1 Common Knowledge

August 2009, Issue 37 This Sporting Life

Inside this issue On the next two pages you will find a sum- mary of the current sports and fitness activi- 2. Sport on the Common ties on the common. It may look impressive, 3. A Brief History of Cricket on but it isn’t. Until the 1970s there was a cricket ccStreatham Common pitch on the common and for at least ten years 4. A Note From the Chair after that the cricket strip was maintained. 5. Rachel Heywoodʼs Note Now even that has long gone. In the 1980s 6. Rookery Problems; Recent Events there were still marked football pitches and 7. Birds in a Box; New Booklets (basic) changing facilities. Both are now gone. 8. Civic Award; Whatʼs Up? Somewhere along the line, it seems, council decided to focus sports on some Common Knowledge, the newsletter of the green spaces at the expense of others, includ- Friends of Streatham Common, is edited by ing Streatham Common. The fact that the Peter Newmark: tel. 020 8679 2908; email changing facilities were reaching the end of [email protected] their life didn’t help matters, and an attempt by the Friends and others to raise funds for new facilities was unsuccessful.

For Your Diary With the current push of the drive against obesity and towards fitness and the pull of the Fun Dog Show - Sunday 6th 2012 Olympics in London, now is surely the September. 2.00 - 4.00pm, opposite ideal time to try and reverse the historical de- the Rookery Café. Prizes for: cline of organised sports on the Common. We * Dog with the waggiest tail were glad recently to find that Councillor Ra- * Bonniest bitch chel Heywood, Lambeth’s new Cabinet mem- * Dog most like its owner ber for Culture and Communities, is in agree- * Dog with the scruffiest coat ment (see page 5). * Dandiest male What would really help drive matters forward * Most obedient dog is clear evidence of local demand for more fa- cilities. So is there a champion out there for Big Draw – Sunday 20th September, bringing back cricket matches to the Com- from 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm. mon? Or football pitches and matches? Or anything else - how about a Trim Track on the Bird Walk – Sunday 1st November, Common, for example? If so, please step for- 9.00 am. Meet at the Rookery Café. ward and work with the Friends to help make the Common a magnet for sports and fitness. 2 there. Provision for horse riding was en- Sport on the Common shrined in the Streatham Common Act of the 19th century and it would be good if Football – there have been no formal riding would come back to the Common. matches on the Common since the demise of the changing facilites and marked Kite flying – the Common lends itself well pitches in the 1980s, but every Saturday to kite flying and is much used for this pur- morning, from 10.15, Tony Goldring, a pose. It has also been the site of an an- Community Sports Worker, runs a two- nual Kite Day for the past decade and, al- hour training session for 5-13 year olds. though the chief organiser took a break After a warm-up, the children are taught this year, we hope that Kite Day will be ball skills and then play a match. Children back in 2010. of exceptional promise can move on to training in an academy and then even to Running – Harriers athletics training with a league club. Tony has been club, which is based at the running track running these sessions for the past ten on Tooting Common, has long used the years and has an affiliation with Chelsea Common for a variety of training purposes. FC. At least three boys who trained on the From September to April, the slopes adja- Common are now playing with prominent cent to Streatham Common South and clubs, including Crystal Palace. Contact North are used on Tuesday evenings by Tony Goldring on 07932 942262. sprinters to build their strength and by the club’s Young Athletes Group for general Tennis – there training. The is a single club’s middle-, court on Hilly long-distance Four Acres. It and cross- can be booked country run- by telephoning ners train 0845 every Thurs- 1308998. day evening There is a fee by running up of £4.50 per Covington hour for adults Way to the car but use of the park and then court is free back via Hilly for anyone Four Acres. under 16. Until 15 years (This informa- ago, the club tion is from organised some time ago cross-country and cannot be races over the checked because the sign on the court is Common and Grove. These were currently unreadable!). then moved to but the club is currently hoping to move them back to Horse riding – since the demise of the Streatham Common, which would be sup- last local riding stable, riding has more or ported by the Friends. less ceased on the Common. The only horses seen recently have belonged to the Fitness training -- a company called mounted police, who occasionally patrol Active Healthy Minds organises a one- the Common or exercise their horses hour session of stretching, walking / jog- ging and toning exercises every Thursday 3 at 7.30 pm, starting at Norbury Pond, on Beulah Hill, and then coming on to the A Brief History of Cricket on Common. The session is open to anyone Streatham Common and costs £2 a time. Contact Julia McCabe on 07758 570656. Cricket has been a popular pastime on Streatham Common for around Postnatal fitness training – every Mon- 200 years. Streatham Cricket Club day appropriate exercises and a run/jog on was founded at the Horse and Groom the Common for mothers with prams are Public House (the present day Big organised by a company called Buggyfit. Hand Mo’s pub in Streatham High The activities are suitable for all levels and Road, near Streatham Hill station) on last about an hour, starting at 10.00 am at Monday May 5th 1806. the café. Each session costs £6 (or £30 for six sessions). Contact Michelle Murray on The club was originally limited to 40 07779 193221. members who each paid an annual subscription of five guineas, thus en- Walks – each Thursday, starting at suring that the exclusivity of the group 1.00 pm from the Rookery Café, there is a would be limited to the gentry who free walk around the Common area. The could afford the fee. walk is part of Lambeth Council’s Active Walk Scheme, lasts for about an hour and For almost 80 years the club played is often led by a Park Ranger. Just turn up! their home fixtures on the Common, where their wicket was roped off to School sports – local schools often use protect the surface of the pitch from the Common for their sports days and St the public. Joseph’s College uses for cross-country runs. In 1888, when the Metropolitan Board of works took ownership of the Com- Individuals – many individuals run, jog, or mon, the terms of purchase included walk for exercise on the Common. Some an obligation to continue to maintain seem to be obsessive, some diligent and the area that had been roped off and some reluctant. Other individuals practise formal cricket continued to be played their martial arts, train for boxing, etc. In there well into the 1970s. addition, good weather brings out personal trainers with their clients. The Streatham Cricket Club subse- quently moved to its own ground Cricket – there have been no formal which occupied a site now covered by matches since the 1970s (see opposite for Gracefield Gardens, named to com- the history of cricket on the Common). For memorate the great cricketer W.G. some time after formal cricket stopped, the Grace, who played there on a number cricket strip was maintained and it used to of occasions at the turn of the 20th attract informal / impromptu games. When century. John Brown maintenance ceased, the deteriorating strip was still used for a time. Since then there has been very little cricket on the More like us. The Friends of Streatham Common, although a couple of years ago Common welcomes the arrival of the newly there used to be a group of exceptionally formed Friends of Tooting Common and keen young men who played every sum- wishes them all the best. Their website, mer Sunday morning from about 6.00 am which includes a questionnaire, is until breakfast time ♦ http://www.friendsoftootingcommon.org.uk/ mac.html ♦ 4 Another issue is events. The Executive A Note from the Chair gets too involved in running events when we need to be concentrating on lobbying Hi. I am the new chair of the Friends of to get the Common and the Rookery in Streatham Common and thought I would better shape. Also we get tired and need a let you know what I think are the important break! issues over the coming year. We would love to have some more people Just prior to our Annual General Meeting, to help with events and our membership we held a walkabout on the Common for drive. We also need a couple of stronger Rachel Heywood, Lambeth’s new Cabinet individuals who live near the Common and Member for Culture and Communities. It is could help us move the equipment we worth reading her subsequent note for the need for events from, and back to, its stor- AGM which you will find opposite. It men- age site. This only needs to happen about tions a number of long standing issues 30 minutes before and after the events. that are very difficult to shift within Lam- We first need some help with this for the beth and we need to get better at the poli- Fun Dog Show on 6th September. tics of getting things to happen. Lambeth has budget constraints so we will only get Lastly – I am stepping down from running so far without voluntary help and the ability the annual Shakespeare play in the Rook- to raise funds. Both of these need Friends ery, which I have managed for three years. who are willing and able to help. Despite This will mean that that the event will not this walkabout and note we do not yet run next year unless someone can take on have further commitment from Lambeth my role. This would be a great pity after 27 on these issues. years of Shakespeare in the Rookery. What this says to me is that the first two The running of the event is now divided priorities over the next year will be: into the pre-event organisation (Katherine Forester) and coordination on the day, • Increasing our membership and which I have run. Two people could take getting more local business, clubs, on the role of event coordination on the schools, specific users (e.g. parents day if it was felt to be too much for one with young children) to join and add person. We will need to know whether we their weight to our voice. have found a coordinator or two by Octo- • Getting Lambeth to honour these ber so we can let Theatre Set-Up know if long identified projects. This may the play is going ahead next year. need a concerted local campaign. Please contact Katherine on 020 8764 Because of the need to increase member- 6060 about any of these roles – or me on ship, the Executive has decided not to 020 8764 8062 about the Shakespeare. hold a public meeting in the autumn as we Lastly, someone has suggested we give a usually do but instead to get out and about trophy for a sporting event on the Com- on a membership drive. We may also or- mon. Can anyone suggest a suitable event ganise a survey of the public and what for which the trophy can be awarded? they want from the Common and the Rookery. Barbara Wright

The Friends website is at http://www.freewebs.com/streathamfriends/

Our email address is [email protected] 5 From Councillor Rachel Heywood’s note investigate possible funding sources. This for the AGM. We have added a few ex- is a major piece of work and will need full planatory notes in italics. She prefaced her consultation – however we are committed to improving sporting provision in open list with a reminder that spending on all but spaces and possibly running them through essential maintenance had to be frozen last a community trust model. Streatham is a year and that this year’s budget was still very obvious candidate to benefit from a uncertain but that at least the freeze on re- development programme and I have asked cruitment had already been lifted. for it to be amongst our top priorities.

Production of management plan – Play on the Common – We need to re- Friends would like a Management Plan for view the issue of the (lower paddling pool), the Common as a next step from the Vi- which cannot be used in its current form or sion Document (produced by the Friends condition. Investment (into play facilities) and the Management Advisory Committee of £60k will be made through the ‘Play in consultation with the Council in 2007). Pathfinder’ fund in 2010/2011. The plan for Common – probably a comparable project – cost a great deal of Tree replacement/planting – I mentioned money and took 18 months to complete. I Lambeth’s tree survey and upcoming would like to suggest that rather than de- strategy to you. We also talked about laying for the foreseeable future, we ap- planting some fruit trees – ideally of spe- proach Streatham in a step by step way. cies which would have originally been We could possibly produce a Management planted there – in the orchard area and we Plan for the Rookery – which would allow should be able to do that. us to apply for Green Flag status there, subject to work being done – and work on Nursery area (the hidden and derelict applying for Local Nature Reserve status area in the Rookery where the gardener’s for other parts of the Common, with full huts are) – I have asked officers to com- consultation. I have asked officers to let us ment on whether a part of this space could know if we could do this, and when. I think be used by the community as a city this is the obvious next step for you. garden/food growing area. This would mean Veolia (the contractors) reducing Green Flag status – the first step is of their use of the site. I think that starting a course the Management Plan. This is a community garden of this type would be a good tool to help raise funds to make the very positive thing and an excellent project improvements necessary to achieve green flag status. We could work on the Rookery, Drainage (to prevent parts of the paths but items such as repairing the water fea- across the lower Common from becoming ture are estimated to cost c £70,000. I submerged in winter) – very expensive think the Rookery is a very special space but I realise this is a problem. Officers and that we should be seeking to do all we have suggested planting particular species can to make these improvements. I am of trees that might alleviate the issue. looking into possible funding for this. Better support for the Friends – this I Sports on the Common – I was surprised something I am determined to put in place (to say the least) to see your sporting facil- for all Friends Groups who work incredibly ity, in all its lone splendour. We clearly hard. This might for instance help to sup- need to develop sporting provision on the port meetings, newsletters and fundraising Common. I have suggested that we ex- activity and I am thinking about ways to do plore the possibility of developing a bid to this, perhaps modelled on the way we are radically improve the facilities and that we supporting town centre forums ♦ 6 Spring Event, 9th May. Visitors enjoyed Rookery Problems themselves with amusements that in- cluded a bouncy castle, face painting, gi- Many of you will have noticed that since ant chess, kite flying demonstrations, tugs February water has been flowing from a of war, sack races, wheelbarrow races, manhole across the main entrance to the and running races. The cake baking com- Rookery and that no water has been flow- petition attracted 12 entries. Congratula- ing down the cascade in the Rookery gar- tions to dens. At the time of writing, the former Jessica on problem has been reduced but not yet winning 1st stopped with a little bit of plumbing (which prize with could presumably have been done six a delecta- months ago), while the latter may be on ble cake. the way to being solved by replacing a Susan burnt out pump (but this may not be the Good only problem and meanwhile the ‘ponds’ came 2nd are drying up and their wildlife with them). and Mary Winning cake-baker Jessica French What is most unsatisfactory is that it has 3rd. taken so long for either problem to be ad- dressed. Only after concerted complaints Bird Box Survey, 10th May. On a lovely in June by the Friends and by local coun- morning, 17 people helped in the annual cillors David Malley and Julian Heather did survey of the 36 bird boxes on the Com- anything happen. We also discovered that mon. At least ten boxes were occupied – the complement of gardeners in the rook- seven by blue tits, two by great tits and ery had been reduced from three to one, one by the nuthatches seen exploring the with the result that pruning and weeding box on the bird walk in April. Although we were getting way behind. We are glad to could not see the birds in the boxes, Nick learn that as of mid-July there are three McAdoo was able to watch great tits nest- again ♦ ing inside a box in his garden, not far from the Common (see opposite). Recent Events The Manorial Common, 5th July. About Bird Walk, 4th April. An excellent turn out 80 people turned up for this walk, which of 40 people saw such birds as a chiffchaff explored the history and natural history of (just arrived from Africa), a green wood- Streatham Common. Graham Gower of pecker, and two pairs of nuthatches – one Streatham Society and Peter Newmark of investigating a nest box, and the other a the Friends led the walk and introduced hole in a tree. Those who stayed right to the crowd to the history, habitats, wildlife, the end were thrilled by a spectacular dis- geology and geography of the Common. play of four sparrowhawks. Shakespeare in the Rookery, 12th July. Easter Egg Hunt, 13th April. For this very Theatre Set-Up’s production of Cymbeline, successful event, run by Park Rangers performed as a comedy in the magic Celtic Lara and Diane, 190 children each had to tradition, was watched by a crowd of about find plastic eggs hidden in the Rookery to 250 people (the largest of the company’s earn a small sweet reward. Winners of the tour so far). Thanks go to the many volun- prizes of large Easter eggs (kindly donated teers who worked so hard to make this a by Sainsbury’s) were (under 5 years old) very successful event. And, thankfully, the Sara, (5-8) Jon-Vai, and (8-12) Ryan. rain was confined to the interval ♦ 7

Birds in a Box Two years ago, long before the credit crunch, we bought one of those bird boxes that have a small night-vision camera hidden inside that you can wire into your TV. This enables you to get an intimate view of the family life of birds – much more interesting, we thought, than the average TV soap. We fixed the box high up a hawthorn tree in our back garden, well out of the reach of cats and sheltered from prevailing winds. Day after day, during the nesting period, we tuned in, only to see an empty box. In the end, we gave up and practically forgot its existence.

A year later, I was mowing the lawn when I chanced to see a great tit hop into the box. Turning on the TV, there they were! Seven little upturned mouths and one stressed-out mother (or was it the father?) at- tempting to feed them with what looked like a se- lection of half chewed but- terflies, worms and other assorted insects. We were told that the aver- age time from birth to leav- ing the nest was around three weeks and so we were glued to the TV screen as the fledglings grew bigger and bigger and started to test out their wings and their par- ents’ patience in the cramped confines of the nesting box. A lot of their time also seemed to be spent scratching, suggesting the presence of quite a few fleas! That apart, however, it seemed to be a very clean nest, for the parents would spend a good deal of their time, once they had fed their brood, picking up what looked like little round sacks of excrement and remov- ing them from the nest.

Finally, the day came when the parents would only bring food to the box’s entrance, thus encouraging the braver ones to come out for their first flying lesson, watched with interest by our cat! The next day, the nest was empty and that was that. Nick McAdoo

New Booklets

Streatham Heights Footpaths and Woods Embrace Your Environment - Streatham is a new publication in the Streatham Heri- Common is one of the outcomes of an 18- tage Trail series, published by the Streat- month community project on the natural ham Society, and guides one on a fasci- history of the Common that was funded by nating walk that includes the top end of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to Embrace Streatham Common North. Graham Corporation Ltd. The leaflet contains some Gower, who is also the author of the excel- information on the history and the natural lent Streatham Common booklet in this se- history of the Common and includes a ries, provides a wealth of fascinating in- walking tour and map. It is nicely pre- formation about the area and its history, sented and illustrated but marred by a text focussing especially on the origins of the that is poorly edited. For now, the leaflet is footpaths that used to serve the area when available only on the web - its cover via it was countryside and the stretches that http://www.ecomotion.org.uk/?id=9572 and still remain. To purchase a copy, tele- and its 16 pages of text via phone Brian Bloice on 8764 8314. http://www.ecomotion.org.uk/?id=9573 8

Streatham Civic Award Friends Executive Committee At the 2009 Annual General Meeting, On 3rd April at Streatham Town Hall, the the following elections were made: late Gordon Richardson, who was Chair of the Friends of Streatham Common at the Chair Barbara Wright time of his death, was awarded a thor- Vice-chair Peter Newmark oughly well deserved, posthumous Civic Secretary Jenny Morgan Award. The citation read as follows: Membership Secretary Helen Barnard Editor of Common Knowledge Peter Gordon Richardson sadly passed away Newmark last year and is much missed among Treasurer Nick Cattermole Streatham’s community activists. For the Fundraising Officer Stephen Blann last 5-6 years, Gordon had chaired the Event and Volunteer Coordinator Kath- Friends of Streatham Common. In this role erine Forster he led an organisation which is effective in Executive members Joyce Bellamy, pressing for improvements and mainte- Sheila Derrick, Jane Parke, Shea Rich- nance of the common. He was unstinting ardson, George Tuson. in pressing the council where appropriate but also quick to praise good work, and in March 2009 were finally removed in During Gordon’s tenure the Friends ran June - again, better late than never. many popular events on Streatham Com- mon which included the annual dog show, Footpath - resurfacing of the degraded Shakespeare in the Rookery, Kite Day and Vicarage Footpath, which leads from Val- regular nature and bird walks. Gordon was ley road to Sainsbury’s, took place in July. a gentleman with a rye sense of humour: Come winter, we will find out whether it he will be much missed. ♦ has been sufficiently levelled and cam- bered in order to prevent the accumulation of large puddles of water that have been a What’s Up? problem for that path (among others).

Logs - several new large logs have ap- peared along the edge of Streatham Common South. Alexander Technique These are in- Local daytime, evening and Saturday tended to prevent sessions available. All enquiries welcome. vehicles from Call Geraldine Gleeson on 0208 679 6131 driving over or or email [email protected]. onto the Com- Find out more at www.alexandersouth.co.uk mon.

Benches - the annual re-varnishing of S.E.A. Plumbing benches on the Common and in the Rook- We are a local firm that can reliably help ery has taken place and the vegetation you with your domestic plumbing needs and with bathroom fitting. If you would like that has threatened to overgrow some of to discuss your needs and to arrange for the benches has just been cut back - bet- an estimate, give me a call. ter late than never. Steve Atkins 07973430295 or email Cuttings - the piles of cuttings that were [email protected] left after volunteer days in October 2008