Wandsworth Common

A passing reference in a serialised comic short story, "A Home of Their Own" by H. Gibson Warwick, confirms the presence of a balloon barrage station on Wandsworth Common during the early war years. A character seeking a house-sale commission tracks down the property developer "to earth at a Balloon Barrage station on Wandsworth Common" — the man "was having difficulty in getting leave from Wandsworth Common for his appointment."

The following Saturday at 3 p.m., a small party of the Battersea Squadron Air Training Corps would signal by hand from Wandsworth Common to their headquarters at Belleville Road School. The signal lamps to be used were the latest type supplied by the Air Ministry; although of low voltage they could be read at very long distances. The signals officer of the Battersea Wing would be in charge at the Common, and members of the public would be made welcome.

The South Western Star offered a characteristically dry contribution to a parliamentary debate about whether nourishment could be extracted from grass: "Dr Summerskill, one of the members for Fulham, has almost gone so far as to suggest that sausages may be made of grass. There was not so very long ago a gentleman who lived on grass gathered on Clapham Common. He might have fared better on Wandsworth Common, where the grass has always appeared to us to be particularly tender."