Place Name
Alan was a family name of the Peaches, owners of Belvedere House, which stood near here from the 17thCentury. Neal Ransome, in Wimbledon Village: A History Told Through Its Street Names said it may have been named for Henry Alan Peache, son of the landowner James Courthope Peache who himself was great grandson of… the original James Courthope Peache, a Lambeth timber merchant, who purchased Wimbledon Manor House which he called Belvedere House. Ransome says the name Alan didn’t enter the family tree until 1892 when James junior named one of his sons Henry Alan. But in fact there was a Gilbert Alan Peache (born 1858), son of the Reverend Alfred Peache. The clergyman and his sister Kezia had inherited the bulk of their father’s estate when James Courthope Peache senior and their elder brother Clement Peache died in quick succession in 1857 and 1858. So, in short Alan was a family name, but where it came from is not known. Alan Road was laid out in 1905.
