Strange developments on Victorian streets are important reminders of London’s war past

Southwest London, including my local neighbourhood of Balham, is lined with neat terraces of Victorian houses. But the symmetry on some streets is interrupted by standalone, incongruous blobs. They are newer buildings, different from the rest. Often I would stroll around my locale, see one of these streetscape scars and wonder: “Why did they give permission for that, and why demolish part of such a nice terrace?” A wiser man than I set me straight one Saturday afternoon. We were walk