Clapham Common

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Clapham Common
Clapham Common
Clapham Common
Type Historic common
Location Clapham
Coordinates 51.4578° N 0.1494° W
Size 220 acres (0.8 km²)
Operated by Lambeth LB Council
Status open all year

Clapham Common is a triangular area of grassland of about 220 acres (0.8 km²) in size, situated between Clapham, Battersea and Balham in south London, England. It was historically common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, but was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878.

Some 108 acres (43 hectares) of the common (the area historically known as Battersea Common) are within the London Borough of Wandsworth. Although the Common is wholly managed and maintained by the London Borough of Lambeth, the policing of the open space is divided between the Wandsworth and Lambeth borough "commands" of the Metropolitan Police, which follow the local government boundaries.

NB: Clapham Common is also the name of an electoral ward in the London Borough of Lambeth covering the area of housing to the southeast of Clapham Common Southside better known as "Abbeville Village".

Contents

[edit] Features of the Common

The common contains three ponds which are historical features and a more modern paddling pool.

Eagle Pond and Mount Pond are predominantly used for angling and contain a variety of species including Carp to 20lb, Roach, Tench and Bream. Eagle Pond was extensively refurbished in 2002 where it was completely drained, landscaped and replanted to provide a better habitat for the fish it contained. Long Pond has a century old tradition of use for model boating.

The common is surrounded by many fine houses which began to be built in the 1790s and became fashionable dwellings in (what was then) this village south of London, many being home to wealthy business people. Some of these were members of the Clapham Sect of evangelical reformers, including Lord Teignmouth and John Thornton, the banker and abolitionist. As London expanded in the 19th century this became part of a built-up area, and Clapham was eventually absorbed into the capital.

Holy Trinity Church (1776) is close to the North Side of the common. An Anglican church, it hosts its fete on the common every summer.

Clapham Common tube station and Clapham South tube station are on the edge of the common at its easternmost and southernmost points respectively.

A memorial tree to actor Jeremy Brett - who had lived locally for many years prior to his death in 1995 - was planted on 30 March 2007.


[edit] The Bandstand

In the centre of the common is the Clapham bandstand constructed in 1890. It is the largest bandstand in London and a Grade II Listed Building. For many years it was also erroneously thought to be one of the bandstands first erected in 1861 in the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens in South Kensington, which would have made it the oldest surviving cast iron bandstand in Europe. However, recent research has shown that these bandstands went to Southwark Park and Peckham Rye, and it appears that the Clapham bandstand was fabricated to a very similar design almost thirty years later. [1] The bandstand's maintenance had been neglected by Lambeth Council for thirty years, and by 2001 it was thought to be in danger of collapse and had to be shored up with scaffolding for five years. In 2005-2006, a full restoration of the bandstand and surrounding landscape took place, partly funded by an £895,000 lottery grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund matched by local fundraising efforts and the proceeds of the Ben and Jerry's Summer Sundae event held on the Common.

[edit] Sport and Other Events

Clapham Common is the traditional venue for the British Australian Rules Football League Grand Final.

The common has also been the site of one of the Colourscape Music Festival structures since 1995. It has also been the venue for a number of annual Gay Pride festivals. It has also seen changing annual programmes of large scale music events.

[edit] Other references in popular culture

Parts of Clapham Common have long had a reputation as a location for sexual liaisons. As such it was connected with the infamous Ron Davies "moment of madness" incident in 1998.[2] It is mentioned in Are You Being Served? by Mrs Slocombe: "I haven't forgotten being flung flat on me back on Clapham Common by a land mine--and the German Air Force was responsible." to which Mr Lucas ripostes: "All the other times she was flat on her back the American Air Force was responsible."

The Common also featured in a heterosexual capacity in the Squeeze song Up the Junction. It is cited suggestively in Morrissey's song "Mute Witness," followed by the line, "Oh, god, what was she doing there?"

Some parts of the common are used by homosexual men for "cottaging" activities. There have recently been attacks on gay people in the wooded area of the common,[3] one of them being the brutal murder of Jody Dobrowski on 14 October 2005.[3][4]


A 270 degree panoramic view of Clapham Common
A 270 degree panoramic view of Clapham Common

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Royal Horticultural Society Bandstand Mystery: Or, What Happened to the First Cast-Iron Bandstands? Hazel Conway Garden History, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Winter, 2001), pp. 214-216
  2. ^ My moment of madness BBC News, 31 October 1998
  3. ^ a b "Gay man's killing 'tip of the iceberg'", BBC News, 16 June 2006. URL accessed on 16 June 2006.
  4. ^ "Men jailed for gay barman murder", BBC News, 16 June 2006. URL accessed of 16 June 2006.

[edit] External links