The area of the modern borough broadly corresponds to the four ancient parishes of Merton, Mitcham, Morden, and Wimbledon, all of which were historically in the county of Surrey.

Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Merton and Wandsworth constituency.

Unlike many other studios, it remained open during World War II, producing films for the Ministry of Information.

The last film made at Merton Park, in March 1967, was from The Scales of Justice series, called Payment in Kind.

Ray Austin, born at 9, Abbey Road, Merton, on the 5 December 1932, is an English television and film director, television writer, novelist and former stunt performer and actor who worked in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

This newspaper was founded in 1977 by a former Conservative councillor on Merton Council, but since then the paper has been sold on and it is now widely published in different editions across South London.

The borough is also served by several Tramlink stops from Wimbledon, that goes to Croydon, New Addington, Elmers End and Beckenham.

London Underground stations Tramlink stops National Rail stations In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 19.2% of all residents aged 16–74; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 13.0%; train, 13.0%; bus, minibus or coach, 7.5%; on foot, 5.0%; work mainly at or from home, 3.4%; bicycle, 2.4%.

The highest ethnic populations were recorded in wards in the east of the borough in Mitcham, Eastfields and Pollards Hill.

The constituency area of Wimbledon is an affluent area of London with a high proportion of city workers, while Mitcham and Morden is relatively deprived by comparison, which explains the geographical split of political representation of the borough at both national and local elections.

[18] The club later adopted the title Wimbledon FC and moved into a new stadium at Plough Lane in 1912, where it would spend the next 79 years.

They quickly established themselves in the highest division of English football, and as clear underdogs, pulled off a shock win in the 1988 FA Cup Final against Liverpool, England's most successful and dominant club side in Europe during that era.

The club had left its Plough Lane stadium in 1991 to ground-share with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with numerous plans to build a new stadium in a number of different locations (including back in London and even in Dublin or Cardiff) being considered over the following decade before the club's owners chose Milton Keynes as their destination.

The new Wimbledon club's progress was rapid, and after just nine years in existence they won promotion to the Football League in 2011.

In 2018 the final agreements were signed off and demolition work started on the site (for both stadium and 600 flats) in April 2018.