August 2016, Issue 58 Now Been Removed and the Area Returned to Grass

1 Common Knowledge streathamcommon.org From the Chair Registered Charity 1166961 You may have noticed a few changes in the Rookery recently. The raised flower bed that celebrated the centenary of the Rookery has August 2016, Issue 58 now been removed and the area returned to grass. The central flower beds briefly looked Inside this issue a little bare recently while a totally new design for the beds that incorporates herbs, 2. Planting the Rookery; Painting the perennial plants and flowers was ! Common implemented. The old layout was stunning to 4. More Large Events look at, but expensive to maintain and was 5. Snakes Alive; SCCoop and the very wasteful. The new design will hopefully ! Common avoid these issues. 6. Great North Wood 7. Know Your Trees; Grass Cutting; I'm glad to say the new café is proving very !Updates popular and Charlie and Carol have even 8. Dates for Your Diary provided some much appreciated catering to a few Friends’ events. The event I probably Common Knowledge, the newsletter of the enjoyed the most this year so far was the Friends of Streatham Common, is edited by barn dance, but it's unlikely to be held in the Peter Newmark: tel. 020 8679 2908; email: barn again as the microbrewery project is [email protected] now going ahead! This will hopefully be in place before the end of the year. We're also exploring the idea of setting up bee hives Don’t Miss This Year’s alongside the barn. This will be a community project shared between the different groups Scruff’s Dog Show on the Common and the microbrewery has Sunday September 11th, opposite the already offered to donate a few hives to start Rookery Café starting at 12.00 noon. us off. Prizes for In the past few weeks it's been interesting to Cutest Puppy see so many young folk wandering around the Rookery. It appears that the Rookery now Bonniest Bitch contains a few imaginary Pokemon creatures Handsomest Dog in the new game Pokemon Go! These new Best Veteran creatures will hopefully fit in with the other Best Rescue Dog interesting wildlife that we have around the Dog and Spoon Races Common. We did however have to draw the Seven-Legged Races line when a long rat snake was found in the Fancy Dress Competition for Dogs Rookery. This creature was taken to a local pet shop where it should be more at home. Also parade of the Pets as Therapy dogs and numerous stalls. I wish you a happy summer on the Common. 2 Planting the Rookery chives,oregano, rosemary and several types of thyme. A combination of austerity, sustainability and modernity has spelled the end of the colourful beds of annual flowers that have Lest you might think that this change is out been a feature of the Old English Garden of line with other public gardens, similar for many years. Instead, these beds have changes will be made throughout recently been planted with perennials. The Lambeth. look will be very different but we are promised “exciting, vibrant and colourful” Painting the Common displays. As a kid I was fortunate. I had two back gardens. One stretched way back from the There are good reasons for this house and was dotted with garden controversial change – good enough that furniture, flower beds, lawns and vegetable the Friends backed them by purchasing plots - yet marred by the remains of an air- the plants for one of the two replanted raid shelter. Not the best place to play and areas. Part of the reason is cost: it was run around in, but nevertheless an open expensive and labour-intensive to plant area with splashes of greenery and plenty densely packed annuals twice a year. of wildlife. My other garden, so to speak, Moreover, annuals need a lot of watering was just around the corner - a short in dry spells, whereas the new plants have distance away down the end of Valley been selected for their drought resistance. Road. Here lay Streatham Common, a They have also been selected, where green and wooded open space which to a possible, for their attractiveness to nectar- young boy was simply vast and endless. feeding insects. I could play cricket or football there to my One of the two replanted areas surrounds heart’s content, climb the trees in the the sundial (see photo). The plants for this woods, run in and out of the allotments, area were paid for by Anthony Gold charge around the Rookery, and at times Solicitors. They include fritillaries, sedums, challenge the good nature of the park hellebores, euphorbias, agapanthus, some keepers. However, it was a different colourful grasses, tulips and gladioli. Many common back then in the late 1940s and have already been planted but about 1000 early 1950s. Prefabs lined two sides of the bulbs will not be added until autumn. The common, allotments scarred the upper area for which the Friends paid is the part and a roadway crossed the top, group of central beds that face you as you separating the old pond and woods from come down the steps from the Water the lower slope. By the road lay a patch of Garden. These have been planted mainly coarse gravel marking out the bandstand with herbs, such as camomile, hyssop, and seating area, a spot now grassed and naturalised. Indeed, the common I explored as an adventurous and curious child was a far cry from the cultivated open space we see and enjoy today. As we know, many changes have occurred to Streatham Common, but there is one thing that has never changed. It is something that you cannot overlook and never cease to admire. Simply, it is those panoramic views that sweep around our common. No doubt you have looked westward over the landscape to view the 3 expanse of the Wandle Valley and the was David Cox, an individual who misty shapes of the North Downs beyond. appreciated the views offered and the Closer, you can see the heights of potential for creative painting. Wimbledon Common. David Cox (1783-1859) was eminent in his Such views do much to characterise the profession as a landscape artist and was common and are often enhanced and widely acclaimed for his work during the dramatized by spectacular weather, or by Victorian period. Today his works the sunsets that stretch across the sky. For command high prices in the art market. We me, the greatest sunsets seen were in my are fortunate that an artist with such young days playing on the common. Often credentials drew much inspiration from the we stood and gazed at the array of colours local area. It was the nature of the that filled the sky at sunset – just as if a contrasting landscape that encouraged rainbow had been laid horizontally before him to paint a number of views of us. But then, before the clean air act, it Streatham, particularly of Streatham was pollution that was the colourist in the Common and the immediate area. sky. In years gone by similar views towards the south could be seen and One of his close friends was William Stone enjoyed from the Rookery terrace, where Ellis, who lived on the south side of the the sweep of the town and countryside common. Cox spent many Sundays there around Croydon was laid out before you. during the 1850s, taking every opportunity But with the growth of the tree canopy to paint local views. For example, in 1851 across the Rookery much of this view has he completed A Field, with Groups of been lost, and today it is best seen from Trees, a view taken from a field close to grounds of Norwood Grove. the common and which, at the time, was considered to be a most successful It was these fine panoramic views that representation of English scenery. Cox attracted many artists to Streatham was a prolific painter and no doubt Common during the 19th century. They produced many more paintings of the came to capture in their paintings the play common that have yet to be found, or are between landscape and sky in its most sitting in private collections. Moreover, he dramatic form. Among the many artists of was just one of a cluster of 19th century note who came to the common to paint artists who saw artistic potential in the open countryside and sky seen from the common. There was also Peter de Wint with his 1849 view looking west across the common, Collingwood Smith’s atmospheric view of the upper part of the common as seen in 1871, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Patrick Nasmyth’s view from the top pond in 1827 now displayed in Sudeley Castle. ‘Old Streatham. Near the Leafs Avenue’ by David Cox showing the view But there is one artist in looking west as seen from the high ground of the Streatham Common particular who would have area. Dated to around 1850. 4 placed the common on the stage of world All large events are likely to cause art. He was no other than Vincent Van damage to the ground and their Gogh. One day in April 1875, while he was organisers have to pay the costs of on Streatham Common, he made a repair. The amount of damage is drawing of the view about which he determined in large part by the ground commented, ‘a large grassy plain with oak conditions. Should the ground be too trees and gorse. It had been raining wet because of rain, the event may be overnight; the ground was soaked and the cancelled.

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