Clapham is referred to at the time of King Alfred the Great, when it was spelt Clopeham or Clappeham, meaning “village on the hill”. Hardacanute, King of England, fell dead here in 1042 after a particularly wild party. In the 17th century it became a popular area for rich people to build county houses, but they had to run the gauntlet of the highwaymen of Clapham Common to get there. Samuel Pepys had a house there. There is a local legend that Captain Cook lived in a house on the north side of Clapham Common - the balcony on one of the houses is known as Captain Cook’s Quarterdeck. Many famous people lived there: Wilberforce, Shelley, and Macaulay. It was still exclusively a preserve for the rich until the trains arrived in the late 19th century. This and overspill from Battersea led to a lot of the area being redeveloped with terraced houses.

Clapham has a particular resonance for lawyers. One of the most important words for lawyers is reasonable“. Almost any contract will be full of reasonable endeavours, reasonable steps, consents not to be unreasonably wittheld … because the courts have a whole history of judgments telling them how to interpret reasonable in just about any circumstances. And it all comes back to Clapham. The test of reasonableness is what ‘the man on the Clapham omnibus’ would think about it. (Judges still use ‘omnibus’). Personally, I wouldn’t dream of getting on a bus anywhere in London, certainly not after the pubs close. But if judges need to know which side of an argument to come down on, all they have to do is get on a Clapham bus and take a quick vote.

The heart of Clapham is north of Clapham Common up as far as Wandsworth Road, from Cedars Road in the West to the railway lines in the east. The old town is centred around Grafton Square, which has mid-Victorian stucco fronted houses. Similar houses can be found in the neighbouring streets to the north such as Offerton Road, Fitzwilliam Road and Liston Road. Between North Street and Cedars Road, Macauley Road and roads off it, such as Lillieshall Road and Broadhinton Road, contain Victorian houses, mainly converted into flats. The Chase contains particularly large Victorian houses.

On the east of Clapham Old Town is an area of council housing, but in attractive squares, rather than the usual tower blocks. South of the High Street, there are more Victorian terraces, although generally smaller cottages. Abbeville Road runs parallel with Clapham Common Southside. The roads on either side of it contain some of the area’s most popular Victorian houses. Streets include Narbonne Avenue and Elms Crescent. The area of Clapham Park covers the rest of the streets as far east as Kings Avenue. This is a mixture of Victorian and more modern council-built houses and blocks.