1.
Wembley
Wembley is an area of northwest London and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the Wembley Arena and Wembley Stadium, Wembley formed a separate civil parish from 1894 and was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1937. In 1965, the merged with the Municipal Borough of Willesden to create the London Borough of Brent. Wembley is derived from the Old English proper name Wemba and the Old English Lea for meadow or clearing, the name was first mentioned in the charter of 825 of Selvin. The village of Wembley grew up on the hill by the clearing with the Harrow Road south of it, much of the surrounding area remained wooded. In 1547 there were but six houses in Wembley, though small, it was one of the wealthiest parts of Harrow. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1543, the manor of Wembley fell to Richard Andrews and Leonard Chamberlayne, who sold it to Richard Page, Esq. of Harrow on the Hill, the same year. The Page family continued as lords of the manor of Wembley for several centuries, Wembley Park thus derived its name from Reptons habit of referring to the areas he designed as parks.
There was a mill on Wembley Hill by 1673, in 1837, the London and Birmingham Railway was opened from London Euston through Wembley to Hemel Hempstead, and completed to Birmingham the following year. The changing names of the local station demonstrated the importance of the Wembley name. Sudbury station opened in 1845, renamed as Sudbury and Wembley in 1882, renamed as Wembley for Sudbury in 1910, renamed as Wembley Central in 1948, at the time of the Olympic Games. To modernise the service, a new Watford DC Line was built alongside the lines and Bakerloo line trains. Electric trains to London Euston began running in 1922, since 1917, there have been six platforms at what is now Wembley Central station. In 1880, the Metropolitan Railway opened its line from Baker Street through the side of Wembley. There are now three separate services, the London to Aylesbury Line, the Metropolitan line, and the Jubilee line. Only the latter two services have platforms at Wembley Park station, in November 1905, the Great Central Railway opened a new route for fast expresses that by-passed the congested Metropolitan Railway tracks.
It ran between Neasden Junction, south of Wembley, and Northolt Junction, west of London, where a new joint main line with the Great Western Railway began. After a long planning and redevelopment process dogged by a series of funding problems and construction delays, Wembley Hill station was renamed Wembley Complex in May 1978, before getting its present name of Wembley Stadium in May 1987
2.
Arnos Grove
Arnos Grove /ˈɑːrnɒs ɡroʊv/ is an area in the south west corner of the London Borough of Enfield, England. It is close to Enfields borders with two other boroughs and Haringey, Arnos Grove was previously considered part of Southgate, and New Southgate. The modern district of Arnos Grove is centred on the end of Bowes Road. The road running from Morton Crescent to Southgate is called Arnos Grove, the areas name derives from that of an estate called Arnoldes Grove or Arnos Grove, i. e. grove or copse of the Arnold family. The Arnolds were local landowners who are mentioned in documents dating from the 14th century, until the 1930s Arnos Grove was largely undeveloped and rural, and not considered to be an area in its own right. Instead, it was considered to be part of Southgate, although in the late 19th century the area of Colney Hatch began to grow nearby, Arnos Grove was, until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, owned by the Nuns of Clerkenwell. It was known as Armholt Wood in the 14th century, locals called the estate Arno’s and the next owner, Sir William Mayne, renamed the house and estate Arnos Grove, which is now pronounced as though it never had an apostrophe.
In 1777, it was bought by Isaac Walker, the estate was owned from 1777 to 1918 by Walkers of the Taylor Walker brewing family, who bought the nearby Minchenden estate to increase the area of Arnos Grove to over 300 acres. The New River loop ran through the Arnos Grove estate until the nineteenth century, the Arnos Grove mansion was sold in 1928 to the North Metropolitan Electricity Supply Company. The house was sold to Legal & General in 1975 and renamed Southgate House, in 1997-8 the bulk of the property was converted into a residential care home called Southgate Beaumont with the southern part developed into luxury apartments. On 19 September 1932 Arnos Grove tube station was opened, as part of the extension of the London Underground Piccadilly line to Cockfosters. In the years that followed Arnos Grove changed from an area to being fully developed – the part of the estate to the north of Arnos Park was, for example. The main public facilities at Arnos Grove were built in the 1930s and these include Arnos Pool and Bowes Road Library, both of which underwent major refurbishment in the mid-2000s, like Arnos Grove tube station.
The southward expansion of Arnos Grove, which was initiated by the bias of facilities to the south of the estate, was aided by the destruction of parts of New Southgate during World War II. There is now an almost continuous line of shops between Arnos Grove and New Southgate, via Betstyle Circus, making the areas closely linked, seven bus routes link Arnos Grove and New Southgate stations. The nearby Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum has been redeveloped as Princess Park Manor, one of the main features of Arnos Grove is Arnos Park. Arnos Park is a remnant of the Arnos Grove estate, and was opened in 1928 after having been purchased by Southgate Council, the Pymmes Brook flows through the park, which contains diverse woodland but is mostly grassy fields. A large brick viaduct, with 34 numbered arches, carries the Piccadilly line beyond Arnos Grove tube station towards Southgate through the end of the park
3.
Primrose Hill
Primrose Hill is a hill of 213 feet located on the northern side of Regents Park in London, and the name given to the surrounding district. The hill summit has a view of central London, as well as Hampstead. Nowadays it is one of the most exclusive and expensive areas in London and is home to many prominent residents. The nearest stations to Primrose Hill are Chalk Farm tube station to the northeast, the defunct Primrose Hill railway station sits on the railway lines that separate the Primrose Hill area from Camden Town. Like Regents Park, Primrose Hill was once part of a great chase appropriated by Henry VIII, later, in 1841, it became Crown property and in 1842 an Act of Parliament secured the land as public open space. It has always one of the more fashionable districts in the urban belt that lies between the core of London and the outer suburbs, and remains expensive and prosperous. Primrose Hill is an example of a successful London urban village, due to the location. In October 1678, Primrose Hill was the scene of the murder of Edmund Berry Godfrey.
In 1792 the radical Unitarian poet and antiquarian Iolo Morganwg founded the Gorsedd, there is, as in most places in London, graffiti on Primrose Hill. However, the one that seemed to impact the public most was a lyric about Primrose Hill by the band Blur, the graffiti read And the views so nice until it was removed in 2012. Some have tried to restore it, but none have yet succeeded, there are seven English Heritage blue plaques in Primrose Hill commemorating the historic personalities that have lived there. The plaques mark the residences of poet Sir Hugh Clough and broadcaster A. J. P. Joan Bakewell lives in the area
4.
Old Deer Park
Old Deer Park is an area of open space within Richmond, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. It is 147 hectares in extent of which 90.37 hectares is classed as private, the park is bounded generally by the River Thames to the west, Kew Gardens to the north, and urban areas of Richmond town to the east and south. Owned by the Crown Estate, the forms part of a larger historic landscape stretching from Richmond to Kew. The low-lying parts of the park alongside the river constitute flood storage areas, a long-term strategy is now being implemented in order to arrest and reverse this decline. In the mid-16th century, Richmond Palace was a residence of Queen Elizabeth I. After the death of Elizabeth, at Richmond, in 1603 a hunting park was established by King James I by means of adding monastic land to the existing park and this became known as The New Park of Richmond. The present name Old Deer Park was adopted after 1637, following the establishment by King Charles I of the much larger Richmond Park on the side of the town.
The majority of Old Deer Park is now occupied by the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club, within the clubs boundaries are two 18-hole courses, plus a separate area within which lies the Grade I listed Kings Observatory, established by King George III in 1769. To the south-west of the Observatory, under the fairway of the 14th hole of the golf course, lie the foundations of the former Carthusian Sheen Priory. Construction of the line westwards from Richmond Station in 1847/8 restricted the access from Richmond Green to Old Deer Park. This heightened the sense of separation between town and park – alleviating this problem is part of the new strategy, beside the River Thames in the park are a pair of stone obelisks. They were built in 1874 and were used by the Kings Observatory to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun that year. However, a legend says that they were erected in the 18th century as memorials to two men who lost their lives in a duel over a woman, who drowned herself in the river. The park was used to accommodate 5,000 of the 8,000 Scouts attending the 1st World Scout Jamboree in 1920, the public open spaces are occasionally used for circuses and other events.
The Old Deer Park has been used a venue for cricket since at least 1867, during its history, the ground has played host to a number of Middlesex Second XI and Surrey Second XI matches. Despite historically being within Surrey, the ground has played host to List-A matches involving Middlesex, in 2001 the Middlesex Cricket Board played their only List-A match at the ground in the 2001 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy against Berkshire. From 2000 to 2004, the ground held 5 List-A matches, starting in the 2003 Twenty20 Cup against Kent, Middlesex have used the ground for 5 Twenty20 matches to date. In local domestic cricket, the ground is the venue of Richmond Cricket Club
5.
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Park, the gardens cover an area of 270 acres. The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The Gardens are fenced and more formal than Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens are open only during the hours of daylight, whereas Hyde Park is open from 5 am until midnight all year round. Kensington Gardens has been regarded as smart because of its more private character around Kensington Palace. However, in the late 1800s, Hyde Park was considered fashionable, because of its location nearer to Park Lane. Kensington Gardens was originally the section of Hyde Park, which had been created by Henry VIII in 1536 to use as a hunting ground. Bridgeman created the Serpentine between 1726 and 1731 by damming the outflow of the River Westbourne from Hyde Park.
The part of the Serpentine that lies within Kensington Gardens is known as The Long Water, at its north-western end in an area known as The Italian Garden, there are four fountains and a number of classical sculptures. At the foot of the Italian Gardens is a boundary marker. The land surrounding Kensington Gardens was predominantly rural and remained undeveloped until the Great Exhibition in 1851. Many of the original features survive along with the Palace, and now there are public buildings such as the Albert Memorial, the Serpentine Gallery. The park contains the Elfin Oak, an elaborately carved 900-year-old tree stump, the park is the setting of J. M. Barries book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, a prelude to the characters famous adventures in Neverland. The fairies of the gardens are first described in Thomas Tickells 1722 poem Kensington Gardens, both the book and the character are honoured with the Peter Pan statue by George Frampton located in the park. Rodrigo Fresáns novel Kensington Gardens concerns in part the life of J. M.
Barrie and of his creation Peter Pan, the Infocom interactive fiction game Trinity begins in the Kensington Gardens. The player can walk around many sections of the gardens, which are described in moderate detail, list of public art in Kensington Gardens Citations Bibliography Official website The Garden a poem by Ezra Pound set in Kensington Gardens
6.
Urban park
The design and maintenance is usually done by government, typically on the local level, but may occasionally be contracted out to a private sector company. A park is an area of space provided for recreational use. Grass is typically kept short to discourage insect pests and to allow for the enjoyment of picnics, trees are chosen for their beauty and to provide shade. An early purpose-built public park, although financed privately, was Princes Park in the Liverpool suburb of Toxteth and this was laid out to the designs of Joseph Paxton from 1842 and opened in 1843. The land on which the park was built was purchased by Richard Vaughan Yates, the creation of Princes Park showed great foresight and introduced a number of highly influential ideas. First and foremost was the provision of space for the benefit of townspeople. Nashs remodelling of St Jamess Park from 1827 and the sequence of processional routes he created to link The Mall with Regents Park completely transformed the appearance of Londons West End.
Liverpool had a presence on the scene of global maritime trade before 1800. The latter was commenced in 1843 with the help of public finance, frederick Law Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park in 1850 and praised its qualities. Indeed, Paxton is widely credited as having one of the principal influences on Olmsted. Another early public park is the Peel Park, England opened on 22 August 1846, in The Politics of Park Design, A History of Urban Parks in America, Professor Galen Cranz identifies four phases of park design in the U. S. As time passed and the area grew around the parks, land in these parks was used for other purposes, such as zoos, golf courses. These parks continue to draw visitors from around the region and are considered regional parks, because they require a higher level of management than smaller local parks. According to the Trust for Public Land, the three most visited parks in the United States are Central Park in New York, Lincoln Park in Chicago. In the early 1900s, according to Cranz, U. S. cities built neighborhood parks with swimming pools and civic buildings and these smaller parks were built in residential neighborhoods, and tried to serve all residents with programs for seniors, adults and children.
Green space was of secondary importance, as urban land prices climbed, new urban parks in the 1960s and after have been mainly pocket parks. One such example of a park is Chess Park in Glendale. This award-winning park was given an award by the American Society of Landscape Architects and these small parks provide greenery, a place to sit outdoors, and often a playground for children
7.
Humphry Repton
His first name is often incorrectly rendered Humphrey. Repton was born in Bury St Edmunds, the son of a collector of excise, John Repton, in 1762 his father set up a transport business in Norwich, where Humphry attended Norwich Grammar School. At age twelve he was sent to the Netherlands to learn Dutch, Repton was befriended by a wealthy Dutch family and the trip may have done more to stimulate his interest in polite pursuits such as sketching and gardening. Returning to Norwich, Repton was apprenticed to a merchant, after marriage to Mary Clarke in 1773. He was not successful, and when his parents died in 1778 used his modest legacy to move to a country estate at Sustead. Repton joined John Palmer in a venture to reform the mail-coach system, Reptons childhood friend was James Edward Smith, who encouraged him to study botany and gardening, Smith reproduces a long letter from Repton in his Letter and Correspondence. He was given access to the library of Windham to read its works on botany and his capital dwindling, Repton moved to a modest cottage at Hare Street near Romford in Essex.
He was at first an avid defender of Browns views, contrasted with those of Richard Payne Knight and Uvedale Price and his first paid commission was Catton Park, to the north of Norwich, in 1788. That Repton, with no experience of practical horticulture, became an overnight success, is a tribute to his undeniable talent. To help clients visualise his designs, Repton produced Red Books with explanatory text and watercolours with a system of overlays to show before, in this he differed from Capability Brown, who worked almost exclusively with plans and rarely illustrated or wrote about his work. Reptons overlays were soon copied by the Philadelphian Bernard MMahon in his 1806 American Gardeners Calendar, to understand what was unique about Repton it is useful to examine how he differed from Brown in more detail. Brown worked for many of the wealthiest aristocrats in Britain, carving huge landscape parks out of old formal gardens, while Repton worked for equally important clients, such as the Dukes of Bedford and Portland, he was usually fine-tuning earlier work, often that of Brown himself.
Where Repton got the chance to lay out grounds from scratch it was generally on a more modest scale. Around 1787, Richard Page, landowner of Sudbury, to the west of Wembley decided to convert the Page family home Wellers into a country seat and turn the fields around it into a private estate. In 1792 Page employed Humphry Repton, by famous as an architect, to convert the previous farmland into wooded parkland. Repton often called the areas he landscaped parks, and so it is to Repton that Wembley Park owes its name, the original site that Repton so transformed was built on in the construction of the short-lived Watkins Tower. The area landscaped by Repton was larger than the current Wembley Park and it included the southern slopes of Barn Hill to the north, where Repton planted trees and started building a prospect house – a gothic tower offering a view over the parkland. Repton may have designed the lodge that survives on Wembley Hill Road
8.
Richmond Park
Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer park. The largest of Londons Royal Parks, it is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation and its landscapes have inspired many famous artists and it has been a location for several films and TV series. Richmond Park includes many buildings of architectural or historic interest, the Grade I-listed White Lodge was formerly a royal residence and is now home to the Royal Ballet School. Historically the preserve of the monarch, the park is now open for all to use and includes a course and other facilities for sport. It played an important role in world wars and in the 1948 and 2012 Olympics. Richmond Park is the largest of Londons Royal Parks and it is the second-largest park in London and is Britains second-largest urban walled park after Sutton Park, Birmingham. Measuring 3.69 square miles, it is comparable in size to Pariss Bois de Vincennes and it is almost half the size of Casa de Campo and around three times the size of Central Park in New York.
Of national and international importance for conservation, most of Richmond Park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The largest Site of Special Scientific Interest in London, it was designated as an SSSI in 1992, excluding the area of the course, Pembroke Lodge Gardens. In its citation, Natural England said, Richmond Park has been managed as a deer park since the seventeenth century. In particular, Richmond Park is of importance for its diverse deadwood beetle fauna associated with the ancient trees found throughout the parkland, in addition the park supports the most extensive area of dry acid grassland in Greater London. The park was designated as an SAC in April 2005 on account of its having a number of ancient trees with decaying timber. A public open space since the mid C19, Richmond Park is located in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is close to Richmond, Kingston upon Thames, Roehampton, day-to-day management of the Royal Parks has been delegated to The Royal Parks, an executive agency of the Department for Culture and Sport.
The Royal Parks Board sets the direction for the agency. Appointments to the Board are made by the Mayor of London, the Friends of Richmond Park and the Friends of Bushy Park co-chair the Richmond and Bushy Parks Forum, comprising 38 local groups of local stakeholder organisations. Although welcoming the principles of the new arrangements, the forum. Richmond Park is enclosed by a wall with several gates
9.
Pymmes Park
Pymmes Park is located in Edmonton, London and is bordered by the North Circular Road. The park is a Metropolitan Open Space, Local Importance of Nature Conservation, the area known as Pymmes Park dates back to 1327 when William Pymme built a mansion here. Prior to 1578 the estate changed hands several times until Thomas Wilson a statesman bought the estate in 1579, in 1582 William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, Lord High Treasurer, purchased the estate which remained in the family until 1801. The Ray family owned the estate from 1808 to 1899, the estate was purchased by the local council to provide public open space following an increase in the local population. The park was opened to the public in 1906, the park contains a Victorian walled garden, bounded on three sides by Grade II listed walls, containing an ornamental pond, herbaceous borders and bedding plants. Access is on request to a member of the Parks staff, in recent years, the park has undergone major changes due mainly to the widening of the North Circular Road in the 1990s.
An application to the Heritage Lottery Fund was successful and £2.8 million was granted for the restoration of the Victorian Parkland in a known as the Pymmes Park restoration project. Pymmes Park lake has suffered severe pollution for many years. In 2014, the London Borough of Enfield announced plans to create a wetland covering 4,000 square metres to improve the quality of the entering the lake. Facilities include a club, tennis courts. Multi-use games area, football pitches, childrens playground, the Pymmes Brook Trail follows the approximate course of Pymmes Brook which flows through the park. Since 2011, a Parkrun, a 5 kilometres run/race for people of all standards, has taken place every Saturday, silver Street railway station Buses 34102144149192259279349444 Pymmes Park information Photos of Pymmes Park
10.
Blackheath, London
Blackheath is an area of south-east London, divided between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham, located east of the town of Lewisham, and south of the town of Greenwich. It is notable for its pubs, village-y feel. The name is recorded in 1166 as Blachehedfeld and means the dark coloured heathland and it is formed from the Old English blæc and hǣth and refers to the open space that was the meeting place of the ancient hundred of Blackheath. The name was applied to the Victorian suburb that developed in the 19th century and was extended to the areas known as Blackheath Park. An urban myth is that Blackheath was associated with the 1665 Plague or the Black Death of the mid-14th century, virtually every part of London has a local tradition about plague pits under, say, a local school or shop. The sheer number of bodies meant that the traditional churchyards became, as one put it. During the seventeenth century Blackheath was, along with Hounslow Heath, in 1673 the Blackheath Army was assembled under Marshal Schomberg to serve in the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
The Roman road that became known as Watling Street crosses the northern edge of Blackheath, probably heading for the mouth of Deptford Creek. Blackheath was a point for Wat Tylers Peasants Revolt of 1381. Wat Tyler is remembered by Wat Tyler Road on the heath, after pitching camp on Blackheath, Cornish rebels were defeated in the Battle of Deptford Bridge, just to the west, on 17 June 1497. With Watling Street carrying stagecoaches across the heath, en route to north Kent, in 1909 Blackheath had a local branch of the London Society for Womens Suffrage. The Vanbrugh Pits are on the north-east part of the heath, the site of old gravel workings, Vanbrugh Pits have long been reclaimed by nature and form one of the more attractive parts of the generally rather flat Blackheath. It is particularly attractive in spring when the extensive gorse blossoms, the pits are named after Sir John Vanbrugh, architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, who had a house nearby, adjacent to Greenwich Park, now called Vanbrugh Castle.
Mince Pie House built for his family, survived until 1911, the sizeable estate of Blackheath Park, created on lands of Wricklemarsh Manor by John Cator is situated east of Blackheath. The Cator Estate was built on part of the formerly owned by Sir John Morden. The Cator Estate contains innovative 1960s Span houses and flats by the renowned Span Developments, St Michael and All Angels Church, designed by local architect George Smith and completed in 1830, was dubbed the Needle of Kent in honour of its tall, thin spire. All Saints Church, situated on the heath, designed by the architect Benjamin Ferrey, another Anglican church, St John the Evangelists, was designed in 1853 by Arthur Ashpitel. The Pagoda is an example of a beautiful property situated in Blackheath
11.
Green Park
The Green Park, usually known without the article simply as Green Park, is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is located in the City of Westminster, central London, Green Park covers 19 hectares between Hyde Park and St. Jamess Park. The park consists almost entirely of mature trees rising out of turf, the park is bounded on the south by Constitution Hill, on the east by the pedestrian Queens Walk, and on the north by Piccadilly. It meets St. Jamess Park at Queens Gardens with the Victoria Memorial at its centre, to the south is the ceremonial avenue of the Mall, and the buildings of St Jamess Palace and Clarence House overlook the park to the east. Green Park tube station is an interchange located on Piccadilly, Victoria. Tyburn stream runs beneath Green Park, the park is said to have originally been swampy burial ground for lepers from the nearby hospital at St Jamess. It was first enclosed in 16th century when it formed part of the estate of Poulteney family and he laid out the parks main walks and built an icehouse there to supply him with ice for cooling drinks in summer.
The Queens Walk was laid out for George IIs queen Caroline, it led to the reservoir that held drinking water for St Jamess Palace, called the Queens Basin. The park was known as a duelling ground, one particularly notorious duel took place there in 1730 between William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath and John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol. In 1820, John Nash landscaped the park, as an adjunct to St. Jamess Park, on 10 June 1840, it was the scene of Edward Oxfords assassination attempt on Queen Victoria, on Constitution Hill. The Royal Parks website, The Green Park Virtual journey into Green Park
12.
Battersea Park
Battersea Park is a 200 acre green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858. The park occupies marshland reclaimed from the Thames and land used for market gardens. Prior to 1846 the area now covered by the park was known as Battersea fields, on 21 March 1829, the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchilsea met on Battersea fields to settle a matter of honour. When it came time to fire, the Duke aimed his duelling pistol wide, Winchilsea wrote the Duke a groveling apology. Running along the riverside from the fields were industrial concerns and wharves, including a pottery, copper works, lime kiln, chemical works, the site of Battersea Power Station was partly occupied by the famously bawdy Red House Tavern, patronised by Charles Dickens. Access was via the rickety wooden Battersea Bridge or by ferry from the Chelsea bank, the Act was passed in 1846 and £200,000 was promised for the purchase of the land.
The Commission for Improving the Metropolis acquired 320 acres of Battersea Fields, of which 198 acres became Battersea Park, opened in 1858, and the remainder was let on building leases. The park was laid out by Sir James Pennethorne between 1846 and 1864, although the park which was opened in 1858 varied somewhat from Pennethornes vision, the park’s success depended on the successful completion of the Chelsea Bridge, declared open in 1858 by Queen Victoria. In her honour, the road alongside the edge of the Park was called Victoria Road. Prince of Wales Road was laid out along the southern boundary, the park hosted the first football game played under the rules of the recently formed Football Association on 9 January 1864. The members of the teams were chosen by the President of the FA, from the 1860s, the park was home to the leading amateur football team Wanderers F. C. winners of the first FA Cup, in 1872. One team they are known to have played at the park was Sheffield F. C. the worlds oldest football team, in 1924, a war memorial by Eric Kennington was unveiled by Field Marshal Plumer and the Bishop of Southwark.
It commemorates the over 10,000 men killed or listed as missing presumed dead whilst serving with the 24th East Surrey Division and it is now Grade II* listed. During both wars, anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons were installed to help protect London from enemy air raids, shelters were dug, part of the park was turned over to allotments for much needed vegetables and a pig farm was set up. Maintenance of the park was reduced as the war took priority. In 1951 the northern parts of the park were transformed into the Pleasure Gardens as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations, popular attractions included the Guinness Clock, designed by Jan Le Witt and George Him, and the Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway. Another part of the transformation was the addition of Battersea Fun Fair, with rollercoasters, roundabouts, the fun fairs most spectacular ride was a rollercoaster called The Big Dipper, which opened in 1951
