Photographs

The Borough is fortunate to have an impressive archive of historic photographs, including the splendid Tom Francis Collection recording places, events and characters of Victorian and Edwardian Mitcham. The Merton Memories Project, produced by Merton Library and Heritage Service, offers unprecedented access to a unique collection of photographs charting the history of Merton over the past 150 years.

Although not covering such a time span, Merton Historical Society’s photographic collections are also worth exploring. They include:

The Eric Montague collection of slides and photographs of Mitcham and its environs, mostly taken in the 1960s and 1970s, which are available to view on this website.

The Bill Rudd Collection, mostly relating to Morden from the 1950s to the 2000s, awaiting scanning and cataloguing. It also includes the results of his Abbey Roads project to photograph all the monastic sites that gave their names to the roads on the St Helier Estate.

Our newest project is to build up a Photographic Record of our area, especially of buildings under threat of demolition or major development, and also of subjects not currently covered.

These collections are grouped by location. You might prefer to explore them by Topic.

The Society would also be happy to accept donations of other photographs of local historic interest, whether as prints, slides or in digital format.