Wandsworth Common

Several large parties of the unemployed in the neighbourhoods of Battersea, Wandsworth, and Clapham paraded the various thoroughfares asking alms, divided into parties of 50 to 100 walking five and six abreast. The thoroughfares traversed included Battersea Park Road, Falcon Lane, St John's Hill, East Hill, Bolingbroke Road, Trinity Road, and other localities in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth Common and Tooting. At Wandsworth Common Railway Station, where one of the divisions made a halt, a white flag with black letters announced that the contributions solicited were for the unemployed of Tooting and Wandsworth. An open-air demonstration was addressed by Mr Morris of the Social Democratic Federation — identified in the fuller South London Press report as the artist William Morris. In Battersea, members of the SDF had visited 29 streets and found 483 men out of work for an average of three months each.

The Various Powers Bill of the Metropolitan Board of Works, deposited for the next session, included in Part III — dealing exclusively with open spaces — provisions to transfer to the Board all the powers conferred on the Conservators by the Wandsworth Common Act, 1871, except the power to levy the existing rate. The Bill also proposed to enlarge Bostal Heath at Plumstead, and to vest in the Board a piece of open land at Brook Green, Hammersmith.

Mr Kimber (Wandsworth) asked the Secretary of State for War whether about 55 acres of Wandsworth Common had been given to the Royal Commissioners of the Patriotic Fund as "a visible and permanent memorial of the national generosity which provided the means for its foundation"; whether the Commissioners had recently leased about 20 acres to a market gardener who by extensive vehicular traffic had for months done grievous damage to the Common; and whether any offer of such land had been made to the Wandsworth Common Conservators.

W.H. Dickinson, Hon. Secretary of the Wandsworth District Local Government Association, Bramblebury, Wandsworth Common, published the reply of the Royal Commissioners of the Patriotic Fund to the memorial presented by the public meeting of 18 November 1886. The Commissioners stated that the question was closely connected with the subject matter of an action commenced by the Conservators of Wandsworth Common against the Commissioners, still pending. They therefore regretted they were unable to enter into any further communication on the subject of the memorial.

The sixteenth annual meeting of the ratepayers of Wandsworth and Battersea, held at Wandsworth Town Hall, debated a motion by Mr E. Wood (member of the Metropolitan Board of Works) that it was advisable to transfer control of the Common to the MBW, making its maintenance a charge upon the metropolis. The Conservators' annual report was adopted. Mr Wood noted that Battersea and Wandsworth now contributed £1,313 towards the maintenance of open spaces across London, whereas if the Common were a metropolitan space they would pay only about £40. Mr Ransome opposed the alienation of the Common as parish land. Mr Andrew Cameron, one of the Conservators, said the board had been evenly divided — the chairman had given his casting vote against transference. On a show of hands, the amendment was carried by a large majority.

The police issued the description of the body of a woman found in the waters of a pond on Wandsworth Common on Sunday evening, now lying at the Battersea mortuary awaiting an inquest and identification. The deceased was aged about 65 years, had a large scar on cheek and right side of forehead, and had on a black dress, bonnet, and shawl.

George Neal & Company Limited was formed to acquire and develop the business of Mr George Neal, lime, cement, and brick merchant, wharfinger, ballast, tar-paving, and general contractor, started by the late Robert Neal as far back as 1826. Capital £100,000 in 100,000 shares of £1 each; first issue 75,000 shares. Directors included D.R. Ratcliff JP (Chairman), George Howick of High Street Wandsworth, G.P. Simpson civil engineer, and F.G. Kewney of East Hill Wandsworth. George Neal himself was to join the board after allotment.

Following the transfer of the Common to the Metropolitan Board of Works under the MBW (Various Powers) Act 1887, the Board published proposed new bye-laws for Wandsworth Common, to be applied for at the Home Office after one month's notice. The South London Press of 3 September summarised the key changes from the former Conservators' regime:

A mass meeting of costermongers and sympathetic ratepayers was held at Christ Church, Battersea, to protest against the Wandsworth District Board in removing the Battersea costermongers from the thoroughfares where they had gained their livelihoods for many years, and to condemn the board for confiscating their goods.

At a crowded meeting at Lammas Hall, Mr O.V. Morgan MP delivered his annual account of the Parliamentary session. He read a letter from "our old and true friend, Mr Buckmaster" of St John's Hill, Wandsworth, who was prevented by a prior engagement from attending:

"A real live woodcock has been discovered on Wandsworth Common. On learning this item of information we felt that the time might be approaching when Londoners would be enabled to have good sport without journeying to the far north or the green breasts of the Yorkshire Wolds. With the harmless but necessary woodcock flapping its wing on Wandsworth Common, doubtless we shall soon hear of grouse at Walham Green, the red deer roaming amidst the wilds of Balham, or a good day's partridge shooting being obtained at the Green which lies alongside Fulham bearing the clerical name of Parsons."