Wandsworth Common windmill, London

Wandsworth Common windmill is less than 500 m (430 m) from where I grew up as a child. I used to go to Wandsworth Common so often, to play and for dog walking. But I didn't know the windmill was there. One reason is because Wandsworth Common is actually divided into separate areas by two different railway lines. So the majority of my childhood visits were confined to the east side and the mill is located on the edge of the opposite side, over both railway lines. 

Wandsworth Common windmill was actually used as a water pump, not for milling grain, so should be called a windpump. It was a smock mill, built in the 1830s and situated right above the railway line. It is hexagonal with weatherboarded sides. It was constructed by the London and South Western Railway Company to pump water from the cutting into a nearby lake, known as the Black Sea. William Wilson, founder of the Prices Patent Candle Company created a garden around the lake as part of his estate.

The windmill stopped working in 1870 when the lake was filled in. The sails and fantail were removed.

A road runs right in front of the windmill. View from the side, the cap has been reconstructed -

The whole of Wandsworth Common

And the location of the mill -

Just over the nearby bridge is the rather impressive Royal Victoria Patriotic Building. This Victorian building is in a Gothic Revival style combining Scottish Baronial and French Châteauesque. It was built in 1859 as the Royal Victoria Patriotic School, by popular subscription as an asylum for girls orphaned during the Crimean War. Now it is a mixed community of flats, studios, workshops and a drama school.

And I have 2 boxes of Price's candles, my mother bought them decades ago! Probably from the early 1970s when the power cuts were happening.

Price's candle factory building is still there at 100 York Rd, which is at the very top left of the first map above. When production of candles etc stopped, the place was used as a retail shop, but is now closed.

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See Wikipedia page about the windmill. And Historic England entry.