Rebel Britannia

10th October 1897:

If you're one of the many billionaires who reads this newsletter, and you're currently planning to stick an elitist golf course on top of a much-loved stretch of common ground, may I offer you a cautionary tale? This could save you a lot of grief.

"The nearest and strangest piece of country surviving in London" is how the 20th century poet John Betjeman described One Tree Hill. Its views, he added, were even better than those from Parliament Hill in Hampstead. He wasn't alone in enjoying the hill, in the Honor Oak area of south London. It has been a popular recreational space for centuries.

But then, one late Victorian autumn, One Tree was suddenly enclosed by a large fence. It transpired that what people had always assumed was legally common was in fact privately owned - and it had been sold to developers, who began turning it into a golf club.

Meetings were held, letters written, committees formed, lawyers consulted, speeches made, months passed ... and the fence stayed up. Trespassers were mercilessly prosecuted and on at least one occasion children who'd strayed onto golf club land to pick flowers were attacked by a guard dog. Meanwhile, the moderate, law-abiding leaders of the protest movement didn't seem to be making any progress. So, on 10th October 1897 about two thousand furious locals tore down the fencing, ripped out the gate, damaged the greens and vandalised the pavilion.

The owners put up a new fence. A few days later, another mass trespass was carried out. This time tens of thousands of people arrived to reclaim their land, while five hundred police protected the golf club. Fires were lit, stones were thrown, Rule Britannia was sung lustily (showing that any song can become a rebel anthem in the right circumstances), and finally the local authorities decided it was time to open negotiations with the moderate wing of the One Tree Hill defenders.

No further riots took place, because none were necessary - the message had been sent and received. Reformists do sometimes win reforms, but not usually without militant pressure making them look like the lesser evil.

It took until 1902, and a change in the legislation governing the powers of the London County Council, before the newly-instituted (and conservative-controlled) Camberwell Borough Council was able to begin the compulsory purchase of the hill - and then it took until 1905 before the park was finally declared to be free for the public to enjoy "for ever." Thousands attended the opening ceremony, and this time they didn't need to demolish anything except their picnics.

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Sources:

https://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/28th-june-1957/13/city-and-suburban

www.wildlondon.org.uk/blog/edwin-malins/remnants-great-north-wood-focus-one-tree-hill

www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4711913