Tooting Bec Area

Located just south of central London, in Wandsworth, Tooting Bec is part of the London Borough.

History

The Domesday Book reference to Tooting Bec as “Totinges” dates from 1086. The service was jointly held by Westminster Abbey and St Mary the Virgin Abbey. It had five hides on domesday. It consisted of 512,13 acres of ploughed land (5.3 ha). This resulted in a £7 profit.

After Bec Abbey in Normandy, where the river ‘Bec’ had been named, the suffix ‘Bec’ was added. The Normans granted them land in the area. During his tenure as Bishop of Canterbury, Saint Anselm followed Lanfranc’s footsteps into the Bec monastery. Additionally, the Balham High Road and Tooting Bec Road church built in Saint Anselm’s honor bears his name. The exterior of Wandsworth Town Hall features a relief sculpture of Saint Anselm attending a gathering of the Totinges tribe.

There is a public park in Tooting Bec which is situated on Stane Street, a Roman road linking London to Chichester in the southwest.

A special feature of the area is Tooting Commons, and Tooting Bec Lido, one of the country’s oldest open-air fresh water pools that first opened to the public in 1906.

Founded in 1888, Tooting Bec Golf Club is one of the oldest clubs in the United Kingdom. In the late 1920s, the club was discontinued. The movie “Tooting Bec Wreck” presents the experience of Finnish band Hanoi Rocks in Vietnam during the early 1980s.

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