This is a working reference list of historic and current green spaces in the parishes of Wandsworth and Battersea (now the London Borough of Wandsworth), compiled as a basis for future research. It will grow over time. It draws on my initial brainstorm, the London Parks & Gardens Inventory, and the broader research context of this site. It is sketchy and not always accurate, and is certainly not exhaustive.
The central questions for each entry are: How did this green space come to exist? What happened to it? What replaced it, if it was lost? And what does its story tell us about the pressures on open land in this part of south London?
Land over which common rights were historically exercised — grazing, fuel-gathering, etc. The most contested category: enclosure was the defining struggle of the 19th century.
| Name | Parish / Area | Status | Notes & story | Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wandsworth Common | Wandsworth | Diminished | Original common of perhaps 400 acres, now about 170 acres (up from about 150 acres in 1871). Enclosure battles 1864–71 led to the Wandsworth Common Act 1871 which preserved the remainder. Earl Spencer was Lord of the Manor and primary antagonist. Already diminished by the time of the 1841 census. The fight to save it is the central story of this website. | WND — confirmed |
| Garratt Green | Wandsworth / Garratt | Survives | Part of the Manor of Wandsworth lands. When Wandsworth Common was transferred to the public in 1871, Earl Spencer retained Garratt Green until 1899, when it passed to the LCC for £110. The mock Mayor of Garratt elections were held here until 1796. Named in the 1841 census ED10 boundary description. | WND016 |
| Battersea Fields | Battersea | Transformed | Notorious rough open ground — marshland, market gardens, illegal prizefights, the 1795 duel between Pitt and Tierney, and the famous 1795 Methodist open-air camp meeting. Act of Parliament 1846 enabled it to be laid out as a park; Battersea Park opened 1854. In the 1841 census (ED11) it is described simply as “Battersea Fields.” | see Battersea Park WND006 |
| Lammas Lands | Wandsworth / Battersea | Lost | Open-field arable strips over which common grazing rights applied after the harvest (Lammas Day, 1 August) until spring. As fields were enclosed and built over during the 19th century, these rights were extinguished silently and without compensation. The least documented category of lost green space. Primary sources: tithe maps, enclosure awards, manorial records. | not on Inventory |
| Clapham Common | Clapham (borders Battersea) | Survives | Subject to enclosure threats in the same period as Wandsworth Common. The west side features in several Battersea 1841 census EDs (EDs 7 and 8). Saved by the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866 and subsequent legislation. | LBL entry — not WND |
| Tooting Bec Common | Streatham / Tooting | Survives | Shares its legislative history with Wandsworth Common. Named in the Streatham 1841 census (ED6 boundary description). Transferred to the LCC 1896. | WND — likely |
| Streatham Common | Streatham | Survives | Named in Streatham census EDs. Saved from enclosure in the 1860s–70s alongside the other south London commons. | WND — likely |
| Wimbledon Park | Wimbledon | Transformed | Earl Spencer’s private deer park in 1841 (named in Wandsworth census ED5 and Wimbledon census ED1). The same Spencer who fought the Wandsworth Common preservation movement. Eventually developed; the All England Lawn Tennis Club (est. 1877) occupies part of it today. | to check |
Deliberately made as public open spaces, usually by LCC, borough councils, or Parliament — often compensatory, filling gaps left by development.
| Name | Parish / Area | Status | Notes & story | Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battersea Park | Battersea | Survives | Created under the Battersea Park Act 1846 on the site of Battersea Fields. Designed by James Pennethorne and John Gibson; formally opened by Queen Victoria 1858. On the National Heritage List. Festival of Britain pleasure gardens (1951) added by Russell Page. A model for all later municipal park creation. | WND006 |
| Wandsworth Park | Wandsworth / Putney | Survives | Opened 28 February 1903; designed under Lt Col J J Sexby, LCC Chief Parks Officer. Land formerly used for allotments. On the National Heritage List. Lime Walk and Riverside Walk survive from original layout. | WND068 |
| King George’s Park | Wandsworth / Earlsfield | Survives | Created on former watercress beds and market garden land alongside the River Wandle. Opened 1923. A classic inter-war compensatory park serving the densely built Earlsfield and Garratt area. | WND — to confirm |
| Wandle Park | Wandsworth / Colliers Wood | Survives | Small park on the Wandle corridor; part of the wider Wandle Trail green chain. Character partly defined by the river restoration work of recent decades. | to check |
| York Gardens | Battersea | Created | Created 1972 when surrounding slum housing (York Road area) was cleared and rebuilt. Named for the York Road district. Contains Falconbrook Pumping Station, marking the culverted course of the Falconbrook. One of the post-war generation of compensatory open spaces. | WND — to check |
| Latchmere Recreation Ground | Battersea | Survives | Laid out 1889 as one of the earliest LCC recreation grounds in south London, serving the new Latchmere social housing estate (1903, one of the earliest local-authority housing schemes in England). Original home of the Brown Dog statue, now in Battersea Park. | WND — to check |
| New Springfield Park | Wandsworth / Tooting | Created | Recent creation adjacent to Springfield Hospital (formerly Surrey County Lunatic Asylum, opened 1841). Part of the Springfield Village development. A rare 21st-century addition to the borough’s green space. | not on Inventory (too recent) |
| Heathbrook Park | Nine Elms / Clapham | Created | Created on a former railway goods yard. A post-industrial green space in an area that the 1841 census records as Battersea Fields and Nine Elms industrial land. | to check |
| Godley Gardens | Wandsworth / Earlsfield | Survives | Created as part of the Fieldview Estate in the 1930s, on land originally intended for Magdalen College’s Magdalen Park Estate garden suburb (planned c.1910, interrupted by WWI). The Magdalen College Oxford connection is the same body that owned nursery land on Wandsworth Common (the Robert Neal auction of 1866). | WND019 |
Godley Gardens / WND019 — research note. The London Gardens Trust Inventory entry for WND019 records that E P Warren began building the Magdalen Park Estate here on garden suburb principles; by WWI houses had been erected between Garratt Lane and Swaby Road, and partly between Lyford Road and Ellerton Road. The scheme was truncated when Wandsworth Borough Council purchased the area between Swaby Road and Open View for the Openview Estate (1920s) and between Fieldview and Ellerton Road for the Fieldview Estate (1930s).
Godley Road Recreation Ground was provided as the central public open space — a railed enclosure with grass, trees, shrubs and a raised brick planter. Both Godley Gardens and Swaby Gardens were locked in the 1960s due to vandalism, but later re-opened.
E P Warren — this name is shared with Philip Boys's father's godfather (see Chronicles, Mary 2026], but is clearly not the same man.
On this Warren, architect and archaeologist, see e.g.biography of Edward Prioleau Warren (arthistoryresearch.net).
On the development of the area as a whole, see e.g. OLBC: The Planning and Building of the Magdalen Estate with Holloway Bros. [Ad other sources.]
Sacred ground that has often preserved green space precisely because it could not be built on. Many have become public gardens under the Open Spaces Acts.
| Name | Parish / Area | Status | Notes & story | Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Mary’s Churchyard, Battersea | Battersea | Survives | One of the oldest green spaces in Battersea, adjoining the medieval parish church on the Thames. William Blake married here 1782; J M W Turner painted the Thames from the church window. The churchyard retains significant 17th–18th century monuments. | WND — to confirm |
| Wandsworth Cemetery, Magdalen Road | Wandsworth | Survives | The principal municipal cemetery for Wandsworth, on land that in the 1841 census period was on the edge of the town. The Magdalen Road name recalls the Magdalen College Oxford ownership of adjacent nursery land. | WND — to confirm |
| Mount Nod (Huguenot Burial Ground) | Wandsworth | Survives | Established 1687 as the French Cemetery; last burial 1849. In 1886 John Traviss recorded 150 graves including 30 Huguenot refugees. Now cared for by Wandsworth Council; restored in 2003 with participation from the Huguenot Society. Directly relevant to the site’s Huguenot research. | WND — confirmed |
| Friends’ Burial Ground | Wandsworth | To research | Quaker burial ground associated with the significant Quaker community in Wandsworth. Exact location and current status to be confirmed. | to check |
| Old Burial Ground, Garratt Lane | Wandsworth / Garratt | Survives | Opened 1800 as an overflow from the parish church; last burial 1930s. Now a small public garden. Referenced in the walking guide on the London Gardens Trust website. | WND — to confirm |
| Putney Lower Common Cemetery | Putney | Survives | Established 1858 on a portion of Putney Lower Common, itself a loss to the common land of the area. Now a wildlife-rich green space. | WND037 area |
Green spaces attached to specific institutions or private estates — not always publicly accessible, but often significant in the townscape and occasionally opened over time.
| Name | Parish / Area | Status | Notes & story | Inventory | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heathfield Square (or "Green") behind Wandsworth Prison | Wandsworth / Heathfield Square/Groom Crescent | Survives | Wandsworth Prison opened 1851. A [2.7-acre] cricket/football ground was later created for the use of Prison Officers and their families. This still exists, in spite of efforts of "developers" to build on it. | Wikimap · Google Maps | not on Inventory |
| Spencer Park garden square | Wandsworth Common | Survives | The private communal garden at the centre of the Spencer Park estate (developed from the 1850s on land released by Earl Spencer from the Common). One of several private garden squares in the area that survive because of the quality of the surrounding housing. Access restricted to residents. | WND — to confirm | |
| Bramford Gardens | Wandsworth | To research | Small ornamental garden / square. History and current status to be confirmed. | to check | |
| Springfield Hospital grounds | Wandsworth / Tooting | Transformed | The Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum (now Springfield University Hospital) opened 1841 — newly built at the time of the census. Its extensive grounds were a deliberate therapeutic feature of Victorian asylum design. Now partly developed as Springfield Village; New Springfield Park created from former grounds. | WND — to confirm | |
| Althorpe House Asylum grounds | Battersea / Lavender Hill | Lost | Private licensed lunatic asylum recorded in the 1841 Battersea census public institutions schedule. Located in the Lavender Hill area. Grounds presumably built over during later 19th-century suburban development of Lavender Hill. | not on Inventory | |
| Shaftesbury Park Estate gardens | Battersea | Survives | The model workers’ estate (Artisans’ & Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Co., 1870s) was laid out with communal gardens as part of its design ethic. A significant example of designed green space within working-class housing. | WND — to check |
Fields, nurseries and market gardens that were green in the modern sense but not public open spaces — progressively swallowed by development from the 1860s onwards. The 1841 census boundary descriptions are a primary source for this category.
| Name / description | Parish / Area | Status | Notes & story | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Neal’s nurseries, Wandsworth Common | Wandsworth Common | Lost | Cleared for Magdalen College development; auction 1 January 1866. The Neal family were market gardeners on the Common for several generations; their displacement is a key thread in the enclosure story. See the Chronicles day/month index entry for 1 Jan 1866. | site research |
| Long Hedge Farm, Battersea | Battersea (ED9 area) | Lost | Named in the 1841 Battersea census ED9 boundary description as open farmland. The area is now densely built suburban Battersea. A rare named survival of the pre-suburban agricultural landscape. | 1841 census ED9 |
| Fulham Nursery, Battersea Bridge | Battersea (ED13 area) | Lost | Named in the 1841 Battersea census ED13 boundary description, right at the Battersea Bridge end of the parish — market gardening persisting to the Thames crossing as late as 1841. Built over during the later 19th century. | 1841 census ED13 |
| Garratt Green fields / Sumner Town | Wandsworth / Garratt | Lost | Named in Wandsworth census ED10 as “Garratt, Garratt Green and Sumner Town.” The surrounding fields became streets. The Green itself was saved (see above) but its agricultural hinterland was built over. | 1841 census ED10 |
| Fields > streets (general) | Wandsworth & Battersea | Lost | The general process of field-to-street conversion across both parishes from c.1860 to 1914. Tithe maps (c.1840) and the 1841 census EDs together give the best pre-development picture. The OS 25-inch maps of 1867–70 show the transition in progress. | tithe maps / OS maps |
| Fields > cemeteries | Wandsworth & Battersea | Transformed | Several areas of former agricultural land were converted directly to cemetery use under the Metropolitan Burials Act 1854 (which closed urban churchyards). Green but private; now often the last green remnant in otherwise built-up streets. | Metropolitan Burials Act 1854 |
Often occupy land that escaped development by chance or deliberate reservation. Their histories are poorly documented but their green contribution is real.
| Name | Parish / Area | Status | Notes & story | Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinity Fields playing fields | Wandsworth Common | To research | Known [since ?] as Trinity Fields. History of use and ownership to be outlined later. | to check |
| Wandsworth Common bowls & tennis | Wandsworth Common | Survives | The formal recreational facilities on the Common (bowling green, tennis courts) represent a different kind of land use from the wider open common. The bowling green gardens are noted in the London Gardens Trust walking guide as among the best horticultural features on the Common. | within WND Common entry |
| Various private sports clubs | Wandsworth & Battersea | To research | A number of private bowls, tennis and cricket clubs occupy land in the borough. Their histories are generally undocumented; some occupy land that might otherwise have been developed. Worth mapping as a category. | not on Inventory |
Green that exists almost by accident — infrastructure, development patterns, or physical constraints rather than deliberate provision.
| Name / description | Parish / Area | Status | Notes & story | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Railway embankments | Borough-wide | Survives | Embankments and cuttings of the London & Southampton (from 1838), London Brighton & South Coast, and later railways create significant linear green corridors through the borough. Some are now the most biodiverse land in the area. The Nine Elms terminus (1841 census ED12) was the first railway community south of the Thames. Network Rail manages these; some are designated Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs). | GiGL / Network Rail |
| Falconbrook — riverside strip | Battersea / York Gardens | Survives | The Falconbrook is a culverted river; its course has influenced the green character of York Gardens (which contains the pumping station at the buried river’s outfall). One of London’s “lost rivers” whose route can be traced through micro-topography and green corridors. | GiGL / Thames Water |
| Paved-over front gardens | Borough-wide | Lost | The modern attrition story: front gardens progressively paved over for car parking, accelerating from the 1990s. A diffuse, incremental loss with no single moment of decision. Wandsworth Council has data on this; it is also a surface-water flooding issue. | LBW planning data |
| Wandle riverside corridor | Wandsworth / Earlsfield | Survives | The River Wandle corridor from Earlsfield to the Thames has been progressively opened up as a walkable green chain since the 1980s. The industrial mills that lined the Wandle in the 18th and 19th centuries (and gave Wandsworth its identity as a centre of industry) prevented riverside building; their clearance created the present-day greenway. | Wandle Trail |
| Flora Tea Gardens, Nine Elms | Battersea / Nine Elms | Lost | Pleasure gardens recorded in the 1841 census ED12 boundary description (“Flora Tea Gardens”). Now entirely forgotten and built over. One of several commercial pleasure gardens that once occupied the Battersea riverside. | 1841 census ED12 |
Key sources: London Parks & Gardens Inventory (londongardenstrust.org/conservation/inventory); GiGL — Greenspace Information for Greater London (gigl.org.uk); 1841 census enumeration district descriptions (HO 107, TNA); Lt Col J J Sexby, The Municipal Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces of London (1898); OS 25-inch maps 1867–70; Wandsworth tithe map c.1840.
Working document — compiled June 2026. © historyofwandsworthcommon.org