London Life in an Inner City Borough
Find out what it was like living in an inner city London borough for 15 years.

In 1978 I moved to Balham, an inner city borough in South London. At the time, rented accommodation was very hard to find in London, especially flats (apartments) so I was very lucky to find one that consisted of two floors right on the main road in Balham. On the ground floor there was a men's clothes shop and above that a chiropodist who was our landlord. We had the two floors above the chiropodist.

It wasn't a particularly nice flat although it had huge sash windows so it was quite light and airy. Unfortunately we had to keep them closed except in sweltering heat because of the noise and dust from the traffic below.

In 1978 it was very much a working class district with a wide ethnic mix. There was a halal (Moslem) butcher almost opposite our flat, a hairdresser specialising in Afro-Caribbean hair nearby, a Chinese minimart just 20 yards away and the local newspaper shop was owned and run by an Indian family.

There was (and still is) an open air market selling mostly fruit and vegetables ranging from the humble potato to more exotic things like plantains. Every evening, before the street cleaners came, we would see people sorting through the boxes and bags left by the market traders because large amounts of fruit and vegetables were abandoned if they weren't going to be in good enough condition to sell the following day. People would scour the market for these and we would see them bearing off whole boxes of grapes or oranges or apples.

When we first moved there, our landlord warned me about carrying a handbag. He said that it would get snatched or I would be mugged. As I could not get by without my handbag, I ignored his advice. Luckily, my bag was never snatched, nor was I mugged, but I did have my purse lifted out of my bag as I came up the escalator from the tube. Unfortunately, I didn't discover it immediately.

Eventually the wisdom of our landlord's advice was proved. The front door opened right on to the street and was always open during the day for the chiropodist's patients. Eventually he had the entrance hall and stairs painted and the decorators found hundreds of purses, wallets and handbags, all empty, on top of a large airduct just inside the front door. Obviously bag snatchers and muggers had thrown them up there after taking out the contents.

Several times we also found empty bags in the street which we took to the police station.

There were a lot of disadvantages to living on Balham High Road: the traffic noise and dust, pickpockets and muggers, the police, ambulance and fire engines sirens day and night—and then there were the burglar alarms, the bane of our lives. They would go off, usually just as we were preparing to go to sleep and continue all night. Often the police could not contact the key holder or they were not responding to the alarm because that particular one had given too many false alarms over preceding months. The very worst time was when an alarm just opposite us went off on Saturday evening just before the August Bank Holiday Monday. It continued to sound all Saturday night, all day and night Sunday and Monday and was only switched off at 9.30am Tuesday morning. By that time we were almost screaming.

It wasn't all bad, though. Balham was easy for travelling to and from Central London because it had Underground and British Rail stations as well as good bus links. It was close to Clapham and Tooting Commons, large expanses of natural grass, open to everybody and good places to go when the weather was warm and sunny. Shopping was easy and the library was just 20 yards from where we lived.

With the rise in property prices, by the time we left in 1993, the population had changed. There were still some of the original residents but many of the houses had been 'gentrified' and were owned by people who couldn't afford to buy in Chelsea or Fulham. This led to changes in the shops. Out went the old fashioned ironmongers and grocers, in came expensive delicatessans and estate agents. Balham was definitely upwardly mobile.

Would I want to live in Balham again? No, I don't think so. I like life outside London in a very quiet street and with my own garden. If I had to return to London, though, I would probably choose Balham. It had a vibrancy and character all its own which I never found in other places I've lived in London.

More Information about Balham
The first major supermarket in Balham was Sainsburys. Take a look at this site showing the history of the store.

Do you want to see what the area is like including nearby Tooting Common? Take a look at this webwalk which ends in Balham.

On this site you can see a photographs of two of Balham's most notable buildings.

Copyright © 2002 by Carol Fisher. All Rights Reserved

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