Qualla: Wimbledon Common https://qualla.com/wimbledon-common en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/wimbledon-common-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Wimbledon Common https://qualla.com/wimbledon-common Wimbledon Common: Introduction https://qualla.com/wimbledon-common/ Photo credit Colin McLaughlin, CC0. In 1908, Robert Baden-Powell sat down inside a windmill on Wimbledon Common and wrote parts of Scouting for Boys. The windmill is still there. So is the heathland, the bog, the woodland, and the Iron Age hill fort the Victorians decided to call Caesar's Camp - 1,140 acres of open land in southwest London, the largest expanse of heath in the capital, defended by an act of Parliament passed in 1871 against any future attempt to enclose, build on, or otherwise civilise it. Most of it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Some of it is a Special Area of Conservation under European law. All of it has been kept, for more than 150 years, in something close to its natural state.

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Image: Colin McLaughlin | CC0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/wimbledon-common-wp/gcpu-wimbledon-common-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Wimbledon Common: The Iron Age and the Roman Push https://qualla.com/wimbledon-common/ Photo credit Shaun Ferguson, CC BY-SA 2.0. At the southern end of the common, on land now used by the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club with a public footpath running through it, lie the remains of an Iron Age hill fort. The 19th-century antiquaries called it Caesar's Camp. Whatever Caesar called it, the main period of use as an ...

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Image: Shaun Ferguson | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/wimbledon-common-wp/gcpu-wimbledon-common-the-iron-age-and-the-roman-push.mp3 0:06 2 full Wimbledon Common: Duels, Telegraphs, and a Prime Minister https://qualla.com/wimbledon-common/ Photo credit Metro Centric, CC BY 2.0. Putney Heath, the northern portion of the Commons, was historically the spot for things London preferred to keep out of sight. Charles II reviewed his forces here in 1684, George III did the same in 1767. Many duels were fought - including one in May 1652 in which Colonel Henry C...

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Image: Metro Centric | CC BY 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/wimbledon-common-wp/gcpu-wimbledon-common-duels-telegraphs-and-a-prime-minister.mp3 0:06 3 full Wimbledon Common: Thomas Cromwell and the Highwayman https://qualla.com/wimbledon-common/ Photo credit Ewan Munro from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. Thomas Cromwell, the 1st Earl of Essex and Henry VIII's chief minister, was born on the north side of Putney Heath circa 1485. Tradition placed his birthplace at a spot now occupied by the Green Man public house, where a 17th-century manor survey describes 'an ancient cottage cal...

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Image: Ewan Munro from London, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/wimbledon-common-wp/gcpu-wimbledon-common-thomas-cromwell-and-the-highwayman.mp3 0:06 4 full Wimbledon Common: The Windmill and the Scouts https://qualla.com/wimbledon-common/ Photo credit Adrian Robson at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Near the centre of the Common - though the unmarked parish boundary with Putney Common runs past it - stands Wimbledon Windmill, built in 1817 as a hollow-post mill, one of only a few surviving in Britain. In the 19th century it served as headquarters for the National Rifle Assoc...

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Image: Adrian Robson at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/wimbledon-common-wp/gcpu-wimbledon-common-the-windmill-and-the-scouts.mp3 0:06 5 full Wimbledon Common: Cricket, Wombles, V-1s, and the Pen Ponds https://qualla.com/wimbledon-common/ Photo credit Derek Harper, CC BY-SA 2.0. Wimbledon F.C., which would win the FA Cup in 1988, started in the late 19th century as a former-pupils' team called The Old Centrals, playing on Wimbledon Common with the Fox and Grapes pub as their changing room. Putney Lower Common hosted Fulham F.C.'s home games in the 1885-8...

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Image: Derek Harper | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/wimbledon-common-wp/gcpu-wimbledon-common-cricket-wombles-v-1s-and-the-pen-ponds.mp3 0:06 6 full