Thames Tributary Wandle - Wandsworth
Thames Tributary Wandle
The Wandle continues to flow northwards to the Thames.
Post to the north Wandsworth
The Wandle continues to flow northwards to the Thames.
Post to the north Wandsworth
Post to the west Wandsworth
Allfarthing Lane
The name relates to Allfarthing Manor of which this area was part. ‘Allfarthing’ means a half of a quarter of a fee and the manor consisted of three estates put together. From 1403 it was owned by Westminster Abbey
Surrey Iron Railway - a rail was found in this area
114 The Forester. Now the HQ of Wandsworth MIND. Old pub in brick and white tile with a number of decorative features.
Armoury Way
Armoury – this was the traditional home of Jane Shore which was used as the depository of the arms of the Loyal Wandsworth volunteers and thus gave its name to Armoury Yard. It was behind the parish church, and has disappeared Armoury Way was conceived as a bypass and built in 1938. The road crosses the Wandle, covering the site of the Middle Mills and also bisects the Wandsworth Plain Estate
Middle Mills. The site was about 30 yards south of the present road. The earliest reference is in 1504/5 when it was a corn mill. By 1569 it had been converted to a "Braille mill" used for rasping brazil wood to a powder for use as a textile dye and it continued to be used in this way through a variety of owners and tenants. In 1724 it was insured by Benjamin Watson as an oil mill but by 1740 it was used for milling corn. From 1730 there was an octagonal windmill on top of the mill, used for grinding dyewoods, and which was there until the 1820s when it lost its sails. By 1790 Richard Shepley was the miller there, and he was also working at the corn mill of the downstream Upper Mills, and following a number of changes it was taken over by George Shepley who controlled a number of mills upriver on the Wandle. John Rennie inspected the mill in 1804 reporting that the equipment was old and in bad repair. Later the mill passed through other owners and by various members of the Watney family until the 1860s. The Pimms were still operating at the mill in 1892, but in 1898 the building was said to have been "pulled down”.
The Surrey Iron Railway crossed what is now Armoury Way at the junction with York Road. This area was the site of the Barchard dye works then north of the Ram brewery wall. These were on the east bank of the Wandle. The earliest reference is in 1724, when they were leased to Edward Applegarth and in 1742 they were again sold by his widow and eventually passed to George and John Spence who dyed scarlet cloth for the East India Company using cochineal, with a solution of tin salts as a mordant, producing a brilliant red.the next occupant was Joseph Barchard and a younger generation of Bsrchard and Spence became partners. The firm was operating as Hilton, Barchard and Platt in 1827 and closed down a few years later. By 1838 the site had been incorporated into the Ram brewery. The dwelling house, been occupied by successive proprietors of the works, and was used as a "Boys' Home" under the name "Bridge House", until 1896
Wandle BridgeArmoury Works, Prestige Marble Co. with old car on show for adjacent car hire firm.
The Armoury Pub – until recently this was The Crane Pub which commemorated a crane on the local wharves. It was built was built around 1742 and is one of the oldest buildings in Wandsworth but there had been some modification. The original slate cellar floor is still in place as well as the fire place and stained glass windows. The pub is said to have two ghosts - One of a pot boy, and one of a lady.
Old Mill House 17th house which stood near to Middle Mill on the west side of The Plain, demolished mid-1920s.
Wandsworth Plain EstateStonewoods
All Saints National School founded here in 1813. Rebuilt several times and closed in the 1960s. The 1872 building remains on site now in use as a showroom
Arndale CentreA huge covered shopping mall plus, 516 flats in tower blocks, car park, baths, by Seymour Harris & Partners, 1967-74. Built by the Arndale Property Trust said to be at the time the largest covered shopping mall in Europe.
Surrey Iron Railway. The course between Mapleton Road and Wandsworth High Street lies beneath the Arndale Centre.
Upper Mills. The site is under the Arndale Centre. The earliest reference is 1559 and in 1608 there were two mills. In 1721 had become used for leather dressing and oil but in 1729 the western mill was converted to copper and in 1770 to a corn mill. By then they were owned by George Shepley. Smeaton was employed on rebuilding the corn mill with three low breast wheels, and the work completed by 1780. Later he designed an oil mill with a bypass channel using a 16ft wheel. By the 1820s the mills had been taken over by Daniel Watney and his son and rebuilt them in brick converting them back to corn milling, and using a 12 h.p. stationary steam engine from local firm by Wentworths,. Watney and Wells and were among the main suppliers of flour for London. The Upper and Middle Mills together had 31 pairs of grindstones and produced 60,000 sacks of flour, worth £150,000, a year. Fifty people worked there plus 30 horses. In time roller mills replaced millstones, and gas engines replaced the steam engine, though water power continued to be used. The older buildings were burned down in 1926. Milling ceased between the Wars, and other occupiers followed, finally the last being a cabinet maker in 1950. The buildings were demolished in 1962.
Wandsworth Stadium lies under the Arndale centre. Opened in 1933 it could hold 20,000 under cover. Greyhound racing continued until 1966.
Barchard Street
Named after the dyer.
Broomhill Road
Business Village in what was the premises of Welsbach Incandescent Gas Light Co. This consisted of workshops, studios, office, storage, business units and a Territorial Army centre.
Redifon Ltd. Made radio equipment and flight simulators
Marine Department of Rediffusion
Buckhold Road
A bleach field was sited at the junction with Broomhill Road in 1687. It was owned by John Ousley and on the sidewater of the Wandle. By 1744, under David Asterley, it had become very big, employing 150.
Cockpen House. Young’s delivery depot – now under redevelopment
Royal Military Police Building
Drill Field for the 13th Battalion East Surrey Regiment in the Great War
Youngs Brewery Parade Ground for the 28th Battalion
Causeway
Royal Wandsworth laundry. Largest local laundry in the 1890s, highly mechanised and using women
Chapel Court
Memorial Hall. Built by the congregational church. The National Opera Studio has been based here since June 2003. In 2002 they bought the Memorial Hall which is late Victorian and formerly a non-conformist chapel. It was built in 1882 as a memorial to the Huguenots who brough prosperity to Wandsworth while fleeing persecution.
The French chapel was previously on the site of the memorial hall. The French Huguenots who in Wandsworth built it in 1682. Their only difference from the Church of England was the language used in church. By the late 18th the congregation had fallen away and it was used as a store and then by various mission churches. In 1882 it was replaced by the Congregationalists by the Memorial Hall.
Dormay Street
John Dormay. House and works here. He opened his own gas works in the 1830s and applied for parliamentary powers. The Wandsworth Company opposed this, and in 1873 purchased Dormay’s concern for £5,000.
Wentworth House. Early 18th. Named for the engineering firm which was here.
East Hill
The Portsmouth Road, the A3, running down into the Wandle Valley and Wandsworth.
147 Brewers Inn. Youngs pub
135 The Royal OakEast Hill Baptist Church. In 1859, some local residents contacted Charles Spurgeon, the Baptist preacher and together they founded a church which met behind the Spread Eagle pub. The church had its own first building in 1862. This was demolished in 1994 and replaced with the current modern church.
Fairfield Road
An estate road running through blocks of flats built under the Housing Act of 1935 by Wandsworth Council
Fairfield Street
Site of a local fair in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was not a legal fair and was suppressed in the 1830s. At one time this was called North Street. Until recent regeneration the road continued north of the York Road junction on a line roughly equivalent to Smugglers Way.
The Grapes. Listed Grade II. An early/mid-19th building
The White House stood on the junction with York Road in 17th and 18th.
Lamp standards outside the Town Hall. 1937 by Edward A Hunt,
pillars, with pendant glass lamps mounted plinths of Portland stone which form part of the composition of the town hall.
Frogmore
11 The Roche School. Private school.
22 Windsor Court. This was built as a special school for disabled children by Stirling and Gowan. 1965 now flats.
Flats WBC 1936
Wandsworth School for the Education of Children of Every Religious Denomination moved to a site opposite Sudlow Road ion 1868 and closed in 1903.
Wandsworth Council depotHilden House resource centre
Panorama Antennas In 1947, J.F.J. Products was set up by Mr Jesman. An ex-serviceman, making mop heads stitched from rags, cake stands assembled from Perspex sheets, and eyes for 'sleeping' dolls. In 1949 Mr. Jesman designed and built his own 'plastic injection' moulding machine from surplus aeroplane parts for the dolls eyes But Eventually, the business became established as a plastic moulding sub-contractor to the electronics industry. To supply the growing need for TV components, they purchased second hand moulding machinery and the company traded as the Panorama Radio Company and as each new development took off in the radio and TV industries they designed equipment to facilitate this. In 1974 Panorama Antennas Limited, was formed as a wholly family-owned business
Ellwood fur dyeing business here from 1885, processing furs and making them into garments.
Thames Chemical Co dyes
Hogmore Green was north of Frogmore and provided access to an unloading area on an arm of the Wandle.
Garratt Lane
Northern small section was once known as South Street
The Route of the Surrey Iron Railway followed Garratt Lane as far as the Wagon and Horses which was opposite Mapleton Road. The line then swung under what is now the Arndale Centre.
11 Wandsworth Town Library and Wandsworth Museum in Old Courthouse. Used as the county court 1860-1973
8 GJs bar which was previously the Wagon and Horses. This pun was first noted in 1851. The name may refer to the Surrey Iron railway.
14 house which had mathematical tiles on the front
17-27 Housing department
45 Sainsbury
102 Stonezone
104 The Old Sergeant. Old pub which has been with Youngs since 1836 but was there in 1785. The doors of the old coach-house can be still seen at the right of the building.
107 Tir na og was horse and groom. The previous Horse and Groom pub was originally the workhouse for St.Mary le Strand.
109 St.Mary’s Community Centre118 Fisher Building. Colefax and Fowler. Interior design company, and others. The building is on the site of Falks Vertitas Gas Mantle Works which closed in 1972. Johan Gottl Stadelmann was registered as a mantle maker in Nurnburg in 1862. Salomon Falk came to London from Hochberg in around 1880 and has set up as a Manufacturer's Agent. The German "Veritas" trademark was owned by Jean Stadelmann & Co initially for gas lamp mantles. They later made lamps and cookers under the Veritas brand name. Falk Stadelmann & Co. between the wars. In early 1919 the Veritas Incandescent Mantle works, was opened on a 7 acre site. And noted for its modern automated machinery and a revolutionary technique of manufacture closed 1972
Albert House. This House dated 1620 was on the east side of the road south of Malva Road. It may have been the home of Everard Fawkener who was a local scarlet dyer in the early 18th. It was demolished in 1904 when it was part of Voelkers gas mantle factory. Some details are in the Museum of London. The Voelker Lighting Corporation had been set up partly by local chemical manufacturers Hopkins and Williams.
Cine world. In the Southside Centre. 14 screens
Wandsworth Old Burial Ground. Grassed over with a central footpath and an ornamental entrance. It was consecrated in 1808 opened by the parish and burials confined to one per grave. It has now been opened up to Garratt Lane with some sculptural pieces. It now includes some land transferred from Sainsbury’s.
Wandsworth Working Men’s Association for Promoting Useful Knowledge was opposite Wandsworth Museum 1838-early 1900s.
South MallSouthside. Shopping centre, partly a rebuild of the Arndale Centre
Sudbury House. This housing block rises above the Southside Centre. It is the tallest tower in the Arndale Centre, 25 storeys. It was built in 1975
Earlswood boxing clubWendelsworth. Local authority housing estate
Adkins Mill. Site of the earliest copper mill on the Wandle it stood on Garratt Lane opposite the end of Iron Mill Place. Built in 1654 and demolished in 1777 and replaced with an iron mill for James Henkell. In 1792 it was Henckell's iron works, and by 1820 Day's. It was also a forge, using water- powered tilt hammers and which produced wrought iron and cast shot, shells and cannon. They closed in 1832. In 1836 the Mill was converted to papermaking by Thomas Creswick 'paper and card maker to His Majesty'. He made playing cards, tinted and drawing paper. In 1854 taken over by William McMurray and by 1865 it had become MacMurray's Royal Paper Mills which supplied paper to the Times and the Illustrated London News. The paper was made from esparto grass from MvMurray’s estates in Spain and North Africa. The mill burnt down early in the 20th but was replaced and later taken over by Benham & Sons Ltd's engineering works whose buildings, now demolished, stood over the mill leat.
Bleach field - south of the mill in 1657 for Richard Pillett.
Blundell Spence candle factory was just south of Adkins mill. Chair for a long time was George Longstaff, a distinguished chemist. Longstaff Reading Rooms in West Hill library named for him
Hardwicks Way
Site of the manor house of Down Manor and was the smallest manor in the area held by Fitz Ansculf in 1086
King George’s Park
Park which also extends to the south.
Open Air Swimming pool. Opened by the mayor in 1938. Includes sun bathing terraces and a cafe.
Sports Pavilion, 1966 by the Borough Architect's Department. One-storeyed around a courtyard.
Wandle branched out to serve many mills in Wandsworth. New Cut left river here. There is a weir a little upstream.
Mapleton road
Storm relief aqueduct built 1887 and now demolished. This ran to the north and parallel of the road
The route of Surrey Iron Railway followed Garratt Lane to the corner of this road. The line would then have run under what is now the Arndale Centre. It crossed the Wandle on a wooden bridge here
Dye works on the site of the Wandsworth Business Centre north of the road. In the 1720s it was owned by Matthew Hebert from Exeter. By 1792 it was "Mr. Williamson’s dye houses" and by 1823 they were in the hands of Elizabeth Williamson, who was scarlet dyeing. Later it became a chemical works, then a paper mill, and by the early 20th the Wandle Colour Works of Freeman and Son until 1928. They made artists colours as well as ordinary paint, varnish and printers ink. The dye house is thought to have been demolished in 1887 when the storm relief aqueduct, was built.
Mr. Gardiner's calico printing works, which, employed 250 in 1792. By 1810 it was Messrs. Gardiner and Dixon.
Wandsworth Leisure Centre
Merton Road
Down Lodge. 18th house built 1783 for Henry Gardiner calico printer with a view over his bleaching grounds. Later home of A.F.Bainbridge, a partner in the Ram Brewery and of William Bulstrode, miller. Merton Road. There was a tannery in the grounds in 1705.
5 St. Michael Steiner School in St.Michael’s Church of England Primary School. London School Board type. West Hill Primary School. Wandsworth School’s Music.
141 Lord Palmerston, a nice later 19th stuccoed pub. Now flats
142 Sikh templeBrick column, with a little door in it, on the junction with Buckholt Road
155-159 Alexander House. Vitality. Amazing striped brick art deco building
Oakhill Road
St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School. Established 1875. rebuilt In 1995, With an ecological garden, and a music room lit by electricity generated by the Wandle
Putney Bridge Road
Was called Love Lane.
22-24 early c 18, and a few early 19th terrace houses, messed up by the railway line but still there.
Queen Adelaide Pub. Established as The Kings Head in 1706. Renamed 1830 when Adelaide became Queen.
30 The Wheatsheaf. Now closed.
64 The Hop Poles
Ram Street
The Route of Surrey Iron Railway ran down Ram Street which was built on its trackbed.
Salvation Army citadel built 1907
Young's Ram Brewery. The earliest mention of brewing is of Humphrey Langridge brewer at the Ram Inn. In 1670 Somerset Draper and his brother Humphrey took over. They sold it to Thomas Tritton who left it to his son, George, a banker, and Chair of the Surrey Iron Railway in 1802. In 1831 Charles Allen Young and Anthony Fothergill Bainbridge bought the brewery and a new beam engine was bought from Wentworths and remained in regular use until the early 1980s. The Ram trademark was registered in 1898. In 1962 John Allen Young, became chairman and promoted traditional draught beer. Young's acquired Foster-Probyn Ltd., an independent bottler, built a £5 million brew house and a new bottling line. In 2000 the beers won six medals and two championship trophies. A team of 24 shire horses was kept for deliveries of beer within a three-mile radius of the brewery and pulled the Lord Mayor's coach in the Lord Mayor's Show. Youngs had nearly 140 tied houses and made Draught Ordinary Bitter, Special Bitter, Best Malt Ale, Winter Warmer or Old Ale, Keg Bitter. Saxon Lager. Pale Ale and Ram Rod. On site were stone sleepers from the Surrey Iron Railway, and a painting in the managing director's office – as well as Ram Rod himself. There was a five-bay mid-Georgian red brick. In 2007 following Charles Young’s death the brewery was closed and moved
Well there was a deep well at the brewery from which local people could get water.
Stables, a c 19 stable block.
Ram Field was the end of the Surrey Iron Railway
St Ann’s Hill
Medieval tile kiln site. Found at the junction with the High Street. Probably belonged to Allfarthing Manor.
St Ann’s CofE primary school. School of industry for girls founded here 1800 and still operating as a primary school in its 1858 building.
190 Plowden and Smith. Artistic restoration specialists
200 Star and Garter
Sudlow Road
East of the road was an arm of the Wandle which was turned into a small dock 1838-1866 and filled in in 1960.
The Plain
Bolting cloth factory. This was on the west side, founded in 1814 and closed in 1919. The business had come from Exeter and used a 1783 patent of Benjamin Blackmore which made seamless cloth.
1-6 Church Row. Dated from 1723 these early Georgian houses have three storeys over basements. The centre house has with a sundial dated 1723.
7-9 are a later c 18 addition.
Fire station –original fire station was here until the 1860s.
Parish watch house and engine house - was also used as a mortuary, were also in the road
Wandle
The New Cut on the Wandle diverged from the river at a bend which is now in King George Parl. small bridge, crossed the New Cut, and which remained in the grounds of the open-air swimming baths. During 1958-63 the Wandle was re-channelled and culverted, and the New Cut filled in.
Wandsworth
Means 'Waendel's enclosure', - a personal name found also in Wendlebury and Wellingborough
Wandsworth High Street
This is on the line of the old main road to Portsmouth, which became the A3.
The route of Surrey Iron Railway crossed the High Street from the area which is now the Arndale Centre and went into Ram Street.
34 Antelope pub. This was previously the Red Lion which was there in 1658. Closed and gone.
52 The Lyric Picture Playhouse opened October 1912. In 1929, it was re-named New Lyric Cinema and also had variety shows for which two artistes dressing rooms were provided. It was re-named New Star Cinema in 1934, but closed in 1935. The building has since been demolished. 52-60 Wandsworth Palace. This was opened as the Palace Theatre, a purpose built cinema, in 1920. In December 1924, a Compton 2Manual/5Ranks organ was installed, opened by organist Ernest Smith. In 1928 it was taken over by United Picture Theatres circuit and was Gaumont British Theatres from 1930. It closed in September 1940 and re-opened in May 1942 and then in 1958 it was re-named Gaumont Theatre. It was closed by the Rank Organisation in 1961 with and converted into bingo which closed in 1979. In 1982 it was used as a church. In 1992 it opened as a nightclub called the Theatre.
59 Friends Meeting House. The original building was on this site in 1673 and built by local fishermen. The present building dates from 1778 and is the oldest Quaker meeting house in London as a humble brick rectangle. The facade was renewed in 1927 and the interior restored to its original condition around 1980. It also has a secluded burial ground.
71 The Spread Eagle. First noted in 1664 this was the principal inn in the town in the 18th. It is Where the Surrey Iron Railway annual general meetings were held, as were sessions of the county court, but was rebuilt in the late 19th and retains wood and glasswork. There was once a drinking fountain outside.
Spread Eagle Assembly Rooms. Built in 1890 this was designed by Keith D. Young, and designed for light entertainment and music hall. It was licensed as a theatre from 1900 as the Wandsworth Palace of Varieties and in 1908 became a cinema, called Picture Palladium and in 1916 The Court Cinema. Closed in 1931. The building was later used as a warehouse for glass and china, a car showroom, a tobacco warehouse and an ironmongers. It was in civil defence use during World War II, and after the war, Young's Brewery used it to store beer crates. It was restored in 1998 and has since remained empty.
73 National Westminster Bank102 behind here were malthouses until 1898130 White Swan pub. First mentioned in 1550. Closed and gone
134 Rose and Crown, which had a horse trough outside itThe Bull pub was on the riverside opposite the Ram Brewery. It was a Young’s pub destroyed in Second World War bombing.
Dutch Yard stood south of the street and was probably the site of a late 17th for John de Raed.
James Yard was back from the High Street on the west bank of the Wandle. Now under the Arndale Centre. James had an iron mill to the south.
South Thames College. Built as a technical institute by the L.C.C. architect, G. Topham Forrest in 1926. It was opened by Queen Mary in 1937 and the key she used is in the member's library. The Site had previously been that of the Parsonage.
Wandsworth Town Hall and Council Offices. There have been four phases of building here over a century. The first town hall of red brick and Dumfries stone was built by Wandsworth vestry 1879-81. Designed by George Patrick it had offices and a public hall. It was demolished in the 1970s following bomb damage. It had an unusual recessed carriage way, later enclosed. An extension was designed by the Borough Surveyor, Ernest J. Elford, in an unpretentious style. In 1935 the Council agreed a large Modern, style office block on a corner site adjoining the hall, planned as the centrepiece of a town redevelopment by architect Edward A. Hunt. It is triangular and planned around a courtyard and with forecourt gardens. There is a frieze around the outside showing Wandsworth's history undertaken by D Evans and John Lanehan. Inside is a lavish entrance hall lined and paved in onyx panels, with a spiky pattern bronze balustrade. There is a polygonal first floor council chamber. In 1973 Culpin & Partners added a modern brick office extension on the site of the original building.
Public baths. These were opened in 1901 with two pools and slipper baths and which could be floored over and used as an Assembly Hall in the winter. There was a Club room and Water came from an artesian well. Closed in 1968 and the site is under the Arndale Centre.
All Saints Church. Built by Westminster Abbey for their tenants here but nothing is visible of their medieval church. It was named in 1234 by John de Panoma. It has a modest brick tower; the lower part dating from 1630, – now the oldest building in the parish - and the upper parts added in 1841 and restored in 1955 after war damage. The church itself was rebuilt in 1779-80 by William Jupp, was altered with a new roof in 1899-1900. Monuments: Brass to Nicholas Maudyt, 1420, in armour but with the head missing; Henry Smith f 1627, kneeling in profile against a niche flanked by columns; Susanna Powell 1630; brass of 1420 to soldier.
Down Lodge Hall. Built in 1883 as a mission hall to commemorate visit of Sankey and Moody.
Methodist Chapel. Wesley preached in Gilbert's house in 1795 and baptised two slaves. Used by the Primitive Methodists until 1957.
68 Ram Inn which is now called the Brewery Tap. It dates from at least 1550. It was rebuilt in 1883, which is recorded by a plaque on the building.
Wandsworth Bridge, to the left of the crossing, was already a stone bridge in 1569, but could have been Roman. Has been rebuilt several times since: in 1602 following a legend that Elizabeth I had to ford it, in 1757 when it was widened and again in 1820 for the turnpike road. Then again in 1912.
West Hill
St Thomas a Becket Roman Catholic Church which was designed by Edward Goldie and is listed Grade II. A mission was established in 1841, rooms above the George and Dragon Pub., a small church, designed by Pugin, and was built in 1847 replaced by the present church in 1893.
Library, opened in 1885 in Putney Lodge. A reading room was added as a gift from D.G.Longstaff. The Longstaff room was kept when the library was rebuilt in 1937. Gates removed in the Second World War,
The De Morgan Centre for the work by William De Morgan, the Victorian ceramic artist and his wife Evelyn, the painter. In 2002, it was rehoused at the former West Hill Reference Library which dates from 1887.
Putney Lodge was on the site of the library. It was the home of, horticulturalist, Sigismund Rucker until the 1880s. It had been built by Henry Goodwin. Had a well outside and the building was frequently waterlogged
Lebanon House was opposite the library with a cedar tree in the grounds.
Police Station dates from 1883, it included a magistrate’s court which was very small and it moved in 1892.
The Sword House stood on the site of the current police station. It was a 16th house demolished in 1875. It is said that an owner, a survivor of Culloden, decorated it with salvaged Highland swords.
Convent of the Sacred Heart
Police Station which has been here since 1892. Current building 1955.
York Road
The Route of the Surrey Iron Railway Crossed York Road and then followed the Wandle to the Thames.
York Road, was the lower or 'summer' road to London, and called Slough Lane
Memorial to the Surrey Iron Railway with a plaque and sleepers. Which disappeared in the 1960s. Until the 1930s, there was a kerb of sleepers right down York Road from the Ram Inn to the dock
Sources
Osborne. Defending London
Allfarthing Lane
The name relates to Allfarthing Manor of which this area was part. ‘Allfarthing’ means a half of a quarter of a fee and the manor consisted of three estates put together. From 1403 it was owned by Westminster Abbey
Surrey Iron Railway - a rail was found in this area
114 The Forester. Now the HQ of Wandsworth MIND. Old pub in brick and white tile with a number of decorative features.
Armoury Way
Armoury – this was the traditional home of Jane Shore which was used as the depository of the arms of the Loyal Wandsworth volunteers and thus gave its name to Armoury Yard. It was behind the parish church, and has disappeared Armoury Way was conceived as a bypass and built in 1938. The road crosses the Wandle, covering the site of the Middle Mills and also bisects the Wandsworth Plain Estate
Middle Mills. The site was about 30 yards south of the present road. The earliest reference is in 1504/5 when it was a corn mill. By 1569 it had been converted to a "Braille mill" used for rasping brazil wood to a powder for use as a textile dye and it continued to be used in this way through a variety of owners and tenants. In 1724 it was insured by Benjamin Watson as an oil mill but by 1740 it was used for milling corn. From 1730 there was an octagonal windmill on top of the mill, used for grinding dyewoods, and which was there until the 1820s when it lost its sails. By 1790 Richard Shepley was the miller there, and he was also working at the corn mill of the downstream Upper Mills, and following a number of changes it was taken over by George Shepley who controlled a number of mills upriver on the Wandle. John Rennie inspected the mill in 1804 reporting that the equipment was old and in bad repair. Later the mill passed through other owners and by various members of the Watney family until the 1860s. The Pimms were still operating at the mill in 1892, but in 1898 the building was said to have been "pulled down”.
The Surrey Iron Railway crossed what is now Armoury Way at the junction with York Road. This area was the site of the Barchard dye works then north of the Ram brewery wall. These were on the east bank of the Wandle. The earliest reference is in 1724, when they were leased to Edward Applegarth and in 1742 they were again sold by his widow and eventually passed to George and John Spence who dyed scarlet cloth for the East India Company using cochineal, with a solution of tin salts as a mordant, producing a brilliant red.the next occupant was Joseph Barchard and a younger generation of Bsrchard and Spence became partners. The firm was operating as Hilton, Barchard and Platt in 1827 and closed down a few years later. By 1838 the site had been incorporated into the Ram brewery. The dwelling house, been occupied by successive proprietors of the works, and was used as a "Boys' Home" under the name "Bridge House", until 1896
Wandle BridgeArmoury Works, Prestige Marble Co. with old car on show for adjacent car hire firm.
The Armoury Pub – until recently this was The Crane Pub which commemorated a crane on the local wharves. It was built was built around 1742 and is one of the oldest buildings in Wandsworth but there had been some modification. The original slate cellar floor is still in place as well as the fire place and stained glass windows. The pub is said to have two ghosts - One of a pot boy, and one of a lady.
Old Mill House 17th house which stood near to Middle Mill on the west side of The Plain, demolished mid-1920s.
Wandsworth Plain EstateStonewoods
All Saints National School founded here in 1813. Rebuilt several times and closed in the 1960s. The 1872 building remains on site now in use as a showroom
Arndale CentreA huge covered shopping mall plus, 516 flats in tower blocks, car park, baths, by Seymour Harris & Partners, 1967-74. Built by the Arndale Property Trust said to be at the time the largest covered shopping mall in Europe.
Surrey Iron Railway. The course between Mapleton Road and Wandsworth High Street lies beneath the Arndale Centre.
Upper Mills. The site is under the Arndale Centre. The earliest reference is 1559 and in 1608 there were two mills. In 1721 had become used for leather dressing and oil but in 1729 the western mill was converted to copper and in 1770 to a corn mill. By then they were owned by George Shepley. Smeaton was employed on rebuilding the corn mill with three low breast wheels, and the work completed by 1780. Later he designed an oil mill with a bypass channel using a 16ft wheel. By the 1820s the mills had been taken over by Daniel Watney and his son and rebuilt them in brick converting them back to corn milling, and using a 12 h.p. stationary steam engine from local firm by Wentworths,. Watney and Wells and were among the main suppliers of flour for London. The Upper and Middle Mills together had 31 pairs of grindstones and produced 60,000 sacks of flour, worth £150,000, a year. Fifty people worked there plus 30 horses. In time roller mills replaced millstones, and gas engines replaced the steam engine, though water power continued to be used. The older buildings were burned down in 1926. Milling ceased between the Wars, and other occupiers followed, finally the last being a cabinet maker in 1950. The buildings were demolished in 1962.
Wandsworth Stadium lies under the Arndale centre. Opened in 1933 it could hold 20,000 under cover. Greyhound racing continued until 1966.
Barchard Street
Named after the dyer.
Broomhill Road
Business Village in what was the premises of Welsbach Incandescent Gas Light Co. This consisted of workshops, studios, office, storage, business units and a Territorial Army centre.
Redifon Ltd. Made radio equipment and flight simulators
Marine Department of Rediffusion
Buckhold Road
A bleach field was sited at the junction with Broomhill Road in 1687. It was owned by John Ousley and on the sidewater of the Wandle. By 1744, under David Asterley, it had become very big, employing 150.
Cockpen House. Young’s delivery depot – now under redevelopment
Royal Military Police Building
Drill Field for the 13th Battalion East Surrey Regiment in the Great War
Youngs Brewery Parade Ground for the 28th Battalion
Causeway
Royal Wandsworth laundry. Largest local laundry in the 1890s, highly mechanised and using women
Chapel Court
Memorial Hall. Built by the congregational church. The National Opera Studio has been based here since June 2003. In 2002 they bought the Memorial Hall which is late Victorian and formerly a non-conformist chapel. It was built in 1882 as a memorial to the Huguenots who brough prosperity to Wandsworth while fleeing persecution.
The French chapel was previously on the site of the memorial hall. The French Huguenots who in Wandsworth built it in 1682. Their only difference from the Church of England was the language used in church. By the late 18th the congregation had fallen away and it was used as a store and then by various mission churches. In 1882 it was replaced by the Congregationalists by the Memorial Hall.
Dormay Street
John Dormay. House and works here. He opened his own gas works in the 1830s and applied for parliamentary powers. The Wandsworth Company opposed this, and in 1873 purchased Dormay’s concern for £5,000.
Wentworth House. Early 18th. Named for the engineering firm which was here.
East Hill
The Portsmouth Road, the A3, running down into the Wandle Valley and Wandsworth.
147 Brewers Inn. Youngs pub
135 The Royal OakEast Hill Baptist Church. In 1859, some local residents contacted Charles Spurgeon, the Baptist preacher and together they founded a church which met behind the Spread Eagle pub. The church had its own first building in 1862. This was demolished in 1994 and replaced with the current modern church.
Fairfield Road
An estate road running through blocks of flats built under the Housing Act of 1935 by Wandsworth Council
Fairfield Street
Site of a local fair in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was not a legal fair and was suppressed in the 1830s. At one time this was called North Street. Until recent regeneration the road continued north of the York Road junction on a line roughly equivalent to Smugglers Way.
The Grapes. Listed Grade II. An early/mid-19th building
The White House stood on the junction with York Road in 17th and 18th.
Lamp standards outside the Town Hall. 1937 by Edward A Hunt,
pillars, with pendant glass lamps mounted plinths of Portland stone which form part of the composition of the town hall.
Frogmore
11 The Roche School. Private school.
22 Windsor Court. This was built as a special school for disabled children by Stirling and Gowan. 1965 now flats.
Flats WBC 1936
Wandsworth School for the Education of Children of Every Religious Denomination moved to a site opposite Sudlow Road ion 1868 and closed in 1903.
Wandsworth Council depotHilden House resource centre
Panorama Antennas In 1947, J.F.J. Products was set up by Mr Jesman. An ex-serviceman, making mop heads stitched from rags, cake stands assembled from Perspex sheets, and eyes for 'sleeping' dolls. In 1949 Mr. Jesman designed and built his own 'plastic injection' moulding machine from surplus aeroplane parts for the dolls eyes But Eventually, the business became established as a plastic moulding sub-contractor to the electronics industry. To supply the growing need for TV components, they purchased second hand moulding machinery and the company traded as the Panorama Radio Company and as each new development took off in the radio and TV industries they designed equipment to facilitate this. In 1974 Panorama Antennas Limited, was formed as a wholly family-owned business
Ellwood fur dyeing business here from 1885, processing furs and making them into garments.
Thames Chemical Co dyes
Hogmore Green was north of Frogmore and provided access to an unloading area on an arm of the Wandle.
Garratt Lane
Northern small section was once known as South Street
The Route of the Surrey Iron Railway followed Garratt Lane as far as the Wagon and Horses which was opposite Mapleton Road. The line then swung under what is now the Arndale Centre.
11 Wandsworth Town Library and Wandsworth Museum in Old Courthouse. Used as the county court 1860-1973
8 GJs bar which was previously the Wagon and Horses. This pun was first noted in 1851. The name may refer to the Surrey Iron railway.
14 house which had mathematical tiles on the front
17-27 Housing department
45 Sainsbury
102 Stonezone
104 The Old Sergeant. Old pub which has been with Youngs since 1836 but was there in 1785. The doors of the old coach-house can be still seen at the right of the building.
107 Tir na og was horse and groom. The previous Horse and Groom pub was originally the workhouse for St.Mary le Strand.
109 St.Mary’s Community Centre118 Fisher Building. Colefax and Fowler. Interior design company, and others. The building is on the site of Falks Vertitas Gas Mantle Works which closed in 1972. Johan Gottl Stadelmann was registered as a mantle maker in Nurnburg in 1862. Salomon Falk came to London from Hochberg in around 1880 and has set up as a Manufacturer's Agent. The German "Veritas" trademark was owned by Jean Stadelmann & Co initially for gas lamp mantles. They later made lamps and cookers under the Veritas brand name. Falk Stadelmann & Co. between the wars. In early 1919 the Veritas Incandescent Mantle works, was opened on a 7 acre site. And noted for its modern automated machinery and a revolutionary technique of manufacture closed 1972
Albert House. This House dated 1620 was on the east side of the road south of Malva Road. It may have been the home of Everard Fawkener who was a local scarlet dyer in the early 18th. It was demolished in 1904 when it was part of Voelkers gas mantle factory. Some details are in the Museum of London. The Voelker Lighting Corporation had been set up partly by local chemical manufacturers Hopkins and Williams.
Cine world. In the Southside Centre. 14 screens
Wandsworth Old Burial Ground. Grassed over with a central footpath and an ornamental entrance. It was consecrated in 1808 opened by the parish and burials confined to one per grave. It has now been opened up to Garratt Lane with some sculptural pieces. It now includes some land transferred from Sainsbury’s.
Wandsworth Working Men’s Association for Promoting Useful Knowledge was opposite Wandsworth Museum 1838-early 1900s.
South MallSouthside. Shopping centre, partly a rebuild of the Arndale Centre
Sudbury House. This housing block rises above the Southside Centre. It is the tallest tower in the Arndale Centre, 25 storeys. It was built in 1975
Earlswood boxing clubWendelsworth. Local authority housing estate
Adkins Mill. Site of the earliest copper mill on the Wandle it stood on Garratt Lane opposite the end of Iron Mill Place. Built in 1654 and demolished in 1777 and replaced with an iron mill for James Henkell. In 1792 it was Henckell's iron works, and by 1820 Day's. It was also a forge, using water- powered tilt hammers and which produced wrought iron and cast shot, shells and cannon. They closed in 1832. In 1836 the Mill was converted to papermaking by Thomas Creswick 'paper and card maker to His Majesty'. He made playing cards, tinted and drawing paper. In 1854 taken over by William McMurray and by 1865 it had become MacMurray's Royal Paper Mills which supplied paper to the Times and the Illustrated London News. The paper was made from esparto grass from MvMurray’s estates in Spain and North Africa. The mill burnt down early in the 20th but was replaced and later taken over by Benham & Sons Ltd's engineering works whose buildings, now demolished, stood over the mill leat.
Bleach field - south of the mill in 1657 for Richard Pillett.
Blundell Spence candle factory was just south of Adkins mill. Chair for a long time was George Longstaff, a distinguished chemist. Longstaff Reading Rooms in West Hill library named for him
Hardwicks Way
Site of the manor house of Down Manor and was the smallest manor in the area held by Fitz Ansculf in 1086
King George’s Park
Park which also extends to the south.
Open Air Swimming pool. Opened by the mayor in 1938. Includes sun bathing terraces and a cafe.
Sports Pavilion, 1966 by the Borough Architect's Department. One-storeyed around a courtyard.
Wandle branched out to serve many mills in Wandsworth. New Cut left river here. There is a weir a little upstream.
Mapleton road
Storm relief aqueduct built 1887 and now demolished. This ran to the north and parallel of the road
The route of Surrey Iron Railway followed Garratt Lane to the corner of this road. The line would then have run under what is now the Arndale Centre. It crossed the Wandle on a wooden bridge here
Dye works on the site of the Wandsworth Business Centre north of the road. In the 1720s it was owned by Matthew Hebert from Exeter. By 1792 it was "Mr. Williamson’s dye houses" and by 1823 they were in the hands of Elizabeth Williamson, who was scarlet dyeing. Later it became a chemical works, then a paper mill, and by the early 20th the Wandle Colour Works of Freeman and Son until 1928. They made artists colours as well as ordinary paint, varnish and printers ink. The dye house is thought to have been demolished in 1887 when the storm relief aqueduct, was built.
Mr. Gardiner's calico printing works, which, employed 250 in 1792. By 1810 it was Messrs. Gardiner and Dixon.
Wandsworth Leisure Centre
Merton Road
Down Lodge. 18th house built 1783 for Henry Gardiner calico printer with a view over his bleaching grounds. Later home of A.F.Bainbridge, a partner in the Ram Brewery and of William Bulstrode, miller. Merton Road. There was a tannery in the grounds in 1705.
5 St. Michael Steiner School in St.Michael’s Church of England Primary School. London School Board type. West Hill Primary School. Wandsworth School’s Music.
141 Lord Palmerston, a nice later 19th stuccoed pub. Now flats
142 Sikh templeBrick column, with a little door in it, on the junction with Buckholt Road
155-159 Alexander House. Vitality. Amazing striped brick art deco building
Oakhill Road
St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School. Established 1875. rebuilt In 1995, With an ecological garden, and a music room lit by electricity generated by the Wandle
Putney Bridge Road
Was called Love Lane.
22-24 early c 18, and a few early 19th terrace houses, messed up by the railway line but still there.
Queen Adelaide Pub. Established as The Kings Head in 1706. Renamed 1830 when Adelaide became Queen.
30 The Wheatsheaf. Now closed.
64 The Hop Poles
Ram Street
The Route of Surrey Iron Railway ran down Ram Street which was built on its trackbed.
Salvation Army citadel built 1907
Young's Ram Brewery. The earliest mention of brewing is of Humphrey Langridge brewer at the Ram Inn. In 1670 Somerset Draper and his brother Humphrey took over. They sold it to Thomas Tritton who left it to his son, George, a banker, and Chair of the Surrey Iron Railway in 1802. In 1831 Charles Allen Young and Anthony Fothergill Bainbridge bought the brewery and a new beam engine was bought from Wentworths and remained in regular use until the early 1980s. The Ram trademark was registered in 1898. In 1962 John Allen Young, became chairman and promoted traditional draught beer. Young's acquired Foster-Probyn Ltd., an independent bottler, built a £5 million brew house and a new bottling line. In 2000 the beers won six medals and two championship trophies. A team of 24 shire horses was kept for deliveries of beer within a three-mile radius of the brewery and pulled the Lord Mayor's coach in the Lord Mayor's Show. Youngs had nearly 140 tied houses and made Draught Ordinary Bitter, Special Bitter, Best Malt Ale, Winter Warmer or Old Ale, Keg Bitter. Saxon Lager. Pale Ale and Ram Rod. On site were stone sleepers from the Surrey Iron Railway, and a painting in the managing director's office – as well as Ram Rod himself. There was a five-bay mid-Georgian red brick. In 2007 following Charles Young’s death the brewery was closed and moved
Well there was a deep well at the brewery from which local people could get water.
Stables, a c 19 stable block.
Ram Field was the end of the Surrey Iron Railway
St Ann’s Hill
Medieval tile kiln site. Found at the junction with the High Street. Probably belonged to Allfarthing Manor.
St Ann’s CofE primary school. School of industry for girls founded here 1800 and still operating as a primary school in its 1858 building.
190 Plowden and Smith. Artistic restoration specialists
200 Star and Garter
Sudlow Road
East of the road was an arm of the Wandle which was turned into a small dock 1838-1866 and filled in in 1960.
The Plain
Bolting cloth factory. This was on the west side, founded in 1814 and closed in 1919. The business had come from Exeter and used a 1783 patent of Benjamin Blackmore which made seamless cloth.
1-6 Church Row. Dated from 1723 these early Georgian houses have three storeys over basements. The centre house has with a sundial dated 1723.
7-9 are a later c 18 addition.
Fire station –original fire station was here until the 1860s.
Parish watch house and engine house - was also used as a mortuary, were also in the road
Wandle
The New Cut on the Wandle diverged from the river at a bend which is now in King George Parl. small bridge, crossed the New Cut, and which remained in the grounds of the open-air swimming baths. During 1958-63 the Wandle was re-channelled and culverted, and the New Cut filled in.
Wandsworth
Means 'Waendel's enclosure', - a personal name found also in Wendlebury and Wellingborough
Wandsworth High Street
This is on the line of the old main road to Portsmouth, which became the A3.
The route of Surrey Iron Railway crossed the High Street from the area which is now the Arndale Centre and went into Ram Street.
34 Antelope pub. This was previously the Red Lion which was there in 1658. Closed and gone.
52 The Lyric Picture Playhouse opened October 1912. In 1929, it was re-named New Lyric Cinema and also had variety shows for which two artistes dressing rooms were provided. It was re-named New Star Cinema in 1934, but closed in 1935. The building has since been demolished. 52-60 Wandsworth Palace. This was opened as the Palace Theatre, a purpose built cinema, in 1920. In December 1924, a Compton 2Manual/5Ranks organ was installed, opened by organist Ernest Smith. In 1928 it was taken over by United Picture Theatres circuit and was Gaumont British Theatres from 1930. It closed in September 1940 and re-opened in May 1942 and then in 1958 it was re-named Gaumont Theatre. It was closed by the Rank Organisation in 1961 with and converted into bingo which closed in 1979. In 1982 it was used as a church. In 1992 it opened as a nightclub called the Theatre.
59 Friends Meeting House. The original building was on this site in 1673 and built by local fishermen. The present building dates from 1778 and is the oldest Quaker meeting house in London as a humble brick rectangle. The facade was renewed in 1927 and the interior restored to its original condition around 1980. It also has a secluded burial ground.
71 The Spread Eagle. First noted in 1664 this was the principal inn in the town in the 18th. It is Where the Surrey Iron Railway annual general meetings were held, as were sessions of the county court, but was rebuilt in the late 19th and retains wood and glasswork. There was once a drinking fountain outside.
Spread Eagle Assembly Rooms. Built in 1890 this was designed by Keith D. Young, and designed for light entertainment and music hall. It was licensed as a theatre from 1900 as the Wandsworth Palace of Varieties and in 1908 became a cinema, called Picture Palladium and in 1916 The Court Cinema. Closed in 1931. The building was later used as a warehouse for glass and china, a car showroom, a tobacco warehouse and an ironmongers. It was in civil defence use during World War II, and after the war, Young's Brewery used it to store beer crates. It was restored in 1998 and has since remained empty.
73 National Westminster Bank102 behind here were malthouses until 1898130 White Swan pub. First mentioned in 1550. Closed and gone
134 Rose and Crown, which had a horse trough outside itThe Bull pub was on the riverside opposite the Ram Brewery. It was a Young’s pub destroyed in Second World War bombing.
Dutch Yard stood south of the street and was probably the site of a late 17th for John de Raed.
James Yard was back from the High Street on the west bank of the Wandle. Now under the Arndale Centre. James had an iron mill to the south.
South Thames College. Built as a technical institute by the L.C.C. architect, G. Topham Forrest in 1926. It was opened by Queen Mary in 1937 and the key she used is in the member's library. The Site had previously been that of the Parsonage.
Wandsworth Town Hall and Council Offices. There have been four phases of building here over a century. The first town hall of red brick and Dumfries stone was built by Wandsworth vestry 1879-81. Designed by George Patrick it had offices and a public hall. It was demolished in the 1970s following bomb damage. It had an unusual recessed carriage way, later enclosed. An extension was designed by the Borough Surveyor, Ernest J. Elford, in an unpretentious style. In 1935 the Council agreed a large Modern, style office block on a corner site adjoining the hall, planned as the centrepiece of a town redevelopment by architect Edward A. Hunt. It is triangular and planned around a courtyard and with forecourt gardens. There is a frieze around the outside showing Wandsworth's history undertaken by D Evans and John Lanehan. Inside is a lavish entrance hall lined and paved in onyx panels, with a spiky pattern bronze balustrade. There is a polygonal first floor council chamber. In 1973 Culpin & Partners added a modern brick office extension on the site of the original building.
Public baths. These were opened in 1901 with two pools and slipper baths and which could be floored over and used as an Assembly Hall in the winter. There was a Club room and Water came from an artesian well. Closed in 1968 and the site is under the Arndale Centre.
All Saints Church. Built by Westminster Abbey for their tenants here but nothing is visible of their medieval church. It was named in 1234 by John de Panoma. It has a modest brick tower; the lower part dating from 1630, – now the oldest building in the parish - and the upper parts added in 1841 and restored in 1955 after war damage. The church itself was rebuilt in 1779-80 by William Jupp, was altered with a new roof in 1899-1900. Monuments: Brass to Nicholas Maudyt, 1420, in armour but with the head missing; Henry Smith f 1627, kneeling in profile against a niche flanked by columns; Susanna Powell 1630; brass of 1420 to soldier.
Down Lodge Hall. Built in 1883 as a mission hall to commemorate visit of Sankey and Moody.
Methodist Chapel. Wesley preached in Gilbert's house in 1795 and baptised two slaves. Used by the Primitive Methodists until 1957.
68 Ram Inn which is now called the Brewery Tap. It dates from at least 1550. It was rebuilt in 1883, which is recorded by a plaque on the building.
Wandsworth Bridge, to the left of the crossing, was already a stone bridge in 1569, but could have been Roman. Has been rebuilt several times since: in 1602 following a legend that Elizabeth I had to ford it, in 1757 when it was widened and again in 1820 for the turnpike road. Then again in 1912.
West Hill
St Thomas a Becket Roman Catholic Church which was designed by Edward Goldie and is listed Grade II. A mission was established in 1841, rooms above the George and Dragon Pub., a small church, designed by Pugin, and was built in 1847 replaced by the present church in 1893.
Library, opened in 1885 in Putney Lodge. A reading room was added as a gift from D.G.Longstaff. The Longstaff room was kept when the library was rebuilt in 1937. Gates removed in the Second World War,
The De Morgan Centre for the work by William De Morgan, the Victorian ceramic artist and his wife Evelyn, the painter. In 2002, it was rehoused at the former West Hill Reference Library which dates from 1887.
Putney Lodge was on the site of the library. It was the home of, horticulturalist, Sigismund Rucker until the 1880s. It had been built by Henry Goodwin. Had a well outside and the building was frequently waterlogged
Lebanon House was opposite the library with a cedar tree in the grounds.
Police Station dates from 1883, it included a magistrate’s court which was very small and it moved in 1892.
The Sword House stood on the site of the current police station. It was a 16th house demolished in 1875. It is said that an owner, a survivor of Culloden, decorated it with salvaged Highland swords.
Convent of the Sacred Heart
Police Station which has been here since 1892. Current building 1955.
York Road
The Route of the Surrey Iron Railway Crossed York Road and then followed the Wandle to the Thames.
York Road, was the lower or 'summer' road to London, and called Slough Lane
Memorial to the Surrey Iron Railway with a plaque and sleepers. Which disappeared in the 1960s. Until the 1930s, there was a kerb of sleepers right down York Road from the Ram Inn to the dock
Sources
Osborne. Defending London
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