IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION
"Wandsworth Common as it was and is", c.1889
[What a Carve Up/How Wandsworth Common was butchered, 1800-1871]
"Wandsworth Common as it was and is" - a classic of information design and a powerful agitational weapon in the fight to protect the Common around 1871.
This map was based on ones created in the 1860s by John Buckmaster, Edmund Ransome and other redoubtable defenders of the Common to press their case for the permanent protection of the Common.The base layer is the Ordnance Surrey 6-inch map of 1866-1870, surveyed just before the 1871 Act came into force. Changes [since then] have been drawn in.
The map reproduced here was published in 1889, when control of Wandsworth Common was passed from the locally elected board of Conservators to the London-wide Metropolitan Board of Works (1888) and then to the new London County Council (1889). It is both a history lesson and a dire warning of what will inevitably happen if the people of Battersea and Wandsworth cease to be vigilant.
Prime Cuts...
[Find place for "anatomises"?]
This eloquent map, drawn up by a group of people who had devoted many years of their lives to saving the Common, shows how Wandsworth Common was butchered, chiefly in the period 1835 - 1870. It was based on the Ordnance Survey map of 1866-70 but updated in 1889 to show the recent housing developments - such as the roads "Between the Commons" and the "Toast Rack".
It drew on research carried out when the battle for Wandsworth Common was in full swing in the decade before the 1871 Act. The earlier maps have been lost, but this version was published by former Conservators at the point the Common was handed over to the London County Council, presumably to remind everybody of what had been fought for, and to ensure there would be no back-sliding by the new "owners".
The green areas show the extent of Wandsworth Common in 1871 - about 150 acres. These were protected by the Wandsworth Common Act.
Other tinted zones indicate areas once part of the Common but by now more or less lost. Those shown in red had been sold off and were now covered in buildings, or would shortly be so. Some areas (in yellow) were no longer part of the Common were still open and partly protected, but only by private agreement.
In the view of the map-makers, the vulnerable yellow areas, and any red areas surplus to original requirements, should be reunited with the rest of the Common and taken into full public ownership and control. Above all, they should not be divided up and sold off as building plots.
[The lost Common]
[TIDY UP & EDIT THROUGHOUT.]
The lost Common
The map (and its accompanying commentary) [make a] powerful precis of the losses to the Common in the 70 or so years up to 1871.
It was obvious to any viewer that the Common - once a unified and continuous expanse of open countryside more than 300 acres in extent - is now less than half that size. And it has been shattered into fragments - each shard separated from its neighbour by a railway or road.
"Areas 1a, 1b, 1c: These portions of the Common, 65 acres, were sold by EARL SPENCER for £3,700, or less than £68 per acre, in 1856, as a site for the Patriotic School, the purchase-money being provided by public subscriptions."
Area 1a [about 40? acres] was the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Girls. The 12 acres of 1b had been the equivalent asylum for boys, but in the last decade this had been in effect "privatised" when it was sold to Emanuel School (which enabled it to move from Westminster).
Area 1c was particularly vexatious. This was open land, formerly used as a vegetable garden to feed the girls and boys of the two asylums. But if no longer needed, this area could easily have been re-incorporated in the Common. However, [19] acres had been leased as recently as 1886 to [George?] Neal for agricultural and other purposes [spell out?]. Neal was not a [careful land manager, his carts etc etc cut up...left a quagmire [ADD QUOTE]. He was widely perceived to be ruining the land deliberately [to create a pretext for..?] so that the land could be sold off to developers and builders as a way of "improving" it.]
[REWRITE & SUMMARISE?]
"This portion of the Common":
"2 ...was granted by the Lord of the Manor, subject to the condition that it should never be built upon without his consent."
"3 ...10 acres, was acquired, in 1861, by the Justices of Surrey [who built the gaol], to prevent its being built upon."
"4 ...about 15 acres, was acquired, in 1854, by the West London and Crystal Palace Railway Company (now London, Brighton & South Coast Railway), and subsequently bought by the adjoining land owners to prevent its being built upon."
"5 ...about 20 acres, was probably enclosed about 1821, let as Market Gardens, and subsequently leased for building purposes."
"6 ...20 acres, was acquired in 1846, for the purpose of the St. James's, Westminster, Industrial Schools ; a large part of this land has been built upon."
"7 ...20 acres, was disposed of, about 1848-53, and has since been built upon."
"8 ...9 acres, was acquired by the Brighton Railway Company, and subsequently sold as surplus land not required ; a large part has been built upon, and the remainder is now used as a contractor's yard."
"9 ...enclosed by degrees, the operation being finally completed about 1869, and subsequently built upon."
"10 ...11 or 12 acres, was partly enclosed many years ago, and in 1871 the work was completed. It covers the site of what was once one of the most picturesque and ornamental waters near London, known as the "Black Sea," which has been filled up and built upon."
The commentary continues:
[SUMMARISE OR DROP?]
NOTE. It is more than probable that the other portions, numbered II, IIa, and IIb, were formerly parts of the Common which have been enclosed and nearly all built upon, but the exact dates have not in every case been ascertained.
The piece numbered IIa formed part of the 14 acres acquired by the South Western Railway Co. in 1836, and subsequently sold as waste land; while
IIb was a roadside pond down to about 1863, when it was enclosed and planted with lime trees, now the site of the new Board of Works Offices."
Since 1889, the story is mixed. Some of the Common has been lost (because of the extending and widening of the north end of Trinity Road in the 1960s), but a slightly larger area of land was added to the Common to compensate.
Some of the yellow [areas] are still open - but only a small areas have been returned to the Common (e.g. a strip of area 3). Some have been built on (notably area 4), but others remain in private hands (area 2, currently called "Trinity Fields").
However a marvellous addition is the [21-]acre area of red (1c) that includes the cricket pitches, tennis courts, bowls club and "Neal's Lodge" has been restored to the Common (1c on the map).
What was the purpose of publishing this map in 1889, so many years after the passing of the 1871 Act? Probably because there were fewer people around who would personally remember what had happened.
This was an area in extreme flux. The local collective "memory" of the Common was being lost. People were dying or moving out, and far more people were moving in. Indeed, the rate of change grew faster as the century came to a close. Nearly all the houses on the Battersea side of the Common date from 1890-1900 - i.e. after 1889. Those on the Wandsworth side mainly from the decade or two after that. Who would be around to recall what had happened? How bad things had got, how hard people had fought to save the Common, and what promises had been made to recoup areas of the lost Common?
There were also fears about the loss of local control. Once management of the Common was ceded to new London-wide bodies, protections might be quietly removed and "superfluous" land sold off - perhaps in the name of reducing local rates (always unpopular), or of funding of costly new projects, such as the draining and levelling of football pitches, or the building of tennis courts.
In practice, partly thanks to the continued vigilance of local people in the defence of the Common, and partly because of the [dynamic committed] LCC, this did not happen. On the contrary, the 1871 Act proved robust and durable - indeed, it remains in place today, at the core of more recent legislation.
[Check against original - e.g. quotation marks]
[ORIGINAL COMMENTARY]
EXPLANATIONS
One square inch represents an Area of 17 7/9 acres.
The Scale of this Map is six inches to the mile, hence one square inch represents an area of nearly eighteen acres.
The portions coloured GREEN show the extent of the Common as defined by the Wandsworth Common Act, 1871. The duties of the County Council are
"to keep the Common "for ever open and unenclosed and unbuilt on" (cl. 33),
"for purposes of health" and "unrestricted exercise and recreation" (cl. 37), to "protect the turf" (cl. 35),
to "abate" all encroachments and attempted encroachments on the Common" (cl. 33),
to "plant" trees and shrubs for shelter and ornament, and to make and maintain such roads as "may be necessary or proper" (cl. 37),
and to make Bye-Laws "for the prevention" or restraint of any act or thing tending to the injury or disfigurement of the Common, "or to interference with the use thereof by the public for purposes of exercise and recreation." (cl. 58).
The portions over which heavy vehicular traffic is conducted are marked X.
The portions coloured YELLOW are those over which it is desirable the County Council should secure the Manorial Rights, with the view to their maintenance as "Open Spaces," and their ultimate restoration to the Common.
The portions coloured RED indicate the several pieces of land formerly part of the Common which have, within a comparatively recent period, been sold and largely devoted to building purposes, viz:
1a, 1 b, 1 c. These portions of the Common, 65 acres, were sold by EARL SPENCER for £3,700, or less than £68 per acre, in 1856, as a site for the Patriotic School, the purchase-money being provided by public subscriptions.
1a. Is still retained for the above purpose by the Royal Commissioners of the Patriotic Fund.
1b. The Boys' School and "about 12 acres" of the land were in 1880 sold by the Royal Commissioners to the Governors of the Emmanuel [sic] School.
1c. 19 acres leased, in 1886, by the Royal Commissioners, to the tenant whose use of an alleged right of way has caused so much damage to the Common.
In the official report it is stated to be "land which is not at present required for the use of the Asylum." - Twenty-fourth Report of the Royal Commissioners of the Patriotic Fund to Her Majesty the Queen, 1886, p. 8, Clause 10, Parl. Paper c. 4869, Session 1886. Price 61/2d.
2. This portion of the Common was granted by the Lord of the Manor, subject to the condition that it should never be built upon without his consent.
3. This portion of the Common, 10 acres, was acquired, in 1861, by the Justices of Surrey, to prevent its being built upon.
4. This portion of the Common, about 15 acres, was acquired, in 1854, by the West London and Crystal Palace Railway Company (now London, Brighton & South Coast Railway), and subsequently bought by the adjoining land owners to prevent its being built upon.
5. This portion of the Common, about 20 acres, was probably enclosed about 1821, let as Market Gardens, and subsequently leased for building purposes.
6. This portion of the Common, 20 acres, was acquired in 1846, for the purpose of the St. James's, Westminster, Industrial Schools ; a large part of this land has been built upon.
7. This portion of the Common, 20 acres, was disposed of, about 1848-53, and has since been built upon.
8. This portion of the Common, 9 acres, was acquired by the Brighton Railway Company, and subsequently sold as surplus land not required ; a large part has been built upon, and the remainder is now used as a contractor's yard.
9. This portion of the Common was enclosed by degrees, the operation being finally completed about 1869, and subsequently built upon.
10.This portion of the Common, 11 or 12 acres, was partly enclosed many years ago, and in 1871 the work was completed. It covers the site of what was once one of the most picturesque and ornamental waters near London, known as the "Black Sea," which has been filled up and built upon.
NOTE. It is more than probable that the other portions, numbered II, IIa, and IIb, were formerly parts of the Common which have been enclosed and nearly all built upon, but the exact dates have not in every case been ascertained.
The piece numbered IIa formed part of the 14 acres acquired by the South Western Railway Co. in 1836, and subsequently sold as waste land ; while
IIb was a roadside pond down to about 1863, when it was enclosed and planted with lime trees, now the site of the new Board of Works Offices. It is not always possible to secure the correct date or area, but the particulars have been carefully collected and the Committee believe they will prove trustworthy.
Maps of various dates have been referred to, and by the kindness of Mr. Edwin R. Ransome, for many years the Chairman of the Conservators of the Common, a copy of the Map, with notes, used in 1871 by those interested in securing the passing of the Wandsworth Common Act, has been placed at the disposal of the Committee.
That Map proved extremely useful. There can be no doubt that in times past the extent of the Common has been curtailed in a most serious and unjustifiable manner without the slightest compensation of any kind.
The inhabitants have therefore a perfect right to expect that the portions reserved for public uses, under the provisions of the Act, will in future, be effectually protected.
April, 1889.