Place Name
The great landowners would often name the streets laid out on their London estates after places associated with the family’s principal residence (the family seat). This style was in turn adopted by builders and developers as the aristocracy slowly loosened its grip on the land, and so it seems to be the case here. This road was developed in the latter 19thCentury by a local builder F. W. Pearce of Felsham Road, who was born at Redgrave in Suffolk, the name coming from the Anglo Saxon words hrēod græf meaning reed ditch. Wandsworth Council’s Charlwood Road and Lifford Street Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy writes that unlike some more rural inspired roads: “Some streets are far more urban and relate clearly to the development of Putney town centre which lies immediately to the east. Redgrave Road and Chelverton Road are examples of these.”
