Tooting


Tooting is a district of South London, England, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross.

History

Tooting has been settled since pre-Saxon times. The name is of Anglo-Saxon origin but the meaning is disputed. It could mean the people of Tota, in which context Tota may have been a local Anglo-Saxon chieftain. Alternatively it could be derived from an old meaning of the verb to tout, to look out. There may have been a watchtower here on the road to London and hence the people of the look-out post.
The Romans built a road, which was later named Stane Street by the English, from London to Chichester, and which passed through Tooting. Tooting High Street is built on this road. In Saxon times, Tooting and Streatham was given to the Abbey of Chertsey. Later, Suene, believed to be a Viking, may have been given all or part of the land. In 933, King Athelstan is thought to have confirmed lands including Totinge to Chertsey Abbey.
Tooting appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Totinges: Lower Tooting was held from Chertsey Abbey by Haimo the Sheriff when its assets were 1 church, ploughlands of land and of meadow. Its people were called to render £4 per year to their overlords. Later in the Norman period, it came into the possession of the De Gravenel family, after whom it was named Tooting Graveney. Until minor changes in the 19th century it consisted of.
Upper Tooting, or Tooting Bec, appears as a manor held by the Abbey of Hellouin Bec, in Normandy, thus acquiring the "Bec" in its name. Its domesday assets were 5 hides. It had ploughlands and so was assessed as rendering £7.
As with many of South London's suburbs, Tooting developed during the late Victorian period. Some development occurred in the Edwardian era but another large spurt in growth happened during the 1920s and 30s.
The Member of Parliament for Tooting is Dr Rosena Allin-Khan of the Labour Party, who was first elected in a 2016 by-election to represent the parliamentary constituency of Tooting. This followed the election of her predecessor Sadiq Khan to the role of Mayor of London in May 2016.
Since the creation of the Tooting seat, it has been held by Labour, often with a marginal result against a Conservative Party challenge. Although the constituency boundaries include wards represented by both Labour and the Conservatives, the Tooting ward itself can be regarded as a Labour stronghold, electing a full slate of councillors from the party.

Demographics

Tooting is known for its British Asian community. As of 2011 in the Tooting ward, 9% of the population is Indian and Pakistani each, while 7% is Other Asian, with Urdu and Gujarati widely spoken among these. It has gained the nickname "land of the curry mile" due to the concentration of South Asian restaurants.

Transport

Tooting is positioned on the Northern line—with stations at the top and the bottom of the hill that slopes down the High Street, Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway. Tooting is also served by National Rail at Tooting railway station providing a direct link south to Sutton via Wimbledon, and north to Farringdon, St Pancras and on to Luton.
It also has several bus links, with routes to and from Central London, Croydon, Sutton and Kingston amongst others.
Tooting Broadway tube station is currently being considered by TfL as a stop on the future Crossrail 2 development. In addition to relieving congestion on the Northern Line, this would provide Tooting with a rapid and direct connection to major London stations such as Clapham Junction, Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Euston.

Nearest railway stations

estate was designated a conservation area on 19 September 1978. It was the first London County Council cottage estate built between 1901 and 1911, containing 1244 individual houses over. It was influenced by Ebenezer Howard's Garden city movement and the Arts and Crafts movement.

Social Housing Estates

As previously mentioned, Totterdown Fields estate has considerable historical significance, being the first "cottage estate" within London and later protected from redevelopment through its designation as a conservation area. Within the London Borough of Wandsworth, Tooting has the fourth-highest number of social housing accommodation after Roehampton, Battersea and Southfields in that order. Notable large post-modern estates within the area are the: Aboyne/Holborn and Hazelhurst with smaller estates including: Bevill Allen Close, Burtop Road, Copeland House, Flowersmead, Newlands and Tooting Grove.

Open spaces

A large open area, popularly known as the Tooting Commons, lies at the northern end of Tooting. Historically this was two separate open spaces: Tooting Graveney Common, and Tooting Bec Common. The commons are home to Tooting Bec Lido, which is.

Sport

Tooting shares two football clubs with nearby Mitcham: Tooting & Mitcham FC and Tooting & Mitcham Wanderers FC.
A greyhound racing track, the 'Wimbledon Stadium', was narrowly in Tooting on Plough Lane. AFC Wimbledon have plans to develop their new stadium there.

Markets

Tooting has two indoor markets, with numbers of permanent stalls. The entrances of both are situated on the same street, Tooting High Street, only a few metres apart. They both have many types of outlets, but since the 2010s have also developed a focus on street food stalls. Tooting Market is the smaller of the two; the other, The Broadway Market, is one of the largest of London's indoor markets, having more than ninety stalls, and has been active since 1936. The markets tend to be very animated on Saturdays, but are both open all the weekdays, except on public holidays.

Notable people

In André Charlot's West End revue The Charlot Show of 1926, Jessie Matthews and Henry Lytton, Jnr. sang "Silly Little Hill", which features the lyric "there's no fishing, there’s no shooting dear / and no cyclists fresh from Tooting dear", which they also recorded that year.
The Ealing Studios film Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring Alec Guinness, references Tooting Bec as the residence of one of the characters.
The BBC comedy series Hugh & I was set in the fictional Lobelia Avenue in Tooting.
The BBC comedy series Citizen Smith was set in Tooting and popularised the cry "Freedom for Tooting!". The lead character in the series, Wolfie Smith, was the founder of a fictional revolutionary socialist political organisation, the Tooting Popular Front.
The Kitchens of Distinction recorded "On Tooting Broadway Station" on their album The Death of Cool.
In 2005, a 28 km diameter crater on Mars was named after Tooting. A geologic map of Tooting Crater is under preparation, and will be published by the U.S. Geological Survey in the United States.
The phrase "Ting Tong from Tooting" is associated with the character Ting Tong from the UK comedy sketch show Little Britain.
Tooting was the setting for the eponymous 2013 British-Tamil crime drama Gangs of Tooting Broadway.
In the film Johnny English Reborn, Agent Tucker lives in Tooting.
Channel 4's award-winning documentary series 24 Hours in A&E was filmed at St George's Hospital in Tooting.
In the BBC comedy drama Fleabag, the title character's sister Claire says she is from Tooting.