Battersea Park

This guide to Battersea Park in London begins on a frost-hardened morning in January 1864, when the newly founded Football Association sent its first president and first secretary onto a south London pitch to test rules that existed only on paper. You'll hear who led each side and what the toast at the end of the match said about the game's future. The guide then follows the ground itself through later transformations, from reclaimed marshland to Festival of Britain gardens and a riverside peace pagoda. Best walked slowly, since the guide covers more history per acre than the park's calm look suggests.