This Magic Lantern Show has its origins in a recent meeting (5 February) of the Friends of Wandsworth Common at the Naturescope. For the event, I put together some images to encourage the flow of memories about changes to the Common since the 1960s. The selection and sequence was a bit random, but it worked out all right on the night. Lots of people contributed fascinating memories, observations and questions — hence there's lots to follow up.
Here is the wonderful John Crossland's video of the meeting:
If you'd like to get involved in the project, please get in touch.
I was intrigued by the idea of extending the timescale to one that roughly matches my own lifespan, plus the supreme technical challenge of creating an even more complex slideshow/lightbox gallery.
Initially this was way beyond my powers of coding, but learning new skills has been fun. (I recommend it.)
Having created a gallery/slideshow mechanism that works (or does it?), I hope to use a similar one to catalogue and display other collections of images, including Geoffrey Bevington's mid-C19 photographs, and Ron Elam's Collection of local postcards, bought at auction last year by the Friends and the Wandsworth Society.
In another slideshow, I hope to look at some changes around the Common over the same period — for example to buildings such as the RVPA, the Prison, Bolingbroke Hospital/Academy, and St James's Hospital (a sadly neglected subject) - and, of course, to the shops along Bellevue.
SO many more stories still to tell. But that's all for now, folks.
Send me an email if you enjoyed this post / want to comment on something you've seen on the site / would like to know more — or just want to be kept in touch.
If you would like to receive notifications of new Chronicles, let me know . . .
Philip Boys ("History Boys")
February 2026
— Friends of Wandsworth Common
— Wandsworth Historical Society