Garratt Lane

Garratt Lane is a long street (numbered to 1085) in the London Borough of Wandsworth, part of the A217 road. It connects Wandsworth High Street to Tooting Broadway and is approximately four kilometres long. It passes through Earlsfield and Summerstown, before their late 19th century development, fields of Wandsworth.

Garratt Lane has mixed usage along its length. In the north it contains newly developed stores including a large single-storey shopping mall with parking above. The stretch between Allfarthing Lane and Burntwood Lane is mainly diverse shophouses including a few professional services. The southern portion is mainly residential, although around Summertown there are a few light industries and the Wimbledon Stadium.

The southernmost part of Garratt Lane is unusual in that two parallel streets exchanged names. The original Garratt Lane was a narrower street than Garratt Terrace, which was the main connection to Tooting Broadway. Many people mistakenly called it Garratt Lane, so it was agreed to exchange the names.

The south-east end of Garratt Lane, running from the junction with Fountain Road and Upper Tooting Road was previously called Defoe Road.

Most large public houses have survived along Garratt Lane, including The Old Sergeant and the Leather Bottle, both of which date to the 18th century. The latter figured in the mock Garrat Elections of the late 18th century, which were featured in the play The Mayor of Garratt by Samuel Foote.

Garratt Lane is one of three major north-south routes in south-west Inner London, i.e. between the Lambeth/Southwark south bank areas and the gradual widening and receiving of local roads to the arterial A3, west of Wandsworth. The Lane follows a bank of the River Wandle so has quite a consistent rise as with the parallel A218 on the higher, western bank. Industries grew up in the 18th and 19th centuries along this east bank, which led to its prominence. A 1741 map of Rocque shows a road with a near identical orientation, which strongly implies the road had early origins. A 1786 map shows and names Garratt Lane running approximately on its present route. This map also shows two lanes that intersect named: Half Farthing (now Allfarthing) and Burnt Wood (now one word). The sub-settlement on its length was Garratt Green, Wandsworth.

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