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Clapham Common

Coordinates: 51°27′28″N 0°08′58″W / 51.4578°N 0.1494°W / 51.4578; -0.1494
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For other uses, see Clapham Common (disambiguation).

Clapham Common
Clapham Common
Map
TypePublic park (previously common land)
LocationClapham
Coordinates51°27′28″N 0°08′58″W / 51.4578°N 0.1494°W / 51.4578; -0.1494
Area220 acres (0.89 km2)
Operated byLambeth London Borough Council
OpenAll year
Public transit accessClapham Common and Clapham South

Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is 220 acres (89 hectares)[1] of green space, with three ponds and a Victorian bandstand. It is overlooked by large Georgian and Victorian mansions, and nearby Clapham Old Town.

Holy Trinity Clapham, an 18th-century Georgian church overlooking the park, is important in the history of the evangelical Clapham Sect. Half of the park is within the London Borough of Wandsworth and half within the London Borough of Lambeth.

History

View on Clapham Common by J. M. W. Turner (1800-1805)

Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham; the land was drained in the 1760s,[2] and fine houses were built around the common from the 1790s onwards, which became fashionable dwellings for wealthy business people in what was then a village detached from metropolitan London. Some were members of the Clapham Sect of evangelical reformers, including Lord Teignmouth and Henry Thornton, the banker and abolitionist.

J. M. W. Turner painted "View on Clapham Common" between 1800-1805, showing that even though the common had been drained, it still remained "quite a wild place".[2]

The common was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act in 1878. As London expanded in the 19th century, Clapham was absorbed into the capital, with most of the remaining palatial or agricultural estates replaced with terraced housing by the early 1900s. During World War II, storage bunkers were built on Battersea Rise side of the park; two mounds remain.

Early cricket

Clapham Common was the venue for one of the earliest known cricket events when a "series of ten-a-side matches" was held there on Monday, 1 April 1700. The participants were all "gentlemen" though "others" could attend as spectators. Classification of the event is uncertain, though it must presumably be viewed as a minor event given the limited social status of the participants, the relatively low stakes (£10 and £20 are mentioned in the newspaper report) and the ten-a-side teams. It is nevertheless the earliest known organised match in Surrey; the earliest definite mention of cricket in the county was the 1597 court case in Guildford.[3]

Governance

Half of the park is within the London Borough of Wandsworth and half within the London Borough of Lambeth. The park is wholly managed and maintained by the London Borough of Lambeth, while 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. The roads surrounding the park fall within the SW4 post code.

Clapham Common is in the Clapham Common electoral ward, which encompasses most of the area to the southeast of Clapham Common until King's Avenue.

Amenities

Clapham Common has a range of sporting facilities, including a running track, bowling green, cricket, football, rugby and Australian rules football pitches, and a skateboard venue.[4] The park contains three ponds, two of which are historical features, and a more modern paddling pool known as Cock Pond. Eagle Pond and Mount Pond are used for angling and contain a variety of species including carp to 20 lb, roach, tench and bream. Eagle Pond was extensively refurbished in 2002 when 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.

Holy Trinity Church (1776) is close to the north side of the park. An Anglican church, it hosts its fete in the park every summer.

Clapham Common tube station and Clapham South tube station are on the edge of the park at its easternmost and southernmost points respectively. Both stations are served solely by the Northern Line.

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.

A 270 degree panoramic view of Clapham Common

The bandstand

Clapham Common bandstand after renovation in 2006

In the centre of the park is a 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. [5]

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 £300,000 from Lambeth Council and a further £100,000 from local fundraising efforts and the proceeds of the Ben and Jerry's Summer Sundae event held on the Common. The drainage bund around the bandstand was restored with granite setts during the summer of 2011 at a cost of £12,000[6] to resolve design faults in the earlier works.

Cruising

See also: Gay cruising in England and Wales

Clapham Common has a reputation as a place for men seeking anonymous sex with other men in public places.[7] When Welsh politician Ron Davies was robbed at knife point in 1998 after he gave a lift to strangers he had met in the park, there was speculation that the incident involved "cruising"; Davies resigned his position in the UK government, denying the incident had anything to do with drugs or sex.[8][9][10] There have been several attacks on men in the vicinity of the park, including one in 2005 on a young man, Jody Dobrowski, thought by his attackers to be gay, during which he was badly beaten and later died.[11] The incident was the impetus for the making of the 2007 Channel 4 film Clapham Junction.[12]

Events

The park has hosted various musical festivals, including Colourscape Music Festival since 1989,;[13][14] Get Loaded in the Park, from 2004 to 2011 when Razorlight were the headline act;[15] South West Four Eurodance music festival annually in August since 2004;[16][17] and other music events, such as Subway Picnic Rocks in 2008, organised by Action Against Hunger>[18] In 2014 the Calling Festival, which had previously been held in Hyde Park under the name Hard Rock Calling Festival, moved to Clapham Common; headline acts are Aerosmith and Stevie Wonder.[19]

Sporting events held in Clapham Common and sports teams based in the park include the Latin American football League, which has played organised football on the red car pitches located on the south side of the park since the 1980s;[20] the British Australian Rules Football League Grand Final, for which the park is the traditional venue; South West London Chargers rugby club formed in 2013 have their home in the park;[21] London Titans football club play in the park;[22] various sport teams are active on the park, including softball, korfball, and Australian Rules Football.[23] Clapham Alexandra football club play some games on the park.[24] In 2010 Sunday League footballers using the facilities in the park felt they were "awful".[25]

A Lesbian & Gay Pride event, to be termed Pride House, was planned to take place on the park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, but ran into opposition from the Friends of Clapham Common,[26] and was eventually cancelled for lack of funding.[27] Every Easter and February half-term George Irvin's Funfair visits the park.[28]

Benjamin Franklin used the ponds for science experiments, and developing a "magic" trick. While traveling on a ship, Franklin had observed that the wake of a ship was diminished when the cooks scuttled their greasy water. He studied the effects at Clapham common on a large pond there. "I fetched out a cruet of oil and dropt a little of it on the water...though not more than a teaspoon full, produced an instant calm over a space of several yards square." He later used the trick to "calm the waters" by carrying "a little oil in the hollow joint of my cane."[29]

References

  1. ^ "London's heaths and commons". visitlondon.com. Archived from the original on 10 April 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  2. ^ a b Ian Waites (2012). Common Land in English Painting, 1700-1850. Boydell Press. p. 121.
  3. ^ Waghorn, p. 4.
  4. ^ "Clapham Common Facilities and services". lambeth.gov.uk.
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ LB Lambeth Ward Purse committed projects
  7. ^ Catherine Pepinster (1 November 1998). "Who's looking for what on Clapham Common". independent.co.uk.
  8. ^ Patrick Wintour (10 March 2003). "Ron Davies ends political career". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Colin Brown (6 November 1998). "THE DAVIES AFFAIR: How much did Downing Street know about that night". The Independent.
  10. ^ "My moment of madness". BBC News. 31 October 1998.
  11. ^ Martha Buckley (16 June 2006). "Gay man's killing 'tip of the iceberg'". news.bbc.co.uk.
  12. ^ Dennis Harvey (8 July 2009). "Review: 'Clapham Junction'". variety.com.
  13. ^ Sharon Stammers (August 2009). "No.21: Colourscape". mondoarc.com.
  14. ^ Simon Desorgher (4 February 2014). "Simon Desorgher on 25 years of the Colourscape Music Festival". soundandmusic.org.
  15. ^ Caroline Sullivan (13 June 2011). "Get Loaded in the Park – review". theguardian.com.
  16. ^ "History". southwestfour.com.
  17. ^ "South West Four". Time Out. 25 February 2014.
  18. ^ "Subway Picnic Rocks 2008". efestivals.co.uk. 24 June 2008.
  19. ^ Alistair Foster (8 April 2014). "Stevie Wonder to perform in Clapham Common as Calling Festival headliner". standard.co.uk.
  20. ^ "Latin American Rhythms". migrantvoice.org.
  21. ^ "South West London Chargers". pitchero.com.
  22. ^ "London Titans Football Club Clapham Common". londontitans.com.
  23. ^ Jack Wallington (16 June 2009). "Clapham Sports Clubs". loveclapham.com.
  24. ^ "Clapham Aexandra football club". teamstats.net.
  25. ^ "Clapham facilities "awful" say Common people". clubwebsite.co.uk. 17 March 2010.
  26. ^ Alexandra Rucki (1 February 2012). "Author brands Clapham Common group bigoted and outdated". wandsworthguardian.co.uk.
  27. ^ Louise Ridley (26 April 2012). "Pride House on Clapham Common axed". eventmagazine.co.uk.
  28. ^ "Clapham Common Easter Fair". irvinleisure.co.uk.
  29. ^ W. Gratzer, Eurekas and Euphorias, pp. 80, 81

Bibliography

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