Home Care in Furzedown, SW16 and SW17

A golf course turned into streets

Furzedown is named after the gorse, or furze, that once grew here. Most of its roads were laid out between 1900 and 1930 on land from the old Seely estate and the golf course that opened beside Tooting Junction station in 1892. Builders started with Moyser Road, Pendle Road and Pretoria Road. Furzedown House itself survived and is now part of Graveney School.

As a result, the housing here is more even than in most of Wandsworth. There are rows of Edwardian and interwar terraces and some semis, many of them still single family homes, and they are generally roomier than the split Victorian houses of Balham or inner Battersea. In practice, a spare bedroom for a live-in carer is often already there, and the stairs are usually a single flight inside the house, not a shared staircase up to a converted flat. Bathrooms tend to be upstairs, though, so a fall or a hip operation usually prompts the same conversation about whether to bring a bed downstairs, fit a stairlift or ask the occupational therapist about bathing equipment.

Parking for carers in the Furzedown zone

Furzedown has its own controlled parking zone, subzone F1, with restrictions from 11am to 12pm, Monday to Friday. That short window matters when planning visits. A morning call that finishes before 11 and an evening call need no permit at all, and a midday call can be covered with a visitor permit. Wandsworth residents with a permit can request ten free one-hour visitor permits a year for one-hour zones like this one. These permits are only valid in the zone they were issued for, so they cannot be used in neighbouring Wandsworth zones or across the border in Lambeth.

Getting here: buses rather than the Tube

Furzedown has no station of its own. The nearest are Tooting Bec on the Northern line across the common, Tooting on the Thameslink Sutton loop, and Streatham on Southern and Thameslink. The 57 bus runs the length of Mitcham Lane, stopping at Thrale Road, Aldrington Road and Southcroft Road. It goes west to Tooting Broadway, Wimbledon and Kingston Hospital, and east to Streatham. From our office on Lewisham High Street, the trip takes roughly 45 to 55 minutes: a train to London Bridge, the Northern line to Tooting Bec, then a walk or bus. Visiting care is workable but depends on a carer being free at your times, so ask us. Live-in care is not affected by the distance.

How do I get a council care assessment in Furzedown?

Furzedown is in the London Borough of Wandsworth, so contact Wandsworth Adult Social Care, not Lambeth, even if your address says Streatham SW16. Call the Access Team on 020 8871 7707 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) or use the online referral form. The council means-tests what it funds, and continuing healthcare (CHC) is assessed separately by the NHS. We quote our own costs after the home assessment. Our Wandsworth home care page covers direct payments, the Carers' Centre and the borough's day services in more detail.

St George's is one bus away

For most Furzedown residents, hospital means St George's on Blackshaw Road. The G1 runs from Church Lane, by Furzedown Road, through Tooting Broadway to the hospital's main entrance, so a carer can go with someone to an outpatient clinic on a single bus. If a stay there ends with a discharge and you need help at home on the first day back, call us while the ward is still planning it. Our hospital discharge care page explains how that works.

Spare rooms, couples and a break for the family

Because so many Furzedown houses have a second bedroom, live-in care is often the simplest option, including for couples. For a family carer who needs a break, respite at home can be a few visits a week or a carer living in for a fortnight. The Wandsworth Carers' Centre also offers its own in-home respite allowance after a carer's assessment, and runs the Iris dementia cafe in nearby Balham.

Our services in Furzedown

• Personal care
• Medication support
• Home help
• Companionship
• Sit-in service
• Live-in care
• Respite care
• Dementia care
• Complex care
• Palliative care
• Hospital discharge
• Nail care

What we can help with in Furzedown

• Personal care, washing and dressing
• Medication prompting and support
• Meals, laundry and home help
• Companionship and getting out
• Dementia care at home
• Support after a hospital stay
• Short breaks for family carers
• Live-in care when needs grow