Inventory Site Record

Tooting Gardens is a small public park that was laid out and opened to the public on 1 June 1912. It was originally to the west of the Fountain Road Fever Hospital, which opened in 1893, with Grove Hospital to the south built in 1894-9. In 1911 a drinking fountain was installed here, which had formerly stood at Tooting Broadway but removed when the memorial statue of Edward VII was erected. By 1953 play equipment had been installed in the park. It is now sandwiched behind Tooting Leisure Centre and adjacent to St George's Hospital. The park has been re-landscaped and has shrubberies, undulating ground, and new trees.

Site location:

footpath off Gambole Road/Fountain Road

Postcode:

SW17

What 3 Words:

most.cloak.sadly

Type of site:

Public Park

Borough:

Wandsworth

Open to public?

Yes

Opening times:

8am - dusk

Special conditions:

Facilities:

playground

Events:

Public transport:

Tube: Tooting Broadway (Northern) then bus. Bus: 44, 77, 155, 270, 280, G1

Citymapper    
Google Map    
streetmap.co.uk

Research updated:

01/05/2005

Last minor changes:

14/07/2022

Please check with the site owner or manager for latest news. www.wandsworth.gov.uk/homepage/41/parks_and_open_spaces

The site was once the old Tooting 'slop shoot' used for rubbish collection, but this use discontinued, probably c.1898 when the Borough's 'dust destructer' was set up at the other end of Fountain Road, now the site of Fountain Road Recreation Ground (q.v.). Until it was laid out for public recreation the land was put to various uses, including allotments, depots for stores and Council refuse trucks and a glass works. From 1908 the Wandsworth Trades and Labour Council and the Balham and Tooting Traders Association began to lobby to turn it into a local park, one of the reasons given being that Garratt Park (q.v.), which had opened in 1906, was too far away for small children to walk. St George's Hospital moved here in the late 1960s from Hyde Park when new buildings were added, phase one providing the medical school completed in 1977, phase two of hospital buildings by 1979. The Tooting Swimming Pool that opened in 1977 replaced the slipper baths at Tooting Broadway.

Sources consulted:

'The London County Council and what it does for London: London Parks and Open Spaces' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1924); Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 2: South (Penguin) 1999; LB Wandsworth, Tooting Gardens Draft Management Plan 2007-2012 (November 2006)

Grid ref:

TQ269714 (526956,171533)

Size in hectares:

0.7

Site ownership:

LB Wandsworth

Site management:

Parks Service

Date(s):

1912; 1970s/80s

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:

Incidental Public Open Space/Landscaped Open Space