Wimbledon Common

Underground, overground, Wombling Free

We are very lucky in London to have such fabulous parks.  I've written before about Henry VIII's favourite hunting ground, Richmond Park, and the gorgeous Lido in Hyde Park but we also have many, many less well known open spaces, most of them accesible by tube. 

Wimbledon Common is a beautiful heathland stretching, with Putney Common, for over 1,000 acres, most of which are a site of special scientific interest (SSSI).  It is home to a wide variety of bird, animal and plant life and as a Common, it's open to everyone 24 hours a day.

It is also famous to anyone who grew up in the 1970's as the home of the Wombles.  These small, pointy-nosed, bear-like, creatures, whose names were chosen by sticking a finger in a huge atlas, were the original upcyclers.  They would creep out onto the Common when everyone had gone home and clear up the mess humans had left behind.  Uncle Bulgaria, Tomsk, Tobermory, Orinoco and friends would then turn the humans' rubbish into all kinds of useful contraptions.

The Wombles were a huge phenomenon, with books and a TV series, Wombles clubs in schools, which went out at weekends picking up rubbish and every child knowing the words to the insanely catchy theme tune.  All together now "Underground, overground wombling free, Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we..."

We've got a couple of the books at home, so whenever we visit Wimbledon Common, the children go Womble hunting.  We haven't found any yet, but the Common is spotlessly clean...

By Victoria at It's a Small World After All