Geograph - photograph every grid square

Woodland right at the top of the common near Crown Lane which includes scrub oaks and elms, and is possibly the only surviving relic in Lambeth of the Great North Wood which once covered a vast swathe of south London and Surrey. Impressive, but sufficiently modest in size that one can never forget one is in London due to the ever-present sound of traffic. It is within the Streatham Common Conservation Area.
Streatham Common comprises a large expanse of open grassland sloping up from Streatham High Road in the west, to woodland and the Rookery in the east. The latter opened in 1913 and is a more formal garden originally in the grounds of the eponymous house. It includes the site of Streatham Spa which made Streatham fashionable for a time in the early-mid C18th. The early history of the common is murky, but it stretches back to the Norman Conquest, and the Domesday Book recorded a Lime Common which stretched from Norbury to Tulse Hill. Following 500 years of church ownership its status as a public space was ensured by an Act of Parliament when it was taken over by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1883. After several further transferrals, ownership passed to Lambeth Council in 1971. Information from Lambeth Council (Link (Archive Link ) ).