Wandle Park, Croydon
Wandle Park, Croydon, is the larger of the two Wandle Parks, at 8.5 hectares (21 acres), is located in the Broad Green Ward of Croydon, south London, England. It was opened in 1890 by the Mayor of Croydon.
The River Wandle flows through the park. Between 1967 and 2012 this was in an underground culvert which was constructed by Croydon Council. The park used to contain a boating lake which dried up and was filled in.
The park is used by many people and is popular with dog walkers, footballers, joggers, skateboarders and families. The park is easily accessible by public transport using Wandle Park tram stop. The park has a 'Friends Group' of local residents and park users that are working with Croydon Council to improve the park.
River terrace gravels make up the underlying geology of Wandle Park which is composed of succession Woolwich Beds and Reading Beds, Thanet Sands and Upper Chalk. The Thanet Sand Formation makes up part of the water-bearing Chalk-Basal Sands aquifer of the London Basin. The gravel was deposited during period and has been substantially reworked since then by periglacial, fluvial and anthropogenic impacts.
"...under the low red roofs of Croydon, and by the cress-set rivulets in which the sand danced and minnows darted above the Springs of Wandel" – John Ruskin (Praeterita)
One of the oldest public open spaces in Croydon, Wandle Park was built to meet the leisure and recreation needs of the population of a growing industrial town. The park was formed from two watermeadows to the west of Croydon town called Frog Mead and Stubbs Mead. The deed of sale records that Croydon Corporation bought Frog Mead in 1888 from the Briton Medical & General Life Association Limited for £1,518. 15s. The 13 acres (53,000 m2) of Stubbs Mead was part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's land holdings in Croydon. The Archbishops had long held land in Croydon and their presence was recorded in the Domesday Book. On 12 December 1889, Croydon Corporation bought Stubbs Mead from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for £2,700. The indenture states that "The land shall be forever dedicated and used as an ornamental pleasure ground and place of recreation for the inhabitants of the Borough of Croydon and for no other purpose whatsoever."
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