History on my doorstep...

When I moved to Clapham, about 3 months ago, I was interested in the history from a Victorian perspective. Let's face it, the Victorian era is the most dominant one in this area, as Clapham & the surrounding suburbs of London were mostly built & formed during the reign of Queen Victoria. The rows & rows of terrace houses which fill the streets of this pretty place are all beautifully histocial Victorian dwellings, and the streets of shops & even nearby Clapham Junction Station are all from that era.

Clapham Common at the end of the street in which I live, was the first place that caught my attention, from the WWII perspective. About a 3 minute walk from my front door, there is a large, flat(ish) platform covered in ashphalt. I did some 'googling', and found a reference in that 'ever-reliable resource', Wikipedia! These are, supposedly,"... mounds on the... common that are covered in the earliest forms of tarmac. The mounds were formed with left-over scraps by the local Victorians and covered in tarmac to form roller skating rinks." Yeah... with two close to Battersea Rise, & 3 more between Winsham Grove & Manchuria Road, it seemed an ulikely explaination, and friends & neighbours told me they thought they were 'bunkers' from WWII. I did a bit more digging, but couldn't find anything about 'bunkers' existing on Clapham Common, although there were definitely 'trench-style air-raid shelters' & Anti Aircraft Guns (or 'ack ack's' - using the WWII Phonetic alphabet for 'AA' guns)


I looked further, and found some reference to one local's belif that they were bunkers in which Canadian troops had been housed during the war, but I found a more reliable source which tells that the Canadians were housed in the Deep Level Shelter close to South Clapham Station, and this was further confirmed by other references...

The trench style air-raid shelters definitely did not have entrances in a formation like these... being very simple, and rudimentary forms of shelter. Although photos exist of these on Clapham Common, there is no resemblance to the remaining 'platforms' along either the west side, or the Battersea Rise section in the north west corner of Battersea Common.

My research would suggest that these are almost certainly nothing to do with rollerskating! In fact the reference in Wikipedia is the only mention of such an activity on the common I can find online! The air-raid shelter theory is also more likely to be later generations confusing the deep level shelter with the remnants of some activity they can see close to that shelter today. To my mind the size & shape of the platforms suggests they are the remains of the ack ack positions. They certainly were close to the South Clapham Station, as I have found first hand accounts of young men & boys coming to the common, via that station, to watch the guns in action. I have included both my photos of the platforms & a couple of reference photos I found online - see what you think for yourself...


So to do more research... I hope to visit Battersea Library soon, and see if I can't get to the bottom of this mystery, using the local history resources they hold there. I have this terrible compulsion to stop any truly elderly person I see in the street & ask them if they know anything about them...

Stuff...

I'm kind of feeling uninspired, but I want to blog more... I always have this inner monologue happening & it seems a shame to waste it! I thought I might follow my friend who's blog is called Wooly Logic, and post more photos with some explainations!
So this is what I did on Sunday - I went for a power walk on Clapham Common, but I didn't power walk for long! I got chatting with my wonderful cousin Mavis, on my new mobile, and so I slowed my pace... silly since I'd worn just jeans, a T-shirt & a hoodie, foregoing the obligatory gloves, coat, hat & scarfe as I thought I'd be warm from walking!! The cold got to me, even before I'd reached the north-east corner of the Common, where I stopped to take photos of Trinity Church. This is the church where the 'Clapham Cult' was formed & would meet to discuss social justice issues, and particularly to campaign against slavery. It was this group that William Wilberforce belonged to, and he was instrumental in getting the laws in Britain changed. His story is told in the film "Amazing Grace"
There was an eerie feeling as it was so cold that there were few people loitering, and nobody at the church at all. The lighting made it stand out among the leafless trees, & I was so cold by the time I turned for home, again!

I started at a good pace towards the western end of the Common, close by which I live! But I was barely half way when I started shivering & wondering what I'd been thinking when I'd left home with so little clothing (seasonally speaking!)? I suddenly remembered that there was a pub, nearby, which I had been meaning to check out! The Windmill, on the common, has had a lot of good write ups... I shivered & managed to make it to the warm haven of this watering hole! The cider, whilst delicious, was very expensive, but the loos were amusing, and the whole feeling was one of comfort, & most importantly - warmth! I sat for quite some time, reading the book reviews in the paper, and sipping my cider, taking the occassional photo & generally feeling the blood start to flow to my extremities!
Finally I walked home, via the historic, and pretty bandstand, then on to my home. It was good to get back to a bowl of soup & later to phone Frank! I always sleep better when I hear the sound of his voice!