Morden, South London

We have a couple of local places of interest in the area. Merton Abbey Mills, on the river Wandle, attracts a mixed crowd to its Craft Market open most days and weekends. You'll find interesting book shops, furniture makers (and restorers) and craft materials for sale. For refreshment they have a pizza restaurant, coffee shop and pub on the river bank. For a few minutes you can stand and watch the old mill's water wheel turning. There are bargains-a-plenty if you like tie-dye, home-made jewellery and ethnic food stands. Oh yes, and a bit of a crowd. Get the tube to Collier's Wood or turn off the Merantun Way (A24) at Watermill Way, just north of Morden. [Point 1 on the map].

The National Trust maintain Morden Hall Park. It has some history, somewhere to walk and, best of all, a tea shop. Morden Hall is not open to the public (it's a bit run down!), but the grounds are. The park is not a maintained garden, more a common with the river Wandle channelled to run through the middle of it. The tea shop is newly built with a garden centre, aquarium shop, small museum and NT gift shop with some original buildings and stables. The park is adjacent to the A24, but head down Morden Hall Road towards Mitcham from the roundabout in Morden for the entrance. It is about ten minutes walk from Morden Tube [2], turn left at the tube station exit and right at the roundabout. [3]

Morden is the poor neighbour of Wimbledon, famous for the tennis competition [4]. Wimbledon [5] is nice, has reasonable restaurants, shops, cinema and a theatre, but up the hill is Wimbledon Village.

The Village is a little gem [6]: It has a high street with boutique shops, the kind that is so exclusive they don't display prices, and good, (yet surprisingly) affordable restaurants. My choice of restaurant is Pizza Express, one of an excellent and dependable chain throughout the UK, and Villaggio Italiano (formerly The Spaghetti Western), a mid-price Italian Restaurant. Café Pasta and Prima Pasta are two other good Italian restaurants, that seem to care about their food. Mexican, French, Cantonese and Indian are also catered for in good looking eateries, but I cannot resist the pasta. Check out the two Estilo shops, one specializes in kitchen bits, for interesting knickknacks and house-wares. All are on the High Street, parking is limited (and not possible during the tennis fortnight).

The Village borders Wimbledon Common [7], famous for an unsolved, savage murder. Young Rachel Nickell was sadly murdered in front of her 2 year old boy, while exercising their dog early one morning in July 1992. The police attempted to prosecute a man from nearby Putney, but that was thrown out because the police had apparently lead the man into boasting he had done the murder.

On a lighter side, the Common is home to the tidy-minded little Wombles. These small creatures, all named randomly from places on a world map (like Bulgaria, Orinoco, Tomsk and Tobermory), wander the common, at night, collecting litter and things people have discarded, then turning them "into all kinds of useful things". No wonder the common is so tidy. If you want to find out more about the Wombles of Wimbledon, Elizabeth Beresford wrote some books about the little furry creatures back in 1968.

Wimbledon Common almost joins with Richmond Park [8], together they make a large area of green in London, as shown on the London Map. The A3 intersects the two. The Common is enormous, with ponds, a golf course (or two), grass areas and woods for walking and riding. It has the Windmill Museum with, oh what a surprise, a tea shop! Use Wimbledon Park Side (A219) from Wimbledon Village and turn left onto Windmill Road [9].