Balham and Streatham are two ordinary south London districts either side of a very large common, about half an hour from the centre. Neither has a famous sight. What they have is a pair of working high streets, an Olympic-sized ice rink, a hilltop of walled gardens and one of the strangest Victorian buildings in London, and between them they show you what most of the city actually looks like.
The two are usually mentioned together because they run into each other. Balham sits at the northern end, on the Northern line; Streatham stretches south from there down a single long road towards Croydon, with no Underground station anywhere in it. That one difference explains most of what follows.
This is not a sightseeing page. If you have three days in London, spend them elsewhere and read our guide to London's neighbourhoods instead. If you are here for a week or more, or staying with friends in south London, this is a useful afternoon.
Balham and Streatham at a glance
- Best for
- Ice skating, commons and gardens, comedy and music pubs, Polish and Italian food shops
- Balham stations
- Balham (Northern line and Southern rail, Zone 3)
- Streatham stations
- Streatham Hill, Streatham and Streatham Common - National Rail only, no Tube
- From central London
- About 20 minutes to Balham on the Northern line; about 20 minutes from Victoria to Streatham by train
- The big draw
- Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre, with a full-sized indoor ice rink
- Time needed
- An afternoon
Balham: an interchange with a high street attached
Balham station is a genuine interchange: the Northern line on the Morden branch below, Southern trains to Victoria and London Bridge above, and one ticket hall between them. That is more useful than it sounds, because it gives you two completely different routes into central London from the same doorstep, and the rail route is often faster than the Tube.
Out of the station, Balham High Road runs north-south with shops down both sides. It is a comfortable, slightly prosperous high street: delicatessens, a good deal of Italian and Polish food shopping, coffee places, estate agents, and a run of pubs and small restaurants. Our guide to Polish and eastern European food in London puts Balham and Streatham next to Hammersmith and Ealing as the places to buy it.
Balham has one famous piece of architecture and it is a block of flats. Du Cane Court, on the High Road, is an enormous 1930s apartment building in cream brick, curved at the corners, with hundreds of flats behind a long streamlined frontage. You cannot go in, and it is worth thirty seconds of your attention from the pavement.
Balham also has a small place in British comedy history: a 1950s radio and record sketch presented the district as an exotic destination, in the manner of a travelogue, and the joke has stuck to the name ever since. Londoners still find the word slightly funny. Nobody will explain why unless you ask.
The commons, and walking between the two
Tooting Bec Common and Tooting Graveney Common lie between Balham and Tooting: a big, plain expanse of grass, scattered woodland, playing fields and a lake, cut in two by the railway. It is the quickest way to get from Balham to Tooting on foot, about twenty-five minutes, and a far better walk than the parallel main road.
Clapham Common is fifteen minutes north of Balham along the same road, and is a different sort of space altogether, with a bandstand, ponds and a great deal of organised activity on it. Our page on Clapham Common and Brockwell Park covers both in detail, including the paddling pools and the miniature railway.
Streatham High Road, and the thing that is missing from it
Streatham is a long road. It runs for about two miles from Streatham Hill in the north, through Streatham itself, to Streatham Common and on towards Norbury, and there are shops for most of that distance. You will sometimes hear it called the longest high street in Europe. We have not found an official source for that claim and do not repeat it as a fact, but it gives you the right idea about the scale.
What Streatham does not have is an Underground station. It has three National Rail stations instead: Streatham Hill, Streatham and Streatham Common, all served by Southern and Thameslink trains from Victoria, London Bridge and Blackfriars. Trains run frequently, contactless and Oyster work on all of them, and the journey from Victoria takes about twenty minutes. Trains here finish earlier in the night than the Underground does, nothing runs through the small hours, and a late evening ends with a night bus or a cab.
Three stations with almost the same name, half a mile apart. Streatham Hill is the northern one, nearest the theatre; Streatham is the middle one, nearest the ice rink and the shops; Streatham Common is the southern one, nearest the common and the pumping station. Check which one your destination is closest to before you buy a ticket, because walking between them takes ten to fifteen minutes each time.
Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre: skating all year
The reason most visitors come to Streatham is the ice. The Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre, at 390 Streatham High Road, has a full-sized indoor ice rink, two swimming pools, a gym, studios, a sports hall and a soft play area, all in one building run by Active Lambeth.
The centre is open Monday to Friday from 6am to 10pm, Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 7pm, and 8am to 8pm on bank holidays. Public skating sessions run at set times rather than continuously, and skate hire is available, so check the session timetable and the current prices on Active Lambeth's own page or in its app before you travel. Sessions fill in the school holidays.
The important difference from the seasonal rinks in central London is that this one is indoors and open all year. The pop-up rinks at Somerset House, the Natural History Museum and the Tower run for a few weeks around Christmas at much higher prices; our guide to ice skating in London compares them. If you want to skate in June, Streatham is where you go.
Streatham Common and The Rookery
Streatham Common climbs away from the main road towards the south-east, and it is steeper than it looks on a map. Lambeth Council describes it as woodland, grassland, meadows, streams and a picnic area, and it holds the largest stretches of acid grassland and deciduous woodland in the borough. More than half of it has been a Local Nature Reserve since 2013, and the whole common has been protected from building since it was designated a Metropolitan Common in 1884. It is part of what was once the Great North Wood, which covered this whole ridge.
The common is open 24 hours a day and has a playground, a café, toilets, tennis courts and a paddling pool that runs in the warmer months. At the top of the slope, behind a wall, is The Rookery, a historic formal garden that is free to walk into and almost empty on a weekday. Its gates close earlier than the common's, so check Lambeth's page for the current hours before making a special trip.
The pumping station, which looks like it is in the wrong country
Next to Streatham Common station, on Conyers Road, stands a listed Victorian pumping station built for the Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company. It is a low group of buildings in a deliberately exotic style, with domed and rounded forms that have nothing to do with south London, and it is easily the most surprising thing you will see all day.
It is still a working Thames Water site and is not open to the public. Occasionally it has been included in the Open House weekend, when buildings across London let people in for free for two days in September. Our guide to the Open House Festival explains how that works and why you need to check the programme early. The rest of the year, look at it from the pavement.
Music, comedy and theatre
Balham and Streatham have a long pub-venue tradition, and Balham in particular has been a fixture on London's comedy circuit for decades. Venues on this circuit open, close and move more often than anything else in London nightlife, so check current listings rather than an old guidebook: our page on comedy clubs in London explains how a London comedy night is structured and what a ticket costs, and is honest about which long-running rooms have gone.
Streatham Hill Theatre, a large 1920s auditorium near Streatham Hill station, spent most of the last half-century as a bingo hall and has been the subject of a long campaign to bring it back into use as a theatre. Its status changes; if the frontage interests you, it is a two-minute walk from the station, and any performance there will be listed locally rather than in the West End listings our theatre guide covers.
Eating and drinking
Neither place is a food destination in the way that Tooting or Brixton is. What you get instead is a broad, unremarkable, perfectly good spread: Italian and Polish delicatessens, Caribbean takeaways, Turkish grills, a couple of ambitious neighbourhood restaurants in Balham, pizza, and the usual high-street names that our explainer on London's chain restaurants untangles.
Prices are noticeably lower than in central London and the pubs are the sort where people stay all evening. For a proper cheap meal, go two stops further to Tooting; for the best-value Sunday lunch in the area, a pub is usually a safer bet than a restaurant, and our page on the Sunday roast explains how booking works.
Who this pair suits
Come for the ice rink, the commons and the gardens, and come with no expectation of sightseeing. This is a good half-day if you are travelling with children who need to burn off energy, if you are staying south of the river, or if you simply want to see a part of London where nothing is arranged for visitors.
Do not come if your time in London is short. Nothing here will be the memory you take home, and the same hours spent in Greenwich or Herne Hill and Dulwich would give you more to look at. On a rainy day with a nine-year-old, though, an indoor ice rink half an hour from Victoria is a genuinely good answer, and our list of things to do in London when it rains has the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Tube station in Streatham?
No. Streatham has three National Rail stations instead: Streatham Hill, Streatham and Streatham Common, served by Southern and Thameslink trains from Victoria, London Bridge and Blackfriars. Contactless and Oyster work on all of them, and the journey from Victoria takes about 20 minutes. Balham, to the north, does have a Tube station on the Northern line.
Can you ice skate in Streatham all year round?
Yes. The Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre on Streatham High Road has a full-sized indoor rink that operates all year, unlike the outdoor rinks that appear in central London for a few weeks around Christmas. Public sessions run at set times with skate hire available; check the timetable and prices with Active Lambeth before travelling, as sessions fill up in school holidays.
What is The Rookery in Streatham?
A set of free formal gardens at the top of Streatham Common, on the site of a demolished house, with terraces, a rock garden, a pond and an orchard. The climb from the main road is steeper than it looks. Opening hours are shorter than the common's, so check Lambeth Council's page before making a special trip.
How long does it take to get to Balham from central London?
About 20 minutes on the Northern line from the West End, on the Morden branch, or a similar time on a Southern train from Victoria or London Bridge. Balham is one of the few south London stations where both options run from the same building, which is useful when one of them is disrupted.
Is it worth visiting Balham and Streatham as a tourist?
Only if you have plenty of time in London, or are already staying in south London. There are no major sights. The honest reasons to come are the year-round ice rink, the commons, the gardens at The Rookery and the chance to see an unremarkable, functioning part of the city. First-time visitors with three days should go elsewhere.
Sources
- Active Lambeth - Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre (checked September 2026)
- Lambeth Council - Streatham Common and The Rookery (checked September 2026)
- Historic England - Streatham pumping station, Metropolitan Water Board collection (checked September 2026)
- Open City - Open House Festival programme (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Journey Planner (checked September 2026)