Tooting Bec

infobox UK place
country = England
map_type = Greater London
region= London
population=
official_name= Tooting Bec
london_borough= Wandsworth
constituency_westminster= Tooting
post_town= LONDON
postcode_area= SW
postcode_district= SW17
dial_code= 0208
os_grid_reference= TQ275715
latitude= 51.4286
longitude= -0.1666

Tooting Bec is a place in the London Borough of Wandsworth in south London.

It is named after Bec Abbey in Normandy, which was given land in this area (then part of the Streatham parish) after the Norman Conquest. Saint Anselm, the second Abbot of Bec, is reputed to have been a visitor to Tooting Bec long before he succeeded Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury. Saint Anselm gives his name to the modern Roman Catholic church [http://www.st-anselms-tooting-bec.org.uk] which sits on the corner of Balham High Road and Tooting Bec Road. Reliefs of Saint Anselm visiting the Totinges tribe (from which Tooting as a whole gets its name) are visible in Wandsworth town hall.

Tooting Bec sits on Stane Street, a former Roman Road which linked Roman London with Chichester to the south west.

Tooting Beck appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as "Totinges". It was held partly by St Mary de Bec-Hellouin Abbey and partly by Westminster Abbey. Its domesday assets were: 5 hides. It had 5½ ploughs, 13 acres. It rendered £7. [ [http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm Surrey Domesday Book] ]

The area includes Tooting Commons, which features Tooting Bec Lido, the largest open-air swimming pool in the United Kingdom, as well as a small athletics stadium. Often considered part of Tooting, it forms the northern part of the latter suburb.

Nearest places

*Tooting
* Balham
* Wimbledon
* Earlsfield
* Streatham

Nearest tube station

* Tooting Bec tube station

References