On Wandsworth Common

Image: © Marathon Taken: 30 Mar 2016

This was once the principal tract of waste land of the Manor of Battersea and Wandsworth and extended as far as Clapham to the east and Wimbledon to the west. One author suggests it has suffered from more encroachments than any other common in London. Between 1794 and 1866 there were 53 enclosures, including Wandsworth Prison and Emanuel School. Eventually a body of conservators succeeded in buying the land from Earl Spencer, the Lord of the Manor in 1871 by when the enclosures were looking like swallowing up the entire Common. By 1887, when the Common was passed to the Metropolitan Board of Works, it condition was described as "disgraceful and neglected" and "bare, muddy and sloppy after a little rain, undrained and almost devoid of trees or seats". It was covered with gravel pits, many of which were full of stagnant water. Some of these now provide the lakes which are one of the principal features of Wandsworth Common. At the north end of the Common are a number of small isolated areas of grass, divided up by railways, roads and housing. This is one of them between North Side Wandsworth Common, Trinity Road, Windmill Road and Spencer Park. In this view from next to North Side Wandsworth Common Spencer Park can be seen in the distance.

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