The History of Wandsworth Common

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Last modified: 16 October 2026

Wandsworth and Battersea in the 1860s
The Ordnance Survey 25-inch map

Sixteen sheets of the first Ordnance Survey map of London at 25 inches to the mile (1:2500), surveyed in the 1860s, joined into one map. It runs from Hammersmith, Chelsea and Vauxhall Bridge in the north to Wimbledon Common, Wimbledon Park, Tooting and Streatham in the south, and from Chiswick, Barnes and Roehampton to Clapham. Zoom in to see single houses, garden paths, field boundaries and the trees on the Common.

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Drag to move; scroll, pinch or double-click to zoom; the buttons at the top right zoom in and out, return to the whole map, fill the screen, and (the arrow) take you back to the top of this page; the small map at the bottom left shows where you are.

The sheets. London sheets 51–54 (Chiswick, Hammersmith, Fulham, Chelsea, Pimlico), 62–65 (Barnes and Barnes Common, Fulham, Battersea, Battersea Park), 72–75 (Roehampton, Putney, Wandsworth, Clapham Common) and 81–84 (Roehampton Park and Putney Heath, Putney Heath and Wimbledon Park, Wandsworth Common south, Balham), surveyed in the 1860s. The western column (sheets 51, 62, 72 and 81) was added in October 2026; it takes in the whole course of Beverley Brook down to the Thames at Barn Elms. The sheet margins and titles have been removed and the sheets joined edge to edge.

The southern strip. Below the 25-inch sheets, a one-mile strip (Wimbledon Common, Wimbledon, Summerstown, Tooting, Tooting Bec Common, Streatham) comes from the 6-inch map of Surrey, sheets VII (surveyed 1865) and VIII (surveyed 1870), enlarged to match. It is less detailed, and the change of scale can be seen along the join, about a mile north of Wimbledon village. The water-lining of the lake in Wimbledon Park has been carried up into the 25-inch part.

Closer still. For Wandsworth town and the Wandle, the north of Wandsworth Common, Clapham Junction, Lavender Hill and Battersea Rise there is now the Ordnance Survey five-foot town plan of the same years, zoomable and gently coloured, which shows every house, garden path and tree.

Sharper in the middle. The north of Wandsworth Common, from East Hill and St Anne’s Hill across to Bolingbroke Grove, Chatham Road and Battersea Cemetery, has been redrawn from the five-foot plan of the same survey, reduced to this scale, so its lines are crisper and every tree and building is shown. The railway cuttings and the lettering are those of the 25-inch map.

Still to come. More of the five-foot town plan; then the same maps for the 1890s, so that the two decades can be compared.

Ordnance Survey maps of this age are out of copyright. Joined and prepared by Philip Boys, with Claude, from scans of the original sheets.

Build 11.