Mitcham Common Short Walk

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Mitcham Common is an ancient common in south London. It's a medium sized open space (about 1 mile x 1 mile), a mix of grassland, trees, small ponds, and low (man made) hills. After a long period of neglect, it's recently been cleared of scrub and tidied up. There is a plan to link it to Beddington Farmlands (a new Nature Reserve) and Beddington Park (parkland of a former statley home) to make a large park. For now, it's good for a stroll if you live nearby, but not (yet) worth a long journey.

The common is in 5 sections, bisected by busy roads (nicely screened by trees) and a railway line. The entire SW corner (between Mitcham Junction train/tram station, tram track, A236, B272, A273) is taken up by a golf course, with no public access.

There are noticeboards/maps at the entrance to each region of the common, but take care crossing some of the roads between them! Don't follow this walk religiously - take time to explore. If you do, there are some extra isolated green spaces to the west of the common (and railway line), including Canons Recreation Ground (which has a Toby Carvery pub in a former stately home) and Cricket Green (where the first international test match was held).

Mitcham Junction (Zone 4) has trains from Victoria and trams on the Wimbledon - East Croydon line.

There are plans to create a much larger north-south open space by linking the common with "Beddington Farmlands" (a former sewage works and landfill area turned wetlands nature reserve), and the existing Beddington Park (a large city park). As a planning requirement, the company that built a large waste incinerator to replace the landfill site have to create a wetlands park.

For a longer walk, including the permissive path, see our Mitcham Junction to Colliers Wood via Beddingto Park and the Wandle Trail walk.

[Mar-20] A permissive footpath has opened through the Beddington Farmlands area (between the Common to the north, and Beddington Park to the south). In short, leave Mitcham Junction train station to the south. Immeadiately enter the woods on your left. Follow the train track to a footbridge (with a 'railway children' view of the rail cutting). Across the bridge, turn right, with the rail line now on your right. This is the new (well, rebranded) path. After 0.5km, you'll see the new bird hides with a view of the (not yet open) nature reserve. Eventually, you reach Beddington Park.

• Mitcham Common - conservators (managers). There is a small visitor centre in their offices by the Miller and Carver pub on Windmill Road, CR4 1HT.
• Friends of Mitcham Common
• Beddington Farmlands nature reserve
• Nature Reserve Roadmap Jun-19, PDF

• Crown of Mitcham - about 200m south of Mitcham Junction station. Good value Asian food. CR4 4HJ
• Miller and Carter - overpriced carvery restaurant-pub in the middle of the common. CR4 1HT
• The Ravensbury - upmarket Indian/Chinese restaurant/nightclub on the west of the common - popular, but not really suitable for walkers
• Park Place - Toby Carvery restaurant and pub in an historic house, north of Mitcham Junction (along a busy road), free parking, cheap. CR4 4HB

After the walk, please leave a comment, it really helps. Thanks!

You can also upload photos to the SWC Group on Flickr (upload your photos) and videos to Youtube. This walk's tags are:

National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Nov-22 Andrew