Things you didn't know about... Balham

Arthur wouldn't pay a king's Ransome for Balham
Yorkshire-born writer and journalist Arthur Ransome, of Swallows and Amazons fame, was obliged to live with relatives in Balham in 1904. He called Balham "the ugliest and most abominable of London's unpleasing suburbs" and soon decamped to Chelsea. Luckily for local estate agents, Balham's reputation has improved immeasurably since then.

Balham's record-breaking housing development...
That temple to Art Deco, Du Cane Court, an enormous series of apartment blocks on Balham High Road, is reputed to be the largest private accommodation site in Europe, with a range of options from studios to four-bedroom penthouses. It's so large and distinctive that Luftwaffe pilots used it as a navigation aid in World War II.

...and its famous residents
Famous denziens of Du Cane Court, Balham, have included comedian Arthur Smith and actress Dame Margaret Rutherford, famous for playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. The building has also been used for shooting Poirot, another Christie character.

Sofas are Balham
Furniture giant MFI opened its first store in Balham in 1967.

Balham has much to atone for
Look away now if you have yet to see Atonement, the film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, based on the bestselling novel by Ian McEwan. The harrowing scene that forms the shocking climax is based on a real event.

In October 1940, during the Blitz, while hundreds sheltered in the Underground, a bomb fell on Balham High Road causing a crater into which a bus fell. This fractured a water main that flooded the tunnels and station beneath. Some 65 civilians died.

Balham on TV
Sarah Beeny, presenter of Channel 4's The Property Ladder, lives in Balham. Former nanny to Princes William and Harry, Tiggy Legg-Bourke, used to teach at a school in the area, while footballer-turned-pundit Jimmy Hill is another local lad. Ready Steady Cook's Ainsley Harriott was born and bred in Balham.

Musical Balham
Captain Sensible of punk outfit The Damned grew up here. Acoustic duo Turin Brakes also hail from "The Gateway to the South" as Peter Sellers coined Balham. And US rock outfit The White Stripes shot the video for Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground in a house in Balham.