Riverside. south bank, west of the Tower. Old Battersea
Riverside. south bank, west of the Tower. Old Battersea
Post to the south Battersea York Road
Post to the north Battersea Morgan's Walk
Althorpe Grove
This is on the sites of Althorpe and Surrey Houses, as well as some smaller housing blocks and was developed by the Greater London Council. It was begun in 1976 originally as an extension to the Somerset Estate but developed into a Mix of new-build with old buildings. This followed local pressure and a public enquiry. The job architect was Nicholas Wood of the GLC Department of Architecture’s Housing Branch. The estate is bisected by Westbridge Road and includes buildings in Church Road; and the High Street. The layout sought to give river views where possible. There was a shallow stream for paddling and cast-concrete portrait heads of various celebrities are on some of the buildings. There was to be a Club room and a nursery school
Battersea Church Road
Phoenix Wharf. This was south of Garden Wharf (see square to the north) and in the mid 19th was in Phoenix Wharf Lane, off Church Road. In the 1890s it was leased to the Compressed Gas Co Ltd and then by Cooke & Co. who undertook large scale construction contracts
Pier Wharf or Sunderland Wharf. In 1890 this was in use by William Bridge for coal and lighterage
Rodney Wharf. In the 1860s used by John Bullock manufacturing chemist who had moved there from Bond Street. After his bankruptcy it was used by a Mr. Lomas who made gunpowder flakes.
100 Monteventro. Richard Rogers designed block of flats on the site of Battersea Mills. Monteventro means ‘glass mountain’ which may well describe this building.
Bolingbroke House. This was built by the St John family on part of the site of the medieval manor house of Battersea, in the early 17th. It is said to have been the seat of Lord Spencer. It was partly demolished in 1775. The remains of the house remained in the mill complex - the miller Thomas Dives lived there in 1841. Battersea Normal College may have been founded here. In the 1840s.In 1876 it was taken over by the local vicar and was used as Bolingbroke Hospital. When this moved to Wakehurst Road around 1901 the house became derelict. Demolished in 1926.
The Horizontal Windmill. This was on the site of Bolingbroke house and built in 1788 by Thomas Fowler to Stephen Hooper's design. It was in the shape of the dome containing a machine of the same shape and nearly the same dimensions as the dome with just space to turn round in it. It had floats like a water mill only moved by the wind. It is said to have originally been erected to grind colours for Fowlers’ Piccadilly business and also that it was used for grinding linseed for oil but later used as by Hodgson and Co., as part of their maltings and later by the miller at Battersea Mill, Thomas Dives, using steam power. It was demolished in 1849
Battersea Mills. These were on the riverside on the site now used for the Monteventro development. The corn mills originally used the air mill. It was replaced and in the hand of the Dives family until the 1880s when it was passed to the Mayhew family – with Dives retaining an interest for some years. The mill was replaced in the early 20th by Mark Mayhew Ltd as a four-storey brick mill erected to the designs of C. A. Milner. This was a roller mill—using steel rollers to crush the grain, not millstones—operating on the latest ‘gradual reduction’ Simon system. It was extended in the later 1890s or early 1900s. It was eventually taken over by Rank to finally become Rank Hovis McDougal. The mills were again rebuilt for Rank by Sir Alfred Gelder and Llewellyn Kitchen. In 1915–18 land was reclaimed from the river and a new mill and silo were built. There were more extensions in the 1930s. The mills closed in 1992, and were sold and demolished in 1997.
Malthouse. This appears to precede the corn mill and to have originally used the air mill. On maps however it is shown as a large building to the south of the corn mill. It is also described as a distillery owned for more than one generation of Hodgsons. As early as 1799 they had installed a second hand Boulton and Watt steam engine here. There were a number of Hodgsons in the brewing trade in the 19th. In the middle of the 19th a system had developed here of fattening cattle using waste grain from the maltings. By the 1890s it was owned by John Watney and Sons. The old malting was cleared and its wharf extended.
73-77 Bolingbroke Works. This was at the end of Bolingbrooke Road and was the “Silicated carbon filter works - Dahlike’s patent”. This was a water filter works
91 United Methodist Free church
115 Althorpe House. House opposite the church with 17th and 18th features. Became an asylum and later dye works offices. Demolished in 1965.
St.Mary’s. Battersea Parish Church is a brick building with a square tower and a spire, which faces the river. It was re- built in 1777 by Joseph Dixon, and replaced an earlier structure which had stood here as early as 800 AD. It has detailed records from 1559 and a record from 1379 of structural work undertaken by Henry Yevele – and his work remains in the east window. Dixon’s was designed as a brick preaching box. Arthur Blomfield supervised a restoration in 1876-78 and 16th monuments remain in the church.
Churchyard. This has been much altered and stones cleared and planting done. Mortuary – built in 1876 in the churchyard near the river, following some incidents in the church. No longer there
Slipway. Public drawdock and concrete ramp but only suitable for small boats. This was Parish Wharf
116 Old Swan flats. These were built in 1995 to designs by Michael Squire Assocs,
116 Old Swan public house. This was an old riverside pub used as a mark point for river races and said to have been much used by river workers. Until the 1960s it was a three storey corner pub which had been rebuilt in 1892 by Thomas Moss. It was again rebuilt in 1962 with a lower building with a pitched roof by Stewart Hendry & Smith for Mann, Crossman & Paulin. Only four years later it was remodelled with a barging and lighterage theme, with an inside full of wooden planking. It was known for drag shows and later punk rock venue. Closed and derelict it was burnt down in 1986. Now replaced by flats
Swan Wharf. This was to the south of the Swan Pub
126 William Hendra. Hendra had come to London from Cornwall and opened a foundry in Chelsea in 1838. Joined by his five sons he had extended to this works in Battersea and Kings Cross. This works was still extant in the 1890.
141 Dimson Lodge part of Althorpe development. This tenants all was named for Gladys Dimson, who represented the area on the Greater London Council. Since 2007 has been a clubroom for the elderly as well as providing a meeting and community space.
Sparkford House. The block is on the Somerset Estate, which was designed by British modernist architect Colin Lucas and built in the 1964 for the Greater London Council. It has 21 storeys.
River Iron Foundry, latterly part of Morgan Crucible.
Battersea High Street
28 The Priory. This house had been in 1761 a pub called the Adam and Eve and later the Grotto. Various inhabitants were local dignitaries. In 1931 the London County Council bought it and the school took it over and demolished it.
Sir Walter St John's School. Founded in 1700 or earlier and it was then small and humble. During the 18th the school stagnated and it as known as the Battersea Free or Charity or Village School with 23 pupils. . In 1808 a new Vicar found that every room in the schoolhouse apart from the schoolroom itself had been let. He tried to bring it into line with the National School system for educating the poor on Anglican principles. In 1839 the Vestry agreed to use compensation money from the London & Southampton Railway for an extension to the school built in 1840 by Pipers of Bishopsgate to Sampson Kempthorne’s design. In 1853 a fresh scheme of management was obtained following a public meeting and calls for more middle class education. Land was bought and Butterfield was appointed. The master’s house replaced the old school, though the 1840 extension to its north survived. There were two schoolrooms, one classroom and a ‘hat room’ on each floor. The school reopened in June 1859. In 1880 it was resolved to shut the elementary school. The middle school became officially a grammar school in 1902. Partly funded by the London County Council many changes and extensions were made during the 20th, including repairs for extensive war time bomb damage. In 1944 it became a voluntary controlled grammar school. It was amalgamated in 1977 with William Blake School as a voluntary boys’ comprehensive. Because of falling secondary rolls, in 1988 that school was in turn merged into Battersea Park School. What survives from Butterfield is the centre of the present range in diapered brick with stone dressings and an entrance through a double archway. The classrooms - originally five - were reached by an external staircase. The head master’s house was replaced in 1913 by the hall and gymnasium by A.H. Ryan Tennison. The hall is an upper room with an open timber root although the stage is an extension by T. Denny of 1937-8. In the library is a stained glass window by Lawrence Lee from 1968. Sir Walter St John’s School moved from here in until 1986. It was succeeded by a private preparatory school, Thomas’s, which took over the buildings in 1990.
Surrey House. Became an asylum and was eventually pulled down in the late 1850s for the rebuilding of Sir Walter St John’s School,
Lindsay Court. Tower block built by the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea in 1961 designed by Howes & Jackman and built by A. A. Stuart & Sons.
42-44 Original Woodman this is now Le QuecumBar and Brasserie. This was rebuilt in 1888 and has been altered since.
47 Foresters’ Arms de-licensed and derelict in 1914
Restoration Square. Built in 2000. Its basis was the old cigar factory and reusing some of the factory buildings.
64-66 Allen Brothers Cigar and tobacco manufacture St John’s cigar factory of 1875–8. St John’s Factory was built in 1875 by Merritt & Ashby for Allen and Ernest Lambert, the younger sons of the founder of Lambert & Butler, who traded as Allen Brothers. Imperial Tobacco closed the works, which was by then a pipe factory, about 1930. In the late 1950s the factory as used by the Ductube Company Ltd, makers of inflatable tubing for laying ducts in concrete.
Powrie House. This is on the site of Goslings Yard. This was built by Battersea Borough council and named after a headmaster of St Mary’s School. It was built in 1958–9 by Prestige & Co, probably to the designs of Howes & Jackman. With some Festival of Britain features in the design,
60 The Woodman. Built in the 1840s
106 a temperance public house was intended to be built by the Katherine Low Settlement in memory of their first president. It was designed by the architects Constantine & Vernon with a games hall, club rooms and mezzanine kitchen. It was sold in the early 1990s to Battersea Churches Housing Trust, but later became a private house.
Grove House. This was north of The Cedars. In 1712 it belonged to Charles Carkesse. The house was demolished in the mid 1880s for the building of Orville Road.
108 The Cedars Working girls club. This is now the Katherine Low Settlement. She was a philanthropist in whose memory this was founded in 1924. This is the only survivor of several large houses in this part of the High Street. It is a house of the 1760s. It was then the home of a John Camden, a descendant of the antiquary William Camden. About 1851 the house was partly rebuilt for William Garrad Baker of May & Baker. Set at right-angles to the road, the house retains its 18th footprint. The entrance once looked over a terrace and cedar-dotted lawns. Some land was taken in 1860 by the West London Extension Railway When the T house was occupied by William Cory, founder of the coal merchants .In 1880 it opened as a home for ‘working gentlewomen’ or ‘lady students’. It later became a clergy house with a girls’ club-house in the garden. The poverty of his part of Battersea attracted attention and from 1906 the mission was set up here. After the Great War in 1923 Christ’s College Cambridge initiative, Christ’s College Boys’ Club introduced the all-female Katherine Low Settlement to the club. Very little is known of Katherine Low who was a wealthy American with no known Battersea connections. In the grounds by the railway embankment is a modern concrete building used as a children’s nursery. A blue plaque was put on the building in 2014.
The Retreat. This was opposite The Cedars and Princess Marie-, Duchess of Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI, lived here in 1815 before returning to France after Napoleon’s final defeat. There are however records of its occupation in the early 18th by a series of businessmen and high ranking officials.
The Retreat. This was built in the grounds of the older house in 1837. In the mid 19th the name was changed to Southlands. In the 1850s it was opened as a military academy. This Academy had closed by 1871, when it was sold for use as a teacher-training college and became for South Thames College. It is by Withers & Meredith. In 1927 the property was bought by Battersea Council for a health centre, baths, library and other activities. The house was destroyed in Second World War bombing leaving just a wing dating from 1904–5, now Old Library Apartments
Manor House. This was a house from the early 18th. . It was occupied by a series of lawyers. It was later demolished for the railway
Manor House. This was a 19th house built in the grounds of the demolished predecessor and fronting the High Street. It was the home of a builder.
Battersea Station. Built In the early 1860s by West London Extension Railway on the site of a building called the Manor House. It was opened in 1863 and closed in 1940 after air raid damage. It was never reopened. The station was built on an embankment entirely of wood at track level to lessen the weight. There was a brick-built street-level building was the east side of Battersea High Street north of the line with a ticket office and ladies waiting room. There were covered stairways to the platforms. The burnt out remains survived into the 1970s.
Signal Box. This was west of the station and rebuilt in 1873. In 1936 it was closed and demolished.
115 Castle. The original pub was destroyed in Second World War bombing and demolished in 1963. This is a rebuild for Young & Co of 1964–5 designed by William G. Ingram, Son & Archer. The Castle is said to be one of Battersea’s oldest inns dating back to 1600. The name is first recorded in 1695.The previous building may have been 17th with a large public bar and a narrow staircase behind which was a parlour. The cellar had been extended in the 1880s. The sign restored in the 1950s was a 5ft-high semi-circular wooden structure
122 Brethren Meeting Room. Demolished,
124–128 block of flats by Walter Menteth Architects, built in 1998 for the Ujima Housing Association, providing accommodation in part for the disabled.
Battersea High Street market. This began in the 1890s
130 Salvation Army barracks. Built in 1883 in Gurlimgs Yard
130 George Potter House. An old people’s home with an attached day centre built from 1973 to designs by Ryders
134 Laburnum House. Battersea Liberal Club and Institute. Built 1882. At the start of the Great War the club closed and became a lodging house. It was later taken over by the Methodists’ Battersea Central Mission and in 1938 they built up the front as a milk bar. This is said to have replaced a Temperance hall
136 Greyhound Pub. This had a music license by 1868. It is now the Bellevue
137 Icon Building. This is on the site of the Railway Hotel. Six bar pub built in the 1860s, since demolished Following destruction in Second World War bombing. In the 1970s it became a Royal Naval Association clubhouse
Battersea Railway Bridge
The Battersea Railway Bridge. This is also called the Cremorne Bridge after the pleasure grounds and also as the Falcon Bridge. It carries the railway between Battersea and Chelsea and forming part of the West London Line on the London Overground. It was designed by William Baker chief engineer of the London and North West Railway and was opened in 1863. It carries two sets of railway lines and has five m) lattice girder arches set on stone piers. On the south side there are four arches, two of which are for as storage by houseboat residents downstream of the bridge. .It refurbished in 1969, and in 1992.
Battersea Square
This became known as Battersea Square following a designation as a Conservation Area in 1972 and in 1990 the name was formally readopted, and properties renumbered: This is the area of the old village green. In 1656 it ea called the Elms or Elm Trees and the tress seemed to define a triangular island in the open space. By the mid 19th it was known as the Square. It was the site of the parish stocks, which were replaced by a pump.
3 Oak Wharf. Wharf used for coal and lime transhipment. There was also a rowing and social club there. Symondson coal
7-9 restaurant in London House built by a linen draper James Bennett in 1866 with a yard and workshops behind. This was used as a night club in the 1970s and has been a series of restaurants since, mostly called Bennetts.
9 Elmore and Scott. Barge builders who were here in the 1870s
11 St Mary’s Mission room and Reading Room
20 - 22 Gonville House. In the 1880s this was run by Caius College Mission
32 Bricklayers’ Arms beer house. In 1861 this was called the General Garibaldi. It is now a restaurant
34 Ship House with the shop and offices of the Victoria Granaries behind, dating from 1890–2. The granaries were established in 1891–2 by Augustus Hall in the grounds of Devonshire House. The original buildings were designed by Robert Burr8. A. F. Hall & Sons, corn and flour merchants, who remained here until the Second World War. In 1984–5 the main granary was converted to dance studios for the Royal Academy of Dance. Ship House became offices in 1989–91.
35 the new granary built 1907 by J. H. May,
Albion House. This was one of two 18th houses. In the early 19th it was a boys’ boarding school. The houses were demolished about 1825, and their sites added to the grounds of Devonshire House.
Cotswold Mews, conversion of the buildings of the Cotswold Laundry built in.1914. It later became a plastics factory but the current building is 1937.
Workhouse. In 1791 a parish workhouse was needed with more space in it and a Mr Duff offered the lease of a house. This became the new workhouse with 63 inmates in 1792. Demolished in 1839 when the Union workhouse was available
Almshouses. There were 17th parish almshouses at the top of the High Street. They were demolished in the 18th and replace by some elsewhere.
Bolingbroke Gardens
This appears to have been on the site of Bolingbroke House in Church Road.
Foot, Brown and Co. This was managed by Charlotte Foot from 1839 along with another works in Bow. It was a chemical and dye manufacturing company. Charlotte bought ammoniacal liquor from the Imperial Gas Company in the 1830s and in the 1850s undertook experiments to determine the validity of a number of purification patents.
Bridges Court
The London Heliport. Battersea Heliport began in 1959 as Westland Helicopters. Following closure of the City of London floating helipad at Trigg Lane in 1985, it became the only CAA licensed heliport serving the City of London. The London Heliport continues to provide an essential service to the business community and local emergency services, like the London Air Ambulance
Grove Works. This was Walter Carson & Sons’ paint and varnish works which survived into the 1960s
Gwynne Road
The road is named after James Gwynne who was the developer of this estate. Gwynne was one of the family of Gwynne’s Pump and Engineering business of the Essex Street in the Strand, later part of Vickers.
2 Modernist block by Walter Menteth for Ujima Housing built 1998. Pure white cube.
Holman Road
Caius House. Caius College Mission was established here in 1890. It was originally in a purpose-built tall, Gothic, red-brick structure with a boxing club
Caius Youth Club
St Mary this was built in 1895 as an unconsecrated Chapel of Ease to St Mary's Battersea. It was a joint venture between St Mary's and Caius College Cambridge. Recently it has only been used for an annual carol service. Probably demolished
Lombard Road
Before the road was built John Smyth had sugar-houses in the 1670s, where he refined ‘very great quantities yearly’ of raw sugars imported from Barbados
Albion Wharf. Used by Cole lighterman. In 1915 it was rudimentary with a high old brick workshop, a lean-to at the side, an earth floor, and a slipway into the river
Alfred H. Keep, barge builder. Harry Keep also had a yard at Greenhithe, which was eventually taken over and became Everards. He is described as ‘senior partner’ in a lighterage and tug business with an address in Lower Thames Street.
4 White Hart Pub. Demolished in the early 1980s . The pub is said to have dated from the 17th and to have been visited by Charles II. However the first recorded reference is 1757. It was accessible from the riverside and included a boat hire business. Most recently a new building on the site was a Thai restaurant but previously Battersea Boathouse, Riverside and River Rat, and Chandler.
6 Lombard Wharf. This wharf is shown on various maps in the 19th and is sometimes shown as north and sometimes as south of the railway bridge. A 28 storey block of flats is planned for this site south of the bridge. Designed by Patel Taylor it has wraparound balconies, rotated at an angle of two degrees, to appear as a series of ‘rotating discs’. From the 1870s the wharf was used by West Bros., fire brick makers, and later by a firm of car breakers.
12 Wigmore Wharf – shown south of the railway bridge and in the 1950s used by Alex Dribbell, haulage contractors
Lombard Lodge. A riverside house shown south of Lombard Wharf in 1867 when it had already been sold for development.
Frame Food Works. In the 1890s this was on Lombard wharf south of the bridge. Frame Food specialised in invalid, baby and diet food made from processed wheat bran.
Oyster Wharf. Flats on riverside site also described as Regent Wharf.
Star Athletic Grounds – this was a running track used by professionals from probably the late 1870s and certainly in the 1880s. It was near triangular in shape and with an entrance on Lombard Road just north of the railway.
Battersea House – large detached house south of Lombard Wharf which was the successor to a house in existence by 1547. It was owned from the 1660s - 1790s by the Smith family who owned the nearby Sugar Houses. It was rebuilt and was occupied by a series of dignitaries. Demolished in 1870.
Falcon Wharf. In 1901 a three-storey block of stabling had been, built to J. T. Pilditch’s designs. There were 96 stalls, eight loose boxes and six harness rooms with a ramp leading to a cantilevered inner gallery. The top storey, served was used to store fodder, There were also houses for senior staff. The buildings were gradually adapted for lorries and the draw dock was converted to a wet dock for rubbish barges which has previously used Grove Wharf, the whole of which was needed for loading and storing coal. The stable building itself was replaced in 1977 by a systems-built office block. From 1977 the wharf housed the old Battersea Direct Labour organisation taken over by Tory Wandsworth who closed them down finally in 1985.
Grove Wharf. Owned by the vestry and used for coal deliveries to the power station.
Cave house. Big house, called The Cave or Cave House, built c.1765-85. Demolished in 1870
Theodore Audoire. Chemical works making benzine rect., carbolic powders, creosol, and sheep dips. The works was bought up by the Council for the construction of the electricity works.
Walnut Tree Lodge. Another big house in substantial grounds towards the south end of the street.
Whiffen Chemical Works. Whiffen joined Jacob Hulle in his chemical business in the late 1850s which used Lombard House, with a large former sugar-house in its garden by the river – the sugar-house had been converted to a turpentine factory in the 1780s by Edward Webster. There they made strychnine and quinine. Hulle retired in 1868 and the business expanded under Whiffen. And by 1933 had moved to Fulham. Whiffen had by then other works in various parts of London.
Fred Wells Gardens. This open space known is on land previously used for small works yards, plus a greyhound track. Fred Wells died in 1982 who was a long-serving Labour Councillor, who represented Latchmere Ward. The park that was opened in 1982 was named in his honour. At the other end the area was Orville Road Open Space. The site of 19th houses demolished by bombing in the Second World War and was replaced with prefabs.
Battersea Stadium. The Battersea track first held racing in 1930. It operated under the official NGRC It was next to the present day London Heliport. In February 1937 it was purchased by the Greyhound Racing Association who wanted to close it and build an ice rink. It closed during the Second World War and was eventually replaced by the Arndale shopping centre – later called Southside - in 1971.
Lombard Road Power Station. Opened in 1901. Until 1972 Battersea was served by a generating station built in Lombard Road by the Battersea Vestry and opened by Battersea Borough Council, in 1901. The Battersea Electric Lighting Order, of 1896, was the ninth local authority in London with this power and the first south of the river. The site, bounded by Lombard, Gwynne, Harroway and Holman Roads, was bought by the Vestry in 1897–8. Coal was delivered to Grove Wharf which the Vestry owned. It was built by direct labour designed by C. Stanley Peach, with the electrical engineer Alexander Kennedy. The power generated was for lighting as well as for machinery and trams. The buildings were in brick with a circular tower at the street corner, there was a dominating octagonal chimney. An inclined coal conveyor ran from Grove Wharf across Lombard Road. Mains were laid in 32 streets and threw main roads were lit by arc lamps supplied by the General Electric Company. A well was sunk to supply the station’s boilers. In 1915, when the Hammersmith, Battersea and Fulham generating stations were connected to allow the Central Electricity Board to link the station into the new National Grid, and this meant a switch to alternating current. A further generator and switch house were added in 1931. By 1939 more than 73 million kWh were being supplied to Battersea and another 27 million to the National Grid. Following nationalisation the buildings were again in 1952 and the chimney was demolished. It generated for the last time in 1972. Only the boiler room wall is said to remain. There is also a substation on the corner with Holman Road.
Vicarage Crescent
This was called Vicarage Road and the east west section was Green Lane. The riverside area was called ‘The Wharf’ until the 1890s when it was laid out as a road and the foreshore embanked to become Vicarage Gardens
6-8 Laburnum House. Clubhouse of the Battersea Liberal Association replacing the old clubhouse called Laburnum House in Battersea High Street.
27 - 29 St Mary's Church of England Primary School, this is dated 1855 on a centrally placed plaque which says "NATIONAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AND INFANTS. THESE BUILDINGS WERE ERECTED BY MISS CHAMPION ON LAND GRANTED BY EARL SPENCER AND OPENED APRIL 10TH 1855 FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR. It is in the form of a pair of houses and was also called Green Lanes School. It was closed in 1985 and converted to housing
St.John's Estate. This was built 1931-4 by W. J. Dresden for Battersea Borough Council as blocks of flats in the London County Council between-the-wars type. It is on what were gardens of Terrace House, later used by St. Johns college. It was sold off by the Tory Wandsworth Council to a private developer in 1981 and the flats sold off to non-council tenants.
30 Old Battersea House. This was also known as Terrace House. Built in 1699 and probably replacing a house called Stanlies. This is late 17th, plain but substantial. It was restored, by Vernon Gibberd, in 1972-4. A carved frieze with globe and instruments may refer to Samuel Pett, Controller of Victualling to the Navy who lived here in the 17th. There is a sundial with the date 1699. The house was occupied by a series of industrialists and business people – many connected with shipbuilding and with Pett family connections. In the early 19th this included member of the Perry family, and George Green of Blackwall Yard lived nearby as an apprentice. From 1840 it was the headquarters of of St John's College until 1923. Later a row developed on preservation and development issues. It was eventually restored and set up as the de Morgan museum a of pottery and pre-Raphaelite painting by Mr. & Mrs Stirling who also lived there which lasted until Mrs. Stirling died aged 100 in 1965. There was constant detonation and vandalism. The house was eventually sold in 2011 and the collection given to Wandsworth Council.
St John's Training College. This was on the grounds of Terrace House and later used for the St. John’s Estate. It was originally the Normal School for Schoolmasters at Battersea, then Battersea Training College or Normal School and later from 1872 St. John’s (Training) College. In the 1830s Poor Law Commissioner James Kay-Shuttleworth began to be concerned about education for the poor and was lent Terrace House to use.= as a training college. Young men were to be trained as teachers and work was done along with the local village school which had attracted attention for its work under Robert Eden. Funding was not secure until it was taken over in 1843 by the National Society for the Church of England. It became the largest of a series of Anglican training colleges. There were extensions of lecture theatres and dormitories. A chapel was built by Butterfield in 1857. In the 1890s there was considerable expansion with the purchase of land from Battersea Vestry and the purchase of the freehold of the site with help from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. A library, a gym and much more were added. In 1923 it was merged with St. Mark’s College Chelsea and eventually closed. It was purchased by Battersea Council.
32 Vicarage built in the early 1970s on part of the garden of the original vicarage.
42 St. Mary’s House. This is the former vicarage. It was probably built around 1800 and was substantially rebuilt in the 1820s. It was let out in the 1880s was a ladies' school and from 1887 used by the Caius College Mission. . It is also known as Deralie House. There is a Blue Plaque to Edward Adrian Wilson 'Antarctic explorer and naturalist who lived here’. In the 1970s it was converted to offices and restored again with an extension to the rear. There was a 19th church hall behind.
44 Devonshire House. This was part of Sir Walter St John School. It dates from around c.1700. Inside is original panelling and a narrow hall leading to a stair-hall at the back; staircase with twisted balusters. In the 19th it was the home of the Condy family of the Bollman Condy chemical works. It was later used as offices by the Gaston E, Marbaix machine tool company and then as a sixth form centre for St.John’s School 1971-1986. It is now a private house.
Vicarage Wharf - Lawn House. This probably darted from the 1770s. It was also called Lawn Cottage. It was later used 1866-1907 by the, hitherto Lambeth based, barge builders Nash and Miller. At what was later known as Vicarage Wharf, as Robert, and later Hugh and John Miller, they ran a very considerable fleet of spritsail barges – Myra, Monica, Muriel, Myrtle, Marjorie, Mona, and others. After which it was used by Ranks as a warehouse. It was burnt out in the 1920s. It is now the Riverains flat site
71 Riverains – Vicarage Wharf. Built in 1973–4 for the Rowe Housing Trust, now part of Octavia Housing. The architects were Jefferson Sheard & Partners
Valiant House. This was begun in 1971 with flats in two seven-storey blocks, built on Valiant Wharf and the Iron River Foundry. The architects were Stefan Zins Associates. This led the way for waterside apartments along the Thames.
Valiant Wharf. Concrete works and batching plant. In the late 1950s Ham River House was built and let to Securicor. It was demolished in 2005 and rebuilt as flats and offices.
Vicarage Gardens. Laid out along the foreshore plus an embankment in the 1890s
West Bridge Road
This was once called Ferry Lane, and also King Street
Lammas Hall. In 1858 Battersea Vestry received compensation money for extinguished Lammas rights for the construction of Battersea Park. It was decided to build a hall. They bought a newly built beerhouse and converted that and it opened in 1858 with a sign above the doorway announcing that. It was used for community and club meetings and the vestry met there. In 1888 the new borough used the old Board of Works offices and the hall was converted into a library. It was demolished in 1970.
140 Raven Pub. This dates from the 17th and is dated by its curved Dutch gables. It was once called the Black Raven’ and was used for parish meetings and inquests. It was done up in 2013.
Yelverton Road
Totteridge House. This is a 21-storey tower. J. C. Bianco & Associates was the engineer. The ground floor has a full height frieze of relief figures
Sambrook's Brewery. Here since 2008
York Road
20-22 Battersea Central Mission. This was established in 1940 by Rev John A Thompson who saw need in Battersea, widespread poverty, inadequate housing, healthcare and education. He struggled to buy land and fund the Mission. During the Second World the basement was a bomb shelter for about a thousand people. The Mission was not only a church but a place where children and young people were welcomed, taught and often fed and clothed. The elderly were visited and cared for and families were helped. Thompson wanted a Christian health centre and threw was a physiotherapy clinic and a day nursery for children from broken or distressed homes. In 1974, Lord Rank funded the Rank Teaching Centre, where doctors and nurses could be are trained in the treatment of ulcers. Along with this and many socially focussed organisations have used the facilities. The Church has also become a multi-cultural community. in 2009 the Mission closed its doors for what many thought would be the last time as the building required a vast sum spent to make it fit for purpose. But in 2010 it re-opened.
30 Falcon Pencil Works. Elias Wolff was a pencil maker working, in Spitalfields in the 1840s. His pencils were exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition. The Falcon Pencil Works in Gurling’s Yard was built in 1878 for the company. The factory closed in the early 1920s after they were taken over by the new Royal Sovereign Pencil Co. Ltd, and production moved to Neasden.
32 Super Palace/Washington Music Hall. The Royal Standard Music Hall had been built in 1886 and was operated by George Washington Moore and thus was known as the Washington Music Hall. In 1900 it was the Battersea Palace of Varieties, in 1901 the Washington Music Hall; in 1902 the New Battersea Empire Theatre; in 1903 Battersea Empire Theatre and in 1908 the Palace Theatre of Varieties. It then began to show films as well as variety and became part of the MacNaghten Vaudeville Circuit, and changed its name again in 1917 to the Battersea Palace Theatre. In 1924 it was converted into a full time cinema and in 1929 was called the Super Palace. It still had some variety turns on the stage and showed films on ABC release. After the Second World War it was taken over by Bloom Theatres Ltd. and closed in 1958. It was demolished around 1969.
Battersea Grove Boys School. Connected to the Battersea Chapel. In 1799, under the Rev. Joseph Hughes a committee of Baptist subscribers set up a charity school. They were based in Grove House until 1824. In 1840 it was decided to build a new school and it was built on a site opposite Lombard Road by George & J. W. Bridger of Aldgate. It was closed in 1887, and it became a Sunday school and vaccination centre.
Battersea Chapel. A group of Baptists took the name of the Battersea Chapel in the 18th traditionally in 1736. The chapel stood the north side of York Road east of the junction with Lombard Road and this sited is noted in 1728. It built or rebuilt in about 177. By the end of the century the Meeting-house was occupied by a group who described themselves as ‘Protestant Dissenters of the Antipaedobaptist Denomination’. The freehold was purchased in 1842 and the chapel was refurbished and a date plaque ‘1736’ put up. Soon the chapel expanded further and a new building was erected in 1870 to, seat 900. Following Second World War damage in 1940, the Battersea Chapel was restored and reopened in 1956. In 1963 a negotiation with Battersea Council ended with an agreement to resite the chapel and school in a new building in Wye Street.
Sources
Bartlett School. Survey of London. Web site
Battersea Methodist Mission. Web site
British Brick Society. Web site.
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London.
Disused Stations. Web site
Family History Notebook. Web site
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Greater London Council. Thames Guidelines
Kathleen Low Settlement. Web site
London Borough of Wandsworth. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
Mersea Barge Museum. Web site
Nairn. Nairn’s London
O’Connor. London’s Forgotten Stations
Panorama of the Thames. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Pub History. Web site
Runtrackdir. Web site
Simmonds. All Ahout Battersea
Summerson. London’s Georgian Buildings
Thorpe. Old and New South London
Wikipedia Web Site – Battersea Railway Bridge
Post to the south Battersea York Road
Post to the north Battersea Morgan's Walk
Althorpe Grove
This is on the sites of Althorpe and Surrey Houses, as well as some smaller housing blocks and was developed by the Greater London Council. It was begun in 1976 originally as an extension to the Somerset Estate but developed into a Mix of new-build with old buildings. This followed local pressure and a public enquiry. The job architect was Nicholas Wood of the GLC Department of Architecture’s Housing Branch. The estate is bisected by Westbridge Road and includes buildings in Church Road; and the High Street. The layout sought to give river views where possible. There was a shallow stream for paddling and cast-concrete portrait heads of various celebrities are on some of the buildings. There was to be a Club room and a nursery school
Battersea Church Road
Phoenix Wharf. This was south of Garden Wharf (see square to the north) and in the mid 19th was in Phoenix Wharf Lane, off Church Road. In the 1890s it was leased to the Compressed Gas Co Ltd and then by Cooke & Co. who undertook large scale construction contracts
Pier Wharf or Sunderland Wharf. In 1890 this was in use by William Bridge for coal and lighterage
Rodney Wharf. In the 1860s used by John Bullock manufacturing chemist who had moved there from Bond Street. After his bankruptcy it was used by a Mr. Lomas who made gunpowder flakes.
100 Monteventro. Richard Rogers designed block of flats on the site of Battersea Mills. Monteventro means ‘glass mountain’ which may well describe this building.
Bolingbroke House. This was built by the St John family on part of the site of the medieval manor house of Battersea, in the early 17th. It is said to have been the seat of Lord Spencer. It was partly demolished in 1775. The remains of the house remained in the mill complex - the miller Thomas Dives lived there in 1841. Battersea Normal College may have been founded here. In the 1840s.In 1876 it was taken over by the local vicar and was used as Bolingbroke Hospital. When this moved to Wakehurst Road around 1901 the house became derelict. Demolished in 1926.
The Horizontal Windmill. This was on the site of Bolingbroke house and built in 1788 by Thomas Fowler to Stephen Hooper's design. It was in the shape of the dome containing a machine of the same shape and nearly the same dimensions as the dome with just space to turn round in it. It had floats like a water mill only moved by the wind. It is said to have originally been erected to grind colours for Fowlers’ Piccadilly business and also that it was used for grinding linseed for oil but later used as by Hodgson and Co., as part of their maltings and later by the miller at Battersea Mill, Thomas Dives, using steam power. It was demolished in 1849
Battersea Mills. These were on the riverside on the site now used for the Monteventro development. The corn mills originally used the air mill. It was replaced and in the hand of the Dives family until the 1880s when it was passed to the Mayhew family – with Dives retaining an interest for some years. The mill was replaced in the early 20th by Mark Mayhew Ltd as a four-storey brick mill erected to the designs of C. A. Milner. This was a roller mill—using steel rollers to crush the grain, not millstones—operating on the latest ‘gradual reduction’ Simon system. It was extended in the later 1890s or early 1900s. It was eventually taken over by Rank to finally become Rank Hovis McDougal. The mills were again rebuilt for Rank by Sir Alfred Gelder and Llewellyn Kitchen. In 1915–18 land was reclaimed from the river and a new mill and silo were built. There were more extensions in the 1930s. The mills closed in 1992, and were sold and demolished in 1997.
Malthouse. This appears to precede the corn mill and to have originally used the air mill. On maps however it is shown as a large building to the south of the corn mill. It is also described as a distillery owned for more than one generation of Hodgsons. As early as 1799 they had installed a second hand Boulton and Watt steam engine here. There were a number of Hodgsons in the brewing trade in the 19th. In the middle of the 19th a system had developed here of fattening cattle using waste grain from the maltings. By the 1890s it was owned by John Watney and Sons. The old malting was cleared and its wharf extended.
73-77 Bolingbroke Works. This was at the end of Bolingbrooke Road and was the “Silicated carbon filter works - Dahlike’s patent”. This was a water filter works
91 United Methodist Free church
115 Althorpe House. House opposite the church with 17th and 18th features. Became an asylum and later dye works offices. Demolished in 1965.
St.Mary’s. Battersea Parish Church is a brick building with a square tower and a spire, which faces the river. It was re- built in 1777 by Joseph Dixon, and replaced an earlier structure which had stood here as early as 800 AD. It has detailed records from 1559 and a record from 1379 of structural work undertaken by Henry Yevele – and his work remains in the east window. Dixon’s was designed as a brick preaching box. Arthur Blomfield supervised a restoration in 1876-78 and 16th monuments remain in the church.
Churchyard. This has been much altered and stones cleared and planting done. Mortuary – built in 1876 in the churchyard near the river, following some incidents in the church. No longer there
Slipway. Public drawdock and concrete ramp but only suitable for small boats. This was Parish Wharf
116 Old Swan flats. These were built in 1995 to designs by Michael Squire Assocs,
116 Old Swan public house. This was an old riverside pub used as a mark point for river races and said to have been much used by river workers. Until the 1960s it was a three storey corner pub which had been rebuilt in 1892 by Thomas Moss. It was again rebuilt in 1962 with a lower building with a pitched roof by Stewart Hendry & Smith for Mann, Crossman & Paulin. Only four years later it was remodelled with a barging and lighterage theme, with an inside full of wooden planking. It was known for drag shows and later punk rock venue. Closed and derelict it was burnt down in 1986. Now replaced by flats
Swan Wharf. This was to the south of the Swan Pub
126 William Hendra. Hendra had come to London from Cornwall and opened a foundry in Chelsea in 1838. Joined by his five sons he had extended to this works in Battersea and Kings Cross. This works was still extant in the 1890.
141 Dimson Lodge part of Althorpe development. This tenants all was named for Gladys Dimson, who represented the area on the Greater London Council. Since 2007 has been a clubroom for the elderly as well as providing a meeting and community space.
Sparkford House. The block is on the Somerset Estate, which was designed by British modernist architect Colin Lucas and built in the 1964 for the Greater London Council. It has 21 storeys.
River Iron Foundry, latterly part of Morgan Crucible.
Battersea High Street
28 The Priory. This house had been in 1761 a pub called the Adam and Eve and later the Grotto. Various inhabitants were local dignitaries. In 1931 the London County Council bought it and the school took it over and demolished it.
Sir Walter St John's School. Founded in 1700 or earlier and it was then small and humble. During the 18th the school stagnated and it as known as the Battersea Free or Charity or Village School with 23 pupils. . In 1808 a new Vicar found that every room in the schoolhouse apart from the schoolroom itself had been let. He tried to bring it into line with the National School system for educating the poor on Anglican principles. In 1839 the Vestry agreed to use compensation money from the London & Southampton Railway for an extension to the school built in 1840 by Pipers of Bishopsgate to Sampson Kempthorne’s design. In 1853 a fresh scheme of management was obtained following a public meeting and calls for more middle class education. Land was bought and Butterfield was appointed. The master’s house replaced the old school, though the 1840 extension to its north survived. There were two schoolrooms, one classroom and a ‘hat room’ on each floor. The school reopened in June 1859. In 1880 it was resolved to shut the elementary school. The middle school became officially a grammar school in 1902. Partly funded by the London County Council many changes and extensions were made during the 20th, including repairs for extensive war time bomb damage. In 1944 it became a voluntary controlled grammar school. It was amalgamated in 1977 with William Blake School as a voluntary boys’ comprehensive. Because of falling secondary rolls, in 1988 that school was in turn merged into Battersea Park School. What survives from Butterfield is the centre of the present range in diapered brick with stone dressings and an entrance through a double archway. The classrooms - originally five - were reached by an external staircase. The head master’s house was replaced in 1913 by the hall and gymnasium by A.H. Ryan Tennison. The hall is an upper room with an open timber root although the stage is an extension by T. Denny of 1937-8. In the library is a stained glass window by Lawrence Lee from 1968. Sir Walter St John’s School moved from here in until 1986. It was succeeded by a private preparatory school, Thomas’s, which took over the buildings in 1990.
Surrey House. Became an asylum and was eventually pulled down in the late 1850s for the rebuilding of Sir Walter St John’s School,
Lindsay Court. Tower block built by the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea in 1961 designed by Howes & Jackman and built by A. A. Stuart & Sons.
42-44 Original Woodman this is now Le QuecumBar and Brasserie. This was rebuilt in 1888 and has been altered since.
47 Foresters’ Arms de-licensed and derelict in 1914
Restoration Square. Built in 2000. Its basis was the old cigar factory and reusing some of the factory buildings.
64-66 Allen Brothers Cigar and tobacco manufacture St John’s cigar factory of 1875–8. St John’s Factory was built in 1875 by Merritt & Ashby for Allen and Ernest Lambert, the younger sons of the founder of Lambert & Butler, who traded as Allen Brothers. Imperial Tobacco closed the works, which was by then a pipe factory, about 1930. In the late 1950s the factory as used by the Ductube Company Ltd, makers of inflatable tubing for laying ducts in concrete.
Powrie House. This is on the site of Goslings Yard. This was built by Battersea Borough council and named after a headmaster of St Mary’s School. It was built in 1958–9 by Prestige & Co, probably to the designs of Howes & Jackman. With some Festival of Britain features in the design,
60 The Woodman. Built in the 1840s
106 a temperance public house was intended to be built by the Katherine Low Settlement in memory of their first president. It was designed by the architects Constantine & Vernon with a games hall, club rooms and mezzanine kitchen. It was sold in the early 1990s to Battersea Churches Housing Trust, but later became a private house.
Grove House. This was north of The Cedars. In 1712 it belonged to Charles Carkesse. The house was demolished in the mid 1880s for the building of Orville Road.
108 The Cedars Working girls club. This is now the Katherine Low Settlement. She was a philanthropist in whose memory this was founded in 1924. This is the only survivor of several large houses in this part of the High Street. It is a house of the 1760s. It was then the home of a John Camden, a descendant of the antiquary William Camden. About 1851 the house was partly rebuilt for William Garrad Baker of May & Baker. Set at right-angles to the road, the house retains its 18th footprint. The entrance once looked over a terrace and cedar-dotted lawns. Some land was taken in 1860 by the West London Extension Railway When the T house was occupied by William Cory, founder of the coal merchants .In 1880 it opened as a home for ‘working gentlewomen’ or ‘lady students’. It later became a clergy house with a girls’ club-house in the garden. The poverty of his part of Battersea attracted attention and from 1906 the mission was set up here. After the Great War in 1923 Christ’s College Cambridge initiative, Christ’s College Boys’ Club introduced the all-female Katherine Low Settlement to the club. Very little is known of Katherine Low who was a wealthy American with no known Battersea connections. In the grounds by the railway embankment is a modern concrete building used as a children’s nursery. A blue plaque was put on the building in 2014.
The Retreat. This was opposite The Cedars and Princess Marie-, Duchess of Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI, lived here in 1815 before returning to France after Napoleon’s final defeat. There are however records of its occupation in the early 18th by a series of businessmen and high ranking officials.
The Retreat. This was built in the grounds of the older house in 1837. In the mid 19th the name was changed to Southlands. In the 1850s it was opened as a military academy. This Academy had closed by 1871, when it was sold for use as a teacher-training college and became for South Thames College. It is by Withers & Meredith. In 1927 the property was bought by Battersea Council for a health centre, baths, library and other activities. The house was destroyed in Second World War bombing leaving just a wing dating from 1904–5, now Old Library Apartments
Manor House. This was a house from the early 18th. . It was occupied by a series of lawyers. It was later demolished for the railway
Manor House. This was a 19th house built in the grounds of the demolished predecessor and fronting the High Street. It was the home of a builder.
Battersea Station. Built In the early 1860s by West London Extension Railway on the site of a building called the Manor House. It was opened in 1863 and closed in 1940 after air raid damage. It was never reopened. The station was built on an embankment entirely of wood at track level to lessen the weight. There was a brick-built street-level building was the east side of Battersea High Street north of the line with a ticket office and ladies waiting room. There were covered stairways to the platforms. The burnt out remains survived into the 1970s.
Signal Box. This was west of the station and rebuilt in 1873. In 1936 it was closed and demolished.
115 Castle. The original pub was destroyed in Second World War bombing and demolished in 1963. This is a rebuild for Young & Co of 1964–5 designed by William G. Ingram, Son & Archer. The Castle is said to be one of Battersea’s oldest inns dating back to 1600. The name is first recorded in 1695.The previous building may have been 17th with a large public bar and a narrow staircase behind which was a parlour. The cellar had been extended in the 1880s. The sign restored in the 1950s was a 5ft-high semi-circular wooden structure
122 Brethren Meeting Room. Demolished,
124–128 block of flats by Walter Menteth Architects, built in 1998 for the Ujima Housing Association, providing accommodation in part for the disabled.
Battersea High Street market. This began in the 1890s
130 Salvation Army barracks. Built in 1883 in Gurlimgs Yard
130 George Potter House. An old people’s home with an attached day centre built from 1973 to designs by Ryders
134 Laburnum House. Battersea Liberal Club and Institute. Built 1882. At the start of the Great War the club closed and became a lodging house. It was later taken over by the Methodists’ Battersea Central Mission and in 1938 they built up the front as a milk bar. This is said to have replaced a Temperance hall
136 Greyhound Pub. This had a music license by 1868. It is now the Bellevue
137 Icon Building. This is on the site of the Railway Hotel. Six bar pub built in the 1860s, since demolished Following destruction in Second World War bombing. In the 1970s it became a Royal Naval Association clubhouse
Battersea Railway Bridge
The Battersea Railway Bridge. This is also called the Cremorne Bridge after the pleasure grounds and also as the Falcon Bridge. It carries the railway between Battersea and Chelsea and forming part of the West London Line on the London Overground. It was designed by William Baker chief engineer of the London and North West Railway and was opened in 1863. It carries two sets of railway lines and has five m) lattice girder arches set on stone piers. On the south side there are four arches, two of which are for as storage by houseboat residents downstream of the bridge. .It refurbished in 1969, and in 1992.
Battersea Square
This became known as Battersea Square following a designation as a Conservation Area in 1972 and in 1990 the name was formally readopted, and properties renumbered: This is the area of the old village green. In 1656 it ea called the Elms or Elm Trees and the tress seemed to define a triangular island in the open space. By the mid 19th it was known as the Square. It was the site of the parish stocks, which were replaced by a pump.
3 Oak Wharf. Wharf used for coal and lime transhipment. There was also a rowing and social club there. Symondson coal
7-9 restaurant in London House built by a linen draper James Bennett in 1866 with a yard and workshops behind. This was used as a night club in the 1970s and has been a series of restaurants since, mostly called Bennetts.
9 Elmore and Scott. Barge builders who were here in the 1870s
11 St Mary’s Mission room and Reading Room
20 - 22 Gonville House. In the 1880s this was run by Caius College Mission
32 Bricklayers’ Arms beer house. In 1861 this was called the General Garibaldi. It is now a restaurant
34 Ship House with the shop and offices of the Victoria Granaries behind, dating from 1890–2. The granaries were established in 1891–2 by Augustus Hall in the grounds of Devonshire House. The original buildings were designed by Robert Burr8. A. F. Hall & Sons, corn and flour merchants, who remained here until the Second World War. In 1984–5 the main granary was converted to dance studios for the Royal Academy of Dance. Ship House became offices in 1989–91.
35 the new granary built 1907 by J. H. May,
Albion House. This was one of two 18th houses. In the early 19th it was a boys’ boarding school. The houses were demolished about 1825, and their sites added to the grounds of Devonshire House.
Cotswold Mews, conversion of the buildings of the Cotswold Laundry built in.1914. It later became a plastics factory but the current building is 1937.
Workhouse. In 1791 a parish workhouse was needed with more space in it and a Mr Duff offered the lease of a house. This became the new workhouse with 63 inmates in 1792. Demolished in 1839 when the Union workhouse was available
Almshouses. There were 17th parish almshouses at the top of the High Street. They were demolished in the 18th and replace by some elsewhere.
Bolingbroke Gardens
This appears to have been on the site of Bolingbroke House in Church Road.
Foot, Brown and Co. This was managed by Charlotte Foot from 1839 along with another works in Bow. It was a chemical and dye manufacturing company. Charlotte bought ammoniacal liquor from the Imperial Gas Company in the 1830s and in the 1850s undertook experiments to determine the validity of a number of purification patents.
Bridges Court
The London Heliport. Battersea Heliport began in 1959 as Westland Helicopters. Following closure of the City of London floating helipad at Trigg Lane in 1985, it became the only CAA licensed heliport serving the City of London. The London Heliport continues to provide an essential service to the business community and local emergency services, like the London Air Ambulance
Grove Works. This was Walter Carson & Sons’ paint and varnish works which survived into the 1960s
Gwynne Road
The road is named after James Gwynne who was the developer of this estate. Gwynne was one of the family of Gwynne’s Pump and Engineering business of the Essex Street in the Strand, later part of Vickers.
2 Modernist block by Walter Menteth for Ujima Housing built 1998. Pure white cube.
Holman Road
Caius House. Caius College Mission was established here in 1890. It was originally in a purpose-built tall, Gothic, red-brick structure with a boxing club
Caius Youth Club
St Mary this was built in 1895 as an unconsecrated Chapel of Ease to St Mary's Battersea. It was a joint venture between St Mary's and Caius College Cambridge. Recently it has only been used for an annual carol service. Probably demolished
Lombard Road
Before the road was built John Smyth had sugar-houses in the 1670s, where he refined ‘very great quantities yearly’ of raw sugars imported from Barbados
Albion Wharf. Used by Cole lighterman. In 1915 it was rudimentary with a high old brick workshop, a lean-to at the side, an earth floor, and a slipway into the river
Alfred H. Keep, barge builder. Harry Keep also had a yard at Greenhithe, which was eventually taken over and became Everards. He is described as ‘senior partner’ in a lighterage and tug business with an address in Lower Thames Street.
4 White Hart Pub. Demolished in the early 1980s . The pub is said to have dated from the 17th and to have been visited by Charles II. However the first recorded reference is 1757. It was accessible from the riverside and included a boat hire business. Most recently a new building on the site was a Thai restaurant but previously Battersea Boathouse, Riverside and River Rat, and Chandler.
6 Lombard Wharf. This wharf is shown on various maps in the 19th and is sometimes shown as north and sometimes as south of the railway bridge. A 28 storey block of flats is planned for this site south of the bridge. Designed by Patel Taylor it has wraparound balconies, rotated at an angle of two degrees, to appear as a series of ‘rotating discs’. From the 1870s the wharf was used by West Bros., fire brick makers, and later by a firm of car breakers.
12 Wigmore Wharf – shown south of the railway bridge and in the 1950s used by Alex Dribbell, haulage contractors
Lombard Lodge. A riverside house shown south of Lombard Wharf in 1867 when it had already been sold for development.
Frame Food Works. In the 1890s this was on Lombard wharf south of the bridge. Frame Food specialised in invalid, baby and diet food made from processed wheat bran.
Oyster Wharf. Flats on riverside site also described as Regent Wharf.
Star Athletic Grounds – this was a running track used by professionals from probably the late 1870s and certainly in the 1880s. It was near triangular in shape and with an entrance on Lombard Road just north of the railway.
Battersea House – large detached house south of Lombard Wharf which was the successor to a house in existence by 1547. It was owned from the 1660s - 1790s by the Smith family who owned the nearby Sugar Houses. It was rebuilt and was occupied by a series of dignitaries. Demolished in 1870.
Falcon Wharf. In 1901 a three-storey block of stabling had been, built to J. T. Pilditch’s designs. There were 96 stalls, eight loose boxes and six harness rooms with a ramp leading to a cantilevered inner gallery. The top storey, served was used to store fodder, There were also houses for senior staff. The buildings were gradually adapted for lorries and the draw dock was converted to a wet dock for rubbish barges which has previously used Grove Wharf, the whole of which was needed for loading and storing coal. The stable building itself was replaced in 1977 by a systems-built office block. From 1977 the wharf housed the old Battersea Direct Labour organisation taken over by Tory Wandsworth who closed them down finally in 1985.
Grove Wharf. Owned by the vestry and used for coal deliveries to the power station.
Cave house. Big house, called The Cave or Cave House, built c.1765-85. Demolished in 1870
Theodore Audoire. Chemical works making benzine rect., carbolic powders, creosol, and sheep dips. The works was bought up by the Council for the construction of the electricity works.
Walnut Tree Lodge. Another big house in substantial grounds towards the south end of the street.
Whiffen Chemical Works. Whiffen joined Jacob Hulle in his chemical business in the late 1850s which used Lombard House, with a large former sugar-house in its garden by the river – the sugar-house had been converted to a turpentine factory in the 1780s by Edward Webster. There they made strychnine and quinine. Hulle retired in 1868 and the business expanded under Whiffen. And by 1933 had moved to Fulham. Whiffen had by then other works in various parts of London.
Fred Wells Gardens. This open space known is on land previously used for small works yards, plus a greyhound track. Fred Wells died in 1982 who was a long-serving Labour Councillor, who represented Latchmere Ward. The park that was opened in 1982 was named in his honour. At the other end the area was Orville Road Open Space. The site of 19th houses demolished by bombing in the Second World War and was replaced with prefabs.
Battersea Stadium. The Battersea track first held racing in 1930. It operated under the official NGRC It was next to the present day London Heliport. In February 1937 it was purchased by the Greyhound Racing Association who wanted to close it and build an ice rink. It closed during the Second World War and was eventually replaced by the Arndale shopping centre – later called Southside - in 1971.
Lombard Road Power Station. Opened in 1901. Until 1972 Battersea was served by a generating station built in Lombard Road by the Battersea Vestry and opened by Battersea Borough Council, in 1901. The Battersea Electric Lighting Order, of 1896, was the ninth local authority in London with this power and the first south of the river. The site, bounded by Lombard, Gwynne, Harroway and Holman Roads, was bought by the Vestry in 1897–8. Coal was delivered to Grove Wharf which the Vestry owned. It was built by direct labour designed by C. Stanley Peach, with the electrical engineer Alexander Kennedy. The power generated was for lighting as well as for machinery and trams. The buildings were in brick with a circular tower at the street corner, there was a dominating octagonal chimney. An inclined coal conveyor ran from Grove Wharf across Lombard Road. Mains were laid in 32 streets and threw main roads were lit by arc lamps supplied by the General Electric Company. A well was sunk to supply the station’s boilers. In 1915, when the Hammersmith, Battersea and Fulham generating stations were connected to allow the Central Electricity Board to link the station into the new National Grid, and this meant a switch to alternating current. A further generator and switch house were added in 1931. By 1939 more than 73 million kWh were being supplied to Battersea and another 27 million to the National Grid. Following nationalisation the buildings were again in 1952 and the chimney was demolished. It generated for the last time in 1972. Only the boiler room wall is said to remain. There is also a substation on the corner with Holman Road.
Vicarage Crescent
This was called Vicarage Road and the east west section was Green Lane. The riverside area was called ‘The Wharf’ until the 1890s when it was laid out as a road and the foreshore embanked to become Vicarage Gardens
6-8 Laburnum House. Clubhouse of the Battersea Liberal Association replacing the old clubhouse called Laburnum House in Battersea High Street.
27 - 29 St Mary's Church of England Primary School, this is dated 1855 on a centrally placed plaque which says "NATIONAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AND INFANTS. THESE BUILDINGS WERE ERECTED BY MISS CHAMPION ON LAND GRANTED BY EARL SPENCER AND OPENED APRIL 10TH 1855 FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR. It is in the form of a pair of houses and was also called Green Lanes School. It was closed in 1985 and converted to housing
St.John's Estate. This was built 1931-4 by W. J. Dresden for Battersea Borough Council as blocks of flats in the London County Council between-the-wars type. It is on what were gardens of Terrace House, later used by St. Johns college. It was sold off by the Tory Wandsworth Council to a private developer in 1981 and the flats sold off to non-council tenants.
30 Old Battersea House. This was also known as Terrace House. Built in 1699 and probably replacing a house called Stanlies. This is late 17th, plain but substantial. It was restored, by Vernon Gibberd, in 1972-4. A carved frieze with globe and instruments may refer to Samuel Pett, Controller of Victualling to the Navy who lived here in the 17th. There is a sundial with the date 1699. The house was occupied by a series of industrialists and business people – many connected with shipbuilding and with Pett family connections. In the early 19th this included member of the Perry family, and George Green of Blackwall Yard lived nearby as an apprentice. From 1840 it was the headquarters of of St John's College until 1923. Later a row developed on preservation and development issues. It was eventually restored and set up as the de Morgan museum a of pottery and pre-Raphaelite painting by Mr. & Mrs Stirling who also lived there which lasted until Mrs. Stirling died aged 100 in 1965. There was constant detonation and vandalism. The house was eventually sold in 2011 and the collection given to Wandsworth Council.
St John's Training College. This was on the grounds of Terrace House and later used for the St. John’s Estate. It was originally the Normal School for Schoolmasters at Battersea, then Battersea Training College or Normal School and later from 1872 St. John’s (Training) College. In the 1830s Poor Law Commissioner James Kay-Shuttleworth began to be concerned about education for the poor and was lent Terrace House to use.= as a training college. Young men were to be trained as teachers and work was done along with the local village school which had attracted attention for its work under Robert Eden. Funding was not secure until it was taken over in 1843 by the National Society for the Church of England. It became the largest of a series of Anglican training colleges. There were extensions of lecture theatres and dormitories. A chapel was built by Butterfield in 1857. In the 1890s there was considerable expansion with the purchase of land from Battersea Vestry and the purchase of the freehold of the site with help from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. A library, a gym and much more were added. In 1923 it was merged with St. Mark’s College Chelsea and eventually closed. It was purchased by Battersea Council.
32 Vicarage built in the early 1970s on part of the garden of the original vicarage.
42 St. Mary’s House. This is the former vicarage. It was probably built around 1800 and was substantially rebuilt in the 1820s. It was let out in the 1880s was a ladies' school and from 1887 used by the Caius College Mission. . It is also known as Deralie House. There is a Blue Plaque to Edward Adrian Wilson 'Antarctic explorer and naturalist who lived here’. In the 1970s it was converted to offices and restored again with an extension to the rear. There was a 19th church hall behind.
44 Devonshire House. This was part of Sir Walter St John School. It dates from around c.1700. Inside is original panelling and a narrow hall leading to a stair-hall at the back; staircase with twisted balusters. In the 19th it was the home of the Condy family of the Bollman Condy chemical works. It was later used as offices by the Gaston E, Marbaix machine tool company and then as a sixth form centre for St.John’s School 1971-1986. It is now a private house.
Vicarage Wharf - Lawn House. This probably darted from the 1770s. It was also called Lawn Cottage. It was later used 1866-1907 by the, hitherto Lambeth based, barge builders Nash and Miller. At what was later known as Vicarage Wharf, as Robert, and later Hugh and John Miller, they ran a very considerable fleet of spritsail barges – Myra, Monica, Muriel, Myrtle, Marjorie, Mona, and others. After which it was used by Ranks as a warehouse. It was burnt out in the 1920s. It is now the Riverains flat site
71 Riverains – Vicarage Wharf. Built in 1973–4 for the Rowe Housing Trust, now part of Octavia Housing. The architects were Jefferson Sheard & Partners
Valiant House. This was begun in 1971 with flats in two seven-storey blocks, built on Valiant Wharf and the Iron River Foundry. The architects were Stefan Zins Associates. This led the way for waterside apartments along the Thames.
Valiant Wharf. Concrete works and batching plant. In the late 1950s Ham River House was built and let to Securicor. It was demolished in 2005 and rebuilt as flats and offices.
Vicarage Gardens. Laid out along the foreshore plus an embankment in the 1890s
West Bridge Road
This was once called Ferry Lane, and also King Street
Lammas Hall. In 1858 Battersea Vestry received compensation money for extinguished Lammas rights for the construction of Battersea Park. It was decided to build a hall. They bought a newly built beerhouse and converted that and it opened in 1858 with a sign above the doorway announcing that. It was used for community and club meetings and the vestry met there. In 1888 the new borough used the old Board of Works offices and the hall was converted into a library. It was demolished in 1970.
140 Raven Pub. This dates from the 17th and is dated by its curved Dutch gables. It was once called the Black Raven’ and was used for parish meetings and inquests. It was done up in 2013.
Yelverton Road
Totteridge House. This is a 21-storey tower. J. C. Bianco & Associates was the engineer. The ground floor has a full height frieze of relief figures
Sambrook's Brewery. Here since 2008
York Road
20-22 Battersea Central Mission. This was established in 1940 by Rev John A Thompson who saw need in Battersea, widespread poverty, inadequate housing, healthcare and education. He struggled to buy land and fund the Mission. During the Second World the basement was a bomb shelter for about a thousand people. The Mission was not only a church but a place where children and young people were welcomed, taught and often fed and clothed. The elderly were visited and cared for and families were helped. Thompson wanted a Christian health centre and threw was a physiotherapy clinic and a day nursery for children from broken or distressed homes. In 1974, Lord Rank funded the Rank Teaching Centre, where doctors and nurses could be are trained in the treatment of ulcers. Along with this and many socially focussed organisations have used the facilities. The Church has also become a multi-cultural community. in 2009 the Mission closed its doors for what many thought would be the last time as the building required a vast sum spent to make it fit for purpose. But in 2010 it re-opened.
30 Falcon Pencil Works. Elias Wolff was a pencil maker working, in Spitalfields in the 1840s. His pencils were exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition. The Falcon Pencil Works in Gurling’s Yard was built in 1878 for the company. The factory closed in the early 1920s after they were taken over by the new Royal Sovereign Pencil Co. Ltd, and production moved to Neasden.
32 Super Palace/Washington Music Hall. The Royal Standard Music Hall had been built in 1886 and was operated by George Washington Moore and thus was known as the Washington Music Hall. In 1900 it was the Battersea Palace of Varieties, in 1901 the Washington Music Hall; in 1902 the New Battersea Empire Theatre; in 1903 Battersea Empire Theatre and in 1908 the Palace Theatre of Varieties. It then began to show films as well as variety and became part of the MacNaghten Vaudeville Circuit, and changed its name again in 1917 to the Battersea Palace Theatre. In 1924 it was converted into a full time cinema and in 1929 was called the Super Palace. It still had some variety turns on the stage and showed films on ABC release. After the Second World War it was taken over by Bloom Theatres Ltd. and closed in 1958. It was demolished around 1969.
Battersea Grove Boys School. Connected to the Battersea Chapel. In 1799, under the Rev. Joseph Hughes a committee of Baptist subscribers set up a charity school. They were based in Grove House until 1824. In 1840 it was decided to build a new school and it was built on a site opposite Lombard Road by George & J. W. Bridger of Aldgate. It was closed in 1887, and it became a Sunday school and vaccination centre.
Battersea Chapel. A group of Baptists took the name of the Battersea Chapel in the 18th traditionally in 1736. The chapel stood the north side of York Road east of the junction with Lombard Road and this sited is noted in 1728. It built or rebuilt in about 177. By the end of the century the Meeting-house was occupied by a group who described themselves as ‘Protestant Dissenters of the Antipaedobaptist Denomination’. The freehold was purchased in 1842 and the chapel was refurbished and a date plaque ‘1736’ put up. Soon the chapel expanded further and a new building was erected in 1870 to, seat 900. Following Second World War damage in 1940, the Battersea Chapel was restored and reopened in 1956. In 1963 a negotiation with Battersea Council ended with an agreement to resite the chapel and school in a new building in Wye Street.
Sources
Bartlett School. Survey of London. Web site
Battersea Methodist Mission. Web site
British Brick Society. Web site.
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London.
Disused Stations. Web site
Family History Notebook. Web site
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Greater London Council. Thames Guidelines
Kathleen Low Settlement. Web site
London Borough of Wandsworth. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
Mersea Barge Museum. Web site
Nairn. Nairn’s London
O’Connor. London’s Forgotten Stations
Panorama of the Thames. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Pub History. Web site
Runtrackdir. Web site
Simmonds. All Ahout Battersea
Summerson. London’s Georgian Buildings
Thorpe. Old and New South London
Wikipedia Web Site – Battersea Railway Bridge
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