Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common.

Nearby major districts are Croydon, Sutton, Beddington, Wimbledon, Morden, Tooting, Streatham, Norbury and Colliers Wood.

The discovery of Roman-era graves and a well on the site of the Mitcham gasplant evince Roman settlement.

The Anglo-Saxon graveyard on the north bank of the Wandle is the largest discovered to date, and many of the finds therein are on display in the British Museum.

What became the parish lands could have hosted the Battle of Merton, 871, in which King Ethelred of Wessex was either mortally wounded or killed outright.

Remnants of this farming history today include: Mitcham Common itself; Arthur's Pond on the corner of Watney's Road and Commonside East, and named for a local farmer; Alfred Mizen School (Garden Primary School), named after a local nurseryman charitable towards the burgeoning town; and the road New Barnes Avenue, replacing part of New Barn(e)s Farm.

Mitcham was industrialised first along the banks of the Wandle, where snuff, copper, flour, iron and dye were all worked.

Mitcham, along with nearby Merton Abbey, became the calico cloth printing centres of England by 1750.

Asprey, suppliers of luxury goods made from various materials, was founded in Mitcham as a silk-printing business in 1781.

The buildings were designed in a Tudor style by John Butcher and established to accommodate twelve poor widows or spinsters of the parish.

[9] Mitcham became a borough, within a two-tier council system, on 19 September 1934 with the charter of incorporation being presented to the 84-year-old mayor, R.M.

[citation needed] Postwar, the areas of Eastfields, Phipps Bridge and Pollards Hill were rebuilt to provide cheaper more affordable housing.

[citation needed] The largest council housing project in Mitcham is Phipps Bridge Estate.

[citation needed] Further expansion of the housing estates in Eastfields, Phipps Bridge and Pollards Hill occurred after 1965.

An author noted for another genre, James Edward Preston Muddock as Dick Donovan penned The Naughty Maid of Mitcham in 1910.