The Sexby Garden

It was in the early 1860s that there was much concern about the prospect of the Common becoming privately owned and misused. After 32 vans of Wombells Wild Beast show arrived in 1864 local people took the matter to Parliament. As a result, in 1868 the rights of the Lord of the Manor – which included the Common, Goose Green, and Nunhead Green – were purchased by the Camberwell Vestry for £1,000 and later transferred in 1882 to the Metropolitan Board of Works, thus securing the land for ever.