Inventory Site Record

The land here was once part of Merton Common, and was used as brickworks by the late C19th. The buildings remained but the brickworks were disused by 1913, and the land form alongside the main road, then called Green Lane, showed the result of the extensive extraction. Mostyn Gardens is adjacent to the Merton Park estate developed by John Innes from the 1880s onwards. The Gardens were laid out by 1935 on the site of former brickworks and had tennis courts in the north, and allotment gardens and a school to the east. The rectangular sunken garden was in place by the early 1950s, within a formal layout of paths and by this time there was a putting green in the south east corner, more tennis courts and a playing field on the site of the allotments. Shelters, toilets and a drinking fountain were also provided. Today it is largely open grassland, the sunken rose garden and path formation a reminder of the site's past use but with only a few brick structures evident. A playpark, an unusual scooter park, a community garden and a woodland school are present in allocated spaces around the edge of the park.

Site location:

Mostyn Road/Martin Way

Postcode:

SW19 3LX

What 3 Words:

herbs.drive.humans

Type of site:

Public Park

Borough:

Merton

Open to public?

Yes

Opening times:

8am - dusk (weekdays); 9am - dusk (weekends/bank holidays)

Special conditions:

Facilities:

Play areas, Scooter park, community garden

Events:

Public transport:

Rail: South Merton. Tube: Morden (Northern) then bus. Bus: 201

Citymapper    
Google Map    
streetmap.co.uk

Research updated:

19/06/2025

Last minor changes:

21/06/2025

Please check with the site owner or manager for latest news. www.merton.gov.uk/environment/openspaces/parks/parks_in_the_morden_area

A 4.23 hectare park in Merton. Mostyn Gardens has scattered and perimeter trees, with evergreen trees on the borders of the sunken garden, which is reached by flights of brick steps on each side (now largely grown over), having pruned shrubs at top and bottom and a central path.

Mostyn Road is named after Mostyn Cottage, an early C19th building that stood just north of Kingston Road, the ancient boundary between the parishes of Wimbledon and Merton in Surrey. It was one of several avenues created by property developer John Innes (1829-1904) after he and his brother James (1819-1902) had begun purchasing farmland in the vicinity in the 1860s. By the 1880s their property covered between 160 - 200 hectares and architect Henry Goodall Quartermain (1843-1904) was appointed to design the estate as the garden suburb of Merton Park where commuters would have easy access to new railway links to central London. The first houses in Mostyn Road were cottages built to house estate workers displaced by the improvements at the farm directly opposite. As time passed, larger detached houses as well as semi-detached cottages were built along the avenue. Innes died in 1904, and bequeathed his Manor House, its grounds and funds to create a park, now John Innes Park (q.v.) and a school of horticulture.

An OS map from 1865 shows the site was agricultural land with a large strip of 'osiers' growing on the western end of what is now the modern park and this remained so until at least 1895.  The park was created on the former Innes brickworks that were relatively short lived and closed in 1909 (and remained disused for some time).  The local district council initially used the quarry ponds (shown on maps and left by the brickworks) as rubbish dumps. Spoil from the excavations for the extension of the Northern Line to Morden in 1926 was deposited there, filling in the ponds. The council set aside much of the Innes land for what is now Mostyn Gardens. From the OS map 1:2500 published 1936, the land included allotment gardens adjacent to a school.  From a subsequent OS map (TW2568NW-A) published in 1953, the land is shown with several 'shelters', some tennis courts (separate from those at Cranleigh Lawn Tennis and Social Club); a formal garden; a putting green (now replaced with a Scooter Park); and an unidentified area on the site of a former pond.

[To the north east of the park is the Cranleigh Lawn Tennis and Social Club - which was set up from the outset as a separate enterprise albeit adjacent to the park. In 1928, the construction firm of Harry Copp and Sons acquired some of it, on which they built houses on Cranleigh Road and Poplar Road South. The firm built many of the houses in the adjacent area and constructed the original tennis courts.]

Sources consulted:

Tony Matthews, 'Gertrude Jekyll's Lost Legacy in Wimbledon' in The London Gardener, vol. 15, 2009-2010;

Grid ref:

TQ251687 (525150,168750)

Size in hectares:

4.23

Site ownership:

LB Merton

Site management:

Leisure and Culture Services

Date(s):

1930s

Designer(s):

Listed structures:

None

On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens:

No

Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965:

No

Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931:

No

Local Authority Data

The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.

On Local List:

No

In Conservation Area:

No

Tree Preservation Order:

No

Nature Conservation Area:

No

Green Belt:

No

Metropolitan Open Land:

No

Special Policy Area:

No

Other LA designation:

Public Open Space. Green Corridor