Wandsworth Common

Among the SDF meeting listings for Sunday 19 May: "Wandsworth Common (open-air) at 3 p.m., Hobart. Gas Workers' meeting." The gasworkers' agitation of 1889 was producing meetings throughout South London — Victoria Park drew 2,000 in the rain. A subsequent note in Justice (25 May) confirmed: "A meeting which was called for Wandsworth Common was held in 'Ye Olde Academie,' kindly lent by the Wandsworth Branch, SDF. A number of names were given in to form a branch."

By permission of the London County Council, a band was now playing on Wandsworth Common in an excellent position close to Spencer Park. The Battersea and Wandsworth Military Band, conducted by Mr E.J. Haynes, played weekly. The programme for this afternoon included the march "British Tar's Patrol" (Asch), a valse, a cornet solo ("Better Land" by Cowen), and a polka ("Ring o' Bells" by Lowthian), concluding with the National Anthem. Mr B.J. Richardson, secretary of the Band Committee, 120 Maysale Road, made an earnest appeal for subscriptions to continue the movement.

The Amalgamated Society of Laundresses, started towards the end of the previous year in Wandsworth with the aim of reducing hours of labour and obtaining increased pay, held a mass meeting on Wandsworth Common on Sunday afternoon. The members and their friends mustered in large numbers and, headed by a couple of bands and their banner, paraded the streets of Battersea and Wandsworth before mounting a cart as platform on the Common.

A grand bazaar and fancy fair was held over three days at Bramblebury, the residence of Mr W.H. Dickinson LCC on the edge of Wandsworth Common, in aid of the Battersea Polytechnic Fund. The Duke of Fife, Lord Wellesley, and the Lord Mayor were patrons. The entertainment programme included a pastoral performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on the lawn by Miss Elizabeth Bessie's company (with Miss Bessie as Viola and Miss Ellen Rutland as Olivia); performances by Spanish serenaders; a Richardson's Show with two original dramas including "Robin Hood up to Date"; popular concerts; gymnastic displays; and shooting galleries. "Bramblebury, Wandsworth Common, where the bazaar will be held, is a most picturesque place, and Olivia's 'Garden in Illyria' will easily be realised."

In his annual account of the work of the London County Council, delivered at Chapel Lecture Hall, Plough Road, Battersea, John Burns LCC reported: "As soon as he was elected he went with other Councillors of the South-west district to inspect Wandsworth Common at the invitation of the Protection Association, and he there saw the encroachments that Mr Robert Neal and his family for the last two or three generations had been carrying out. They inspected these encroachments, and saw how the Commons had been cut up by the carts of Mr Neal. As far as they could stop those encroachments by action on the Council they would as efficiently and promptly as possible." (Cheers.)