John Rowland wrote:

Anyway, my main point is why this piece of tarmac is there at all.
The eastern part of Littleton Street in Earlsfield is a similar
waste of land. There are numerous others.

The eastern part of Littleton Street provides access between the western
and eastern parts of that estate. Pre-1950 developments generally had
easy access by road within the estate, thus reinforcing the sense of
community , but more recently there's been a fetish for incredibly
complex networks of cul-de-sacs which probably use more tarmac than the
older designs. Google Earth shows your "wasteful" stretch of tarmac
with 15 cars parked on it, so it seems quite useful really.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)