The inner London borough of Wandsworth contains some 670 hectares (1,700 acres) of green space in the form of parks, commons, allotments and cemeteries, which is the largest proportion for any London borough.
At 92 hectares (230 acres), the continuous green swathe of the Tooting Commons in the south of the borough, between Balham and Streatham, is Wandsworth's largest public open space. It is followed by the more central 83-hectare (210-acre) Battersea Park, on the River Thames in the north of the borough. Wandsworth Common, to the south of Clapham Junction, is the third largest park, at 73 hectares (180 acres).
Wimbledon and Putney Commons are very large open spaces, 479 hectares (1,180 acres) in total, partly within the borough, to the south of Putney and Roehampton, and are managed by a board of Conservators rather than any individual borough.
King George's Park is a 23-hectare (57-acre) stretch of green space along the western side of the River Wandle, just south of Wandsworth town centre. It is one of a string of green spaces along the Wandle Valley, along with Garratt Park in Earlsfield and Lambeth Cemetery in Tooting.
Remaining green spaces in the borough include Falcon Park in Battersea (a green space enclosed within a railway junction), Wandsworth Park (a Grade II listed park on the River Thames between Wandsworth and Putney), Roehampton Golf Course, Central London Golf Centre, the western half of Clapham Common, Wandsworth Cemetery, Streatham Cemetery and York Gardens, along with a whole host of smaller spaces.
Famous quotes containing the words parks, open and/or spaces:
“Perhaps our own woods and fields,—in the best wooded towns, where we need not quarrel about the huckleberries,—with the primitive swamps scattered here and there in their midst, but not prevailing over them, are the perfection of parks and groves, gardens, arbors, paths, vistas, and landscapes. They are the natural consequence of what art and refinement we as a people have.... Or, I would rather say, such were our groves twenty years ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Deep down, the US, with its space, its technological refinement, its bluff good conscience, even in those spaces which it opens up for simulation, is the only remaining primitive society.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)