Labour's strongest part of Wandsworth is Tooting ward: a wedge of central Tooting between Summerstown and Tooting High Street. Most of Tooting High Road lies in this ward and St George’s Hospital is here too.

There are very few council estates in Tooting constituency; nowhere near as many as one might normally expect in a constituency with a big Labour majority, but the one that comes closest to fitting the bill is the Hazelhurst, just south of Wimbledon Road.  

Add to that Tooting Grove - a 1930s tenement estate below St George's Hospital but otherwise the ward is typified by street after street of modest terraced housing with quaint villagey names like Fishponds Road or Broadwater Road.  Needless to say, the fishponds and broad water no longer exist.

There is a large Asian community in Tooting and many of the shops and community facilities (like the Khalsa Centre and Islamic Cultural Centre) along Upper Tooting Road reflect the presence of this community  

These terraces are increasing in value as the area begins to gentrify, just as the streets of Earlsfield have gentrified.  The area is, after all, pretty accessible for public transport: Tooting Broadway and Tooting Bec underground stations are just across the road from the ward, Tooting mainline station is within five minutes' walk.  Several buses serve Tooting town centre. 

Facts & figures

Population: 13,263

Housing tenure:
Owner-occupied: 47.6%
Public sector renting: 19.7%
Private sector renting: 27.2%

Household type:
Detached/Semi detached: 10.5%
Terraced: 41.0%
Purpose-built flats: 24.6%
Multi-occupancy house: 20.0%

Employment:
Full-time employed: 48.5%
Self-employed: 6.8%
Unemployed: 4.2%
Retired: 8.6%
Students: 12.5%

Socio-economic bands:
Professional/Managerial: 38.0%
Skilled/unskilled manual: 27.8%

Ethnicity:
White: 60.3%
Black/Minority Ethnic: 39.7%

Source: 2001 Census