Streatham's early history- Georgian Times
The area around St Leonard's, was once the quiet heart of Streatham village, where the sounds were those of horses, the forge, and everyday rural life. Around the church stood the rectory, tithe barn, forge, lock-up, school, inn, manor house, and the cottages and homes of villagers and tradespeople.
Into this Georgian setting came the Thrales, wealthy Southwark brewers who leased the estate of Morefields and built Streatham Place, a fine mansion overlooking Tooting Bec Common. Their home became a centre of social and intellectual life, attracting many notable visitors, most famously Dr Samuel Johnson, who spent much of the years 1766 to 1781 in the company of Henry and Hester Thrale.
After Henry Thrale's death in 1781, Streatham Place declined. Hester's remarriage to Signor Piozzi and her eventual departure marked the end of its great period. Johnson, long a familiar figure in the village, left with deep sadness, later recording his farewell to St Leonard's church before his death in 1784. Streatham Place itself was later sold, neglected, and finally demolished in 1863.
Georgian Streatham was marked not only by distinguished residents but also by local troubles and wider national pressures. Parish records describe disputes, riots on Tooting Bec Common, tensions over common land, and the effects of war with Revolutionary France, including shortages that disrupted ordinary village life.
News and travel became more frequent with the rise of the stagecoach. Streatham's inns, especially the old Red Lion, later the Horse & Groom, became important stopping places on the Brighton Road. Their notoriety, together with the surrounding heathland, also reflected the dangers of travel in an age when highwaymen haunted the roads south of London.
Maps of the 18th and early 19th centuries show a parish still shaped by villages, farms, hayfields, and smallholdings. Balham and Tooting Bec remained important centres, while Streatham itself expanded gradually. New industries also appeared, including gunpowder production, horticulture, and later silk weaving. At the same time, Streatham strengthened its reputation as a pleasant rural retreat for those seeking distance from London.
Regular coach services connected Streatham with Westminster, the City, Croydon, and Brighton, making it increasingly accessible. St Leonard's church remained the village's landmark, and after storm damage in 1774 it was repaired and altered, receiving improvements including bells and a clock.
Education and welfare also developed during this period. Schools for rich and poor were founded, including Hambley House School, the parish school, and charitable provision for poor girls. Care for the poor led to the establishment of a workhouse near Tooting Bec Common, while other institutions, such as the Royal Asylum of St Anne's Society, later added to Streatham's social landscape.
By the 1830s, the old rural order was giving way. Problems at St Leonard's, including body snatching and overcrowding, led eventually to rebuilding and enlargement. As William IV came to the throne, the forces that would transform 19th-century England were already reshaping Streatham, ending centuries of village tranquillity and preparing the way for the Victorian age.
