Latchmere Recreation Ground

A brief history by the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust
The Latchmere Estate was built on an area once part of Latchmere Common, which was gradually encroached over the years by housing until all that remained of open space was an area of allotments. Building over this was resisted until the early C20th when, following efforts by John Burns, a member of the LCC and MP for Battersea, an Act of Parliament was passed which allowed housing only on condition that part was laid out as a recreation ground. Burns opened the first area of the Latchmere Estate in 1903 and one of the key roads of the estate is named after him; it was the first municipal housing project in the country built using a council's workforce and consisted of two-storey yellow and red brick maisonettes and houses with slate roofs, laid out in a grid.

The recreation ground was the estate's focal point and opened to the public in 1906, having been laid out for £4,475, the responsibility of Battersea Borough Council. It was not enclosed to the north until c.1918 when 26 more dwellings were added to the estate extending Reform Street. Latchmere Estate's design was influenced by Garden City principles of town planning and remains a small scale oasis in the centre of the surrounding high-rise developments.  The earlier houses had moulded window heads and projecting canopies over the entrances, with railings in front of narrow forecourts, but these railings were removed during WWII.

The recreation ground has a central playground with an area to the west that is largely tarmaced with two fine mature willows. A north-south path divides the recreation ground, with to the east a landscaped area with trees, shrubs and flower beds, including a pergola shelter of more recent date than the original layout. The perimeter has fine trees. Other planting in the estate included street trees, predominantly pollarded London plane trees.