Time Walk
A Lane That Became an Address
This was once just a lane to Knight's Hill, before it became the driveway to a sugar millionaire's mansion. Walking up from the common's lower end, the open green sits on one side, fronted by late-Victorian houses; further up the houses sit lower and closer together, built between the wars.
Near the top of the hill the houses give way to a timber fence and dense planting around the old Henry Tate estate, and the street suddenly feels semi-rural. Beneath the villas and the convent walls, this is still the same route that once led carts and carriages toward Knight's Hill — a name worth tracing.
Name Origin
The North Side of the Common
The name is plainly descriptive: Streatham Common North runs along the northern edge of the common, part of the only road running east and west across the south of the old parish.
Before it carried that name, the route was an ancient lane linking Streatham to Knight's Hill. It later became the carriage drive to Hill House, a mansion that once stood at the top of the common; the house is gone, but it is remembered in the name of the adjoining Hill House Road.
History
From Hill House to Park Hill
Hill House, an 18th-century mansion, once looked out over the common from the top of this road. In 1881 Sir Henry Tate, the sugar magnate, bought the Park Hill estate on Streatham Common North Side. Born in Chorley, Lancashire, in 1819, Tate rose from an apprentice grocer to a pioneer of the multiple shop, then into sugar manufacturing — joining Lyle to found Tate & Lyle.
Tate built his mansion and estate at Park Hill, and gave the people of Streatham a library in 1890. From 1923 until 2000 his former estate served as St Michael's Convent. Parts of the convent buildings, and its gardens, are protected.
Sir Henry Tate, who bought the Park Hill estate here in 1881, started his career as an apprentice grocer before building the sugar fortune behind Tate & Lyle.
People
A Grocer's Apprentice and an Architect
Sir Henry Tate is the figure most tied to this street, remembered above for his rise from grocer's apprentice to sugar magnate and his gifts to Streatham.
Further down the street, architecture rather than fortune left its mark. Nos. 13 and 14 were designed by E. Guy Dawber, described as a distinguished English architect.
Today
Villas, Convent Gardens, and a Timber Fence
The street still reads in three distinct stretches. At the bottom, late 19th-century detached and semi-detached houses face the open common, with the War Memorial Gardens at the High Road end. Past Valley Hill Road the pavement widens and the houses become lower, closer-set Interwar villas.
Towards the top, the housing stops at the timber-fenced, densely planted boundary of what was once Henry Tate's estate, now the Henry Tate Mews. The lane to Knight's Hill is now, in effect, a street of protected gardens and inter-war villas looking out over the common it is named for.
On the Map
Streatham Common North Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Streatham Common North?
It runs along the north side of Streatham Common, part of the only east–west road across the south of the old parish. It was originally an ancient lane linking Streatham to Knight's Hill.
What is Streatham Common North known for?
It was the site of Sir Henry Tate's Park Hill estate, bought in 1881, later St Michael's Convent, whose gardens are now Grade II listed.
Who was Sir Henry Tate?
A sugar magnate born in Chorley in 1819 who rose from a grocer's apprentice to found Tate & Lyle, bought Park Hill on this street in 1881, and gave Streatham its library in 1890.