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Summerstown182

Award-winning community history project in South West London — walks, talks, tours, putting up plaques

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The Vegas of South London

29 April 2026

The Vegas of South London

On 27 June we are unveiling a blue plaque on Tooting Granada! What an occasion this will be! Everyone down SW17-way loves the Bingo Hall but they don’t all know about the immensely famous roll-call...

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Long Live Our Tooting Woman Mayor!

Long Live Our Tooting Woman Mayor!

Not that there ever was, but if there were any doubts about the exceptional character of Constance Agatha Cummings-John, they were put to one side, when a few weeks before the unveiling of her plaque...

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Freddie the WW2 tortoise

Freddie the WW2 tortoise

Its been a few years since I first heard a remarkable tale about a tortoise that had ‘survived the Blitz’ and was something of a local celebrity in a quiet corner of Tooting. It took a while to track...

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476 Garratt Lane

476 Garratt Lane

Take a walk down Garratt Lane and ask anyone of a certain age if they remember ‘Barney’s’ and a warm smile of recognition is sure to flitter across their face. Whether its the memory of that first...

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Rollissons Tooting Nursery

Rollissons Tooting Nursery

There is a network of streets on Planet Tooting that produce the occasional flourish of most unusual planting, some of which would not be out of place on a tropical island or in a rain-forest. There...

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The Corruganza Boxmakers

The Corruganza Boxmakers

The Corruganza box factory in Summerstown, south west London, came onto my radar when I was doing a local First World War centenary project. Going over 1911 census records I was surprised  how many...

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The Project

Where They Lived

The Summerstown182 project maps the 182 names on St Mary's Church war memorial to the streets where these men once lived. Through painstaking research using census records, parish magazines, and military archives, we've traced their footsteps across the neighbourhood.

What began as a First World War centenary project has grown into a broader celebration of local heritage — uncovering the stories of Olympic champions, jazz pioneers, daffodil kings, and the everyday people who shaped this corner of South West London.

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Roll of Honour

182 names. 182 stories. Each one a life cut short in the Great War.

Ernest Walter Abrahams Read story →
Mark Albert Archer Read story →
Francis Edward Baker Read story →
Frederick Walter Baker Read story →
William James Baker Read story →
View all 182 names →