Heritage: The tale of a missing bandstand in South Park Gardens Wimbledon

It cost £168/10shillings and was designed for use by military bands such as that of the 2nd Voluntary Battalion of the Surrey Regiment, which had made its debut in the park a few years earlier.

The bandstand would remain for more than 30 years. There were summer weekend concerts and it also hosted the park’s very own Speaker’s Corner.

But after World War 2 it was replaced by a concrete covered shelter which in turn was removed during the 1980s for safety reasons.

Back in 1913 when the bandstand was constructed, South Park Gardens had already become established as a popular pleasure ground for local families living in the adjacent streets of South Wimbledon.

Bordered by Trinity, Dudley and King’s Roads, it had opened in 1901 in a Beaux Art style with serpentine pathways and circular features, seating areas, a drinking fountain and a mix of shrubs and tree-studded lawns.

It was designed and built at a cost of £630 plus £180 for the public toilets and £195 for the trees and shrubs.

Since 1904, deliverymen selling milk, coal and food from their carts had been refreshing their horses at a trough near one of the entrances, presented by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association.

But the park’s birth had been controversial. Originally part of Earl Spencer’s huge Wimbledon Park estate stretching from Putney Heath down to the foot of Wimbledon Hill, by the mid 19th century the land was separately owned by the Cowdrey Farm estate.

This too was sold off in building lots in 1872 and from 1880 onwards residential streets were created with royal titles such as Queen’s Road, King’s Road and Prince’s Road. On 23 March 1898, 11 remaining acres of undeveloped land was about to be auctioned and some 200 ratepayers presented a petition to the local council, urging it to buy the land and preserve it as public open space.

The gardens restored but no bandstand

A Baptist minister called Rev Ingram pointed out that children living in the new streets of South Wimbledon were too far away from the Common to enjoy playing there and needed somewhere nearer to home. But the council was reluctant to spend enough money and a private buyer ended up paying £13,500 for the 11 acres, clearly intending further development.

All seemed lost until June when the new owner came up with a plan to sell five of the 11 acres to the council after all. One councillor pressed for another two acres to be added to the purchase.

Another petition was raised, this time by 1000 residents. But the story was not over.

In August the owner tried to impose restrictions on who could use the new pleasure ground. Any noise other than a military band was to be forbidden while “ragged or verminous persons” or any “suffering from infectious diseases” were to be kept strictly out.

This raised hackles and the attempt failed. In September a total of six acres was sold to the council for a hefty £19,000 – far more than it would have had to pay at auction just six months earlier.

The new park had impressive cast iron gates and railings and the bandstand satisfied everyone. But in the early 1940s the railings were removed and the gardens left in a sorry state. Bomb shelters were also installed.

Restored drinking trough but no horses to enjoy it

After the war, in the 1950s, the council built concrete pillars and installed chain link fencing on the perimeter. The gardens were a pale shadow of their pre-war standard.

For decades they deteriorated further and by the 1990s had become a haunt of anti-social elements after dark. The chain link fencing was repeatedly vandalised. Eventually the council fitted new ornamental gates at three entrances and in 1998 English Heritage registered the historic gardens with Grade 2 status. It did not stop the criminals. In 2002 the new gates at Trinity Road were stolen.

Local residents reacted by forming a new Friends group to work with Merton Council and deal with security and other pressing issues. Their numbers grew and a charity was formed. In 2007 new cast iron railings were restored and, backed by a Heritage Lottery grant, the gardens were properly restored in 2008. The park reopened in June 2009 with everything from the pathways to the seating and plants replaced.

Well not quite everything. There is still no sign of that wonderful rustic bandstand.

Time for another heritage appeal?

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For more information, visit wimbledonsociety.org.uk and www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk.

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