Tooting Commons

===TOOTING COMMONS consists of two adjacent areas of common land lying between Balham, Streatham and Tooting in south west London and totalling just under 90 hectares (220 acres). The two areas are Tooting Bec Common, covering 62 hectares (152 acres), and Tooting Graveney Common, covering 27 hectares (66 acres). The commons are entirely within the London Borough of Wandsworth but are spread across three postcode areas. (The area is mainly in SW16, but the section west of Chestnut Avenue and West Drive, including all of Tooting Graveney Common, is in SW17 and part of Tooting Bec Common north of Bedford Hill is in SW12.) The commons, recognised as a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Greater London, serve a part of south London that is particularly lacking in good wildlife sites.===

Address: Tooting Bec Road, SW16 1RU (postcode for Tooting Bec Lido) (Map:; OS grid reference TQ292723).

History
Tooting Bec Common and Tooting Graveney Common are all that remains of a once much larger area of common land that stretched as far south as Mitcham. Tooting Bec Common was within the historic parish of Streatham, and takes its name from the area's links to Bec Abbey in Normandy. Tooting Graveney Common was in Tooting parish.

During the 19th century, the commons were divided by the building of roads and railways, and today they continue to be divided into multiple parcels by these busy transport links.

The two commons were among the first to be preserved under the Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866. The manorial rights to Tooting Bec Common were acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1873 for £13,798 and two years later the MBW bought Tooting Graveney Common for £3,000.

In the 1990s the junction of Tooting Bec Road and Church Lane was widened, encroaching on the common. A few metres of grass behind the railings of the former Tooting Bec Mental Hospital (redeveloped as the Heritage Park residential development) are now part of the common in exchange for the lost land.

The London Borough of Wandsworth has administered the commons since 1971, even though a substantial part of Tooting Bec Common was then within the adjacent London Borough of Lambeth. A local authority boundary change in 1996 put the whole of the common into Wandsworth.

Habitat
The two commons are recognised as a Site of Metropolitan Importance for nature conservation because they include a number of rare wildlife habitats. The habitats include areas of unimproved acid grassland, extensive woodland areas, secondary woodland, scrub and ponds.

The three main areas of woodland are Bedford Wood (in the south-east corner of the site), Triangle Wood (a wedge-shaped wood in the angle between Bedford Hill and the railway line) and Graveney Wood (in the part of Tooting Graveney Common south of Tooting Bec Road). The woodland is dominated by oak, with a range of other trees including hornbeam. Horse chestnut trees were planted on the copmmon’s boundary’s in the late Victorian era, but there are also some much older trees, notably the fine veteran oaks parallel to Garrad’s Road, which are the successors to an avenue first recorded in the 17th century.

The acidic grasslands are dominated by common bent (Agrostis capillaris) and red fescue (Festuca rubra) with typical herbs of acid soils, and pockets of gorse (Ulex europaeus) and bramble scrub. One of the two ponds has a particularly good range of marginal vegetation.

Species
BIRDS An idea of the bird species to be seen on Tooting Commons can be obtained from the published reports of the regular bird walks led by Peter White.

OTHER VERTEBRATES Information needed, please

INVERTEBRATES Information needed, please

Practicalities
DIRECTIONS The nearest underground stations, both on the Northern Line, are Tooting Bec (for Tooting Graveney Common) and Balham (for the northern end of Tooting Bec Common). National Rail stations near the north end of the site are Balham and Streatham Hill. Bus 315, which runs between Balham and Norwood, crosses Tooting Bec Common along Bedford Hill. Route 249, which crosses the site on Tooting Bec Road, also serves both Tooting Bec and Balham stations. Route 50, which serves Streatham Hill station, passes close to the north-east corner of the site.

ACCESS Information needed, please.

FACILITIES Information needed, please

External links and resources
Friends of Tooting Common

Wandsworth Council

Listings
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