Pollards Hill Housing Estate, including Donnelly Green

The history of the area around Pollards Hill may date back to prehistoric and Roman times, with the discovery of Roman coins here. The name may originate from the practice of pollarding during the medieval period, when the woodland was within the Great North Wood. In the C13th 'Pollards Hill' is referred to in a survey of the Manor of Benchesam. Pollards Hill appears on C19th OS maps, with Pollardshill Farm and the large area of woodland, Pollardshill Wood, marked on the OS maps 25 ins to the mile, First and Second Editions (Surrey XIV.1) with the surrounding area largely rural, apart from ribbon development on London Road. The distinctive serpentine layout of the roads, Pollards Hill North and Pollards Hill South, is marked on the 1898 OS Map, and remain largely intact today.  By 1910/11 the area that was later the site of the housing estate is marked as fields and sports grounds, with a Tooting Bec Golf Course marked on Pollardshill Wood, later the site of Pollards Hill Recreation Ground (q.v.) - see OS Map 25 ins to the mile, published 1912 (Surrey XIV.1). In 1913 Sir Frederick Edridge, Mayor of Croydon, donated the hill to Croydon Council, and development in the area began to take place. In the later OS 25 ins Map published 1934 Tooting Bec Golf Course has disappeared and another golf course, Pollards Hill Golf Course, is marked to the south of the sports grounds and tennis courts. The use for recreation here remained the case post WWII, but by 1952 Recreation Road had been laid out, and housing had been built to the south over the former fields and sports grounds (TQ3068NW-A and -B). By 1971 the OS shows the new Pollards Hill Estate built over the earlier housing (TQ3068NW-A and -B) and Pollards Hill Recreation Ground had also been laid out north of Recreation Road.

Pollards Hill Housing Estate was designed by Merton Borough Architects Department and built in 1968-71. A high density scheme in a landscape setting, the 16.6-hectare estate consists of three-storey blocks of houses and flats 'in an ingenious rectilinear Greek-key meander' (Nikolaus Pevsner). Various areas of green space were provided in the form of private gardens, partly enclosed landscaped squares overlooked by the housing blocks, a public park, Donnelly Green, named after Mr Donnelly, Head of Parks for Mitcham. Pollards Hill Children Park was later provided within the estate, located adjacent to Pollards Hill Youth Centre. The closes and roads on the estate are named after various counties of England and Wales: including Brecon, Caernarven, Glamorgan, Huntingdon, Kent, and Monmouth. To the north of the estate on Recreation Way is Pollards Hill Recreation Ground, abutting school grounds. The path leading up Pollards Hill provides good views.