Merton Park is an area in London Borough of Merton. Bordering areas are Colliers Wood, Morden, South Wimbledon and Raynes Park. It is southwest of Charing Cross. It lies east of Kingston upon Thames, west of Mitcham and north of Sutton.
Farmland in the area was bought by John Innes in 1864 and developed in the following decades. Innes provided in his will for his home, the Manor House, to become what is now the John Innes Centre which remains a leading centre for plant genetics albeit now in Norwich. While in Merton it created new plant varieties such as the ‘Merton Thornless’ blackberry and the Malling-Merton (MM) series of apple rootstocks, as well as John Innes composts.
History
Until the last quarter of the 19th century, the parish of Merton was mainly rural. The area now known as Merton Park was farmland bought by City wine merchant John Innes in 1864 following the rapid development of Wimbledon to the north. He took as his model the garden suburbs (particularly Bedford Park in Chiswick) and between 1870 and 1904 developed the tree-lined roads of detached and semi-detached houses for which the area is known.
Innes bought Manor Farm for his own home, and in the 1890s had it rebuilt as the Manor House by architect Henry Goodall Quartermain. Around 1872, Innes became Lord of the Manor of Merton. When Sir Alfred Daniel Hall became director after Bateson's death in 1926, one of his earliest tasks was to appoint as assistant director "a man of high quality in the study of genetics" as Hall lacked a background in genetics. Upon the recommendation of Julian Huxley, the council appointed Haldane in March 1927, with the terms: "Mr. Haldane to visit the Institution fortnightly for a day and a night during the Cambridge terms, to put in two months also at Easter and long vacations in two continuous blocks and to be free in the Christmas vacation." He was officer in charge of Genetical Investigations. Haldane was credited with helping the John Innes become "the liveliest place for research in genetics in Britain". New fruit varieties released by the Institution included the blackberries ‘Merton Early’ (1936) and ‘Merton Thornless’ (1941), and the Malling-Merton (MM) series of apple rootstocks. The Institution moved to Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire, in 1950