This was one of several parks which resulted from agitation by radical M.P.'s in the 1830's. They proposed the use of public funds to provide open spaces, other than the Royal Parks, for the two million Londoners then living outside the West End where those Royal Parks were. In 1843 Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855) suggested to the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Improvements that the 300 acres hereabouts were a suitable site for a park. Thomas and his brother were responsible for a great deal of the development in the first half of the 19th century in north and west London, including Belgravia and Pimlico just across the river and Clapham Park which is south-west of here. At this time this area was marshland and scrub occupied by a very rough population who probably came some way below D2 in a market researcher's categorisation. Cubitt's suggestion was accepted and money to buy the land provided but work on laying out the park didn't happen until 1858. The ground level was raised and landscaped by barging in loads of earth from the London docks that were being excavated at the time. The development was coincident with the opening of the new footbridge from Chelsea in 1854 and the embankment of the river in 1861. Apparently it was considered a fine achievement that the area which had previously provided Sunday entertainments consisting of 'horses and donkey racing, foot-racing, walking matches, flying boats, flying horses, roundabouts, theatres, comic actors, shameless dancers, conjurers, fortune-tellers, gamblers of every description, drinking-booths, stalls, hawkers and vendors of all kinds of articles' became the scene of football, cricket, rounders and boating on the lake. The present park provides facilities for day-to-day exercise in the parkland, enjoying sculptures by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, as well as on the courts and playing fields. There are regular public and private events including the weddings at the pagoda by the river with receptions in the pumping station gallery by the boating lake.

O/S Co-ords:2804.7723
Source(s):

Chambers Biographical Dictionary

A History of London

The Buildings of England - London 2: South