When London was a village (2)

One of London's 'Commons'

Carrying on with my little series about London, a City but also very much a collection of villages which I enjoyed living in, working in, getting married in, and finally "'leavin'", I just wanted to touch on those places which London has so many of......'The Commons' - rather akin to Public Parks, but immense in size and in every 'village'....

A bit of their history is here:

http://www.graftingardeners.co.uk/history-londons-commons/

and some are used by the well known 

London Buses.

Some are criss-crossed by main roads, some have public golf courses, some have tennis courts, both in concrete and in grass....
The special thing about these 'Commons' is their size....They are immense. In pure ground value they must be worth billions of billions of pounds sterling, and yet there is rarely any attack made on their status. It is rather astounding!
Just for the record, there is another, rather different 'Commons' in London, which has nothing to do with green fresh air spaces...This place is also called 'The Commons':

London- 'The House of Commons' - Seat of Government!

Our subject is much more agreeable.....free air, free space, used by many, many people on a daily basis....Cricket is played, Tennis is played, Soccer is played, bicycling....all kinds of sports, and simply walking - exercise for London's stressed, like me, Citizens!

And they use it.

Yes, some parts of some 'Commons' have bad reputations, that is the nature of things public, but in general a sort of 'code' of written and unwritten rules and laws exist which governs the Green lungs of London. Somehow or other a very small percentage of crime or other unwished for things actually happen on 'The Common'!

The same thing does not apply to the 'other Commons'!

We lived smack between two of London's best known commons, Wandsworth and Clapham.....

Amazing things - these 'commons' with amazing stories to be told - I think probably bigger than the Internet has room for.......!

Clapham Common, London SW11 - and we used it for this as well as many other things!

part of Wandsworth Common, London SW11

I'm not even going to try starting, I'll just suggest that if you ever go to London, pass some time visiting one of these area, they are everywhere, and marvel.......

You could even pass a fleeting thought for me and all the millions of others who have passed by the same spot where you find yourselves!

Enjoy!                             

Ian W. Mitchell, 'Marquis du Galipot'