Coordinates: 51°26′43″N 0°01′15″W / 51.4452°N 0.0207°W / 51.4452; -0.0207

Catford is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated 6.3 miles (10.1 km) south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.

The 1960s and 70s had a considerable impact on the architecture of Catford. The old Town Hall, 'the Catford Cathedral' of 1875, was replaced by the current Civic Suite in 1968, soon after the merger of the metropolitan boroughs of Lewisham and Deptford. Laurence House, where many of the borough's offices are housed, is on the site of old St Laurence's Church (aka the Catford Cathedral). The brutalist Eros House, which replaced the Lewisham Hippodrome (Catford's music hall designed by the famous theatre architect Frank Matcham) in 1960, is now Grade II listed. Architecture critic Ian Nairn praised Eros House as:

In Rushey Green outside Eros House, the old village hand-pump from the 1850s survives. In 1974 the Catford shopping centre was built by the brutalist architect Owen Luder.

Sir Henry Cooper OBE KSG (3 May 1934 – 1 May 2011) was an English heavyweight boxer known for the effectiveness of his left hook, "Enry's 'Ammer", and his knockdown of the young Muhammad Ali. Cooper held the British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight titles several times throughout his career, and unsuccessfully challenged Ali for the world heavyweight championship in 1966.

Following his retirement from the sport, Cooper continued his career as a television and radio personality and was enormously popular in Britain: he was the first (and is today one of just three people) to twice win the public vote for BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and is thus far the only boxer to be awarded a knighthood.

Cooper was born in Lambeth, London to Henry and Lily Cooper. He, his identical twin brother, George (1934–2010), and elder brother Bern grew up in a council house on the Bellingham Estate on Farmstead Road, South East London. During the Second World War they were evacuated to Lancing on the Sussex coast.