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One of a small cluster of roads referencing Robinson Crusoe, in. this case the author Daniel Defoe (1660 – April 24, 1731) who is said to have lived for a time at nearby at Tooting Old Hall. The unsubstantiated Defoe claim did at least produce a better link with the Crusoe Farm Dairy, set up appropriately enough by a descendant of the explorer Captain James Cook, one Elizabeth Taylor, who may have named it after the eponymous castaway. Within a few years she had built up one of the largest milk businesses in South London. Published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe about a mariner who survives on a deserted island after being shipwrecked is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. The book is widely credited with being the first English novel. He is also credited with writing the first modern English journalism with his report of the Great Storm of 1703, which caused severe damage to London and Bristol, uprooted millions of trees, and killed more than 8,000 people, mostly at sea. Perhaps his most significant work, apart from the novels, is A Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724 – 1727), which provided a panoramic survey of British trade on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. Other nearby roads connected with Defoe are Crusoe Road, Friday Road, Pitcairn Road and Selkirk Road.
