Reviewing the Rec
by Clare Graham, Chair, Open Spaces Committee
A new management plan suggests some improvements for Latchmere Recreation Ground, the little park at the heart of the Latchmere Estate Conservation Area.
Planning the future
Latchmere Rec: a pair of original entrance gates, today in need of a little love.
Enable Parks, the body which maintains and develops open spaces and street trees on behalf of Wandsworth Council, is currently writing individual management plans for each open space. Within Battersea, ones for Christchurch Gardens and Queenstown Green were published last year on its greenspaces page, and have now been joined by two more, covering Fred Wells Gardens and Latchmere Recreation Ground. All are worth reading, describing as they do what makes each space distinctive, the way it is maintained and what improvements are currently considered desirable. They plans are designed to cover the next ten years but remain flexible, capable of revision at any time to incorporate new developments or public comments. Indeed, the first two have already been updated to incorporate some comments and corrections from the Open Spaces Committee. Now we’ve been going through the new ones; I read that for Latchmere Recreation Ground with particular interest, since Enable had already told me that it hoped to find funding to improve it in the near future.
Latchmere Rec—a neighbourhood park with a national history
"Exit the 'Brown Dog.'" Daily Graphic, 11 March 1910.
The Rec (as it is usually known) may be one of Battersea’s smaller parks, but it has a notable history. It was laid out on the remains of Latchmere Common in 1906 as the centrepiece of the radical Borough of Battersea's pioneering municipal housing scheme, the Latchmere Estate. Then in 1907 it acquired Brown Dog, an anti-vivisection memorial and drinking fountain so controversial that it generated riots, and attracted national press coverage. It had its own police guard until March 1910, when it was silently removed again overnight by the council, following a change of administration. The two press photos above are our best record of the original layout of the park. To the right, we see the vanished memorial itself, and behind it the railed central footpath which runs North-South through the Rec, closed off to vehicles by tall iron bollards (a much better-looking solution than the current clumsy safety barriers). To the left, we see the empty memorial site at its centre, a shot evidently taken from within what is now the playground. Beyond the memorial site is visible the Eastern section of the Rec, whose landscaping apparently consisted solely of one large, slightly raised central bed (empty of flowers, in early March), surrounded by a compacted surface and perhaps with some kind of hedging growing up inside the perimeter. Happily, most of the original ironwork shown is still there—four sets of double entrance gates (there are two separate designs, distinguishing the Eastern and Western sections), all bar one of the decorative posts, and quite a few lengths of the rather fearsome-looking spiked railings; others have been replaced with a flimsier flat-topped modern design. But by now it's distinctly decrepit, so we very much welcome the idea of restoring it within the improvements; this will be an expensive project, however.
The Rec Today
View of the Western section of the Rec today, with the two big weeping willows.
Today, the Rec has developed into a much greener and pleasanter space, with some fine mature trees, lots of grass and various ornamental plantings. Sadly the two big weeping willows which are such a feature of the Western section are nearing the end of their natural lifespans, so replacements should soon be planned for. More generally, Enable would like to improve existing plantings to add in more year-round colour and interest and encourage biodiversity: filling gaps in the perimeter borders, beefing up the displays at entrances, introducing more shade-tolerant plants, promoting bulbs and wildflowers within grassy areas. We welcome all this too, though we're keen to see some flat grass retained for informal exercise, whether that's children kicking a ball around or adults getting out their yoga mats. So far as equipment is concerned, the Rec already has a popular playground and outdoor gym, and a good selection of seating and picnic benches; Enable would like to update the playground, and introduce a new drinking- and bottle-filling fountain. This would presumably be the utilitarian design already installed in other local open spaces, including Battersea Park and Fred Wells Gardens, though Paula S Owen, author of Little Brown Dog, has a more ambitious campaign to restore the 1907 memorial fountain. Proposed new signage (to include panels about the site's history, and biodiversity), educational resources and community engagement are also welcome. As the plan notes there's an under-used area of hard standing within the Eastern section of the Rec where a pergola used to stand which could become a handy venue for community activities.
Looking further afield
The central footpath and its safety barriers, looking South from Stanley Grove
We do have one issue with the management plan, which is that at present it doesn't look beyond the Rec's gates. That's understandable, in that Enable has no given role outside these, but it would be helpful nevertheless to mention that the Rec is sited within the Latchmere Estate Conservation Area. We'd like to see this management plan drawing on the Conservation Area's Appraisal and Management Strategy (where the Rec's mentioned at section 8). Also, if improvements to the Rec could be viewed within the context of enhancing the wider Conservation Area, that might open up new funding streams for the restoration of the ironwork, say. Indeed we'd like to see an enhancement study undertaken for the whole Conservation Area, one with the Rec at its core, but taking a broader look at street trees, paving, barriers and other street furniture. There's scope also we feel for a new North-South walking and cycling link, creating a more pedestrian friendly environment where the ugly barriers at either end of the central passage of the Rec are no longer needed and a re-planted St James's Grove becomes an attractive, well-used link through to Battersea Park Road and beyond that to Battersea Park itself.