The Woodfield Pavilion is a beautiful refurbished community space serving the communities of Tooting Bec Common and surrounding areas. It is owned by Wandsworth Council, but is situated in Lambeth.
Woodfield is an enclosed green field, flanked on two sides by the gardens of houses in Abbotswood Road, on another by the playing fields of Streatham and Clapham Girls High School and on the last by Tooting Bec Common.
The site has the 1930s pavilion and 1.2 hectares of open space with a rich heritage. It has always been open land, once as farmland, then as part of a country estate, and in the 1930s it became a safe haven for games and recreation, with a pavilion added in 1933 by the London County Council. More recently, Woodfield was leased and used as the site of a Steiner School, however their use of pavilion and grounds ceased at the end of Summer 2010.
The pavilion was opened in 1933 to provide changing facilities for the young people and others when they used the field for sports and other activities. The purchase of the ground and the building of the pavilion was funded by Greater London Playing Fields Association, London parochial charities, London County Council, and local people.
Professor Andrew Sharp, has published a brief account covering its early years of the Woodfield, through its occupation by the Steiner Waldorf School of South London, to the present day. Andrew’s history is almost entirely based on official sources and he is very keen to flesh it out with the memories and remarks of anyone who personally knew or used Woodfield any time from 1933 onwards.
He and the trustees would be very grateful if anyone willing to be interviewed by him should contact him here