Coordinates: 51°25′09″N 0°10′04″W / 51.41918°N 0.16778°W
| Colliers Wood | |
  Colliers Wood shown within Greater London |
|
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| London borough | Merton |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | London |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | SW19 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| European Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | Mitcham and Morden |
| London Assembly | Merton and Wandsworth |
| List of places: UK • England • London | |
Colliers Wood is an area in south London, England, in the London Borough of Merton. Colliers Wood station is served by the London Underground's Northern Line.
Colliers Wood takes its name from a wood that stood to the east of Colliers Wood Road, approximately where Warren, Marlborough and Birdhurst Roads are now. Contemporary Ordnance Survey maps show that this wood remained at least until the 1870s but had been cleared for development by the mid-1890s.
The market and heritage centre at Merton Abbey Mills is nearby.
Colliers Wood shares its postcode district with Wimbledon, with postcode lookups returning this suburb name and some organisations insisting on its use.
In 2006, local resident and ex-resident of Slough Keith Spears, having seen the BBC TV series Making Slough Happy [1], started the Making Colliers Wood Happy initiative [2]. This has resulted in a lively programme of social events for local residents, including a community choir [3].
Colliers Wood is dominated by the "Colliers Wood Tower". Originally named the "Lyon Tower" [4], it was originally occupied as the headquarters of property company Ronald Lyon Holdings but has also been known as "The Vortex" and the "Brown & Root Tower". It was voted the ugliest building in London in a 2006 BBC poll [5] and one of the 12 ugliest in the UK in a 2005 Channel 4 poll for its programme Demolition [6].
When being built, the tower reached the third storey before an error in construction was discovered and it was demolished to begin again. As of December 2008, the building, owned by Golfrate [7], is unoccupied. The ground and first floors have been boarded up, and green netting attached all the way down each end to prevent bits of the structure which may fall off from striking passers-by.
History
- For a history of this part of the borough, see Merton.
References
- ^ Making Slough Happy
- ^ Making Colliers Wood Happy
- ^ Colliers Wood Chorus
- ^ Telegraph.co.uk - Obituary of Ronald Lyon
- ^ BBC Poll - Most Hated Building
- ^ Channel4.com - Demolition
- ^ Golfrate Property Management Ltd
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