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Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs (or simply Scrubs), is an open space in
Old Oak Common Old Oak Common is an area of Hammersmith, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, West London. Together with neighbouring Park Royal, the area is intended to become the UK's largest regeneration scheme, the scale of which has led to ...
located in the north-eastern corner of the
London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham. The borou ...
in west
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. It is the largest open space in the borough, at , and one of the largest areas of
common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...
in London. The eastern part, known as
Little Wormwood Scrubs Little Wormwood Scrubs is a park in Kensal Green on the border of Hammersmith and Fulham and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Counter's Creek, a now subterranean stream that arises in Kensal Green flows south through the park, event ...
, is cut off by Scrubs Lane and the West London line railway. It has been an open public space since the Wormwood Scrubs Act 1879. The southern edge of the Scrubs is the site of two locally important institutions. At the western end is
HM Prison His Majesty's Prisons (Her Majesty's Prisons in the case of a female monarch) is the name given to prisons in the United Kingdom, as well as some in Australia and a small number in Canada, Grenada, Jersey, The Bahamas and Barbados. The title mak ...
Wormwood Scrubs Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs (or simply Scrubs), is an open space in Old Oak Common located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the borough, ...
, built between 1875 and 1891 by convict labour. To the east of the prison is the
Hammersmith Hospital Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of ...
campus, which includes the relocated
Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital is one of the oldest maternity hospitals in Europe, founded in 1739 in London. Until October 2000, it occupied a site at 339–351 Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith, but is now located between East Acton and Wh ...
. Within the area are several sports facilities, including the Linford Christie Stadium, tens of football pitches, and a pony centre. Queens Park Rangers Football Club played on Wormwood Scrubs between 1893 and 1896.


History

The area is first mentioned in 1189 as Wormhold Scrubs, the area was cleared woodland used for pasture for the cattle and pigs of the local manor. In 1801, the northern section was cut off by the building of the
Paddington Arm The Paddington Canal or Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal is a canal to Paddington in central London, England. It runs from the west of the capital at Bull's Bridge in Hayes. Little Venice — its only junction — is with the Rege ...
of the Grand Junction Canal. In 1812 an area of known as Wormholt Scrubs was leased by the
War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
from the Manor of Fulham. This was in order to exercise cavalry horses, which until then had been exercised in
Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...
,
Belgrave Square Belgrave Square is a large 19th-century garden square in London. It is the centrepiece of Belgravia, and its architecture resembles the original scheme of property contractor Thomas Cubitt who engaged George Basevi for all of the terraces fo ...
and
Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
– then known as St. Marylebone's Park. This
common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...
became known as Wormwood Scrubs. The
London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...
removed a section north of the canal in 1837, followed by the Great Western line removing a section to the south of the canal in 1838. 1844 saw the Birmingham, Bristol and Thames Junction Railway slice off a sizable section of the eastern half, becoming The Little Scrubs. In 1872, the manorial rights were purchased under the Military Forces Localisation Act 1872 with a view to creating a military exercise ground. The Wormwood Scrubs Act 1879, which aimed to create a "metropolitan exercising ground" for the military and to provide the Scrubs for "the perpetual use by the inhabitants of the metropolis for exercise and recreation". Under this Act, the military were empowered to expel civilians from the area whenever they were training, but they allowed civilians free use of it when they were not. To ensure that it was kept as open land for all to enjoy, the act banned the military from building any permanent structures other than rifle butts, one of which survives today as a wall in the Linford Christie Stadium. 1873 saw the purchase of the southern part of the Scrubs for the building of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, and in 1889 an area adjacent to the prison for the building of
Hammersmith hospital Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of ...
. In 1908, the Olympic Marathon route from Windsor Castle to the Olympic Stadium at White City went across the Scrubs. In 1910 Wormwood Scrubs became part of aviation history when a pioneer
airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...
took flight from an improvised landing ground; ''The Daily Mail Airship Garage'' was built shortly afterwards—the site is now occupied by the Linford Christie Stadium. In 1914 all air-related activities on the Scrubs passed to the authority of the
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...
, and there are records in the National Archives at
Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
of a base here called Wormwood Scrubs Naval Air Station. The airship shed was used to train RNAS armoured car crews. It remained as an emergency landing ground until the 1930s. In 1939 with the onset of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Wormwood Scrubs again played host to an innovative military department—the Chief Cable Censorship Department, an outstation of the
Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...
at
Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...
. It was served by St. Quintin Park and Wormwood Scrubs railway station on the West London Line. On 3rd Oct 1940 it was struck by an
incendiary bomb Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, t ...
and destroyed by fire. The prison is located just yards from the scene of the Massacre of Braybrook Street in 1966, in which three policemen were shot dead by three armed men after stopping their suspicious car. In 1986 local birdwatcher
Lester Holloway Lester John Holloway (born 22 July 1970) is a British journalist and editor, as well as a campaigner and local politician. Career Born in Shepherd's Bush, London, Holloway began his media career as a reporter for '' Eastern Eye'', a weekly ne ...
set up a campaign to save Scrubs Wood, the area of railway land along the north side of Wormwood Scrubs, from destruction as part of plans by the then British Rail to build cleaning depots (see
North Pole depot North Pole depot (also known as North Pole Train Maintenance Centre) is a railway and maintenance depot built for Great Western Railway's AT300 units from the Hitachi A-train family. Located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, the ...
) to service Channel Tunnel trains. Holloway and his campaign petitioned the House of Lords, supported by the then MP for Fulham
Nick Raynsford Wyvill Richard Nicolls Raynsford (born 28 January 1945), known as Nick Raynsford, is a British politician who served as a government minister from 1997 to 2005. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Wo ...
, and won concessions. The existing nature reserve includes an area known as 'Lester's Embankment'. The campaign attracted considerable national publicity in 1987, and even a musical.


Finances

The Wormwood Scrubs Charitable Trust, a charity set up under the Act of Parliament to manage this public space "for the exercise and recreation of the inhabitants of the metropolis", receives a substantial income stream from the lease to Hammersmith Hospital of a car park on its southern boundary. Other sources of income from the space include the rental of sports fields, advertising billboards, and two public car parks. The accounting for costs and revenues of the charity has been a matter of debate between the council, currently the charity's sole trustee, and the Friends of Wormwood Scrubs.


Local Nature Reserve

Areas of Wormwood Scrubs are a Local Nature Reserve. These areas include Braybrook Woods, Martin Bell's Wood and the Central Woodland Copse. Habitats include woodland (plantation), scrub and grassland. Animals include common lizards, over 100 species of bird and 20 species of butterfly. This site is currently being managed by the
London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham. The borou ...
in collaboration with
Groundwork UK Groundwork UK is an environmental organisation in the United Kingdom. It is based in Birmingham and is a registered charity under English law. History In 1980, the Countryside Commission launched an initiative known as UFEX80. This was re-bran ...
.


Conservation efforts

Conservation work being carried out in Wormwood Scrubs by Groundwork London has been a subject of controversy among users of the Scrubs. The primary goal is to connect each patch of the Local Nature Reserve within the grounds by a
wildlife corridor A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of individuals between ...
in the form of low hedges and trees. Ultimately, it is claimed that this will benefit
biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
in the park and create better foraging routes for bats such as the
common pipistrelle The common pipistrelle (''Pipistrellus pipistrellus'') is a small pipistrelle microbat whose very large range extends across most of Europe, North Africa, South Asia, and may extend into Korea. It is one of the most common bat species in the Brit ...
. Habitats for the local
common lizard The viviparous lizard, or common lizard, (''Zootoca vivipara'', formerly ''Lacerta vivipara''), is a Eurasian lizard. It lives farther north than any other species of non-marine reptile, and is named for the fact that it is viviparous, meaning it ...
s are also being changed, e.g. by the removal of scrub to create basking areas. This work includes planting trees, and it is feared that this could jeopardise the open nature of the common. The bulk of the work is currently being undertaken by volunteers for Groundwork London, a government quasi non-governmental organisation funded largely through a levy on landfill.


Points to note

Nearby places: *
White City, London White City is a district of London, England, in the northern part of Shepherd's Bush in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, 5 miles (8 km) west-northwest of Charing Cross. White City is home to Television Centre (previously th ...
* Kensal Green *
North Kensington North Kensington is an area of west London. It is north of Notting Hill and south of Kensal Green and in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The names North Kensington and Ladbroke Grove describe the same area. North Kensington is wh ...
* Braybrook Street * Old Oak Common Train Maintenance Depot Nearest tube stations: *
East Acton tube station East Acton is a London Underground station in East Acton in London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The station is on the Central line, between White City and North Acton stations, and in Travelcard Zone 2. Wormwood Scrubs, Queen Charlott ...
*
North Acton tube station North Acton is a London Underground station in North Acton, west London in the London Borough of Ealing. The station is on the Central line between East Acton and Hanger Lane on the West Ruislip Branch and West Acton on the Ealing Broadwa ...
*
White City tube station White City is a London Underground station on Wood Lane in White City, west London, England, on the Central line between Shepherds Bush and East Acton stations in Travelcard Zone 2. The station is in a deep brick-sided cutting – and is d ...


Notes


External links


Notes on Wormwood Scrubs
{{coord, 51, 31, 17, N, 00, 14, 20, W, type:landmark_scale:3000, display=title Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Local nature reserves in Greater London Nature reserves in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Common land in London