Pocket Parks in Battersea
By Clare Graham, Chair, Open Spaces Committee
Thessaly Oasis is once more open to the public, ahead of its relaunch as the borough's first new pocket park. Could sites be found to create any more of these here in Battersea?
Thessaly Oasis
Thessaly Oasis, July 2024. All photos © the author.
It was a pleasure to visit the long-closed Oasis green space at the Wandsworth Road end of Thessaly Road this week, and discover it open to visitors once more and evidently already well-appreciated. While it awaits its makeover as the first of Wandsworth's new pocket parks, the council's Housing and Nine Elms teams have tidied it up for the summer. The grass at its centre is once more a lawn, the surrounding undergrowth has been tamed, and humps and bumps secured behind temporary orange netting. And now the local community have come back inside too, setting things going by painting a colourful mural on the back wall, planting some fruit trees, and installing a row of temporary raised beds. Meanwhile public consultations have been running, to discover what everyone would like to see in there long-term. I'm looking forward to learning what those came came up with at a first community workshop in September. The plan is to deliver the new pocket park next year, within Wandsworth Borough of Culture 2025.
The board at the entrance, with the new mural and beds visible beyond.
What is a pocket park, anyway?
A pocket park can be defined as a green space accessible to the general public, less than half a hectare (1.2 acres) in size and usually located within a densely built-up urban area. Often created from leftover scraps of land, these are places to pause and relax, to sit and chat and play and exercise and enjoy some fresh air. They're good news for biodiversity too, especially if they can connect up with other parks, street trees and soft landscaping to form 'green corridors'. The definition is more recent than the idea: see for instance little Christchurch Gardens off Battersea Park Road, the 'outdoor drawing room' created in 1885 within what was then an area of slum housing by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, on the site of an unused churchyard. (Its current layout dates from 1951, when it was redesigned to provide a more formal setting for Battersea's World War II memorial.) Battersea also already has one officially designated Pocket Park, Falcon Glade. This was created in 2013-14 at the corner of Falcon Road and Falcon Terrace, using funding from a 'Pocket Park Initiative' set up by the Mayor of London. That took an existing area of amenity grass and trees on the edge of the Falcon Estate and upgraded it with new plantings, play and biodiversity features. Sadly, ten years on, most of those have vanished. Situated behind a busy bus stop, it's no longer a place where anyone would choose to linger, but we have hopes that some money can be found to upgrade it again now that a major makeover of the adjacent railway viaduct is planned.
Other possibilities: Sphere Walk
Sphere Walk, looking east from Battersea High Street.
The current Council administration promises to create more new pocket parks within the borough, this time with the help of some grant funding from the Greater London Assembly. Just two sites have been announced so far: Thessaly Oasis, and Swaffield Road over in Wandsworth. We have already told local Councillors that we believe that Sphere Walk, or rather the bleak paved piazza just in front of that recent council-led social housing development, would make another good candidate. This site is set off to the side of Battersea High Street, more or less opposite the Katherine Low Settlement. It's a quite substantial space, created from part of a former car park and already in Council ownership. Quite why it was initially fitted out with just three new trees and eight bicycle racks remains unclear; it calls out for lots more planting, some seating, a drinking fountain, maybe the odd artwork? And why not use it to help create another new Quiet Route for cyclists and pedestrians too, utilising the existing cut-through to Winders Road, Home Road and on to Battersea Park Road?
The existing pedestrian route through to Winders Road and beyond.
And Sheepcote Lane
The disused car park in Sheepcote Lane, looking west.
More recently, a long narrow walled-off area beside the west end of Sheepcote Lane has become another wasted space. This formerly provided overspill parking for Latchmere Leisure Centre, and more recently filled up with Network Rail portacabins and shipping containers, used to service works to the adjacent tracks. Now those have gone and the site sits empty and barricaded off, used only by fly-tippers. Presumably it belongs to Network Rail, like the strip of grass and trees to the east. Now that it has destroyed part of that, to create a large and ugly new access ramp, perhaps it would consider giving this section back to nature and/ or the local community, to fulfil its biodiversity commitments? Again, this is a quite substantial area, already graced by some fine mature trees. It would be great to see some or all of the tarmac torn up to make way for plants. But even if long-term plans rule this out, there is surely scope to create a short-to-medium term garden on top within containers, like the former skip garden at King's Cross - or, indeed, the existing planter garden up the road at Battersea Arts Centre?
Maybe you can think of another piece of scrap land in Battersea, which could find a new use as a pocket park or community garden? If so, do let us know about it.