London’s Pocket Parks: Pedlar’s Park, SE11

This is a park in two halves that sits next to the railway in Vauxhall, and is the result of a school closing in 1960.It was, unsurprisingly, once all fields, but the area was starting to develop in the mid 19th century, and the arrival of the main railway line helped to spur housing along the roads that already existed. In the 1880s, there was still empty land behind the houses, but just 20 years later, the whole area was fully filled in, with a large school occupying the eastern half of the mo