Why we love our kitchen on the common

We love that our kitchen is based on beautiful Wimbledon Common. Sadly, the grass is looking particularly parched at the moment after the summer heatwaves, but it won’t be long before the rains come and the common returns to its usual verdant greens, before giving way to autumnal amber hues followed by big blue wintery skies over frosty parkland.

It’s a beautiful spot year-round, and one we love to visit when out of work too – Becky on a dawn walk, Arabella, walking her bouncy cocker spaniel, Sylvie, blackberry picking with her daughter and Stella joining the Saturday Park Runners.

A number of us walk and cycle to work and although this involves a bit of an uphill slog, the scenery and greenery make up for it. The common covers a vast 460 hectares of protected open space and spotting rabbits darting into brambles, soaring kestrels or a lonesome heron, it’s easy to forget you work in the bustling capital.

The common offers plenty of historical interest too from the Iron Age hill fort, Caesar’s Camp, dating from c700BC, which Aeo walks past every day on her way to work, to Cannizaro House, built in 1705, home over the years to dukes, politicians, writers and botanists.

During the 19th century, the area was a hub of social activism. Camp Cottage, next door to us on Camp Road, was the home of Victorian social activist Elizabeth Malleson who founded the first Working Women’s College and worked tirelessly for women’s suffrage. Also living in the area was social reformer Josephine Butler who played a major role in improving conditions for women in education and public health.

Our kitchen is located to the rear of Wimbledon Common Golf Club, in Heston Court, a small business centre comprising single storey red-brick buildings surrounding a pretty courtyard, converted from the outbuildings of a Victorian dairy farm. We are part of a friendly community of local businesses and are lucky enough to be able to use the club’s facilities including the clubhouse, where we enjoy an after-work drink at the nineteenth hole!