Coordinates: 51°24′05″N 0°11′42″W / 51.4015°N 0.1949°W / 51.4015; -0.1949

Morden
Morden Hall.
Morden  Morden shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ255685
London borough	Merton
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MORDEN
Postcode district	SM4
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Wimbledon
	Mitcham and Morden
London Assembly	Merton and Wandsworth
List of places: UK • England • London

Morden is a district in the London Borough of Merton. It is located approximately 8 miles (13 km) South-southwest of central London between Merton Park (to the north), Mitcham (to the east), Sutton (to the south) and Worcester Park (to the west).

Origin of name[link]

Morden might get its name either from the British language words Mawr (great or large) and Dun (a fort), or possibly "The Town on the Moor".

History[link]

Early history[link]

Human activity in Morden dates back to the prehistoric period when Celtic tribes are known to have occupied areas around Wimbledon, but the first significant development in Morden was the construction of the Roman road called Stane Street from Chichester to London.

The route of Stane Street through Morden followed the current A24, London Road up Stonecot Hill from the south west crossing Morden Park to the west of the current dual carriageway road and passing through the pitch and putt golf course and the grounds of St Lawrence's Church. The road then descended the other side of the hill towards the town centre passing west of the Underground station and crossing the north corner of Morden Hall Park heading in the direction of Colliers Wood and Tooting. Small Roman artifacts, mainly coins and pottery, have been found at various locations within the area although there is no evidence of any settlement.

Ethelstan the Etheling, son of Ethelred the Unready, left "land at Mordune" to the abbey of Christ and St. Peter in his will of 1015, which became the site of the first Saxon parish church of St Lawrence.

In 1086, the Domesday Book recorded the manor as Mordone, part of Wallington Hundred. It was held by Westminster Abbey and its assets were: 3 hides; 1 mill worth £2 and 7 ploughs. It rendered £15.^[1] in total. Fourteen people were recorded as living in the area.

The Garth family[link]

The manor and village remained abbey property until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Henry VIII's reign when the manor was sold to Lionel Ducket and Edward Whitchurch. Together, they sold it on the following year to Sir Richard Garth who became Lord of the Manor.^[2] The Garth family owned the land and maintained their connection with the parish for the next four centuries, living at Morden Hall Park until the manor was sold by another Sir Richard Garth in 1872.^[2]

The prominence of the Garth family is recorded locally in the name of Garth Road, Lower Morden and the former Garth School. The two lions included in the present civic arms of the London Borough of Merton are adopted from the arms of Sir Richard.

19th century[link]

Despite the rapid suburban development of nearby Wimbledon occasioned by the arrival of the new railways constructed in the mid 19th century, Morden remained a rural parish throughout the 19th century. While the population of Wimbledon grew hugely from 1,591 in 1801 to 41,652 in 1901, the population of Morden was 512 in 1801 and, one hundred years later, had grown to just 960.^[3]

In 1871, the area of the parish of Morden was 1,474.926 acres (5.969 km²)^[4] with the small village clustered around St Lawrence’s church at the top of the hill on the road from London to Epsom (now London Road/Epsom Road). Approximately half a mile to the west of the main village and the grounds of Morden Park stood the hamlet of Lower Morden.

Close to the church were the George Inn, a 17th century coaching inn (now modernised and part of a national pub restaurant chain), the estate of Morden Park and a school.

The other main public house in the village was the Crown Inn, located to the north east of the village with a small cluster of cottages on Crown Road. The rest of what is now the commercial centre of Morden was fields.

In the late 19th century the principal industry remained agriculture, although some industrial activity did exist along the River Wandle where watermills ground tobacco to snuff and a varnish works existed close to the site of Poplar Primary School. By 1898, the varnish works had gone and there was a brickworks^[5] on the site of Mostyn Gardens in Martin Way (then called Green Lane).^[5]

20th century[link]

Under the Local Government Act, 1894, the parish of Morden formed part of the Croydon Rural District of Surrey. The first two decades of the 20th century saw little change in the village, with industry still mainly agricultural in nature; however development in the parish of Merton to the north led to that area being removed from the rural district to form the Merton Urban District in 1907. Morden was merged with the Merton Urban District, in 1913, to form the Merton and Morden Urban District.^[6] It was not, until 1926, when Morden Underground station opened as the terminus of a new extension of the City & South London Railway (now part of the London Underground's Northern Line), that the fast and direct route to Central London opened up the village for residential development.

To complement the new station, a garage was constructed on the other side of London Road, adjacent to the railway cutting and, in 1932, Morden Cinema was built next to it on the corner of Aberconway Road. Around the station a new commercial centre grew quickly as shops sprang up along London Road and Crown Lane, including a rebuilt and enlarged Crown public house (opened in 1932)^[7] and a large Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS) department store (opened in 1940).^[7]

Away from the new commercial centre of Morden, the existing rural roads were widened and rebuilt and the fields were rapidly divided into building plots and laid out for new housing. Further transport improvements came with the construction of a new Southern Railway branch line from Wimbledon to Sutton via stations at South Merton and Morden South (so named to differentiate it from Morden Underground Station and Morden Station (now Morden Road tram stop), although it was actually north east of the original village centre). The new line opened in January 1930. As a result of the new transport links, the population of Morden increased rapidly from 1,355 in 1921 to 12,618 in 1931. In the next fifteen years, the population continued to grow, as most of the parish was covered in new suburban homes.

One of the main residential developments in the 1930s was the St. Helier estate, built by the London County Council (LCC) to house workers from Inner London and named in honour of Lady St. Helier, an alderman of the LCC. The estate was at the time the largest local authority development in South London and has its road names arranged in alphabetical order, from the north-west corner (Abbotsbury Road) to the south-east corner (Woburn Road). Reflecting the previous ownership of the land by Westminster Abbey, all are named after religious establishments. Much of the St. Helier Estate now lies in the London Borough of Sutton.

File:Mordenmap 1920s.png A map of Morden from the 1920s

A map of Morden from 1944

In 1943, the council was granted a civic coat-of-arms incorporating lions from the Garth family arms and the fret from the arms of Merton Priory. The motto, "In Libertate Vis", means "Our Strength is our Freedom". In 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, the Merton and Morden Urban District Council was abolished and its area combined with that of the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Municipal Borough of Mitcham to form the present-day London Borough of Merton.

Today[link]

Morden town centre: London Road looking south-west towards Crown House and Morden Underground station

Although only a little of the earlier rural nature of the district survived the suburban expansion, several period buildings do remain, especially within Morden's parks. The area has a provision of parks and green spaces, many of them created from remnants of the former country estates. Morden Hall Park is run by the National Trust.

The Crown public house was demolished in the early 1960s to make way for a fourteen-storey office block, Crown House, and a large supermarket (the supermarket was in turn demolished in the 1980s and replaced by the Civic Centre/Library). The curved nature of the building lent some distinction to its sixties architecture, as did the "chessboard" layout of the windows. The largest store, the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS) closed in 1985,^[7] and it, the cinema and the garage were all demolished in the 1980s/1990s. A new office building with a large supermarket (now a Sainsbury's) at ground-floor level was built in the 1980s at the other end of the town centre.

Landmarks[link]

Baitul Futuh Mosque

Morden Hall Park House

Morden Park House

Morden plays host to a number of buildings and parks worthy of note including:

-The Bait'ul Futuh Mosque, the largest mosque in Western Europe, built by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Completed in 2003 at a cost of approximately £5.5 million, the mosque covers an area of 5.2 acres (21,000 m2) and the full complex can accommodate up to 10,000 worshippers. It is located next to Morden South railway station and approximately 700 yards from Morden Underground station.

-Morden Hall Park is a key feature of the Morden area with large, period buildings located within its boundaries. It is a National Trust park, and is located on the banks of the River Wandle, near the town centre and few hundred yards from Morden Underground station. It covers over 50ha (125 acres) of parkland with the River Wandle meandering through it spanned by numerous foot-bridges. The estate contains Morden Hall itself, Morden Cottage, an old Snuff Mill, and many old farm buildings, some of which are now a garden centre and a city farm. The rose garden has over 2000 roses.

-Morden Park, another park containing a period building of note. The park includes land that previously formed the grounds of Morden Park House, a small 18th century country estate. The Georgian country house was built at the top of the hill in the 1770s for merchant and distiller John Ewart with attached landscaped gardens.

-St Lawrence Church, Morden. St Lawrence Church is the Church of England parish church for Morden. The building is located on London Road, at the highest point of Morden, overlooking Morden Park.

-Morden Baptist Church. The Church stands with the main entrance facing up Crown Lane on the Morden one way system.

Sport & Leisure[link]

Morden has a Non-League football club Tooting & Mitcham United F.C. who play at Imperial Fields.

Transport[link]

Morden Underground station

Nearest tube station:

• Morden Underground station

Nearest railway stations and tramlink stops (in order of proximity):

• Morden South railway station
• Morden Road tram stop
• South Merton railway station
• St. Helier railway station
• Belgrave Walk tram stop
• Mitcham tram stop

Local day and night Buses and there garages that serve Morden are:

• 80 (Belmont Prisons - Hackbridge Reynolds Close) - London General - Sutton Garage
• 93 (Putney Bridge - North Cheam) (24 Hour) - London General - Sutton Garage
• 118 (Morden Station - Brixton) - London General - Merton Garage
• 154 (Morden Station - West Croydon Bus Station) - London General - Sutton Garage
• 157 (Morden Station - Crystal Palace) - Abellio London - Beddington Cross
• 163 (Wimbledon Station - Morden Station) - London General - Merton Garage'
• 164 (Wimbledon Station - Sutton Station) - London General - Merton Garage
• 201 (Morden - Herne Hill) - London General - Merton Garage
• 293 (Morden Station - Epsom General Hospital) - Metrobus London - Croydon Garage
• 413 (Morden Tube Station - Sutton Bus Garage) - London General - Sutton Garage
• 470 (Epsom Town Centre - Colliers Wood Tube Station) - Quality Line - Epsom Garage
• K5 (Morden - Ham) - Quality Line - Epsom Garage
• N155 (Morden Station - Aldwych) - London General - Sutton Garage'

Notable people associated with Morden[link]

• Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot^[8] - Commander of the Royal Navy in North America during the American War of Independence.
• Sir Joseph Bazalgette - Engineer of London's sanitary system, the Chelsea and Victoria Embankments lived in the village for a few years in the 1870s.
• Sir Richard Garth - Lord of the Manor, Privy Counsellor and Chief Justice of Bengal
• Alexander Maconochie - Founder of the Royal Geographical Society and penal reformer.
• Good Shoes - an indie music band whose first album, Think Before You Speak, included the track "Morden"

References[link]

External links[link]

London portal

• British Library Collect Britain archive - Mordon, Surrey, 1780
• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive Aerial view of Morden town centre in 1926 when the Underground station opened. The first roads have been laid out but the area is still mostly fields. The Crown Inn is visible on the left.
• British Pathe News Archive 1930s Newsreel footage of construction of Morden Cinema (download - select low resolution free preview)
• Motco.com 15 Miles Round London (First edition), J Cary, 1786, Morden
• Odeon Cavalcade - Morden Cinema, 1960s

v t e London Borough of Merton Districts Colliers Wood Lower Morden Merton Park Mitcham Morden Morden Park Motspur Park Raynes Park St Helier South Wimbledon West Barnes Wimbledon Wimbledon Park Attractions New Wimbledon Theatre Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Wimbledon Stadium Wimbledon Windmill Constituencies Mitcham and Morden Wimbledon Other topics People Public art Schools Parks and open spaces in Merton

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2010)

Good Shoes
Rhys Jones
Background information
Origin	Morden, London, England
Genres	Indie rock, indie pop
Years active	2004–present
Labels	Brille Records
Website	www.goodshoes.co.uk
Members
Rhys Jones Tom Jones Steve Leach Will Church
Past members
Joel Cox Bob Matthews

Good Shoes are a four-piece English indie rock band, hailing from Morden, London.

Biography[link]

Good Shoes was formed by lead singer Rhys Jones and guitarist Steve Leach who often wrote and played music together as a hobby. Rhys and Steve appeared as a two piece under the Good Shoes name for a friend's charity gig (Tom-Fest) at a venue in Kingston called The Peel in early January 2004. Eventually, they decided to formalise their hobby into a fully-fledged band, bringing in Rhys's brother Tom and then later Joel Cox (who was friends with Jones and Leach from secondary school - Raynes Park High School).

The band started looking for gigs in January 2005, their first gig was put on by a friend at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge University on 1 February.^{[citation needed]} Their second was at a secret party on Eel Pie Island with Mystery Jets and from then on they played as many gigs as possible in and around London. This led to them playing the Artrocker clubnight in August put on by Artrocker Magazine. At this gig, the band were recommended to their current label, Brille Records, by a member of the band FC Kahuna, and after playing In The City music festival in Manchester they signed with Brille in November 2005. John Kennedy (a DJ at London-based radio station Xfm) started to give the band airtime based on a demo which was recorded in the band's shed^{[citation needed]}, and a new demo, recorded at Southern Studios started to get the band recognition from stations like Radio 1, 6 Music and other mainstream radio stations, with both Steve Lamacq and Zane Lowe playing the demo.

The band travelled to Malmö, Sweden to record their first album, called Think Before You Speak, with Per Sunding at Tambourine Studios. It was released 26 March 2007.

On 28 May 2007, the band performed a secret free gig at Morden Park bandstand. The bandstand and other landmarks from the local area are featured in the video for their single "Morden", which was released on 11 June 2007.On October 23, 2011 this band has performed at BITS Pilani campus.

The band toured during 2007 with Kaiser Chiefs and The Rakes (other support bands included The Pigeon Detectives, Little Ones and We Are Scientists). In November 2007, they headlined a tour with support from Lightspeed Champion, also the band supported Maxïmo Park at their homecoming arena show on 15 December 2007.

The band stayed relatively low during 2008. They appeared for a small number of live shows, including a secret supporting slot to friends The Maccabees. Their main debut of new material was at their only UK festival appearance, Boring by the Sea Festival, which took place in Weymouth. They ended the year with two gigs at The Watershed in Wimbledon on 13 December, followed by an appearance at New Slang in Kingston upon Thames on 18 December 2008.

Cox left the band as the band started writing their second album, and for the recording of the album their friend, Bob Matthews, recorded the bass parts on the album.

Matthews is another South West Londoner. Born in Kingston, he played in various bands (Evil Twin, Iris) in local venues including the Peel, before becoming a founder of Right Turn Left while at Exeter University. After the recording sessions finished he went back to playing for Right Turn Left.

The band released a free download of "The Way My Heart Beats" on 18 August 2009, as a first taste of the second album due for release in January 2010.^[1] On the same weekend they played Dockville Festival in Germany which saw the second appearance of their new bass player Will Church. He will tour with the band for the whole second album and work on all new material from now on. Church originally played in Vincent Vincent and the Villains until they split in 2009, and has been a friend of the band for a number of years.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Think Before You Speak (2007) UK #55
• No Hope, No Future (2010)

EPs

• We Are Not the Same (2006)

Singles

• "All in My Head" - 14 August 2006, UK #77
• "The Photos on My Wall" - 2 January 2007, UK #48, UK Indie #1
• "Never Meant to Hurt You" - 12 March 2007, UK #34, UK Indie #1
• "Morden" - 11 June 2007
• "Small Town Girl" - 26 November 2007
• "Under Control" - 11 January 2010

Live albums

• Live at the Astoria (Limited Release of 1000, recorded at the Astoria, London 21 November 2007)

Members[link]

• Rhys Jones – vocals, guitar
• Steve Leach – guitar
• Will Church – bass guitar
• Tom Jones – drums

Former members[link]

• Joel Cox – bass guitar
• Bob Matthews – bass guitar

References[link]

• Good Shoes Biography - Billboard.com
• "All In My Head" Review - MusicOMH.com
• Think Before You Speak review at SUPERSWEET

External links[link]

• Official website
• Good Shoes biography and videos
• BBC Collective Good Shoes video session and interview
• Good Shoes Interview 2007 on ilikemusic.com
• Interview French only
• Good Shoes Interview on Music Towers