Mitcham and Morden

[AdminSTB]

I'm so glad you had this description saved, Barnaby! I'm sorry it disappeared, I don't know how that came about.

[martinwhelton]

A good description Barnaby and Pollards Hill had the largest Ghanaian population of any UK ward in the 2011 census. Some of the largest swings in any London wards have taken place in the last twenty years with many wards having seen swings of 20%.

Mar 30, 2020 21:40:53 GMT @barnabymarder said:

MITCHAM AND MORDEN

This seat has changed only very slightly in its boundaries since its creation in 1974, before which there were seats called Mitcham, and Merton & Morden. However, its politics have changed enormously, mainly since the 1992 election. This is one of many London seats which once were consistently marginal but now have unmistakable safe Labour characteristics. Historically it was in the county of Surrey before 1965, although some of its northern areas have London SW postcodes.

Little of this seat has been seen as particularly high-class housing in the sense that some parts of the Wimbledon constituency are, but large swathes of it were solidly middle-class commuters. These areas have always been at least balanced by council estates, one of them, the St Helier low-rise estate, being one of the largest council housing estates anywhere in the country. The best residential area of the constituency remains Lower Morden, solidly privately-built interwar suburbia. That ward remained usually Conservative for many years, and only in recent years has Labour won it outright, but it has gone into a solid-looking lead in no time at all. While some wards such as St Helier and Lavender Fields are heavily dominated by council housing, and have been solidly Labour for almost all of the last half century or more in various guises, some are very evenly divided between council estates and interwar private housing, often semis. The latter class of wards has had broadly marginal characteristics in local government in the past, but all these wards now vote very heavily for Labour. While some other wards such as Colliers Wood and Graveney, both close to the more inner-city Tooting, have also had long safe Labour histories, the swing from the Conservatives to Labour in others, especially the once-marginal Pollards Hill, has been enormous in a fairly short time. The same applies to Longthornton, though that was long held by Independents rather than actual Tories on Merton council. In some cases, this cannot be uninfluenced by ethnicity. Pollards Hill now apparently has the largest Ghanaian community in the whole of Britain, and having  been a Tory-inclined marginal for many years is now one of the very safest Labour wards anywhere in London, which is saying a great deal. Other large non-white communities exist almost throughout the constituency (perhaps rather less so in Lower Morden), and these voters have retained a strong allegiance to Labour. The remaining still large white British population tends to be more likely than average to work in the public sector, in institutions such as hospitals, rather than to commute to London to work in the private sector, and Lower Morden's large public sector workforce may be a reason why despite its continuing pleasance as a residential area, and its  largely white population, it too now votes Labour. The constituency is completed by 3 other wards, Ravensbury with its mixture of private and council houses,  Cricket Green which takes in much of central Mitcham, and Figges Marsh, still with its fair share of owner-occupied dwellings but another ward where once the Tories were competitive, but no more. All these wards too are  safe Labour, and have long been largely so. Siobhain McDonagh having gained this seat overwhelmingly from the Conservatives in 1997 is still there, and her party is totally safe unless the constituency is broken up altogether. It's fair to suggest that any seat based on any major part of this one is likely to be won by Labour, too.

[Deleted]

This seat's predecessors, Merton & Morden, and Mitcham were Conservative by three-figure majorities in 1966.

The 1974 boundary changes hurt the Tories but Labour held Mitcham & Morden by a few hundred votes in 1979.

Until the Tories gained Copeland in the 2017 byelection, Mitcham & Morden was the last time a government gained a seat in a by-election.

In 1982, the sitting MP, Bruce Douglas-Mann (previously the MP for Kensington North before its abolition) resigned and fought a by-election for the SDP.

Angela Rumbold (later made a Dame) was a Councillor in Kingston upon Thames when selected to fight this seat for the Conservatives. She went on to win the by-election.

Before Mitcham & Morden, the last by-elections won by a sitting government were Brighouse & Spenborough in 1960 and Bristol South East in 1961 (where Tony Benn was disqualified as the winner because he inherited the title of Viscount Stansgate).

Siobhain McDonagh first fought this seat in 1987, and along with Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East) is one of a handful of Labour MPs still in Parliament who gained seats from the Conservatives in 1997.

[Deleted]

Apr 5, 2020 18:54:04 GMT @barnabymarder said:

another very prominent one, though he hasn't had a very good day today, is Barry Gardiner.

In London there is also Clive Efford, John McDonnell, and Gareth Thomas.

[Adam in Stroud]

Historical notes:
Cricket Green ward is named after the cricket ground, which is the oldest recorded cricket ground in continuous use in England and therefore the world (since 1685, a century longer than the more famous Hambledon.) It is notable for having  a main road between the pavilion and the ground, which is awkward when wickets fall in a flurry. There used to be a colony of geese in the nearby pond who occasionally held up the traffic.

Lavender Fields ward is named after the once important lavender farms that used to cover most of the area when Mitcham was still a village. The place must have rather resembled Provence, which is hard to credit today.

[Adam in Stroud]

Back in my day (the 90s) there was a small but noticeable Romany community; is there any trace nowadays?

[londonseal80]

Fantastic description, a lot of this seat appears post 1990 episodes of The Bill. Before then I believe it was filmed mainly around Kensington North, Hammersmith and Brent East as the pre-1990 sun hill station was in Ladbroke Grove.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

If you want to see north Kensington in a police procedural from the late 1980s, check out 'Rockliffe's Babies' on DVD.

[Adam in Stroud]

Apr 11, 2020 19:27:23 GMT @barnabymarder said:

Apr 11, 2020 16:18:58 GMT londonseal80 said:

Fantastic description, a lot of this seat appears post 1990 episodes of The Bill. Before then I believe it was filmed mainly around Kensington North, Hammersmith and Brent East as the pre-1990 sun hill station was in Ladbroke Grove.

It certainly strayed into neighbouring Wimbledon too. I know a pub called The Sultan (after a racehorse, not a person) in South Wimbledon, which was notorious in its day but is now full of Radio 3 listeners, including an old friend of mine who enjoys using it. I saw it, with its name changed, in The Bill once, with a poor bloke getting murdered outside it.  That would be pretty unlikely today but from what someone told me much less unlikely a few decades ago.

Oh well, if you want murderous pubs in this area, the classic has to be the old St Helier Tavern, which I think would have been just over the boundary in Carshalton but very much a M&M rather than Carshalton Beeches sort of clientele. Blacklisted by the Licensed Victuallers' Association and once featured in The Independent as Britain's most violent pub, the final straw was when a customer was considered so out of order the barman shot him close range with a sawn off and the body was dismembered and distributed around assorted bits of wasteland (IIRC some kids bunking off school saw one of the parts being disposed of and the police investigation went from there.)

Forget the name of the pub closest to me (more or less opposite the extraordinary orange C of E church) but that got closed due to a murder just before our daughter was born.

[Adam in Stroud]

More salubriously, John Boorman's Hope and Glory was set on the St Helier Estate, specifically Rosehill Avenue which is definitely in one of the St Helier wards of Carshalton, but filmed in west London. (There's aline in it about "no roses and not much of a hill")

[londonseal80]

Apr 11, 2020 19:42:41 GMT Adam in Stroud said:

More salubriously, John Boorman's Hope and Glory was set on the St Helier Estate, specifically Rosehill Avenue which is definitely in one of the St Helier wards of Carshalton, but filmed in west London. (There's aline in it about "no roses and not much of a hill")

Yes Rosehill Avenue is in St Helier ward but is it actually an owner occupier road. It is just behind the Rosehill shops.

[Adam in Stroud]

Apr 11, 2020 19:50:15 GMT londonseal80 said:

Apr 11, 2020 19:42:41 GMT Adam in Stroud said:

More salubriously, John Boorman's Hope and Glory was set on the St Helier Estate, specifically Rosehill Avenue which is definitely in one of the St Helier wards of Carshalton, but filmed in west London. (There's aline in it about "no roses and not much of a hill")

Yes Rosehill Avenue is in St Helier ward but is it actually an owner occupier road. It is just behind the Rosehill shops.

Right by the imaginatively named St Helier Open Space.

I was once in the greasy spoon there with a couple of colleagues and an old biddy said "I remember when it was all fields round here." One of my less charming colleagues looked out of the window at the Open Space and said "What's she on? There's still nothing except a bloody field out there."

[londonseal80]

Apr 11, 2020 19:59:23 GMT Adam in Stroud said:

Apr 11, 2020 19:50:15 GMT londonseal80 said:

Yes Rosehill Avenue is in St Helier ward but is it actually an owner occupier road. It is just behind the Rosehill shops.

Right by the imaginatively named St Helier Open Space.

I was once in the greasy spoon there with a couple of colleagues and an old biddy said "I remember when it was all fields round here." One of my less charming colleagues looked out of the window at the Open Space and said "What's she on? There's still nothing except a bloody field out there."

It was part of the old Sutton Common, of which there is a wave of green space going from Poulter Park to near Stonecot. Sutton is very a green borough for its size.

[Robert Waller]

2011 Census

Age 65+ 10.9% 593/650
Owner-occupied 56.1% 527/650
Private rented 21.7% 96/650
Social rented 20.2% 215/650
White 53.7% 618/650
Black 17.4% 22/650
Asian 21.7% 40/650
Managerial & professional 27.4%
Routine & Semi-routine 22.6%
Degree level 28.2% 230/650
No qualifications 20.1% 251/650
Students 11.1% 119/650


2021 Census

Owner occupied 52.8% 481/573
Private rented 27.7% 82/573
Social rented 19.5% 173/573
White 50.6%
Black 16.7%
Asian 21.4%
Managerial & professional 30.9% 319/573
Routine & Semi-routine 21.6% 370/573
Degree level 39.5% 114/573
No qualifications 18.5% 244/573




General Election 2019: Mitcham and Morden

Party Candidate Votes % ±%

Labour Siobhain McDonagh 27,964 61.1 -7.5
Conservative Toby Williams 11,482 25.1 +0.9
Liberal Democrats Luke Taylor 3,717 8.1 +5.0
Brexit Party Jeremy Maddocks 1,202 2.6 N
Green Pippa Maslin 1,160 2.5 +1.2
CPA Des Coke 260 0.5

Lab Majority 16,482 36.0 -8.5

Turnout 45,785 65.3 -4.7

Registered electors 68,705

Labour hold
Swing 4.2 Lab to C

[Pete Whitehead]

Mitcham & Morden is just within quota but is due to have territory added in order to facilitate the redrawing of Wimbledon. Initially the Canon Hill was to be added but in the revised proposals Merton Park is added. This does make some sense as the area includes the centre of Morden. This is not a strong Labour area (though slightly stronger than average for Wimbledon) and this will reduce Labour's majority slightly but of course they are so storng here now they will barely notice

2019 Notional result

Lab	29526	57.6%
Con	13345	26.1%
LD	5686	11.1%
BxP	1202	2.3%
Grn	1160	2.3%
Oth	305	0.6%
Majority	16181	31.6%

[batman]

In the light of the boundary changes, and the Conservative gain in Lower Morden in the 2022 local elections, I've now edited my original profile :

MITCHAM AND MORDEN

This seat has changed only very slightly in its boundaries since its creation in 1974, before which there were seats called Mitcham, and Merton & Morden. However, its politics have changed enormously, mainly since the 1992 election. This is one of many London seats which once were consistently marginal but now have unmistakable safe Labour characteristics. Historically it was in the county of Surrey before 1965, although some of its northern areas have London SW postcodes.

Little of this seat has been seen as particularly high-class housing in the sense that some parts of the Wimbledon constituency are, but large swathes of it were solidly middle-class commuters. These areas have always been at least balanced by council estates, one of them, the St Helier low-rise estate, being one of the largest council housing estates anywhere in the country. The best residential area of the constituency remains Lower Morden, solidly privately-built interwar suburbia. That ward remained usually Conservative for many years, and only in recent years has Labour won it outright: it went into a solid-looking lead in no time at all, but the Tories managed a partial recapture in 2022, in what was otherwise a poor municipal election for them. While some wards such as St Helier and Lavender Fields are heavily dominated by council housing, and have been solidly Labour for almost all of the last half century or more in various guises, some are very evenly divided between council estates and interwar private housing, often semis. The latter class of wards has had broadly marginal characteristics in local government in the past, but all these wards now vote very heavily for Labour. While some other wards such as Colliers Wood and Graveney, both close to the more inner-city Tooting, have also had long safe Labour histories, the swing from the Conservatives to Labour in others, especially the once-marginal Pollards Hill, has been enormous in a fairly short time. The same applies to Longthornton, though that was long held by Independents rather than actual Tories on Merton council. In some cases, this cannot be uninfluenced by ethnicity. Pollards Hill now apparently has the largest Ghanaian community in the whole of Britain, and having been a Tory-inclined marginal for many years is now one of the very safest Labour wards anywhere in London, which is saying a great deal. Other large non-white communities exist almost throughout the constituency (perhaps rather less so in Lower Morden), and these voters have retained a strong allegiance to Labour. The remaining still large white British population tends to be more likely than average to work in the public sector, in institutions such as hospitals, rather than to commute to London to work in the private sector, and Lower Morden's large public sector workforce may be a reason why despite its continuing pleasance as a residential area, and its largely white population, it too now votes more for Labour than was once the case. The constituency has up to now been completed by 3 other wards, Ravensbury with its mixture of private and council houses, Cricket Green which takes in much of central Mitcham, and Figges Marsh, still with its fair share of owner-occupied dwellings but another ward where once the Tories were competitive, but no more. All these wards too are safe Labour, and have long been largely so. In the proposed boundary changes, however, the more elegant Merton Park ward is to be added. This ward is mixed, containing as it does some very workaday territory around Morden town centre (until now, rather oddly, not all of the Morden community has been included in the seat), but also a very attractive and rather historic conservation area with some excellent owner-occupied housing. Merton Park ward has, pretty much uniquely in London, voted solidly for Independent Residents for the whole of the last 40 years in local elections, but in more conventionally party political general elections rather divides its favours between the parties. Any Tory advantage over Labour in the ward, and it is far from certain that they would obtain any, would be completely overwhelmed by Labour's unequivoval superiority in the entire rest of the seat, save Lower Morden. Siobhain McDonagh having gained this seat overwhelmingly from the Conservatives in 1997 is still there, and her party is totally safe.