Just in time for the summer holidays, Clapham Common’s long awaited new waterplay facility has opened. It’s a replacement for the paddling pool that closed in 2020, and building work took a year longer than expected. But we got there in the end – and as a rare example of a free, just-turn-up facility open to kids of all ages, it’s quickly proved popular. It’s expected to run daily from 10am to 7pm, up to the end of September if the weather remains decent.

It’s a large site – 535 square metres! – and features 40 multi-function water jets, including water guns, tipping buckets, showers, soaking jets and fountains galore – as well as accessible and child-friendly toilets. Some of the old paddling pool has been reused – including the perimeter wall which has remained in use as seating for parents. As the following photos show, it was a pretty substantial construction project.

It uses an environmentally considerate and energy-efficient re-circulating water system to power the jets – and aims to be an efficient and creative use of the old paddling pool space, with the added advantage of being more accessible for those with physical, developmental or sensory disabilities. The project involved sizeable excavations to bury this huge underground water tank, which is presumably for treatment and recycling of the water.

There is plenty of space for cycle parking, as well as a service building next to the toilets – the one with the green door below – which we presume houses the pump machinery.

The old paddling pool had been a fixture on the Common since the 1950s, and we know many were sad to see it reach the end of its life. But much as it inspired fond memories for several generations of residents, it’s fair to say it was really struggling towards the end – with increasingly frequent and costly repairs needed as the water filtration machinery and, increasingly, the fabric of the pool itself aged.

It was finally closed for good in 2020, and spent a few years as the preserve of occasional skaters (as well as melancholy alcoholics, pictured below), before the building work got going earlier this summer.

The detailed design for the new facility, by Lambeth Council & the Clapham Common Management Advisory Committee, drew from a public consultation with residents. The consultation saw 614 people respond – with overwhelming support for the project (about 95% in favour of it). Over 800 comments were made – including asks for shaded area, for an accessible toilet, for a changing area, and for somewhere to sit – which led to various changes and improvements to the overall design. The strong public support may not seem surprising, but this was not the case when the original paddling pool was built in 1936! Lambeth’s very comprehensive archives include a newspaper cutting (from the Brixton Free Press) showing it being built – but noting that there had been objections from the residents of the adjacent block of flats, who said it would ‘lower the tone’ of their neighbourhood by attracting children from other areas.

This has been a big investment – ending up at £700,000 or so, with a fair bit of cost inflation along the way given that this was being contracted during the strange years where the Coronavirus was busily causing chaos in global supply chains. As the project’s business case noted, this has created a very accessible facility, which will provide a rest and active play space, with positive health impacts for inner-city children who may not otherwise have an opportunity to enjoy a water experience during the warm summer months. It should also be a boost for local businesses by increasing footfall in this part of Clapham Common – the likes of top ice cream maker Nardulli’s are bound to benefit!

It is the latest of an impressive series of investments in the Common’s exercise and play facilities – following the creation of three outdoor fitness areas and an outdoor gym, a large skate park and an upgrade to the basketball courts (which we have previously reported on), and a major redevelopment of the Windmill childrens’ playground. The commercial premises the on the Common (Megan’s, Pear Tree Cafe…) have seen substantial investment by their tenants to increase capacity and build trade, and whose rental payments ultimately support the ongoing work on the Common. And there have been a series of wildlife-focussed improvements including work to the ponds, creation of wildflower and butterfly meadows, and some work to the woods.

This represents a substantial effort by Lambeth, as well as the Clapham Common Management Advisory Committee & the Friends of Clapham Common – and it’s worth recognising the heroic efforts to get a project like this across the line. It’s been good to see this consistent and careful investment programme for the Common – which seems to be striking a reasonably fair balance between making the commercial income, and preserving the fundamental nature of the Common as an open space for everyone. It’s not always been like this! Back in the 1980s and 1990s it had gone through a period of general decline and very minimal maintenance, as Lambeth (who own and manage the whole of the Common, even though more than half of it is in Wandsworth) went through their own severe financial struggles – becoming rather famous for their factious politics and poor financial control, and having things like repairing bandstands somewhere near the very bottom of the agenda.

But with the finances back on track and enthusiastic leadership – what else might we see happen in the future? On a site as large and complex as Clapham Common there’s always more to do, and the Common still has plenty of difficult & expensive projects ahead. Maybe most obviously – an upgrade is long overdue for the well-used, but ageing and increasingly worn out, western playground near Battersea Rise. The Bowling green on Clapham Common Westside has been the subject of much controversy over now-withdrawn plans to create a commercial mini golf venture – and has a rather uncertain future. Things don’t look much better for the former Bowling Green Cafe / Common Ground next to it (pictured below in happier days), where the building has clearly reached the end of its serviceable life.

As we have previously reported, the tired and part-derelict changing rooms and toilets complex near Battersea woods, pictured below, had been considered for partial redevelopment to create a cafe – and was advertised to potential tenants with the warning that they would potentially need to rebuild the building! – but plans haven’t really advanced. The adjacent changing rooms also suffered a small fire last year that hasn’t helped.

The exercise facilities on the west side are also showing their age: the outdoor gym at the Battersea end was a good facility once, but sadly almost all the equipment has broken or seized up – seemingly due to fairly heavy use coupled with a lack of oil in the mechanisms.

Finally one of the gravel football pitches on the west side of the Common (whose maintenance hut is picyured below) is essentially abandoned. It’s made of a somewhat unusual mix of gravel and red ash called ‘redgra’ – an early example of an innovative all-weather material for pitches, that was developed in the early 1960s, but which has now been replaced with synthetic pitches almost everywhere else in the country.

One key issue affecting these sites is, of course, funding. The common does generate a reasonable income: the largest share, which can be of the order of £500,000 a year, comes from hosting concerts and events (where 21% of the income goes towards investment in parks and the Common). There’s also the rent from cafes and facilities (the Friends of Clapham Common reckoned this was about £125,000 a year in 2016, it will have gone up a fair bit since), and some relatively small fees for sports facilities. Funding has also come from one-off lottery grants (to restore the bandstand) and developer ‘Section 106’ funding (for some of the gym equipment). But we understand the Common doesn’t get to keep a lot of the income it generates – which can also go towards other parks around Lambeth that don’t host events, and wider uses in Lambeth.

Another factor may be politics. Eagle-eyes readers may have noticed that the dilapidated sites are now almost all on the half of the Common that’s in Wandsworth! The neighbouring boroughs have a complicated relationship when it comes to the Common: despite over half of the Common actually being within Wandsworth, all of it is owned and managed by Lambeth Council (who were granted ownership of it all by the old Greater London Council in 1971). Wandsworth have been less than enthusiastic about some of the huge events on the Common whose location and layout seemed designed to mainly keep Wandsworth residents awake at night, while generating funds that were mostly spent on wider uses in Lambeth. Conversely we can imagine Lambeth are not enormously enthusiastic about investing in facilities on the western side of the Common that mostly benefit Wandsworth residents. Will we see an increasingly stark divide between the well-looked-after Lambeth side and a deteriorating Wandsworth side of the Common?

Tie will tell. But for now – huge efforts by a lot of people have given us all an impressive new water play, and it’s set to stay open all summer – so spread the word, and make the most of it!

Clapham Common Water Play, The Pavement, Clapham Common SW4 0QZ. Open daily May to September. (update: open from 10am to 7pm daily, and provided the weather remains decent the plan is for it to stay open to the end of September). Free!