| Battersea | |
|---|---|
 St Mary's Church and tower blocks in Battersea | |
  Battersea Location withinGreater London | |
| Population | 73,345 (2011 census) |
| OS grid reference | TQ2776 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | SW8, SW11 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°28′12″N0°09′50″W / 51.470°N 0.164°W /51.470; -0.164 | |
Battersea is a large district in southwestLondon, part of theLondon Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest ofCharing Cross and also extends along the south bank of theThames Tideway. It includes the 200-acre (0.81 km2)Battersea Park.
Battersea is mentioned in the few survivingAnglo-Saxon geographical accounts asBadrices īeg, 'Badric's Island' and laterOld English:Patrisey. As with many former parishes beside tidal flood plains the lowest land was reclaimed for agriculture by draining marshland and building culverts for streams. By the side of this was theHeathwalltide mill in the north-east with a very long mill pond regularly draining and filling to the south.
Battersea (Middle English:Patricesy) appears in theDomesday Book of 1086 in Surrey within thehundred ofBrixton (Middle English:Bricsistan) as a vast manor held bySt Peter's Abbey, Westminster.[1] ItsDomesday assets were: 18hides and 17ploughlands of cultivated land; 7mills worth £42 9s 8d per year, 82 acres (33 ha) ofmeadow,woodland worth 50hogs. It rendered (in total): £75 9s 8d. Price inflation was close to zero in the 11th and 12th centuries, so netting an annual income of £75 9s 8d would be equivalent to £134,000 in 2023.[2]
St Mary's Church, completed in 1777, hosted the marriage ofWilliam Blake andCatherine Boucher in 1782.Benedict Arnold, his wifePeggy Shippen, and their daughter were buried in thecrypt of the church.
Battersea Park, a 200-acre (0.81 km2) northern rectangle by the Thames, was landscaped and founded for public use in 1858.[3] Amenities and leisure buildings have been added to it since.
Until 1889, the parish of Battersea was part of the county ofSurrey. In that year a newCounty of London came into being and the parish was made part of it.
Before theIndustrial Revolution, much of the large parish was farmland, providing food for theCity of London and surrounding population centres; and with particular specialisms, such as growinglavender onLavender Hill (nowadays denoted by the road of the same name),asparagus (sold as "Battersea Bundles") or pig breeding on Pig Hill (later the site of theShaftesbury Park Estate). At the end of the 18th century, above 300 acres (1.2 km2) of land in the parish of Battersea were occupied by some 20 market gardeners, who rented from five to near 60 acres (24 ha) each.[4] Villages in the wider area: Wandsworth, Earlsfield (hamlet of Garratt), Tooting, Balham – were separated by fields; in common with other suburbs the wealthy of London and the traditional manor successors built their homes in Battersea and neighbouring areas.[5]
Industry in the area was concentrated to the northwest just outside the Battersea-Wandsworth boundary, at the confluence of the River Thames and theRiver Wandle, which gave rise to the village ofWandsworth. This was settled from the 16th century byProtestant craftsmen –Huguenots – fleeing religious persecution in Europe, who planted lavender and gardens and established a range of industries such as mills, breweries and dyeing, bleaching andcalico printing.[5] Industry developed eastwards along the bank of the Thames during theIndustrial Revolution from the 1750s onwards; the Thames provided water for transport, for steam engines and for water-intensive industrial processes. Bridges erected across the Thames encouraged growth;Putney Bridge, a mile to the west, was built in 1729 and rebuilt 1882, andBattersea Bridge in the centre of the north boundary in 1771. Inland from the river, the rural agricultural community persisted.[5]
Along the Thames, a number of large and, in their field, pre-eminent firms grew; notably theMorgan Crucible company, which survives to this day and is listed on theLondon Stock Exchange; Price's Candles, which also made cycle lamp oil; oil refiner and paint manufacturerS. Bowley and Son; and Orlando Jones' Starch Factory. The 1874Ordnance Survey map of the area shows the following factories, in order, from the site of the as yet unbuilt Wandsworth Bridge to Battersea Park: Starch manufacturer; Silk manufacturer; (St. John's College); (St. Mary's Church); Malt house; Corn mill; Oil and grease works (Prices Candles); Chemical works; Plumbago Crucible works (later theMorgan Crucible Company); Chemical works; Saltpetre works; Foundry. Between these were numerous wharfs for shipping.
In 1929, construction started onBattersea Power Station, being completed in 1939. From the late 18th century to comparatively recent times,[as of?] Battersea was established as an industrial area with all of the issues associated with pollution and poor housing affecting it.[citation needed]
Industry declined and moved away from the area in the 1970s, and local government sought to address chronic post-war housing problems with large scale clearances and the establishment of planned housing. Some decades after the end of large scale local industry,[when?] resurgent demand among magnates and high income earners for parkside and riverside property close to planned Underground links has led to significant construction,[citation needed] Factories have been demolished and replaced with modern apartment buildings. Some of the council owned properties have been sold off and several traditional working men's pubs have become more fashionable bistros. Battersea neighbourhoods close to the railway have some of the most deprived local authority housing in the Borough of Wandsworth, in an area which saw condemned slums after their erection in the Victoria era.[6]
Battersea was radically altered by the coming of railways. TheLondon and Southampton Railway Company engineered their railway line from east to west through Battersea, in 1838, terminating at the originalNine Elms railway station[7] at the north east tip of the area. Over the next 22 years five other lines were built, which continue to carry all of the trains to and from London'sWaterloo andVictoria termini. An interchange station was built in 1863 towards the north west of the area, at a junction of the railway. Taking the name of a fashionable village a mile and more away, the station was named 'Clapham Junction':[8] a campaign to rename it "Battersea Junction" fizzled out as late as the early twentieth century.
During the latter decades of the nineteenth century Battersea had developed into a major town railway centre with two locomotive works atNine Elms andLonghedge and three important motive power depots (Nine Elms, Stewarts Lane and Battersea) all in an initial pocket of north Battersea. The effect was precipitate: a population of 6,000 people in 1840 was increased to 168,000 by 1910; and save for the green spaces ofBattersea Park,Clapham Common,Wandsworth Common and some smaller isolated pockets, all other farmland was built over, with, from north to south, industrial buildings and vast railway sheds and sidings (much of which remain), slum housing for workers, especially north of the main east–west railway, and gradually more genteel residential terraced housing further south.
The railway station encouraged the government to site its buildings in the area surroundingClapham Junction, where a cluster of new civic buildings including the town hall, library, police station, court and post office was developed alongLavender Hill in the 1880s and 1890s. TheArding & Hobbs department store, diagonally opposite the station, was the largest of its type at the time of its construction in 1885; and the streets near the station developed as a regional shopping district. The area was served by a vast music hall – The Grand – opposite the station (nowadays serving as a nightclub and venue for smaller bands) as well as a large theatre next to the town hall (the Shakespeare Theatre, later redeveloped following bomb damage). All this building around the station shifted the focus of the area southwards, and marginalised Battersea High Street (the main street of the original village) into no more than an extension of Falcon Road.[citation needed]
Battersea has a long and varied history of social housing, and the completion of theShaftesbury Park Estate in 1877 was one of the earliest in London or the UK. Additionally, the development of theLatchmere Estate in 1903 was notable both forJohn Burns' involvement and for being the first estate directly built by a council's own workforce and therefore the first true "council estate". Indeed, both of these earlier estates have since been recognised asconservation areas due to their historical and architectural significance and are protected from redevelopment.[9][10]
Battersea also has a large area of mid-20th century public housing estates, almost all located north of the main railway lines and spanning fromFairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east.[11]
There are four particularly large estates. TheWinstanley Estate, perhaps being the most renowned of them all, is known as being the birthplace to the garage collectiveSo Solid Crew.[12] Winstanley is close to Clapham Junction railway station in the northern perimeter of Battersea, and is currently being considered for comprehensive redevelopment as one of the London Mayor's new Housing Zones.[13] Further north towards Chelsea is theSurrey Lane Estate, and on Battersea Park Road is the Doddington and Rollo Estate. East, toward Vauxhall, is thePatmore Estate which is in close proximity to the Battersea Power Station.
Other smaller estates include: York Road (seeWinstanley Estate), Ashley Crescent, Badric Court, Carey Gardens, Chatham Road, Ethelburga, Falcon Road, Gideon Road, Honeywell Road, Kambala, Peabody, Robertson Street, Savona, Somerset, Wilditch and Wynter Street.[citation needed]
On the outbreak ofWorld War I in August 1914Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You'. But the flood of volunteers overwhelmed the ability of the Army to absorb them, and units began to be raised by local initiative rather than at regimental depots, often from men from particular localities or backgrounds who wished to serve together: these were known as 'Pals battalions'. The 'Pals' phenomenon quickly spread across the country, as local recruiting committees offered complete units. Encouraged by this response, Kitchener approached the 28Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, and the 'Great Metropolitan Recruiting Campaign' went ahead in April 1915, with each mayor asked to raise a unit of local men.[14]
One such unit was raised on 3 June 1915 by theMayor and Borough of Battersea as the10th (Service) Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) (Battersea). (Although Battersea was by then in the County of London, theQueen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) was still theRegular Army regiment covering South London, while theLondon Regiment, including the23rd Battalion based at Clapham Junction, consisted entirely of part-time soldiers of theTerritorial Force (TF).)[14][15]
The Battersea Battalion served alongside Pals battalions fromLambeth (11th Queens),Bermondsey (12thEast Surreys) andLewisham (10thWest Kents) in41st Division on theWestern Front, including the battles of theSomme,Messines, andYpres, on theItalian Front, and then back in the west against theGerman spring offensive and in the final victoriousHundred Days Offensive. The Battersea Battalion was kept up to strength with dismounted cavalrymen from theSurrey Yeomanry (TF), based atClapham Park. After theArmistice it took part in theOccupation of the Rhineland and was finally disbanded in 1920.[14][15]
The tradition of local government in England was based in part ofManor, and later on theParish. Battersea's governance can be traced back to 693, when the manor was held by the nunnery of St. Mary atBarking Abbey. After theNorman Conquest of 1066, control of the manor passed toWestminster Abbey, ending at the time of theDissolution of the Monasteries in 1540. Battersea was one of only three of the Abbey'sdemesne directly supervised by monks, rather than being let to tenants. Local control rested with an officer appointed by the abbey, variously termed abeadle,reeve orsergeant, whose responsibility it was supervise the farm servants of the manor, and to enforce and direct customary work performed by manorial tenants.[16]
After 1540the Crown assumed ownership of the manor, and let it on short leases to a succession of individuals, until in about 1590 it came into the hands of the St. John family ofLydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, who later became the St John Baronets of Lydiard Tregoze and ultimately theViscounts Bolingbroke. Bolingbrokes exercised control of the manor for some 173 years, showing varying levels of interest and competence in running the estate's affairs, until in 1763 the disastrously dissoluteFrederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke sold the manor to help to settle his many debts. Battersea now passed into theSpencer family -John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer being related to Frederick's wife.[16]
The Survey of London identified the period of Frederick's tenure with the development of theVestry in Battersea; absent a competent lord of the manor, this local secular and ecclesiastical government took it upon itself to establish aworkhouse in 1733, and met monthly from 1742.[16]
The period of Spencer ownership of the manor saw important land ownership changes introduced to the area. The family had many estates, such as atAlthorp in Northamptonshire andWiseton in Nottinghamshire. Locally, their interests were concentrated onWimbledon. During their tenure, large tracts of land were sold, notably around 1761, and from 1835 to 1838, leading to the development of a plurality of smaller estates, which had implications for the later development of the area.[16]
The scope of governance throughout this period was relatively slight. Lords of the manor were responsible for church appointments and maintenance of the fabric of the church; for drainage, and for the direction of the duties of the manor's tenants. From time to time work was done under manorial direction on the Thames foreshore; and a Spencer was responsible for the construction of first local bridge across the Thames,Battersea Bridge from 1771 to 1772. And albeit Battersea saw some slow change over the first seven centuries of the second millennium, it was not until a later period that an imperative for greater local government arose.[16]
The vestry of Battersea continued to increase in importance from 1742, notably concerning itself withPoor Law administration and drainage. Responsibility for the latter was removed from the vestry in 1855 with the establishment of Metropolitan Boards of Work under theMetropolis Management Act 1855; a Metropolitan Board concerned itself with cross-London drainage and sewerage, whilst a local Wandsworth Metropolitan Board assumed responsibility for minor sewers and the connection of houses to sewerage systems. It was during the tenure of the Wandsworth board that much of Battersea was developed; but such was the pace of development in Battersea that by 1887 it had a population sufficient to win the case for renewed local autonomy under the Metropolis Management (Battersea and Westminster) Act of 1887. The Battersea vestry continued through to 1899, when it became theMetropolitan Borough of Battersea as a result of theLondon Government Act 1899.[16]
The Metropolitan Borough of Battersea was in 1965 combined with the neighbouringMetropolitan Borough of Wandsworth to form theLondon Borough of Wandsworth. The formerBattersea Town Hall, opened in 1893, is now theBattersea Arts Centre.
In the period from 1880 onwards, Battersea was known as a centre of radical politics in the United Kingdom.John Burns founded a branch of theSocial Democratic Federation, Britain's first organised socialist political party, in the borough and after the turmoil of dock strikes affecting the populace of north Battersea, was elected to represent the borough in the newly formedLondon County Council. In 1892, he expanded his role, being elected to Parliament for Battersea North as one of the firstIndependent Labour Party members of Parliament.
Battersea's radical reputation gave rise to theBrown Dog affair, when in 1904 the National Anti-Vivisection Society sought permission to erect a drinking fountain celebrating the life of a dog killed byvivisection. The fountain, forming a plinth for the statue of a brown dog, was installed in theLatchmere Recreation Ground, became a cause célèbre, fought over in riots and battles between medical students and the local populace until its removal in 1910.
The borough elected the first black mayor[17] in London in 1913 whenJohn Archer took office, and in 1922 elected theBombay-bornCommunist Party memberShapurji Saklatvala as MP for Battersea; one of only two communist members of Parliament.[17]
Battersea is currently divided into five Wandsworth wards. The Member of Parliament for theBattersea constituency since 8 June 2017 has been Labour MPMarsha de Cordova.
Battersea is on the curved south bank of theRiver Thames.[18]
Battersea's northern limit is thus theTideway, the Thames belowTeddington. Battersea's riverside is just over 3 miles (4.8 km) long. Immediately to the west isWandsworth Town. To the north-east areVauxhall and thenLambeth, includingWaterloo.
Battersea at one end of its riverside has a western corner at a point 350 metres east northeast ofWandsworth Bridge, and Battersea tapersSSE to almost a point, roughly three miles (4.8 km) from Battersea's northeastern corner – but two miles (3.2 km) from the western corner.
To the east areSouth Lambeth andStockwell; to the south isBalham; to the southeast isClapham; and to the west isWandsworth Town, south of which isWandsworth.
Two large neighbourhoods within the larger Battersea are:
Some parts of Battersea have become known for drug-dealing. TheWinstanley and York Road council estates have developed a reputation for such offences and were included in a zero-tolerance "drug exclusion zone" in 2007.[20]
As of 2011[update], Battersea had a population of 73,345.[21] The district was 52.2% ofWhite British origin,[22] as against an average for Wandsworth of 53.3%.
Within the bounds of modern Battersea are (from east to west):
Battersea is served by three National Rail stations:Battersea Park,Clapham Junction, andQueenstown Road (Battersea). All three stations are inLondon fare zone 2.
Battersea Park is served by someSouthern trains.
Trains northbound terminate atLondon Victoria, which is the next stop along the line. Southbound, Southern's "metro" services run to Clapham Junction,Wandsworth Common, andBalham. After Balham, trains head towardsCroydon,Epsom,London Bridge, andSutton, amongst other destinations.
Thefirst station to carry the name "Battersea Park" was opened by theLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) as "Battersea" on 1 October 1860 and was located at the southern end of what is now Grosvenor Bridge. It closed on 1 November 1870.[25][26] The LB&SCR opened another station on a high-level line on 1 May 1867 calledBattersea Park.[27] Another station existed closed to the current station calledBattersea Park Road railway station by theLondon, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1867 and closed in 1916.
The largest railway station in Battersea is Clapham Junction, to the southwest of the district. The station is a busy interchange, and it serves destinations across London, theSouth, andSouth West England. Train operators from Clapham Junction include:
). Southern also operates a service towardsMilton Keynes fromEast Croydon. North of Clapham Junction, the services calls at Shepherd's Bush,Wembley Central,Watford Junction, andHemel Hempstead, amongst other destinations.In terms of the number of train movements, Clapham Junction is Europe's busiest railway station. It opened on 21 May 1838.[28]
Queenstown Road (Battersea) is served by someSouth Western Railway trains. Northbound, most trains call at Vauxhall en route to London Waterloo. Southbound passengers can travel towards Richmond,Twickenham,Hounslow, andWindsor & Eton direct.[29]
Queenstown Road opened up the line on 1 November 1877 by theLondon and South Western Railway, asQueen's Road (Battersea).[30]British Rail renamed the station toQueenstown Road (Battersea) on 12 May 1980.[30]
As part ofNorthern line extension to Battersea, Battersea is connected to theLondon Underground network atBattersea Power Station tube station in September 2021.[31]
London Bus routes44,137,156,211,344,436,19,49,319,345 and452 serve the Battersea area during the daytime. Night busesN19,N137 andN44, as well as the 344 and 345 route, run overnight.
Cycling infrastructure in Battersea is provided by theLondon Borough of Wandsworth andTransport for London (TfL).[32]
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Battersea features in the books ofMichael de Larrabeiti, who was born and brought up in the area:A Rose Beyond the Thames recounts the working-class Battersea of the 1940s and 1950s;The Borrible Trilogy presents a fictional Battersea, home to fantasy creatures known as the Borribles. The station makes a brief appearance in TheBeatles' second film,Help!, in 1965. It also appears in the 1969 filmBattle of Britain, in the movie as in real life used as a navigational landmark by the attacking Luftwaffe bombers.The Optimists of Nine Elms, a 1973 film starringPeter Sellers, is set in Battersea.
Battersea is also the setting forPenelope Fitzgerald's 1979Booker Prize–winning novel,Offshore. Kitty Neale'sNobody's Girl is set in a fictional café and the surrounding Battersea High Street Market.Nell Dunn's 1963 novelUp the Junction (later adapted for both television and cinema) depicts contemporary life in the industrial slums of Battersea nearClapham Junction. Battersea provides the backdrop for the real world scenes in the audio book and app seriesRockford's Rock Opera.
Michael Flanders, half of the 1960s comedy duo Flanders and Swann, often made fun ofDonald Swann for living in Battersea.Morrissey mentions Battersea in his song "You're the One for Me, Fatty".Babyshambles recorded the song "Bollywood to Battersea" for a 2005 charity albumHelp!: A Day in the Life.Hooverphonic recorded the song "Battersea" for the 1999 albumBlue Wonder Power Milk.
Battersea is the setting forJoan Aiken'sBlack Hearts in Battersea, the second published volume in theWolves Chronicles.
Battersea Power Station is featured on the cover of thePink Floyd albumAnimals.
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The following people have lived, or currently live, in Battersea:
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