The east view of Wandsworth

An East View of Wandsworth. In the foreground people walk through paths in fields of high corn, cattle graze. There is a windmill RHS.

From around 1600 many Flemish and Dutch gardeners moved to the Surrey bank of the Thames to Battersea, Bermondsey and Wandsworth. They used gardening techniques and skills unknown in England at the time to plant a variety of crops such as cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips and parsnips. Their success marked the beginning of intensive market gardening in London. The immigrants were said to have introduced such practices such as thorough digging before planting which locals feared would 'spoil' the ground. But plentiful food was required as London's population was expanding quickly and by the 17th Century, English gardener's had learned the best skills of the immigrants and were well established with their cultivation techniques.

Low lying areas near the Thames, such as Wandsworth had a natural advantage in terms of ease of getting produce into the centre to Covent Garden, by then established as London's chief vegetable market. South London gardeners might have earned as much as £6 an acre for their land and managed to life comfortably.

The taste for eating raw and fresh vegetable grew from the 17th Century. By the early 18th Century common vegetables were very cheap and were beginning to be used as an accompaniment to meat by all, instead of as a stable of the poorer classes who couldn't afford meat. By the end of the 18th Century fruit and vegetables were in daily use by every section of society.