Tooting Bec

Tooting Bec
Tooting Bec
 Tooting Bec shown within Greater London
OS grid referenceTQ275715
London borough Wandsworth
Ceremonial county Greater London
RegionLondon
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town LONDON
Postcode district SW17
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
EU Parliament London
UK ParliamentTooting
London Assembly Merton and Wandsworth
List of places
UK
England
London

Coordinates: 51°25′43″N 0°10′00″W / 51.4286°N 0.1666°W / 51.4286; -0.1666

St Anselm's Church and the tube station

Tooting Bec is a location in the London Borough of Wandsworth in south London.

It is named after Bec Abbey in Normandy, which was given land in this area (then part of the Streatham parish) after the Norman Conquest. Saint Anselm, the second Abbot of Bec, is reputed to have been a visitor to Tooting Bec long before he succeeded Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury. Saint Anselm gives his name to the modern Roman Catholic church which sits on the corner of Balham High Road and Tooting Bec Road. A relief sculpture of Saint Anselm visiting the Totinges tribe (from which Tooting as a whole gets its name) is visible on the exterior of Wandsworth Town Hall.

Tooting Bec sits on Stane Street, a former Roman Road which linked Roman London with Chichester to the southwest.

Tooting Bec appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Totinges. It was held partly by St Mary de Bec-Hellouin Abbey and partly by Westminster Abbey. Its domesday assets were: 5 hides. It had 5½ ploughs, 13 acres (5.3 ha). It rendered £7.[1]

The area includes Tooting Commons, which features Tooting Bec Lido, the largest fresh water pool in England[2] as well as a small athletics stadium. Often considered part of Tooting, it forms the northern part of the latter suburb.

The Tooting Bec Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1888. The club disappeared in the late 1920s. [3]

The Finnish band Hanoi Rocks wrote the song "Tooting Bec Wreck" about their experiences living there in the early 1980s.

Nearest places

Nearest tube station

Football Club

References

  1. Surrey Domesday Book
  2. South London Swimming Club
  3. "Tooting Bec Golf Club, London", "Golf’s Missing Links".
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