Pollards Hill

Pollards Hill is a residential district crossing the border of the south London boroughs of Merton and Croydon between Mitcham and Norbury. It is the name of a council ward in Merton. The district is bisected by the Merton/Croydon boundary along Recreation Way. With no road connections between the Merton and Croydon portions of the district, they retain very different characteristics.

To the west (in Merton), at the foot of the hill, is the Pollard's Hill estate stretching to Mitcham Common. A section of the estate was put under the authority of MOAT housing association in 1998, which has since demolished four maisonette blocks dating from the 1950s. Mitcham Borough Council’s solution to the post war housing shortage was to put up pre-fabs, ‘Arcon’ bungalows at Pollards Hill. The first bungalows were ready as early as January 1946, and were meant to last about 10 years; in fact, many were still in use in the mid-1960s.

The four maisonette blocks were built by the Council in the 1950s on Yorkshire Road, beginning with Westmorland Square in 1950 and the final block, Bovingdon Square in 1956; the other two were Hertford Square and Berkshire Square. The pre-fabs were mostly demolished in the 1960s, to make way for a new high density, low-rise scheme that was constructed by the Borough of Merton and Wimpey between 1967 and 1971. A new branch library and community centre was included in the estate, which at the time received a design award.

To the east (in Croydon), covering the sides of the hill are larger houses, stretching towards central Norbury. The roads are lined with pollarded lime trees.

Covering the crown of the hill is Pollards Hill Park, an open area of 7.75 acres (3.14 hectares), managed by Croydon Council.

The nearest railway stations are Mitcham Eastfields, Norbury railway station and Streatham Common railway station. Buses advertising 'Pollards Hill' (and road signs to Pollards Hill) take you to the western, Merton, district. The buses that serve the area are routes 60, 152, 255 and 463.

Pollards Hill on the Merton side also contains a wide range of community facilities including a library, community centre, youth centre and a neighbourhood police station, the first in Merton. In September 2006, Harris Academy opened on the former site of Tamworth Manor High School. The academy is on the Merton side but right on the Croydon border. Tamworth Manor High School was originally Pollards Hill Secondary Modern School built in the 1950s, which became a comprehensive school, Pollards Hill High School, in 1968.

Pollards Hill has the largest Ghanaian British community in the UK on the Merton side according to the 2011 census, with 6% of the population and over 600 people born in Ghana. It also has a large Asian British population on the Croydon side, and the area is home to many other different nationalities. The non-white British population of both parts has grown considerably in recent years, yet with very little inter-community tension.

In 2005, a community cycling club was set up with help from the Commonside Trust. It now has over 550 members from all over South London, and had won the London Cycling Campaigns' award for Best Community Cycling Initiative in 2006.

In 2007 the Pollards Hill Poker Club was founded on Wide Way. It began life as a group of poker players who met weekly but soon expanded to included other games (chess, backgammon, and "euro" board games) and also began fundraising for children's charity The Evelina Family Trust. It has since grown to over 300 members and boasts five star reviews on gaming sites. In 2009 the club relocated to the Streatham and Tooting border, but it has retained the name Pollards Hill Poker Club to reflect its origins as a poker club and its roots in the area.

The area is represented at Westminster by Siobhain McDonagh on the Merton side and Malcolm Wicks on the Croydon side, both are Labour Party. Both sides of Pollards Hill also elected Labour Party councillors at the last Council elections in May 2010.