Mitcham

Mitcham made its name on lavender fields and soothing air, then lined the riverbank with snuff mills, copper works and firework factories, which is about as honest a summary of South London as anyone has managed. It has a reasonable claim to the oldest cricket ground still in use, with a road running between the pavilion and the pitch, so every innings starts with a batsman checking both ways. Elizabeth the First kept visiting, John Donne lived here, and the buyers paying extra for a Wimbledon postcode would quite like nobody to mention it.