Moving house in Balham
Balham is south-east of our base, over Wandsworth Bridge and past Wandsworth Common. It sits between four commons, Clapham, Wandsworth, Tooting Bec and Tooting Graveney, and nearly all of it is houses: long Victorian and Edwardian streets running between the green spaces.
Those houses set the pattern for most moves. Terraces run off Balham High Road and Bedford Hill, and many are now two flats, one on each floor, with a shared front door and a steep stair. Along Nightingale Lane, a conservation area, the houses are bigger and older. To the south, towards Tooting Bec, the Heaver Estate is a conservation area of substantial Victorian houses built by Alfred Heaver, many of them still family homes.
Then there are the mansion blocks. Du Cane Court, the 1930s Art Deco block on Balham High Road, was once the largest privately occupied block of flats in Europe, and there are smaller blocks along the High Road and near Clapham South. In a block, the lift and the porter set the day: book the lift, ask where a van can load, and tell us which floor you are on.
Balham High Road is the A24 and a main bus road, so a van cannot just stop outside a flat above the shops. On the survey we look for the nearest side street or loading place and plan the carry from there. Flats above the shops often have their own street door and a steep stair straight up, which we plan for too.
Parking is through Wandsworth Council for nearly all of Balham. The residential streets are in its controlled parking zones, and a bay suspension needs seven clear working days. The few streets on the Lambeth side follow Lambeth's rules instead.
