With my neighbourhood starting to feel like it’s part of Eastenders, yesterday I visited Wimbledon Common for some peace.

ARGH!

Recently, I’ve been questioning whether I should move further out of London, so I can live a quieter life. These are just a handful of things that have happened in my street recently:

1. 2 girls were whining against a car, whilst the driver deafened the neighbourhood with his ‘music’ at an ungodly hour!
2. Last week, a guy from a nearby flat was angry that a van had parked in front of the dustbins. He proceeded to shout at the maintenance man, only to discover that he had locked himself out of his flat. He then had to ask the maintenance man to borrow his phone so he could call his wife to let him back in!
3. Last weekend we heard a commotion on the street. Doing our neighborhood watch bit (cough) we rushed to the window to see what was going on. The manager from a local restaurant was having a shouting match with a food delivery guy. My boyfriend proceeded to run downstairs to see if he could calm things down 🙈 Thankfully, he did.
4. And that’s without mentioning the fact I’ve spent a good part of this afternoon listening to the hum of police helicopters hovering over the US Embassy as people continue to protest against the unlawful killing of George Floyd in the USA.

In my recent blog post ‘Life After a Global Pandemic‘ I wrote about my concerns on returning to ‘normal’ and the impact that it may have on our mental health. It seems that with restrictions easing, the impacts of returning to ‘normal’ are already giving me a headache.

By the time the weekend arrived, we were ready to get out of the city to explore somewhere quieter.

Wimbledon Common

I hadn’t been anywhere new lately. Partly due to Covid, but I had also run out of inspiration for new places to explore. Not wanting to go too far, we decided on Wimbledon Common. Despite having driven past it countless times, neither of us had ever been. So we packed up some snacks and the suncream and headed West.

Wimbledon Common sits just off the busy A3 which connects Portsmouth and London. Perhaps better known for The Wombles, Wimbledon Common sits between Kingston upon Thames, Putney and Wimbledon. The Common is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Due to Covid, the car parks are currently closed. So we parked up on a housing estate just off the A3 in Kingston Vale.

Wimbledon and Putney Common, also known as The Commons, consist of 1140 acres of open space. It’s made up of Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath, Putney Lower Common and the Richardson Evans Memorial Playing Fields.

We entered The Commons by the Commons Extension, a wide open space, surrounded by trees blocking out the busy A3. I was surprised at how empty the space was, how busy other parks have been recently! Here, there was hardly a soul in sight.

Beverley Brook

We had heard there was a woodland walk behind the extension on the edge of The Common. We walked towards the edge of the extensions and found a gap in a hedge, behind the football ground, which took us over a footbridge into Fishpond Wood.

The bridge took us over Beverley Brook, which runs down the east side of the Common. We decided to head north and follow the footpath by the Brook.

It was such a beautifully warm day, the woodland canopy gave us a nice bit of respite from the sun. Despite the tree cover it was still lovely and warm underneath the trees.

Watching wildlife through other people’s eyes

My boyfriend is a proper city boy and hasn’t really spent much time in the Great British countryside. But even he’s starting to get excited about our weekend trips to the countryside. He loved the naturalness of the woodland and the fact that it looked untouched by humans. It was teeming with wildlife, and we saw the most beautiful dragonflies, as well as birds, ducks and squirrels.

Although there was a steady stream of people (and their dogs!) on the walk, we managed to maintain a reasonable amount of social distancing, although we seemed to be the only people wearing our face masks.

Once we reached the top end of the brook, we headed out into the sunshine and made our way back to the hustle and bustle of the city.

Homeowners within 3/4’s of a mile of the edge of The Commons pay a yearly levy. This levy raises just over £1 million a year and helps to fund and maintain the SSSI. This clearly shows throughout the woodland. The Wombles’ motto, ‘Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish’, sprang to mind. It really was quite noticeable how little litter there was, especially in and around the brook.

Sadly, there were no other visible signs of Great Uncle Bulagria and the rest of The Wombles. But we’ll definitely return soon to explore more of The Commons. Maybe we’ll catch a glimpse of the famous furry creatures next time.

It was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours away from the busy streets of South West London.