Wandsworth Common was mentioned in the Domesday Book in the 11th century. It was first mentioned on a map in 1746.

Then, it was all one piece, comprising the manors of Battersea West Heath and Wandsworth East Heath. It comprised 400 acres, compared to today’s 177 acres and was called ‘waste’ land because it was not suitable for agriculture. It was mainly scrub and gorse covered, with very few trees, and was very wet. However, people were allowed to collect wood, graze cattle, grow vegetables and dig gravel.

Wandsworth Common today
 

The Common we see today comprises twelve sections of varying size, some of which are not thought of as Wandsworth Common even by many locals.

Take a look at our map, on sale for just £2 in the Skylark Café, to familiarise yourself with its 177 acres.

Once described as a wilderness, or worse, the Common is now a delightful mix of grass, woodland, glades and ponds, thanks to coming under better stewardship since 1871. It still remains very wet, however!

The reduction in the Common’s size took place in the 1800s, due to chunks being sold for houses and buildings, including the Toast Rack, Emanuel School and the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building. The construction of the railways from Clapham Junction in the mid 1800s, and then roads, led to further fragmentation. Popular protests eventually brought a halt to these encroachments, with the signing of the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871, which preserved the Common for us all, and whose anniversary we celebrated in July 2021.

Read on to find out more. You can read more detail about the Common’s history in our book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’, published in 2021 to mark the 150th anniversary.