thomas lived in Arthur Road for many years in the 1970s and 1980s.

Playing fields

The playing fields located at Motspur Park are:

• Fulham football club training ground, formerly the University of London Athletics ground.
• The BBC sports club ground
• The King's College School sports ground
• The Joseph Hood Memorial playing field
• The Old Blues rugby club playing field
• The Archbishop Tennison playing field
• Plus one other minor ground.

Nearby places

To the west:
Kingston upon Thames, Malden Manor, Old Malden
To the south:
Worcester Park,
To the east:
Morden, Merton, Wimbledon
To the north:
New Malden, Raynes Park

External links

• Residents association site with some local history information on Motspur Park
• A map of the Motspur Park area in 1871
• Anglican parish church - Holy Cross
• Trolley buses on West Barnes Lane

• Train times and station information for Motspur Park from National Rail