Editing Wimbledon, London (section)

===Modern history===
[[File:ISH Wimbledon3.jpg|thumb|left|Wimbledon Hill Road, looking north-west from Wimbledon Bridge]]
[[File:Old Town Hall, Wimbledon (geograph 1919455).jpg|thumb|[[Wimbledon Town Hall]], now a shopping centre]]
Wimbledon's population continued to grow in the early 20th century, as was recognised in 1905, when the urban district was incorporated as the [[Municipal Borough of Wimbledon]], with the power to select a mayor.<ref name="gazette27798"/>

By 1910, Wimbledon had established the beginnings of the [[Wimbledon School of Art]] at the Gladstone Road Technical Institute and acquired its first cinema and the theatre. Unusually, the facilities at its opening included [[Victorian Turkish baths|Victorian-style Turkish baths]].<ref>[http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/AtoZEstab/London/Wimbl/1WimblEng.htm Wimbledon Turkish Bath].</ref>

By the 1930s, residential expansion had peaked in Wimbledon and the new focus for local growth had moved to neighbouring [[Morden]], which had remained rural until the arrival of the Underground at [[Morden tube station|Morden station]] in 1926. [[Wimbledon station]] was rebuilt by the [[Southern Railway (UK)|Southern Railway]] with a simple Portland stone facade for the opening of a new railway branch line from Wimbledon to [[Sutton railway station (London)|Sutton]] in 1930.

In 1931, the council built a new red brick and [[Portland stone]] [[Wimbledon Town Hall|Town Hall]] next to the station, on the corner of Queen's Road and Wimbledon Bridge. The architects were [[Bradshaw Gass & Hope]].

[[File:Centre court.jpg|thumb|right|Centre Court Shopping Centre]]

Damage to housing stock in Wimbledon and other parts of London during [[World War II]] led to a final major building phase when many earlier Victorian houses with large grounds in Wimbledon Park were sub-divided into flats or demolished and replaced with apartment blocks. Other parts of Wimbledon Park, which had previously escaped being built upon, saw local authority estates constructed by the borough council, to house some of those who had lost their homes.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Wimbledon town centre struggled to compete commercially with more developed centres at [[Kingston upon Thames|Kingston]] and [[Sutton, London|Sutton]]. Part of the problem was the shortage of locations for large anchor stores to attract customers. After some years in which the council seemed unable to find a solution, The [[Centre Court (shopping centre)|Centre Court shopping centre]] was developed on land next to the station, providing a much-needed focus, and opened in 1990.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merton.gov.uk/assets/Documents/FW%20SPD%20Jan%202020%20LR.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110102805/https://www.merton.gov.uk/assets/Documents/FW%20SPD%20Jan%202020%20LR.pdf |archive-date=10 November 2020 |url-status=live|title=Future Wimbledon: Supplementary Planning Document|publisher=Merton Council|access-date=15 April 2021}}</ref> The shopping centre incorporated the old town hall building. A new portico, in keeping with the old work, was designed by Sir [[George Grenfell Baines|George Grenfell-Baines]], who had worked on the original designs over fifty years before.