Battersea Park: Beautiful Environs! (28.5.2023)

‘By 1846 an Act of Parliament was passed which authorised the plan. James Pennethorne and John Gibson, both of whom had worked on Victoria Park in Hackney, created the design. They elected to raise and level the ground on which the park was to be built, and so 750,000 tons of soil was excavated from nearby Surrey Docks. The park was finally finished in 1854, and was officially opened four years later by Queen Victoria, alongside its neighbouring Chelsea Bridge.’

Battersea Park: The Central Bandstand! (27.5.2023)

The River Wandle flows for around 9 miles – and originates in the Waddon Ponds and Carshalton Ponds area – a boundary area spanning East Surrey and Southwest Greater London (the London Borough of Sutton and Cheam). The River Wandle enters the right-bank of the River Thames in the vicinity now called ‘Wandsworth’. Both the river (and the place) are probably named after a mighty Saxon Warlord named ‘Waendel’ whose clan dominated a large swathe of Southern and Eastern England! Indeed, so powerful was this man’s reputation that his name came to dominate an entire British river!