Live in May
By Clare Graham, Chair, Open Spaces Committee
News from Open Spaces about Clapham Common, two Wandsworth Council public consultations, three London festivals—and the committee's own plans for some new free self-guided local walks.
Live from Clapham Common
The newly reinstated rose arbour on Clapham Common. All illustrations in this article © the author.
All the photos for this blog were taken yesterday morning on Clapham Common, currently looking delightfully fresh and green and flowery despite a prolonged spell of dry spring weather. Here's the rose arbour on the Battersea side of the Common beside the tennis courts, reinstated recently thanks to fundraising efforts by the Friends of the common and Wild Clapham. Meanwhile beside Battersea Woods Lambeth Council has restored the long-derelict toilet block and fitted it out as a café, yet to open. Over on the Lambeth side of the Common, the Friends and Wild Clapham's ambitious new Wetland Zone beside Eagle Pond is also now up and running. With wildlife already arriving, all that is needed now is some rain to encourage the new plantings to settle and establish.
The newly-restored café building on Clapham Common, still to be furnished and opened.
Live WBC Consultations
An Egyptian Goose stands on the bank of the new Wetland Zone on Clapham Common.
Wandsworth Borough Council is currently running an Events in Parks Policy Consultation, live until 12 May. It’s a revision of the existing policy covering events in all council-run open spaces, apart from Battersea Park. That has its own policy, which will be reviewed separately after London Borough of Culture Year finishes in March 2026. OSC has responded to the consultation and also expects to attend a dedicated online engagement session with the Council being set up for greenspace groups and amenity societies. By and large the proposed revisions felt sensible to us, though we did request rewording to protect biodiversity generally, not just grass and trees. We also passed on some Society members' concerns about the prospect of any larger-scale events on Wandsworth Common—whatever the proposed safeguards.
This month should also see a public consultation open for the Council's new Biodiversity Action Plan, since that is expected to go before the Environment Committee on 24 June. We have not seen a draft yet but have been told that it'll be an ambitious five year plan, applicable to all council departments and to all green and blue space, whether owned by the council, other public bodies (such as the NHS) or private residents. It'll also emphasise partnership working, both locally and within the wider London Local Nature Recovery Strategy. A final version's expected to be adopted this autumn, and implemented this winter.
The Egyptian Goose’s partner and three goslings, on the opposite bank of the new Wetland Zone.
Live: festivals celebrating walking, trees and rivers
The horse chestnut avenue on Clapham Common.
Next, news of three outdoor festivals this month with interesting London-wide programmes:
National Park City's month-long London Walking Festival runs until the end of May, celebrating walkers, writers, wanderers, filmmakers, foragers, campaigners, chroniclers and folk that just love a stroll. Events in southwest London will include a walk circling Barnes Common, and another following the Beverley Brook from New Malden to Putney.
This year's Urban Tree Festival runs from 10-18 May; it's an annual community celebration of trees, including their benefits, beauty, majesty, and magic ... Events, celebrations, walks, talks and storytelling are held across London and the UK, bringing all our communities together to educate, inspire and share their enjoyment of trees. Why not visit an EcoFair in Wandsworth Park, or log in to a webinar on Trees in Art and Landscape from Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Tree Council?
At the end of the month, Thames21's London Rivers Week 2025 is from 30 May to 8 June. Now in its ninth year, this is another diverse programme which will feature a jolly ritual cleanup of the Thames here at Battersea; there's also a guided walk along the Wandle on offer.
Inside Clapham Common’s horse chestnut avenue, looking towards The Avenue.
Live soon: some new local walks!
A hawthorn in flower on Clapham Common.
Back in 2020 I published a booklet for the Society, called Discovering Battersea's Open Spaces: A Walking Guide. Written as a series of six mapped walks linking and exploring all our wonderful local green spaces, that sold very well and attracted lots of positive feedback. Sadly it's now out of print and also somewhat out of date, especially for the rapidly-changing areas around Nine Elms and the Winstanley and York Road estates. So rather than produce another print version, our committee is planning as its contribution to Wandsworth London Borough of Culture year to make some new self-guided local walks available on the Society's website. We'll be publishing these as blogs, with a map and itinerary available to follow online, plus a pdf version to download and print in advance. The first one is just about ready; watch this space!
White campion flowers on Clapham Common.