The surprising link between Downing Street’s Red Box and a Carshalton mansion
This leather Red Box is traditionally seen in Downing Street at the announcement of the Budget. It represents the Chancellor of the Exchequer and has been a familiar symbol of government finance since the 1860s. The box itself is currently made by Barrow, Hepburn & Gale, a leather manufacturer with some roots in Carshalton. One […]
Heads or Tails? The Carshalton coin toss that named America’s most famous Horse Race
The Kentucky Derby is the biggest and most prestigious horse race in the United States, but its origins trace back to a small region in England. In 1872, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr, the man behind the Kentucky Derby, travelled to Surrey, England. There, he witnessed first-hand the famous horse race called The Derby and was […]
The story of the mysterious ‘Wizard Man of Sutton’
Few local characters became as instantly recognisable as the ‘Wizard Man of Sutton’. For decades he was a familiar sight on Sutton High Street: dressed in flowing robes, wearing a skull cap, adorned with rings, and carrying a tall staff often topped with a dragon motif. Whether encountered in and outside shops, walking steadily through […]
Carshalton garage commandeered during WW2
Charles Henry Thatcher was the officer in charge of the Carshalton Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) that operated from this lock-up in The Square, Carshalton. Charles won a medal for his service during the Blitz of 1940. But briefly, what was the AFS? The Auxiliary Fire Service was set up in 1938 as a voluntary body […]
Wild Carshalton: diverse wildlife in suburbia
David Attenborough was the star of Wild London on BBC TV. So we thought it would be fun to see what kind of wildlife is specifically in and around Carshalton. Here’s a small collection of images exclusive to Secret Carshalton. Please feel free to share your own images in the comments below. Carshalton has a […]
The tragic yet inspiring legend of ‘Paper Jack’
Who was Paper Jack? A well-educated son of a prosperous London businessman, he worked as a surveyor and helped to map a portion of the Brighton Railways. During the war, he was employed by the War Office decoding Secret Service documents. He married Ellen Miriam Brandon in 1917. They lived together on Brighton Road in […]
Carshalton’s Great Plague victims and the mystery Black Death graves
We’ve been scratching below the surface of Carshalton’s gruesome past – and uncovered potential black plague victims in the grounds of St Philomena’s and the existence of Great Plague burials at All Saints. The Great Plague of 1665 The well-known local historian George Brightling provided details in his 19th century book. Inside there is an […]
Is the infamous ‘Grey Lady’ the ghost of a skeleton found buried under a tree?
A violent storm in 1974 pulled down an old tree, to reveal a forgotten skeleton. It was in an area behind the gatehouse (pictured above) at St Philomena’s school. Local school boys discovered the remains. Throughout the early 70s, in the residential area to the left of the picture below, one of the school children […]
Long-lost Wallace House and the victorian soup kitchen
*Historical* This is Wallace House that stood off Pound Street in Carshalton. It was lived in by the sisters known locally as ‘The Misses Wallace’. The two sisters were highly regarded as in the 1880s they set up a special ‘soup kitchen’ to help the poor of the district. Carshalton experienced poverty and social disparity, characteristic […]