Builders in Mitcham

Homes in Mitcham

Merton's Borough Character Study describes Mitcham's dominant character as suburban housing with historic fragments woven in, including pockets of Victorian terraces, shopping parades and old industrial buildings. Eastfields mixes tight Victorian terraces with 1930s semi-detached houses, some in an Art Deco style; Figge's Marsh has late-Victorian and Edwardian terraces alongside 1930s housing; Pollards Hill was developed from the 1930s with cohesive rows of inter-war houses with front and back gardens; and the Streatham Road area has tight 1930s terraces and inter-war cottage-style houses.

Around the Cricket Green, Mitcham Park was laid out mostly before 1916, with Edwardian houses whose modest frontages hide deep L-shaped plans, and Mitcham Garden Village, built between 1929 and 1932, has two-storey brick houses with jettied front gables under steep tiled roofs. The inter-war houses across Mitcham are well suited to rear kitchen extensions and hip-to-gable or rear dormer loft conversions.

Planning in Mitcham

Most of Mitcham is covered by the London Borough of Merton, but the CR4 postcode also reaches into the London Boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth and Sutton at its edges, so check which council covers your address. The Mitcham Cricket Green conservation area, first designated in 1968 and extended several times since, takes in Cricket Green, Cranmer Green, Three Kings Piece, Church Road, Mitcham Park and Mitcham Garden Village. The Wandle Valley conservation area also has a Lower Mitcham sub-area. Both are described on Merton's conservation areas list.

Merton lists no householder Article 4 directions in force in Mitcham on its Article 4 page at the time of writing, although the Cricket Green appraisal proposes one in future, so check the current position before planning changes visible from the street in the conservation area. Outside it, many rear extensions and loft conversions can proceed under permitted development within the national limits.

Basements across Merton are governed by Policy D12.11 of the Merton Local Plan (adopted November 2024). It limits a basement under an existing home to a single storey, restricts how far it can extend beyond the original house, and requires a Basement Impact Assessment, a drainage strategy, a construction method statement and a construction traffic management plan with the application. In conservation areas, basements and their lightwells must conserve or enhance the area's character.

Worth knowing locally

• Merton's Surface Water Management Plan names Mitcham town centre and Pollards Hill as priority areas, with flooding recorded around the Three Kings Pond roundabout, Raleigh Gardens and London Road, and on Sherwood Park Road, Fern Avenue and Wide Way in Pollards Hill, so drainage matters on any larger extension.
• The Character Study flags the loss of front gardens to parking in Eastfields and Pollards Hill, and inappropriate alterations and extensions in places, so a well-matched design is more likely to be welcomed.
• Cricket has been played on Mitcham's Cricket Green for more than three centuries, and in the 18th century Mitcham was known for calico printing and for growing and distilling peppermint and lavender. The dovecote at The Canons, dated 1511, is thought to be the oldest building in Merton.