SOUTH LONDON PARKS 
1 59 
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 
