Wintry Streatham Common (7)

Image: © Stephen Richards Taken: 12 Dec 2012

After a day largely blanketed by cloud, the sun put on a bit of a show. On the left is a line of mature plane trees. The common unfurls down the slope until it meets Streatham High Road, on which can be seen the tower of Immanuel church (Image). Streatham Common comprises a large expanse of open grassland sloping up from Streatham High Road in the west, to woodland and the Rookery in the east. The latter opened in 1913 and is a more formal garden originally in the grounds of the eponymous house. It includes the site of Streatham Spa which made Streatham fashionable for a time in the early-mid C18th. The early history of the common is murky, but it stretches back to the Norman Conquest, and the Domesday Book recorded a Lime Common which stretched from Norbury to Tulse Hill. Following 500 years of church ownership its status as a public space was ensured by an Act of Parliament when it was taken over by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1883. After several further transferrals, ownership passed to Lambeth Council in 1971. Information from Lambeth Council (http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/NR/exeres/CE4B5CE1-0387-40ED-B5A9-273A5160C34A.htm ).

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