The History of Wandsworth Common

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Chronicles
March 2024
Part Two

"The personal is historical (and geographical) . . .  "

I will be 75 years old at the end of March, so I thought I'd slightly change the format of these Chronicles and think about the Common, and its surrounds, in 1949.

Here I am in 1949, with my mother, born Lemonia Asnay in Alexandria, Egypt. My father, Edward James Boys, who grew up in East Sussex, was a prison officer, so we lived in the Quarters, behind Wandsworth Prison (below).

(Click on image to enlarge)

I've nearly always lived round here. Three of my homes in the first 21 years of my life can be seen in this photograph. Another was built in 1957 on a bomb site on Heathfield Road, so that makes four. I lived on Calbourne Road between 1983 and 2003, which is off to the right. The house I live in now, on Loxley Road, is just off the bottom of the screen.

Aerial photograph of Wandsworth prison and its environs, 1949.

(Click on image to enlarge)

— March Chronicles 2024 Part One — J.P.Ede: Letters to the South Western Star, 1949 . . . 

— J.P.Ede: Further letters to the South Western Star, 1950 . . . 

— J.P. [John Philip] Ede: a biographical note.

— Back to the top of this page . . . 

— March Chronicles 2024 Part Two [coming soon] . . . 

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