London's Squares and Parks in 1900: Battersea Park

Continuing his survey of London's parks and squares, Arthur H. Beavan had this to say about Battersea Park in Imperial London, first published in 1901:

Antiques from London on eBay

STERLING SILVER SAUCE LADLE, London, 1785
11 May 2012 at 6:46am
US $99.43 (0 Bid)
End Date: Friday May-18-2012 4:46:13 PDT
Bid now | Add to watch list
William Eley & William Fearn Sterling Silver Condiment Spoon London circa 1820
11 May 2012 at 7:17am
US $55.00 (0 Bid)
End Date: Friday May-18-2012 5:17:16 PDT
Bid now | Add to watch list

With a river frontage between Chelsea and Albert Bridges is Battersea Park, completed about 1857; a very popular open space for the multitude of people living near it, and much visited from afar on account of the beauty of its flowers.

Its site was a swamp, which had to be drained, and its surface raised by placing on it excavated earth brought from the Victoria Docks, then in process of formation.

It is now a beautiful place, and its sub-tropical garden quite famous.

It boasts of a Rotten Row, running parallel with the riverside walk.

There is a good deal of boating on the ornamental water, and cricket is much to the fore, the pitches being as dangerously close together as at Victoria Park.

It is said that at the close of the Great Exhibition of 1851, in Hyde Park, this site was thought of for the re-erection of Paxton's Crystal Palace, as it was called.

Next: London's Parks in 1900: Regent's Park