IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
North Side Wandsworth Common, LONDON, SW18 2SU

The road looks beguilingly quiet but it is actually the A3 during a temporary lull in the traffic.

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 probably the smallest between North Side Wandsworth Common and Spencer Park. In this view from next to North Side Wandsworth Common, Spencer Park is across the grass where the bus shelter in located. More about the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association who originally provided this horse trough and many others can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Drinking_Fountain_and_Cattle_Trough_Association

A smaller arm of the park.

This remembers the disaster in 1988 when three trains collided with the loss of 35 people.

This remembers the dead and injured of the train crash on the tracks below to the left on 12 December 1988. Because of a botched wiring job on a resignalling project, trains were presented with false signal aspects. One train ran into the back of another and a third empty train hit one of the derailed trains. 35 died and hundreds were injured.

The Clapham Rail Disaster occurred on 12th December 1988 and involved three trains just south of Clapham Junction. As a result of the collisions, 35 people died, 69 were seriously injured and another 415 received minor injuries. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Junction_rail_crash for a detailed account of the events. This memorial next to Spencer Park is immediately above the line where one train went into the back of another. A small garden has also been created on the embankment. The tower in the background belongs to Emanuel School. Pupils and teachers from the school were first on the scene of the disaster. They were commended for their service by the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. For the setting of the memorial see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4886043

This remembers the dead and injured of the train crash on the tracks below to the right on 12 December 1988. Because of a botched wiring job on a resignalling project, trains were presented with false signal aspects. One train ran into the back of another and a third empty train hit one of the derailed trains. 35 died and hundreds were injured.

The Clapham Rail Disaster occurred on 12th December 1988 and involved three trains just south of Clapham Junction. As a result of the collisions, 35 people died, 69 were seriously injured and another 415 received minor injuries. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Junction_rail_crash for a detailed account of the events. This memorial seen across the other side of Spencer Park is immediately above the line where one train went into the back of another. A small garden has also been created on the embankment. The tower in the background belongs to Emanuel School. Pupils and teachers from the school were first on the scene of the disaster. They were commended for their service by the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. For close ups of the memorial see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4886009 and http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4886012 and for the memorial garden see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4886023