SOUTH LONDON PARKS 159 



palms, bananas, and so on, were added to the collection, 

 and caused quite an excitement when they first appeared 

 at Battersea. The garden is still kept up, and looks 

 pretty and cool in summer, and on a cold winter's 

 day is sheltered and pleasant. But much of the 

 charm and originality of the early planting has been 

 lost, in the present official idea of what sub-tropical 

 gardens should contain, which carries a certain stereo- 

 typed stiffness with it. 



In 1887 the Park, at the same time as Victoria 

 and Kennington, was given up to the Metropolitan 

 Board of Works, and since then the control has passed 

 to its successor, the London County Council. The 

 gardens are kept up, more or less, as before, with a 

 few additions. An aviary with a restless raven, fat 

 gold and silver pheasants, and contented pigeons, 

 delights the small children, who are as plentiful in 

 Battersea as in all the other London playgrounds. 

 Like the other parks, Saturdays and Sundays are the 

 great days. The games of cricket are played as close 

 together as possible, until to the passer-by the elevens 

 and even the balls seem hopelessly mixed. The ground 

 not devoted to games is thickly strewn with prostrate 

 forms, and certainly, in this, Battersea is by no means 

 singular ! In autumn, one of the green-houses, in which 

 the more tender sub-tropical plants are housed is given 

 up to chrysanthemums. This flower is the one of 

 all others for London. It will thrive in the dingiest 

 corners of the town, and display its colours long after 

 the fogs and frosts] have deprived the parks and gardens 

 of all other colour. The shows in the East End testify 

 to what can be achieved, even by the poorest, with 

 this friendly plant. Every year at Shoreditch Town 



