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London Borough of Sutton

The London Borough of Sutton is an Outer London borough in London, England. It covers an area of 43 km2 and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to the east, the London Borough of Merton to the north and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to the north-west; it also borders the Surrey boroughs of Epsom and Ewell to the west and Reigate and Banstead to the south. The local authority is Sutton London Borough Council. Its principal town is Sutton.

The borough has some of the schools with the best results in the country. A Trust for London and New Policy Institute report noted that Sutton had the highest rate in London of pupils achieving 5 A* – C GCSEs. In December 2014 Sutton was described by a senior Government official as the most "normal place in Britain". In connection with this, the leader of Sutton Council described the borough as "quietly brilliant", and noted that 91% of residents say it is "a great place to live".

Low levels of recorded crime are a feature of the borough, being among the lowest in London. An Ipsos MORI poll in 2014 found that 97% of residents felt safe in the borough during the day, and 71% felt safe at night, a higher figure than in 2011.

The 2014 Family Hotspots Report, on the best places in England and Wales for families to live, placed three areas within the borough among the top 10 places in London. The areas were identified as postcodes SM1, SM2 (Sutton town) and SM3 (Cheam). A Rightmove study in 2015 found that Sutton was the fourth happiest borough in which to live out of 33 in London. It achieved the same placing in the 2016 survey.

In 2014, a survey by eMoov (Property Hot Spot Index) found Sutton to be the easiest place in the country in which to sell a property. It was shown in a national detailed Land Use Survey by the Office for National Statistics in 2005 that the London Borough of Sutton had the highest proportion of land taken up by gardens, 35.1%, of any district in England.

The London Borough of Sutton was one of the four "vanguard areas" selected in 2010 for the Big Society initiative.

History
The area of the modern borough broadly corresponds to the five ancient parishes of Beddington, Carshalton, Cheam, Sutton and Wallington, all of which were historically in the county of Surrey.

The parish of Sutton was made a local government district in 1882. The neighbouring parish of Carshalton was made a local government district the following year. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. Another urban district was created in 1915 covering the two parishes of Beddington and Wallington.

The Sutton Urban District was enlarged in 1928 to take in the neighbouring parish of Cheam, at which point the urban district was renamed 'Sutton and Cheam'. It was then incorporated to become a municipal borough in 1934. Beddington and Wallington Urban District became a municipal borough in 1937.

The modern London Borough of Sutton was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963, covering the combined area of the former Municipal Borough of Sutton and Cheam, Carshalton Urban District and Municipal Borough of Beddington and Wallington. The area was transferred from Surrey to Greater London to become one of the 32 London Boroughs.

Districts
Sutton includes the areas:

 * Bandon Hill
 * Beddington
 * Belmont
 * Benhilton
 * Carshalton
 * Carshalton Beeches
 * Carshalton on the Hill
 * Cheam
 * Hackbridge
 * Little Woodcote
 * North Cheam
 * Rosehill
 * St. Helier
 * South Beddington
 * Sutton (principal town)
 * Sutton Common
 * Sutton High Street (located within Sutton)
 * The Wrythe
 * Wallington
 * Woodcote Green
 * Worcester Park

Governance
The local authority is Sutton Council, based at the Civic Offices on St Nicholas Way in Sutton.

Greater London representation
Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Croydon and Sutton constituency. The seat has only returned assembly members from the Conservative Party and the current member is Neil Garratt.

UK Parliament
Sutton is divided into two parliamentary constituencies, Sutton and Cheam and Carshalton and Wallington with one member of Parliament each:

Culture and leisure
The London Borough of Sutton was once made up of rural villages, associated with feudal and royal estates. The "village feel" persists, and Carshalton, Cheam and Belmont in Sutton continue to be referred to as villages. The historic development of the borough is reflected in the number of heritage areas designated as conservation areas and as areas of special local character. Descriptions of a selection of the borough's cultural institutions and attractions are set out below.

The Sound Lounge

The Sound Lounge, a grassroots concert venue, opened in December 2020 in Sutton High Street in the former premises of Royal Bank of Scotland. It hosts live performances of blues, Americana, folk and roots music. The venue includes a plant-based, carbon-neutral café, and hosts visual art exhibitions, theatre and dance. The site also incorporates a vinyl record shop (one of two branches of the Union Music Store).

In July 2021 the venue became the country's first grassroots music venue to be certified as carbon neutral. A wide variety of measures have been put in place to achieve neutrality. In addition to the fully plant-based menu for the café, these include getting all energy from renewable sources, not sending any waste to landfill and maintaining an allotment garden on site for zero-carbon produce for the café.

The Charles Cryer Theatre, Carshalton

The Charles Cryer Studio Theatre is situated on the High Street (number 39) in Carshalton Village. It was opened by His Royal Highness Prince Edward in 1991. As well as drama and musicals, productions included comedy and dance. With material ranging from Shakespeare to Chekov to panto and children's favourites, the theatre's aim was to balance popularity with quality. The theatre also served as a concert venue for local bands and played host to the popular local Rockshot festival. The theatre is named after the man who led the campaign to open the Secombe Theatre, Sutton, listed below. In August 2016 Sutton Theatres Trust, which owned the theatre, went into administration and it closed. However, at a meeting in October 2018, the local council confirmed that the theatre would be brought back into use, following a successful bid to run the venue (on a 25-year lease) by Cryer Arts Ltd. The company plans a range of events, including music, film and theatre.

The Secombe Theatre, Sutton town centre
The Secombe Theatre (named after Sir Harry Secombe) was in Cheam Road, adjacent to the Holiday Inn Hotel. The theatre was opened by Sir Harry, who lived in Sutton for over 30 years of his life. The theatre was created out of a former Christian Scientist church building originally dating from 1937. The main auditorium seats 396 (or 343 if the orchestra pit is in use), and there is a large multi-purpose function room attached. The Secombe Theatre is operated in conjunction with the Charles Cryer Studio Theatre, named after the man who led the campaign to open the Secombe Theatre. (The Charles Cryer Theatre is in a converted hall in nearby Carshalton – see entry above). Productions at the Secombe have ranged in content from modern productions to new twists on older, more established plays. Some productions have been produced locally, while others have come as part of touring groups. From time to time comedians and musicians have appeared at the theatre.

In 2014, because of local council budget cuts, the venue was, along with its sister theatre, the Charles Cryer Theatre in Carshalton, identified by the Theatre Trust as one of 33 theatres in the country for inclusion on its "At Risk" register. The risk of closure spurred celebrity intervention in favour of the two theatres: writer, actor, comedian and BBC presenter Tim Vine, called on Sutton Council to reconsider its proposals. On 10 November 2014 the local council announced that four organisations submitting outline bids to take over the two theatres had been invited to submit full business cases by 12 December. The council worked with the Theatres Trust and Sutton Centre for Voluntary Services to help bidders through the bidding process. On 15 January 2015 the bid by the new "Sutton Theatres Trust" (STT) was given approval by the council's environment and neighbourhood committee to take over the theatres, thus saving them from closure. In August 2016 the Trust went into administration and the theatre closed permanently.

Carew Manor, Beddington
Beddington Park is the location of Carew Manor which was the home of the Beddington branch of the Carew family. The Grade I listed great hall, with its hammerbeam roof, survives from the Tudor house along with part of the early 18th-century orangery built around the orange trees planted by Sir Francis Carew in the 16th century and claimed to be the first in England. In the grounds is an early 18th-century Grade II* listed dovecote. Archaeologists discovered a Tudor garden including a grotto at Carew Manor, believed to have been created by Sir Francis Carew in the 16th century. There are tours of the great hall organised by the London Borough of Sutton Museum & Heritage Service.

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Beddington, Sutton
The Grade II* listed 14th-century flint parish church of St Mary's occupies a prominent position in Beddington Park, immediately south of what is now Carew Manor School and which was from the late Middle Ages the seat of the Carew family. It contains an organ screen by William Morris. The church is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
 * It has substantial amounts of fabric from the 14th and 15th centuries
 * It was extensively restored and provided with an extremely elaborate and interesting mid-Victorian decorative scheme.
 * It has monuments and other fixtures of importance from c. 1200 to the 20th century, including font and Carew tombs.
 * The Morris and Co. organ is of special note, and the Last Judgment reredos is unusual.

River Wandle
The River Wandle is a 9 mi long river which flows through four southwest London boroughs, including Sutton. It passes through Croydon, Sutton, Merton, and Wandsworth where it joins the River Thames. The river changed from being a mainly rural one lined with a scattering of watermills at the beginning of the 19th century to a heavily built-up one by the 1930s. In the second half of the 20th century the river changed again, as the local authorities made improvements to its visual appearance and restored it as a habitat for wildlife. Much of the River is accessible using the Wandle Trail, which passes through Sutton borough at Beddington, Hackbridge and Carshalton (including Grove Park in Carshalton Village).

Little Holland House, Carshalton
Little Holland House in Carshalton Beeches was the home of the artist Frank Dickinson (1874–1961). Dickinson's Arts and Crafts style interior was influenced by John Ruskin and textile designer and artist William Morris. The house contains many of his art works. Admission is free and the house is open 1.30–5.30pm the first Sunday of each month plus Bank Holiday Sundays and Mondays.

Sutton Library, Sutton town centre
Sutton Library is situated close to the top of the town, near St Nicholas Church and the Holiday Inn Hotel, and is part of a complex which contains the Civic Offices, home of Sutton Borough Council, and the Sutton College of Liberal Arts. It is the largest library in the borough. Originally opened in 1975, it was extensively refurbished in 2004 to meet changing customer needs. It was the first public library to appoint a library writer-in-residence; the first to establish a CD and video lending library; and the first to offer a full public library service on Sundays. The library is arranged over four storeys, and the lending and reference facilities extend to a reader's lounge; café and shop; IT facilities; opportunities to listen to music; and a children's library themed around the world's environments.

Sutton Life Centre, Sutton
The Sutton Life Centre is an £8 million community facility designed to improve life chances for younger people and encourage good citizenship. Its key feature – the lifezone – is a virtual street, a room with screens on all walls showing real-life scenes from Sutton's streets. It also has a library, a café, a climbing wall, and community, eco, sports, youth and media zones. It tries to encourage community engagement and involvement. It was opened on 27 October 2010 by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Honeywood Museum, Carshalton

Honeywood is a large house at the western end of Carshalton Ponds. At its earliest it dates from the 17th century but has been much extended and restored, particularly in the period 1896 to 1903 when a large Edwardian wing was added to the south side. It now houses the London Borough of Sutton's main Museum and has a local history collection, including objects that date back to the Bronze Age. The museum has recently been refurbished, reopening in May 2012 with enhanced features. Among others improvements, there are now expanded displays about the river Wandle and its influence on the life of the area, including an interactive map.

Arts Network Sutton
Arts Network Sutton "promotes, champions, nurtures and acts as a voice for the arts" in the borough. Taking over from the former Sutton Arts Council, it was put in place in April 2014, and launched by the Mayor of Sutton in June. It co-ordinates the arts locally and works together with regional and national arts bodies, informs the local arts community about arts initiatives, seeks out funding for local projects and runs events.

Public art in Sutton town centre

There are a number of examples of public art in Sutton town centre, ranging from building-height murals, to sculptures to an armillary. These are all fully described in the article on the town of Sutton itself. Of particular borough-wide note is one of the murals, which is in the form of a mosaic measuring 9 m in height and 5 mapproximately) in width, and covering the whole of a three-storey wall in the town square near the Waterstones bookshop. It was made from vitreous ceramic tesserae (small tiles made of glass and clay), and put in place in 1994. It was commissioned to celebrate Sutton's heritage, and shows several aspects of the borough's heritage and local history in a geometric pattern of nineteen panels. The centre-piece is the depiction of Henry VIII's palace at Nonsuch. Other panels depict armorial bearers from the old local families, as well as industrial and architectural heritage.

Whitehall Gallery, Cheam
Whitehall is a timber framed and weatherboarded house in the centre of Cheam village. It was originally built in about 1500 as a wattle and daub yeoman farmer's house but has been much extended. The external weatherboarded appearance dates from the 18th century. In the garden there is a medieval well which served an earlier building on the site. Now an historic house museum, the building features a period kitchen, and house details from the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian eras. The museum temporarily closed in 2016 to allow for a £1.6m refurbishment of the building. It reopened in 2018 with improved facilities. Jill Whitehead, chair of the council's environment and neighbourhood committee, said: "The redevelopment of the Whitehall Museum is of major significance to the borough as it is one of our oldest and most historic buildings."

Listed buildings
Within the London Borough of Sutton there are 147 Grade II listed buildings, six Grade II* listings, one Grade I listing, 4 'B' listings and 6 'C' listings.

Demographics
The proportion of Black, Asian and ethnic minorities in general living in the borough has almost doubled each decade since 1991: in 2019 Council data put the non white population at 26.8%, and the total White population at 73.2%. White British is the largest ethnic group at 62.6; this is down 10% from the 2011 census. The Filipino community is the largest foreign-born population in Sutton, closely followed by the Sri-Lankan (Tamil) community.

Big Society
The London Borough of Sutton was one of the four "vanguard areas" selected in 2010 for the Government's Big Society initiative. Sutton was chosen because of its reputation for having a strong sense of community, its active voluntary sector and track record of devolving power to its neighbourhoods.

Schools
The London Borough of Sutton has some schools at both primary and secondary levels which perform exceptionally well. Five of the state secondary schools are grammar schools.
 * The Borough came top of the England GCSE league tables in 2011 on the key benchmark – the percentage of pupils achieving five good GCSEs (A* to C) including English and Mathematics. The national average for 2011 was 58.2%. The average for Sutton, at 74.7%, was more than 15% above this national average. Only three other local authorities achieved an average above 70%.
 * In 2013 Sutton's secondary schools bucked the national trend and performed better than in 2012. 83.9% of pupils achieved five A* to C GCSE grades in subjects including Maths and English compared with 75.6% in 2012. Sutton's GCSE performance was second across all borough's in England (The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was first).
 * Sutton's primary schools were described as 'particularly impressive' by Ofsted in its December 2013 annual schools report 2012–2013. It ranked Sutton's primary schools at joint third in the country and joint first in London.
 * In July 2016 it was announced that two schools in the borough had been named the best schools in the country in the Times Educational Supplement (TES) 2016 Awards. Stanley Park High School was named the "Best Secondary School" in the country. Limes College was named the best alternative provision school. TES described Stanley Park as having achieved "remarkable outcomes for its student body by focusing on igniting their passion for learning." The judges were "impressed by the creative, ambitious and supportive culture fostered at Stanley Park". Limes College was recognised as a place where young people are able to make a fresh start and build for the future, and where staff truly believe that every student can excel.

Schools in the borough were set to receive the fourth largest funding increase in the country in 2015/16.

In May 2014 it was announced that grammar schools in the borough planned to set aside a number of additional places specifically for Sutton borough pupils. Nonsuch High School for Girls and Sutton Grammar School for Boys had already agreed this new policy at the time of the announcement, while the other three grammar schools in the borough were set to follow suit.

Adult education
Sutton College of Learning for Adults (SCOLA), originally named Sutton College of Liberal Arts, is a college offering over 1,000 part-time courses at its borough-wide centres. its main centres are in Sutton and Wallington.

Environment
The London Borough of Sutton is home to a number of notable environmental projects, including the following.

The acclaimed BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development) housing complex is located on London Road, SM6, about 500 yards north of Hackbridge mainline railway station. It uses a number of innovative technologies to enable it to operate with zero energy use. It was designed by the architect Bill Dunster to support a more sustainable lifestyle. The project was led by the Peabody Trust in partnership with Bill Dunster Architects, Ellis & Moore Consulting Engineers, BioRegional, Arup and the cost consultants Gardiner and Theobald.
 * BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development)

The 99 homes, and 1,405 square metres of work space were built between 2000 and 2002. It is the UK's largest and first carbon-neutral eco-community. The buildings are constructed of materials that store heat during warm conditions and release heat at cooler times, and where possible, they have been built from natural, recycled or reclaimed materials. The first residents moved in (to the Helios Road part of the development) during March 2002.

BedZED receives power from a small-scale combined heat and power plant (CHP). In conventional energy generation, the heat that is produced as a by-product of generating electricity is lost. With CHP technology, this heat can be harnessed and put to use. At BedZED, the heat from the CHP provides hot water, which is distributed around the site via a district heating system of super-insulated pipes. Should residents or workers require a heating boost, each home or office has a domestic hot water tank that doubles as a radiator.

The CHP plant at BedZED is powered by off-cuts from tree surgery waste that would otherwise go to landfill. Wood is a carbon neutral fuel because the CO2 released when the wood is burned is equal to that absorbed by the tree as it grew.

The development has attracted wide interest and acclaim over the past decade since it was built, and, has won numerous awards. Among other examples of recognition, it was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize for architecture in October 2003, and won awards from the London Evening Standard and RIBA in 2002.

The Sutton Ecology Centre is located in the Carshalton Village part of Sutton borough. The Grounds are a 1.3 hectare Local Nature Reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1. It is owned by Sutton Council and managed by the Council together with the Friends of Sutton Ecology Centre.
 * Sutton Ecology Centre

It is an area of mainly open space where visitors can find out about wildlife habitats, alternative energy, recycling, composting, and organic gardening. The centre's activities include running educational visits for schools and community groups, as well as events and volunteer days.

The history of the Ecology Centre is that the grounds were until the late eighties known as the "Lodgelands", named after the old gardens of The Lodge in Carshalton. They were used as a tree nursery until the early 1980s, when they became surplus to requirements. After a prolonged public debate, it was agreed in 1987 to preserve the area as an open space for public use.

The Environmental Fair is held in Carshalton Park on August Bank Holiday Monday. It features over 100 stalls and showcases local sustainability initiatives. It also includes music, performing art, poetry, children's activities, campaign groups, local craft, interactive demonstrations, and a farmers' market. Music is performed from three stages and across the genres from rock to folk. The main stage is a natural open-air amphitheatre. There is food and a bar with real ales. The fair attracts on average around 10,000 people. It is organised by EcoLocal with a team of volunteers.
 * Carshalton Environmental Fair

Sutton Community Farm, the only one of its kind in London, is located in the Wallington part of the borough. A non-profit social enterprise, it occupies a 7.5 acre small-holding of a type originally given to ex-servicemen following the First World War.
 * Sutton Community Farm

The London Borough of Sutton has provided funding to grow the green economy by creating a low carbon cluster of green businesses. The project includes the establishment of a "Green Business Network", the provision of training, and the creation of employment opportunities for assessors, surveyors, designers and installers.
 * Growing the green economy

The café in Manor Park, Sutton has a range of environmental features, in particular its straw-bale construction. It was built in 2010 using UK produced straw-bales and natural sustainable materials, a type of construction which means that the building could last for longer than 200 years. It was London's first energy-efficient building to use this method of construction.
 * Straw-bale café

Hospitals
St Helier Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital for Children in the London Borough of Merton and London Borough of Sutton is run by Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust along with Epsom Hospital. It is located next to the large St Helier estate and close to the major intersection known as Rosehill. The hospital offers a full range of hospital services including a 24-hour accident and emergency department. The site is also home to the South West Renal and Transplantation Service and the Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, a dedicated children's hospital. St Helier Hospital is a major teaching hospital for St George's, University of London, and is the second main teaching site for the clinical years of the medicine degrees outside of St George's Hospital.

Rail
Sutton has rail services to central London stations, including London Victoria, London Bridge and St Pancras International. Sutton borough has access to the London Underground with the Northern line in neighbouring Merton borough reachable by bus. The London Overground network, completed c. 2010, is 5 to 10 minutes away from Sutton at West Croydon station.

The Sutton & Mole Valley Lines railway route south from Sutton links the borough to Sussex and Surrey to the south, and to central London to the north, providing regular, direct services to stations including Clapham Junction, London Victoria, Dorking, Epsom, Horsham, Wimbledon and West Croydon. Also running through Sutton is the Sutton Loop Line which links St Albans and St Pancras International directly with the stations on the loop. The main station for all these services is Sutton railway station to the south of the town. The station is the largest and busiest in Sutton. Passenger rail services through Croydon are provided by Govia Thameslink Railway under the Southern and Thameslink brands.

Tram
The Tramlink service runs to the north of the borough and a short part of the line falls within it, including two stops: Therapia Lane and Beddington Lane. Transport for London spent several years developing plans for a Sutton Link, which would connect the service to Sutton town centre; however, in July 2020, it announced that plans had been 'paused' following financial negotiations with the Government in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bus
A sizeable bus infrastructure which is part of the London Buses network operates from a main hub on the Sutton one-way system. Services are operated under contract by London General, London United, Metrobus and Transport UK London Bus. Route SL7 is the longest route in London, operating from Croydon to Heathrow Airport via Kingston.

Road
Sutton is linked into the national motorway network via the A217 and M25 orbital motorway at Junction 8. The M25 skirts the south of the borough, linking Sutton with other parts of London and the surrounding counties. The A24 passes through the north western part of the borough, through North Cheam and onto Epsom, Dorking, Horsham, Worthing, Bognor Regis and Chichester. This follows, in part, the course of Stane Street, an old Roman road linking London and Chichester. The A232 links Sutton with other towns in the borough, also the boroughs of Kingston, Croydon and Bromley.

Air
Sutton is located about 15 mi from both Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport. Heathrow is served by London Buses route SL7 and Gatwick by the National Express Coaches A3 route, which stops outside Sutton railway station. Luton Airport, about 40 mi to the north, is connected to Sutton by a direct train. Croydon Airport which was partly in the borough of Sutton served as London's main airport in the years prior to World War II but closed in the 1950s.

Cycling
Although hilly, Sutton is compact and has few major trunk roads running through it. It is on one of the National Cycle Network routes running around South London. The nearby North Downs to the south, part of which falls within the borough boundary, is an area of outstanding natural beauty popular with both on and off-road cyclists.

Travel to work
In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 33.1% of all residents aged 16–74; train, 6.6%; bus, minibus or coach, 6.6%; on foot, 5.6%; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 3.9%; work mainly at or from home, 3.1%; passenger in a car or van, 2.0%; cycling 1.5%. Data from the 2011 Census states that the cycle mode share for people cycling to work had fallen from 2.1% since 2001.

Parks and open spaces

In total, the London Borough of Sutton has 89 parks and open spaces within it boundaries, representing a total area of 1500 acre.

Main parks
Green spaces range from the compact Manor Park in Sutton town centre and Sutton Green just to the north of Sutton town centre, through the medium-sized Grove Park, which forms a notable part of the Carshalton conservation area, to the large and historic Oaks Park in the south of the borough. In the west is the large Nonsuch Park, the majority of which (including the mansion) lies in the neighbouring borough of Epsom and Ewell.

Just to the north of Sutton town centre there is more extensive green space in the form of Sutton Common, which originally (until the beginning of the 19th century) encompassed the aforementioned Sutton Green. Today, a small portion of Sutton Common is given over to a major junior tennis facility. The common extends both to the east and west of Angel Hill. Slightly further in the opposite direction out of Sutton lie Banstead Common and Banstead Downs—these start a few hundred yards from the southern end of the town, and extend for an additional mile south in the direction of neighbouring Banstead.

Manor Park was created in 1914 on a site in the town centre opposite the police station. Its grounds include the Sutton War Memorial, which was added in 1921. A fountain was added in 1924. In 2010 its new café of straw-bale construction was London's first environmentally friendly building to use this building method.

Features of interest in the Victorian Grove Park include a white Portland stone bridge, known as the Leoni Bridge where Lower Pond meets the park. Upper Mill is recent reconstruction of a watermill that has existed here from Anglo-Saxon times. The cascade is near the footbridge towards the Stone Court corner of the park. The 1.5m fall is now ornamental in design and was reconstructed in the 1960s. Its original purpose was to create a head of water to power Upper Mill.

Oaks Park has a long history. It was substantially laid out for the Earl of Derby in the 1770s, but its villa dates back to around 1750 and is in that era's fashionable landscape style, with trees forming a perimeter screen and placed in artful clumps to suggest a natural landscape.

Nonsuch Park near Cheam in the west is the last surviving part of the Little Park of Nonsuch, a deer hunting park established by Henry VIII of England surrounding the former Nonsuch Palace. The name "Nonsuch" was given as, it was claimed, there was "none such place like it" in Europe.

List of parks
The main parks in the borough are:

 * Beddington Park
 * Carshalton Park
 * Cheam Park
 * Grove Park
 * Lakeside
 * Manor Park, Sutton town centre
 * Mellows Park
 * Nonsuch Park
 * Oaks Park
 * Rosehill Park East and West
 * Overton Park
 * Poulter Park Poulter Park
 * Queen Mary's Park
 * Roundshaw Down
 * Royston Park
 * Seer's Park
 * St Helier Open Space
 * The Wandle Walkway

Local nature reserves
Sutton also contains a large number of Local Nature Reserves:
 * Anton Crescent Wetland has ponds, willow carr and reedbeds, and the ponds never dry out as the rock formation is Oxford Clay. The pools and mud provide a habitat for birds such as the green sandpiper and common snipe.
 * Belmont Pastures is a long narrow triangle north of Belmont railway station. It is an old meadow which formerly belonged to Belmont Hospital.
 * Cuddington Meadows is mainly chalk grassland with some scrub. Its most important feature is a variety of unusual flowering plants, including greater knapweed, lady's bedstraw and field scabious.
 * Devonshire Avenue Nature Area is mainly neutral grassland, but it has areas of chalk grassland, scrub and trees. A notable species is the small blue butterfly, which is rare in the borough. Plants include the nationally scarce ivy broomrape, and kidney vetch and bird's-foot trefoil.
 * Roundshaw Downs was in the 19th century an area of farmland, becoming in the first half of the twentieth Croydon Airport. Most of the site is a mixture of chalk and neutral grassland, but there is also some woodland. Areas of unimproved chalk grassland have species typical of this habitat such as common quaking grass, wild carrot and bird's-foot-trefoil. A grassland flower species is greater yellow rattle, which is nationally protected, and Sutton and Croydon are its national strongholds.
 * Ruffett and Big Woods on the edge of the borough near Woodmansterne are the largest continuous area of woodland in the borough. Ruffett Wood is mainly sycamore, with some ash and hazel. It also has some plant species indicative of ancient woodland, such as bluebells. Big Wood has even more sycamore, as well as two large oaks and a stand of wood anemone. The site also has numerous bird species.
 * Spencer Road Wetlands has since 1991 been managed by the London Wildlife Trust. The site has reed swamps with wetland vegetation, woodland, a sedge-bed and a pond. Insects include the twin-spotted wainscot and crescent moths, and there are birds such as grey heron, reed warbler and kingfishers.
 * Sutton Ecology Centre Grounds is in Carshalton and owned by Sutton Council and managed by it and the Friends of Sutton Ecology Centre. Habitats include ponds, woodland, meadows, marshlands. There are also small demonstration gardens. In the south is the old course of the River Wandle, which in now dry most of the time, but still has yellow flag iris. Margaret's Pool has a number of species of dragonfly and damselfly, and the trees surrounding it are sycamore and ash.
 * The Spinney, Carshalton, a small L-shaped reserve, is a mixture of woodland and scrub, with the main trees being plane and elm. Breeding birds include dunnocks, wrens and blackbirds. Other animals include wood boring beetles and foxes.
 * Wandle Valley Wetland has open water and seasonal pools, scrub and wet woodland. There are frogs, toads and newts, together with brown hawker dragonflies and birds including blackcaps and wrens.
 * Wilderness Island, near Carshalton, is a 2.7 hectare island between two arms of the River Wandle and was once the site of a pleasure garden. It features a fish pond, woodland, and meadows. Trees include the black poplar, and there are birds such as the woodpecker, kingfisher and grebe. There is a variety of butterflies including the speckled wood and holly blue, and the rare hornet clearwing moth.

Lavender fields
There are two historic lavender fields in the borough: at Oaks Way, Carshalton Beeches is a non-profit community project that manages three acres of lavender. The other, a 25-acre commercial site in Croydon Lane called Mayfield, is popular with tourists. It is located just within the Carshalton South and Clockhouse ward within the London Borough of Sutton. This area was once famous as the "Lavender Capital of the World". From the 18th to the early 20th centuries the North Downs of Surrey, with its chalky free-draining soil, ideal for lavender growing, were at the centre of worldwide production of lavender. It was a very prosperous part of the local agriculture. Blue fields could be seen all over Mitcham, Croydon, Wallington, Banstead, Carshalton and Sutton. The scale of the operation can be understood from the fact that the Daily News in 1914 was able to state:

At Carshalton Beeches in every direction the low hill sides of the farm beyond Beeches Halt are swept with the bloomy pastel tint of the lavender flowers.

Sports facilities and clubs
Football club Sutton United F.C. are based in Sutton at Gander Green Lane and play in the. Sutton Common Rovers, who play in the, also share the ground with Sutton United. Carshalton has two football clubs: Carshalton Athletic F.C. (home ground at The War Memorial Sports Ground, Colston Avenue, and play in the ) and Carshalton FC (at Beddington Park).

Wallington has a Non-League football club Crescent Rovers F.C. who play at the Wallington Sports & Social Club.

Sutton and Epsom RFC is a rugby union club based at Rugby Lane, in Cheam, London, having been formed in 1881. The Club run six Men's teams and two women's sides, plus they have one of the largest and best run mini and junior rugby sections in the country

The Croydon Pirates despite their name play just inside the borough of Sutton, at Waddon and are one of the most successful teams in the British Baseball Federation.

Sutton Cricket Club is based in Cheam Road, Sutton, (entrance in Gander Green Lane.) The club's 1st XI plays at the highest level of the sport available to it, the England & Wales Cricket Board's, 'Surrey Championship Premier Division'.

Round Towers GAA, Senior Gaelic Football Club, Sean Treacy's Hurling Club and Croydon Camogie Club.

Rosehill boasts an ETTA premier level Table Tennis Club, Rosehill TTC who play in the Sutton & District League and the Thames Valley League.

At the Westcroft Leisure Centre, in Carshalton there are health and fitness facilities including two swimming pools, sports hall, squash court and fitness centre. There is also a children's play area called Kid's Kingdom. Westcroft is also home to Sutton Pumas basketball club.

In 2012 Westcroft underwent a major renovation costing £11 million, bringing improved swimming facilities, a dance studio and beauty treatment rooms. There are eight courts in the sports hall, providing facilities for activities including badminton, gymnastics, trampolining, basketball, football, netball and volleyball.

In addition, Carshalton Library moved to the Westcroft centre, as part of the renovation.

There are also two public basketball courts in the Rosehill district of Sutton borough.

The Sutton and Epsom Weightlifting Club meet at Sutton Arena near to St Hellier's Hospital to the North of Sutton.

Climate
Sutton has a temperate climate in common with most areas of Great Britain, it is similar to that of Greenwich in Inner London: its Köppen climate classification is Cfb. Its mean annual temperature of 9.6 °C is similar to that experienced throughout the Weald, and slightly cooler than nearby areas such as the Sussex coast and central London. Rainfall is considerably below England's average (1971–2000) level of 838 mm, and every month is drier overall than the England average.

The nearest weather station is at Gatwick Airport.

Town twinning
Sutton's twin towns are as follows:
 * Gagny, France
 * Gladsaxe, Denmark
 * Minden, Germany
 * Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Germany

In addition, there is a friendship link with:
 * Tavarnelle, Italy

The Sutton twin towns mural on a building in Sutton town centre is made up of individual paintings of all the twin towns. It was created in 1993. The building is at the junction of Sutton High Street and Sutton Court Road.

Notable individuals

 * Tom Abbott, broadcaster for Golf Channel and NBC
 * Martin Adams, BDO Darts World Champion
 * Joan Armatrading, singer-songwriter & musician, lived in Sutton in the 1970s.
 * Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, athlete, attended Greenshaw High School
 * Terry and Jonathan Austen, micronation creators
 * Ben Barnes, actor, attended Homefield Preparatory School.
 * Jeff Beck, musician – rock guitarist: one of the three noted guitarists to have played with the Yardbirds (the other two being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page).
 * David Bellamy, broadcaster and botanist, attended Sutton Grammar School.
 * Sally Bercow, wife of the former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.
 * Johnny Borrell, guitarist, singer and frontman of the band Razorlight.
 * Seb Brown, Sutton United goalkeeper, attended Cheam High School
 * Paul Burstow, MP for Sutton and Cheam was born in Carshalton, and was educated at Carshalton College
 * Angus Calder, writer, historian and academic
 * Rob Davis, Lead Guitarist of Mud
 * Lord Peter Ritchie Calder, author, journalist and academic
 * Sir Nicholas Carew, sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, Master of the King's Horse, executed by Henry VIII
 * Sir Francis Carew, grandson of the above, of Beddington Park, Elizabethan horticulturalist
 * Noël Coward, actor and playwright lived in Lenham Road, Sutton until the age of six
 * John Clinch, cricketer
 * James Cracknell OBE, Olympic gold medallist in rowing
 * Quentin Crisp, writer, author, raconteur
 * Clark Datchler, lead singer of Johnny Hates Jazz
 * Sir John Fellowes, 1st Baronet (c. 1671–1724), of the South Sea Company
 * Eddie George later Lord George (1938–2009) GBE DL, PC,(16 September 1938 – 18 April 2009), Governor of the Bank of England 1993–2003.
 * Brett Goldstein, actor/writer born in Sutton in 1980.
 * Les Gray, lead vocalist of Mud
 * Lord Hardwicke, (1690–1764) Lord Chancellor
 * Darius Henderson, footballer
 * Catherine Holman, actress
 * James Hunt, Formula One winning racing driver.
 * Penelope Keith, actress, and famous for her role in The Good Life, was born in Sutton.
 * Ruth Kelly, former Labour Party member of parliament and Transport Secretary, attended Sutton High School.
 * Rebecca Litchfield, photographer.
 * Peter Loader, cricketer
 * Bradley McIntosh, member of the band S Club 7, attended Greenshaw High School.
 * Sir John Major KG CH, former Conservative Prime Minister
 * Gary Mason, boxer
 * Katie Melua, singer, songwriter, and musician
 * David Mitchell (born 1980), cricketer
 * Simon Conway Morris, palaeontologist, specifically research of Burgess Shale type fauna
 * Dave Mount, drummer of Mud
 * Joshua Pascoe, Played Ben Mitchell in Eastenders
 * Peter Alfred Penfold, CMG, OBE, diplomat, attended Sutton Grammar School.
 * Dr John Radcliffe, royal physician and MP see Radcliffe Camera, Radcliffe Infirmary and the Radcliffe Observatory
 * Michael Reeves, film director and screenwriter, best known for the 1968 film Witchfinder General
 * Sir Cliff Richard, singer and songwriter, attended Stanley Park Junior School
 * Rebecca Romero, Olympic cycling champion
 * Joanna Rowsell Shand, Olympic gold medallist in women's pursuit cycling
 * Dora Russell (born Dora Black, 1894–1986), author, feminist and progressive campaigner, attended Sutton High School.
 * Sir William Scawen, merchant who purchased Carshalton manor
 * Sir Harry Secombe, singer, comedian and entertainer. Member of the Goon Show cast.
 * Jack Simmons, historian
 * Tim Smith, frontman of Cardiacs
 * Alec Stewart OBE, cricketer
 * Ian Stewart, co-founder of the Rolling Stones.
 * Neil Sullivan, footballer
 * Sarah Tullamore, actress and singer
 * Tracey Ullman, stage and television actress, comedian, singer, director, and screenwriter, grew up in Hackbridge.
 * Tim Vine, actor and comedian
 * David Weir MBE, multi-Olympic gold medallist, Paralympic athlete
 * Helen Young, BBC Weather Presenter and former BBC Weather Centre Manager lives here.
 * Zacron, born Richard Drew, designer of the Led Zeppelin III album cover.

title: London Borough of Sutton


text:
Alexis of Russia

Alexei Mikhailovich (Алексей Михайлович, ; 29 March 1629 – 8 February 1676), also known as Alexis, was Tsar of all Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676.

He was the first tsar to sign laws on his own authority and his council passed the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649, which strengthened the bonds between autocracy and the lower nobility.

In religious matters, he sided closely with Patriarch Nikon during the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church which saw unpopular liturgical reforms.

While finding success in foreign affairs, his reign saw several wars with Iran, Poland (from whom left-bank Ukraine and Smolensk were annexed) and Sweden, as well as internal instabilities such as the Salt Riot in Moscow and the Cossack revolt of Stenka Razin in southern Russia. At the time of his death, Russia spanned almost 8.1 e6km2.

Early life and reign
Born in Moscow on 29 March 1629, the son of Tsar Michael and Eudoxia Streshneva, the sixteen-year-old Alexis acceded to the throne after his father's death on 12 July 1645. In August, the Tsar's mother died, and following a pilgrimage to Sergiyev Posad he was crowned on 28 September in the Dormition Cathedral. He was committed to the care of his tutor Boris Morozov, a shrewd boyar open to Western ideas.

Morozov pursued a peaceful foreign policy, securing a truce with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and carefully avoiding complications with the Ottoman Empire. His domestic policy aimed at limiting the privileges of foreign traders and abolishing useless and expensive court offices. On 17 January 1648, Morozov procured the marriage of the tsar with Maria Miloslavskaya, himself marrying her sister Anna, ten days later, both the daughters of Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky.

Alexis empowered Morozov to conduct reforms in reducing social tensions, however his measure of tripling the tax burden (arrears for the two years preceding 1648 was demanded) saw heightened popular discontent. Morozov was regarded as a corrupt, self-seeking boyar and was accused of sorcery and witchcraft. In May 1648 Muscovites rose against his faction in the Salt Riot, and the young Tsar was compelled to dismiss them and exile Morozov to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Four months later, Morozov secretly returned to Moscow to regain some of his power.

The popular discontent demonstrated by the riot was partially responsible for Alexis' 1649 issuance of a new legal code, the Sobornoye Ulozhenie.

Military reform
In 1648, using the experience of creating regiments of the foreign system during the reign of his father, Alexis began reforming the army.

The main direction of the reform was the mass creation of New Order Regiments: Reiters, Soldiers, Dragoons and Hussars. These regiments formed the backbone of the new army of Tsar Alexis. To fulfill the reform goals, a large number of European military specialists were hired for service. This became possible because of the end of the Thirty Years' War, which created a colossal surplus of military professionals in Europe.

Rebellions
Throughout his reign, Alexis faced rebellions across Russia. After resolving the 1648 Salt Riot Alexis faced rebellions in 1650 in the cities of Pskov and Great Novgorod. Alexis put down the Novgorod rebellion quickly, but was unable to subdue Pskov, and was forced to promise the city amnesty in return for surrender. The Metropolitan Nikon distinguished himself at Great Novgorod and in 1651 became the Tsar's chief minister.

By the 1660s, Alexis's wars with Poland and Sweden had put an increasing strain on the Russian economy and public finances. In response, Alexis's government had begun minting large numbers of copper coins in 1654 to increase government revenue but this led to a devaluation of the ruble and a severe financial crisis. As a result, angry Moscow residents revolted in the 1662 Copper Riot, which was put down violently.

In 1669, the Cossacks along the Don in southern Russia erupted in rebellion. The rebellion was led by Stenka Razin, a disaffected Don Cossack who had captured the Russian terminus of Astrakhan. From 1670 to 1671, Razin seized multiple towns along the Volga river. The turning point in his campaign was his failed siege of Simbirsk in October 1670. Razin was finally captured on the Don in April 1671, and was drawn and quartered in Moscow.

War against Safavid Iran
In 1651, Safavid troops attacked Russian fortifications in the North Caucasus. The main issue involved the expansion of a Russian garrison on the Koy Su river, as well as the construction of several new fortresses, in particular the one built on the Iranian side of the Terek river. The successful Safavid offensive resulted in the destruction of the Russian fortress and its garrison being expelled. In 1653, Alexis, initially thinking about sending the Zaporozhian Cossacks, eventually decided to send an embassy to Persia for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. In August 1653 courtier Prince Ivan Lobanov-Rostov and steward Ivan Komynin traveled from Astrakhan to Isfahan. Shah Abbas II agreed to settle the conflict, stating that the conflict was initiated without his consent.

Wars against Poland and Sweden

In 1653, the weakness and disorder of Poland, which had just emerged from the Khmelnytsky Uprising, encouraged Alexis to attempt to annex the old Rus' lands. On 1 October 1653 a national assembly met at Moscow to sanction the war and find the means of carrying it out, and in April 1654 the army was blessed by Nikon, who had been elected patriarch in 1652.

The campaign of 1654 was an uninterrupted triumph, and scores of towns, including the important fortress of Smolensk, fell into the hands of the Russians. Ukrainian Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky appealed to Tsar Alexis for protection from the Poles, and the Treaty of Pereyaslav brought about Russian dominance of the Cossack Hetmanate in left-bank Ukraine. In the summer of 1655, a sudden invasion by Charles X of Sweden briefly swept the Polish state out of existence, in what became known as the Deluge. The Russians, unopposed, quickly appropriated nearly everything that was not already occupied by the Swedes. When the Poles offered to negotiate, the whole grand duchy of Lithuania was the least of the demands made by Alexis. However, Alexis and the king of Sweden quarrelled over the apportionment of the spoils, and at the end of May 1656, with encouragement by the Habsburg emperor and the other enemies of Sweden, Alexis declared war on Sweden.

Great things were expected by Russia of the Swedish war, but nothing came of it. Dorpat was taken, but countless multitudes of men were lost in vain before Riga. In the meantime, Poland had so far recovered herself as to become a much more dangerous foe than Sweden, and, as it was impossible to wage war with both simultaneously, the tsar resolved to rid himself of the Swedes first. In the Peace of Kardis (2 July 1661), Russia retroceded all her conquests.

The Polish war dragged on for six years longer and was then concluded by the Truce of Andrusovo (11 February 1667), nominally for thirteen years, which proved the most durable of treaties. According to the truce, Polotsk and Polish Livonia were restored to Poland, but the more important cities of Smolensk and Kiev remained in the hands of Russia together with the whole eastern bank of the Dnieper river. This truce was the achievement of Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin, the first Russian chancellor and diplomat in the modern sense, who after the disgrace of Nikon became the tsar's first minister until 1670, when he was superseded by the equally able Artamon Matveyev, whose beneficent influence prevailed to the end of Alexis's reign.

Response to English Civil War
When Charles I of England was beheaded by the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell in 1649, an outraged Alexis broke off diplomatic relations with England and accepted Royalist refugees in Moscow. He also banned all English merchants from his country (notably members of the Muscovy Company) and provided financial assistance to "the disconsolate widow of that glorious martyr, King Charles I."

Schism with the Old Believers

In 1653, Patriarch Nikon established a series of reforms that aimed to bring the practices of the Russian Orthodox Church into line with its Greek counterpart. Most notably, the church began to mandate the use of three fingers instead of two in making the sign of the cross. This resulted in significant dissent among the church community. Nevertheless, Alexis continued to support Nikon until 1658, when Nikon abandoned his post due to a personal insult, leaving the seat of the patriarch vacant.

In 1666, the tsar convened the Great Moscow Synod, which was attended by Patriarch Macarius III Ibn al-Za'im and Patriarch Paisius of Alexandria, in order to address the problems caused by Nikon. The synod agreed to formally depose Nikon, and also decided to excommunicate all who opposed the reforms of the church; those opponents broke away from the official Russian Orthodox Church to form the Old Believers movement.

Across Russia, Old Believers were harshly persecuted. One such old believer was Avvakum "the leader of the old Believers". Avvakum "had his wife and children buried alive in front of him; he himself was just exiled".

Several old believers fled to the monastery of Solovki which had revolted in the Solovetsky Monastery uprising. The monastery would be besieged for seven years until 22 January 1676 which was a few days before Alexis's death on 8 February 1676.

Assessment
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition: "It is the crowning merit of the Tsar Alexei that he discovered so many great men (like Fyodor Rtishchev, Ordin, Matveyev, the best of Peter's precursors) and suitably employed them. He was not a man of superior strength of character, or he would never have submitted to the dictation of Nikon. But, on the other hand, he was naturally, if timorously, progressive, or he would never have encouraged the great reforming boyar Matveyev. His last years, notwithstanding the terrible rebellion of Stenka Razin, were deservedly tranquil."

Alexis's letters were first published by Pyotr Bartenev in 1856. They have earned him a place in the history of Russian literature, as assessed by D. S. Mirsky:

"A few private letters and an instruction to his falconers is all we have of him. But it is sufficient for Sergey Platonov to proclaim him the most attractive of Russian monarchs. He acquired the moniker Tishayshy, which means 'most quiet' or 'most peaceful'. He received this moniker through the ways he behaved—he would be kind and friendly, but the sounds created from instruments would provoke him. Certain aspects of Russian Orthodoxy, not its most purely spiritual, but its aesthetic and worldly aspects, found in him their most complete expression. The essence of Alexis's personality is a certain spiritual Epicureanism, manifested in an optimistic Christian faith, in a profound, but unfanatical, attachment to the traditions and ritual of the Church, in a desire to see everyone round him happy and at peace, and in a highly developed capacity to extract a quiet and mellow enjoyment from all things."

Personal description
In 1666, his doctor Samuel Collins described Alexis (then aged 37) as having "a sanguine complexion with light brown hair, his beard uncut. He is tall and fat of a majestical deportment, severe in his anger, bountiful, charitable".

Title
The full title of Alexis in 1667 was:

Family and children

Alexis's first marriage to Miloslavskaya was harmonious and felicitous. They had thirteen children (five sons and eight daughters) in twenty-one years of marriage, and she died only weeks after her thirteenth childbirth. Four sons survived her (Alexei, Fyodor, Semyon and Ivan), but within six months of her death two of these were dead, including Alexei, the 15-year-old heir to the throne. The couple's children were:
 * Dmitri Alexeevich (1648–1649); crown prince; died in infancy
 * Yevdokia Alekseevna (1650–1712)
 * Marfa Alekseyevna (1652–1707)
 * Alexei Alexeevich (1654–1670); crown prince; died unwed aged 15
 * Anna Alexeevna (23 January 1655– 8 May 1659); died in infancy
 * Sofia Alexeevna (1657–1704), regent of Russia (1682–89) for her two younger brothers; never married
 * Ekaterina Alexeevna (1658–1718)
 * Maria Alexeevna (1660–1723)
 * Fyodor III (1661–1682); succeeded his father as Tsar of Russia; died childless
 * Feodosia Alexeyevna (1662–1713)
 * Simeon Alexeyevich (1665–1669); died in infancy
 * Ivan V (1666–1696); was co-ruler along with his younger half-brother Peter, father of Empress Anna
 * Yevdokia Alexeevna (1669–1669)

Alexis remarried on 1 February 1671 to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina (1 September 1651 – 4 February 1694). She had been brought up in the house of Artamon Matveyev, whose wife was the Scottish-descended Mary Hamilton. Their children were:
 * Peter I (1672–1725), later known as "Peter the Great", Tsar and first Emperor of Russia
 * Natalya Alexeevna (1673–1716)
 * Fyodora Alexeevna (1674–1678)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Alexis of Russia


text:
London Borough of Merton

The London Borough of Merton is a London borough in London, England. The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Merton and Morden Urban District, all formerly within Surrey.

The main commercial centres in Merton are Mitcham, Morden and Wimbledon, of which Wimbledon is the largest. Other smaller centres include Raynes Park, Colliers Wood, South Wimbledon and Wimbledon Park. The borough is the host of the Wimbledon tournament, one of tennis's Grand Slam competitions.

The borough derives its name from the historic parish of Merton which was centred on the area now known as South Wimbledon. The local authority is Merton London Borough Council, which is based in Morden.

History
The area of the modern borough broadly corresponds to the four ancient parishes of Merton, Mitcham, Morden, and Wimbledon, all of which were historically in the county of Surrey.

The parish of Wimbledon was made a local government district in 1866. Such districts were converted into urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. The Wimbledon Urban District was subsequently incorporated to become the municipal borough of Wimbledon in 1905.

Merton was made an urban district in 1907, which was enlarged in 1913 to take in neighbouring Morden, becoming the Merton and Morden Urban District. Mitcham was made an urban district in 1915, which was incorporated to become the municipal borough of Mitcham in 1934.

The modern borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963, covering the combined area of the former boroughs of Mitcham and Wimbledon and the Merton and Morden Urban District. The area was transferred from Surrey to Greater London to become one of the 32 London Boroughs.

The name Merton for the borough was chosen as a compromise, following a dispute between Wimbledon and Mitcham over the new borough's name.

Districts
Areas in the borough include:

 * Bushey Mead
 * Colliers Wood
 * Copse Hill
 * Cottenham Park
 * Crooked Billet
 * Lower Morden
 * Merton Park
 * Mitcham
 * Mitcham Common
 * Morden
 * Morden Park
 * Motspur Park (also partly Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames)
 * New Malden (also partly Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames)
 * Norbury (also partly in London Borough of Croydon and London Borough of Lambeth)
 * Pollards Hill (also partly in London Borough of Croydon)
 * Raynes Park
 * St. Helier (also partly in the London Borough of Sutton)
 * South Wimbledon
 * Summerstown (also partly in the London Borough of Wandsworth)
 * Wimbledon
 * Wimbledon Park

Governance
The local authority is Merton Council, based at Merton Civic Centre in Morden.

Greater London representation
Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Merton and Wandsworth constituency.

Media
A lot of filming for former ITV police drama The Bill took place in Merton, particularly in the districts of Mitcham and Colliers Wood. The set of Sun Hill police station was also located in the Borough. Ray Austin, born at 9 Abbey Rd Merton on the 5 December 1932, is an English television and film director, television writer, novelist and former stunt performer and actor who worked in both the United Kingdom and the United States. He filmed episodes of The Avengers and The Saint in and around Merton. He served as director on episodes of some 150 programs between 1968 and 2010.

The main local newspaper in Merton is the Wimbledon Times (recently changed name from Wimbledon Guardian). This newspaper was founded in 1977 by a former Conservative councillor on Merton Council, but since then the paper has been sold on and it is now widely published in different editions across South London. The newspaper is available free, though there is a charge if bought from a newsagent. It is published each Friday.

Economy
Notable businesses with their headquarters in Merton including:
 * Eidos Interactive, a subsidiary of Square Enix, located in Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon.
 * Lenstore, an online optical retailer, located in Wimbledon Park
 * Square Enix Europe: located in Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon.
 * Lidl head offices, located in Wimbledon, although they are moving out of Wimbledon heading for Tolworth.

Education
London's Poverty Profile (a 2017 report by Trust for London and the New Policy Institute) found that 40% of Merton's 19-year-olds lack level 3 qualifications. This is the 5th worst figure out of 32 London boroughs.

Transport
Merton is served by a wide range of National Rail stations across the borough, as well as the southern tip of London Underground's Northern line and the District line on the Wimbledon branch. The borough is also served by several Tramlink stops from Wimbledon, that goes to Croydon, New Addington, Elmers End and Beckenham. It is the only London Borough which has tube, rail and tram services.

London Underground stations
 * Colliers Wood
 * South Wimbledon
 * Morden
 * Wimbledon Park
 * Wimbledon

Tramlink stops
 * Wimbledon
 * Dundonald Road
 * Merton Park
 * Morden Road
 * Phipps Bridge
 * Belgrave Walk
 * Mitcham
 * Mitcham Junction

National Rail stations
 * Tooting
 * Haydons Road
 * Wimbledon
 * Wimbledon Chase
 * South Merton
 * Morden South
 * St Helier
 * Mitcham Junction
 * Mitcham Eastfields
 * Raynes Park
 * Motspur Park

In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 19.2% of all residents aged 16–74; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 13.0%; train, 13.0%; bus, minibus or coach, 7.5%; on foot, 5.0%; work mainly at or from home, 3.4%; bicycle, 2.4%.

Demographics and social conditions
In 2001, the census recorded that 25% of the population of the borough was from an ethnic minority. The highest ethnic populations were recorded in wards in the east of the borough in Mitcham, Eastfields and Pollards Hill. The percentage of population from ethnic minorities is predicted to rise across the borough within the next decade.

A report by Trust for London and the New Policy Institute found that Merton had a poverty rate of 14% in 2020, the 2nd lowest rate in London. It also found that the 2023 level of pay inequality in Merton is lower than in any other borough, except Kingston.

According to the council's comparative assessment of wards made in 2004, the most deprived wards within the borough were in the south and east where unemployment rates, educational attainment and the quality of health were worst. The most affluent wards were in the north and west of the borough.

Comparative crime rates appear to be unrelated to the deprivation ranking of wards. The wards containing Mitcham town centre and the St Helier Estate are ranked highest for crime within Merton with the wards containing the commercial shopping centres of Colliers Wood and Wimbledon also featuring high in the ranking.

The constituency area of Wimbledon is an affluent area of London with a high proportion of city workers, while Mitcham and Morden is relatively deprived by comparison, which explains the geographical split of political representation of the borough at both national and local elections.

Merton currently operates a Police Cadet scheme under the Metropolitan Police Service.

Wimbledon tennis tournament
Each year The Championships, Wimbledon, better known as simply Wimbledon, one of the four tennis Grand Slam tournaments (along with the US, French and Australian Opens) is held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Church Road Wimbledon. The event takes place over a fortnight at the end of June and beginning of July and is the largest annual sporting event to take place in the United Kingdom with over 200,000 visitors during the Wimbledon fortnight.

Football
The borough gained a football team in 1889 when Wimbledon Old Centrals were founded, and were soon a member of the local football leagues. The club later adopted the title Wimbledon FC and moved into a new stadium at Plough Lane in 1912, where it would spend the next 79 years. As the 20th century wore on, the club enjoyed considerable success in non-league football. The club was elected to the Football League in 1977 and enjoyed a great run of success when began in 1983 with the Fourth Division title, and saw them reach the First Division in 1986 – a mere nine years after joining the Football League. They quickly established themselves in the highest division of English football, and as clear underdogs, pulled off a shock win in the 1988 FA Cup Final against Liverpool, England's most successful and dominant club side in Europe during that era. They were founder members of the FA Premier League in 1992 and survived at that level until 2000, before relocating to Milton Keynes, some 70 miles away in Buckinghamshire, in a controversial move in 2003, being rebranded as Milton Keynes Dons in 2004. The club had left its Plough Lane stadium in 1991 to ground-share with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with numerous plans to build a new stadium in a number of different locations (including back in London and even in Dublin or Cardiff) being considered over the following decade before the club's owners chose Milton Keynes as their destination.

However, a new Wimbledon club – AFC Wimbledon – was formed to represent the local area in 2002 by fans of the original club after the move to Milton Keynes was given the go-ahead. The new Wimbledon club's progress was rapid, and after just nine years in existence they won promotion to the Football League in 2011. The club gained permission in 2016 it to build a new stadium back on Plough Lane, using the former Greyhound Stadium around a hundred yards from its old stadium site and still within the London Borough of Merton. In 2018 the final agreements were signed off and demolition work started on the site (for both stadium and 600 flats) in April 2018. Building was completed for the 2020–21 season. The first competitive game in front of fans was played on 14 August 2021, a 3–3 draw against Bolton Wanderers.

The borough also has five non-League football clubs: Colliers Wood United F.C. who play at Wibbandune Sports Ground; Raynes Park Vale F.C. who play at Prince George's Fields; Tooting & Mitcham United F.C. who play at Imperial Fields, Morden; and Merton Forest F.C. who also play at Prince George's Fields and a Celebrity Fundraising Football team – Celeb FC who play all over the UK without charge for small UK charities.

Television
The Talkback Thames television studio on Deer Park Road was used as Sun Hill Police Station in the ITV police drama The Bill from its inception in 1984 until it was axed in 2010.

Sister cities

 * 🇺🇸 Irving, Texas, United States

Freedom of the Borough
The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Merton.

Individuals

 * Andy Murray: 20 July 2014.
 * Angela Mortimer: 27 June 2014.
 * Ann Haydon-Jones: 27 July 2014.
 * Virginia Wade: 27 July 2014.
 * Dickie Guy: 16 July 2021.

title: London Borough of Merton


text:
London Borough of Wandsworth

Wandsworth is a London borough in South West London, England. It forms part of Inner London and has an estimated population of 329,677 inhabitants. Its main communities are Battersea, Balham, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth Town.

The borough borders the London Borough of Lambeth to the east, the London Borough of Merton and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to the south, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to the west, and to the north (across the River Thames) three boroughs, namely the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster. The local authority is Wandsworth London Borough Council.

History
The area of the modern borough was historically part of the county of Surrey. From 1856 the area was governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London. In 1889 the Metropolitan Board of Works' area was made the County of London. From 1856 until 1900 the lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards. One such district was the Wandsworth District, containing the six parishes of Battersea, Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting Graveney and Wandsworth. In 1888 Battersea was removed from the district to be governed by its own vestry. In 1900 the lower tier was reorganised into metropolitan boroughs. The parish of Battersea became the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea and the Wandsworth District became the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth.

The modern borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963. It covered the former borough of Battersea and the majority of the former borough of Wandsworth, but excluding the Clapham and Streatham areas, which went to Lambeth.

Geography
The borough includes the major Clapham Junction railway station, which despite the name is in Battersea not Clapham. There are many new or refurbished buildings along the borough's prosperous riverside including the large Chelsea Bridge Wharf. The Peace Pagoda, one of many such international pagodas, is in Battersea Park, a sprawling rectangle often hosting circuses beside the Thames. The London Heliport, London's main and busiest heliport, is just beyond Battersea Park, and south of this is New Covent Garden Market. In terms of size, South Thames College, Southside Shopping Centre, Wandsworth and The Exchange Shopping Centre, Putney are among the largest secular structures.

Secular architecturally most highly listed buildings include: Battersea Power Station, the Battersea Arts Centre (formerly town hall), Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, Wandsworth Town Hall, as well as particularly the interiors of the large Gala Bingo Club, Tooting, the former Granada Theatre, St John's Hill, Clapham Junction by Theodore Komisarjevsky, and in terms of ornate mansions a cluster of five large stone and brick buildings mostly converted to diverse public uses in and around Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton at grade II* or above. In Old Battersea two fine masonry mansions survived The Blitz: Old Battersea House and Downshire House —both hold rare Grade II* status.

Governance
The local authority is Wandsworth Council, based at Wandsworth Town Hall.

Greater London representation
Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Merton and Wandsworth constituency.

Westminster Parliament
The borough contains three parliamentary constituencies:

 * Battersea
 * Putney
 * Tooting

Population
According to the 2021 census, Wandsworth has a population of 327,506. In 2021, 67.8% of the population was white, 10.1% black and 11.6% Asian.

A 2017 study by Trust for London and the New Policy Institute found that Wandsworth has the lowest rate of unemployment of any London borough. It also has the 2nd lowest rate of local employees who are low-paid.

Bridges
Five bridges join Wandsworth to the three London Boroughs on the north side of the Thames (from downstream following the river up):

 * Chelsea Bridge
 * Albert Bridge
 * Battersea Bridge
 * Wandsworth Bridge
 * Putney Bridge

There are also a number of bridges crossing the River Wandle which runs through the centre of Wandsworth town and divides the borough in two.

National Rail Stations

 * Clapham Junction
 * Earlsfield
 * Putney
 * Battersea Park
 * Balham
 * Wandsworth Common
 * Tooting (on border with London Borough of Merton)
 * Queenstown Road (Battersea)
 * Wandsworth Town

Tube Stations

 * On the Northern line:
 * Battersea Power Station
 * Clapham South
 * Balham
 * Tooting Bec
 * Tooting Broadway
 * On the District line:
 * East Putney
 * Southfields

National Rail services are operated from London Waterloo by South Western Railway to Earlsfield, Putney, Queenstown Road (Battersea), Wandsworth Town and the borough's largest station, Clapham Junction. This last station is also served from London Victoria by Southern as are Balham, Battersea Park and Wandsworth Common.

London Overground services mainly serve Clapham Junction, which is the southern terminus for the West London Line that has services to Stratford via Shepherd's Bush, though some trains terminate at the West London Line's northern terminus at Willesden Junction. The western terminus for the East London Line also is at Clapham Junction that has services to Highbury & Islington via Denmark Hill. There is also a limited one train a day parliamentary train service that terminates at Battersea Park instead of Clapham Junction.

London Underground services are provided on the District line to East Putney and Southfields and on the Northern line to Battersea Power Station, Balham, Clapham South, Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway.

Cycling and walking
Wandsworth London Borough Council and Transport for London (TfL) maintain cycling infrastructure in the Borough.

Cycle Superhighway 7 (CS7) is an unbroken, signposted cycle route running through the southeastern portion of the Borough. The route runs along the A24 and A3 roads, through Tooting, Balham, and Clapham. Northbound the route links the Borough directly to the City of London via Kennington, Elephant and Castle, and Southwark. Southbound, the route runs unbroken to Colliers Wood.

Cycle Superhighway 8 (CS8) is an unbroken, signposted cycle route running through the northern edge of Wandsworth, through Battersea. The route runs east–west along the A3205/Battersea Park Road, but the route leaves the Borough to the north over Chelsea Bridge. The route begins in Wandsworth Town and runs to Millbank, City of Westminster, passing Chelsea and the Tate Britain en route.

Although CS8 leaves the Borough to the north, cycling infrastructure is provided along the entire A3205 route between Wandsworth Town and Nine Elms. This means that there is a continuous, signposted cycle route - primarily along designated cycle lanes - from Wandsworth Town and Battersea to Vauxhall, Lambeth, and the South Bank.

Quietway 4 (Q4) runs from Clapham Common to Earlsfield in the Borough, through Wandsworth Common.

The Wandle Trail is a shared-use trail for cyclists and pedestrians between Wandsworth Town and Waddon. The route is signposted and mainly traffic-free. It runs through Earlsfield, Colliers Wood, Morden, Mitcham, and Carshalton along the way.

The Santander Cycles bike-sharing system operates in Putney, Wandsworth Town, and Battersea.

Travel to work
In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were (of all residents aged 16–74):
 * underground, metro, light rail, tram, 20.7% ;
 * train, 10.6%;
 * driving a car or van, 10.6%;
 * bus, minibus or coach, 9.7%;
 * on foot, 5.6%;
 * bicycle, 5.4%;
 * work mainly at or from home, 4.0%.

Education
Whitelands College was founded Chelsea in 1842 by the Church of England, and heavily under the influence of John Ruskin. In 1930/1931 the college relocated to West Hill (Wandsworth Borough) and occupied an enormous purpose-built site, with buildings designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. These buildings, now listed, were one of the Borough's largest educational sites until 2005 when the college, again moved, this time to a site in Roehampton, where it is now a constituent College of Roehampton University.

The borough's schools include Emanuel School, Graveney School, Southfields Academy, Burntwood School, Ashcroft Technology Academy, Ernest Bevin Academy, Ark Bolingbroke Academy, Ark Putney Academy and Chestnut Grove Academy.

Religion
The dominant religion of the borough is Christianity, although the area is also home to a number of other religious communities. The community is home to a number of Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus.

According to the 2011 Census, approximately 35% of Wandsworth identified as being non-religious, or chose not to state their faith.

The following shows the religious identity of residents residing in Wandsworth according to the 2001, 2011 and the 2021 censuses.

Parks and open spaces
Wandsworth has responsibility for three Metropolitan Open Spaces:

 * Battersea Park
 * Wandsworth Common
 * Tooting Commons – the historically separate, but adjoining, Tooting Bec Common and Tooting Graveney Common

These three large green spaces together with a range of smaller parks and playgrounds (such as Wandsworth Park) are patrolled by Wandsworth Council's own parks police known from 1984 to 2012 as the Wandsworth Parks Police. From April 2012 the Parks Police team of 23 officers was replaced by a smaller Wandsworth Events Police Service (WEPS) working with a team of 12 Metropolitan Police Officers. This system was deemed unsuccessful, and in 2015 the WEPS was rebranded as Wandsworth Parks and Events Police (WPEP) and returned to full staffing levels of 33 police officers and support officers.

Also within the borough's boundaries are Putney Heath and part of Putney Lower Common, which are managed as part of Wimbledon Common, and the west side of Clapham Common, which is managed by the London Borough of Lambeth.

Theatres

 * Battersea Arts Centre
 * Theatre503
 * Putney Arts Theatre
 * Tara Arts Theatre

Coat of arms
The armorial bearings retain many of the features of the arms of the former Metropolitan Borough of Battersea and Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth.

The fess, or crossing, of the shield is chequered blue and gold representing the arms of William de Warren, created first Earl of Surrey by William Rufus. Each gold square bears a teardrop representing the tears of the French Huguenots, many of whom settled in Wandsworth from 1685.

The ship at the top may refer to the Wendels, a tribe of sea-raiders from the Continent who supposedly gave their name to the district, for Wendelsworth was an early variation of Wandsworth. The four shields and oars on the ship represent the four parishes of Battersea, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth.

The dove to the left is taken from the former Battersea coat of arms and the black dragon to the right was taken from the former Wandsworth arms and also refers to London, being similar to the City of London coat of arms.

Villers-Plouich, 🇫🇷 [[france|France]]
The Borough is informally twinned with the village of Villers-Plouich, in Northern France. This association dates back to World War I, following the role played by the Wandsworth Battalion in the liberation of Villers-Plouich in 1917, and again, following recapture, in 1918. Writing in the 'Wandsworth Borough News' in 1920, Robert H Harker, a Lieutenant in the Battalion, described the cemetery in the village as "an inseparable link between our great Borough and that village of Villers-Plouich, near the Somme".

For his courage and determination during the hostilities, Corporal Edward Foster, of Tooting, was awarded both the Victoria Cross and the Médaille militaire. A green heritage plaque was unveiled at his former home at Tooting in 2017, and in 2018 a memorial in his name was established on the outskirts of Villers-Plouich.

Following the end of the War the village was adopted by the then Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth under the British 'League of Help' scheme, and funds were donated towards its reconstruction. A deputation from Wandsworth regularly visits to commemorate this connection, most recently in 2018.

Schiedam, 🇳🇱 [[netherlands|Netherlands]]
Wandsworth first established a twin town arrangement with Schiedam, in the Netherlands, in 1946. A number of refugees from Schiedam who had lived for a time in Wandsworth during World War II hoped to maintain their connections with the London Borough during peacetime. The twinning was organised within the scope of the Dutch-English Sports Plan. In subsequent years multiple sporting fixtures between teams from the two areas were arranged including football, swimming, gymnastics, korfball (Wandsworth has a korfball club, at Tooting) and cricket (Shiedam is one of the strongholds for cricket in the Netherlands).

For many years the wartime connections were acknowledged during annual Remembrance Day commemorations in the two municipalities, either through an exchange of wreaths or by sending a representative. Within the context of both inter-business exchange and sporting fixtures, visits were also arranged by specific Wandsworth organisations such as Small Electric Motors and the Rediffusion factory, as guests of their counterparts at Schiedam companies such as Wilton Personnel and Pieterman Glass.

In 1970 a large delegation from Wandsworth visited Schiedam for celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the town's liberation. Further sporting and cultural exchanges continued through to at least 1977. However, in 1997, an article in the Dutch local press observed that the relationship with Wandsworth had lapsed.

Localities

 * Balham
 * Battersea
 * Earlsfield
 * Furzedown
 * Nine Elms
 * Putney
 * Putney Heath
 * Putney Vale
 * Roehampton
 * Southfields
 * Streatham Park
 * Summerstown
 * Tooting
 * Tooting Bec/Upper Tooting
 * Wandsworth
 * West Hill

Postcode areas
SW4 (part), SW8 (part), SW11 (all), SW12 (part), SW15 (part), SW16 (part), SW17 (part), SW18 (part), SW19 (part)

title: London Borough of Wandsworth


text:
London Borough of Lambeth

Lambeth is a London borough in South London, England, which forms part of Inner London. Its name was recorded in 1062 as Lambehitha ("landing place for lambs") and in 1255 as Lambeth. The geographical centre of London is at Frazier Street near Lambeth North tube station, though nearby Charing Cross on the other side of the Thames in the City of Westminster is traditionally considered the centre of London.

History
The area of the modern borough had historically been part of the county of Surrey, and generally corresponds to the three ancient parishes of Lambeth, Clapham and Streatham.

The parish of Lambeth included the archiepiscopal Lambeth Palace, and formed part of the Hundred of Brixton. It was an elongated north–south parish with 2 mi of River Thames frontage opposite the cities of London and Westminster. Lambeth became part of the Metropolitan Police District in 1829.

From 1856 the area of the modern borough was governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London. In 1889 the Metropolitan Board of Works' area was made the County of London. From 1856 until 1900 the lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards; the parish of Lambeth was governed by its vestry, whilst Clapham and Streatham were both included in the Wandsworth District. In 1900 the lower tier was reorganised into metropolitan boroughs. The parish of Lambeth became the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth, and the old Wandsworth District became the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth.

The modern London borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963. It was a merger of the old borough of Lambeth and the Clapham and Streatham areas from the old Wandsworth borough.

When the government was drafting the boundaries for the London boroughs in the early 1960s, it initially suggested that the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth and the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark be merged into a new borough; the southern and eastern sections of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth (including Clapham, Streatham and Tooting) would form another. South Shields town clerk R.S. Young was commissioned to make final recommendations to the government on the shape of the future London boroughs, and he noted that the Wandsworth council opposed the partition of its borough. However, Wandsworth's suggestion to merge Lambeth with the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea was rejected by both councils involved. Young believed that residents of Clapham and Streatham would be more familiar with Brixton than with Wandsworth, and recommended a new borough formed from the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth and six wards and portions of two others from the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth.

In the 2016 European Union referendum, Lambeth had the highest share of Remain votes in the United Kingdom at 78.62%, second to overseas territory Gibraltar's 95.9%.

Geography
Lambeth is a long, thin borough, about 3 mi wide and 7 mi long. Brixton is its civic centre, and there are other town centres. The largest shopping areas are (in order of size) Streatham, Brixton, Vauxhall, Clapham and West Norwood.

In the northern part of the borough are the central London districts of the South Bank, Vauxhall and Lambeth; in the south are the suburbs of Gipsy Hill, Streatham, West Dulwich and West Norwood. In between are the developed and inner-city districts of Brixton, Brixton Hill, Streatham Hill, Clapham, Clapham Park, Herne Hill, Stockwell, Tulse Hill and Kennington, each at different stages of gentrification with suburban and urban elements. Vauxhall and South Lambeth are central districts in the process of redevelopment with high-density business and residential property. Streatham lies between suburban London and inner-city Brixton, with the suburban and developed areas of Streatham, Streatham Hill and Streatham Vale.

The London Borough of Southwark lies to the east of the Borough of Lambeth. To the west is the London Borough of Wandsworth; to the south-west is the London Borough of Merton; and to the south is the London Borough of Croydon.

Parks and green space
Lambeth's open spaces include Brockwell Park and Lido, Streatham Common, half of Clapham Common, West Norwood Cemetery, Archbishop's Park, Norbury Park, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Ruskin Larkhall and Kennington Parks.

Landmarks
Along and around the South Bank, a tourist area has developed around the former Greater London Council headquarters of County Hall and the Southbank Centre and National Theatre. Also on the river is the London Eye and Shell Centre. Nearby is St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth Palace and the Florence Nightingale Museum. Nearby is Brixton, home of Lambeth Town Hall and the Brixton Murals.

Landmark church buildings include:
 * St Mary's, Lambeth (now the Garden Museum)
 * The four "Waterloo Churches" in the former Lambeth Parish:
 * St Matthew's, Brixton
 * St Mark's, Kennington
 * St Luke's, West Norwood
 * St John's, Waterloo
 * Holy Trinity, Clapham
 * St Leonard's, Streatham
 * Christ Church, Streatham Hill
 * Christ Church (Church of England), Brixton Road, North Brixton
 * All Saints' Church, West Dulwich (Church of England)
 * Holy Trinity, Trinity Rise, Tulse Hill
 * St John the Divine (Church of England), Vassall Road

The Oval cricket ground in Kennington is the home of Surrey County Cricket.

The Basaveshwara statue at the Albert Embankment erected by the former Mayor of Lambeth Neeraj Patil was unveiled by the Prime Minister of India on 14 November 2015.

Governance
The local authority is Lambeth Council, which meets at Lambeth Town Hall in the Brixton area of the borough and has its main offices at the nearby Civic Centre.

Greater London representation
Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Lambeth and Southwark constituency.

Westminster Parliament
The borough has three Parliamentary constituencies: Dulwich and West Norwood (shared with Southwark), Streatham, and Vauxhall.

Sexuality
Lambeth is the local authority with the highest relative gay or lesbian population in the UK, at 5.5%, with the borough containing the gay village of Vauxhall and the area around Clapham Common.

Arts

 * South London Theatre, a community theatre in West Norwood
 * National Theatre
 * Southbank Centre
 * Old Vic Theatre
 * Young Vic Theatre
 * Ballet Rambert
 * British Film Institute
 * Black Cultural Archives
 * Beconsfield
 * Gasworks Gallery
 * Newport Street Gallery
 * Ovalhouse theatre
 * Cinema Museum

Transport
The borough covers London Waterloo railway station, the Waterloo tube station network and (until 2007) the London terminus for Eurostar. National Rail service in Lambeth is provided by South Western Railway, Southeastern, Southern, Thameslink and London Overground.

Bridges and tunnels

 * Waterloo Bridge, incorporating the National Film Theatre
 * Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges
 * Lambeth Bridge
 * Westminster Bridge
 * Vauxhall BridgeHungerford Bridge, River Thames, London, England.jpg, seen from the north]]

Railway stations

 * Brixton
 * Gipsy Hill
 * Herne Hill
 * Loughborough Junction
 * Streatham
 * Streatham Common
 * Streatham Hill
 * Tulse Hill
 * Vauxhall
 * Waterloo
 * Waterloo East
 * West Norwood

London Overground stations

 * Clapham High Street
 * Wandsworth Road

Tube stations

 * Brixton
 * Clapham Common
 * Clapham North
 * Lambeth North
 * Nine Elms
 * Oval
 * Stockwell
 * Vauxhall
 * Waterloo

Commuting
In March 2011, the primary forms of transport borough residents used to travel to work were the London Underground, metro, light rail or tram (21.4 percent of residents aged 16–74); bus, minibus or coach (10 percent); train (10 percent); automobile (8.6 percent); bicycle (5.7 percent), or walking (5.4 percent). A small percentage (3.2 percent) worked mainly at—or from—home.

Twinning
The former Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth and its successor have been twinned with the Vincennes district of Paris in France since 1955. Lambeth is also twinned with Bluefields, Nicaragua; Brooklyn, New York; and Spanish Town, Jamaica.

Coat of arms
The borough's coat of arms is that of the former Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth, with two gold stars (mullets) in the second and third quarters of the shield indicating the addition of the districts of Clapham and Streatham. Its motto is "Spectemur agendo" ("Let us be judged according to our conduct").

title: London Borough of Lambeth