Battersea Matters the newsletter of the Society SPRING 2017

Heathrow: more noise and pollution? John Stewart outlines what Heathrow’s expansion would mean for Battersea

third runway would have a a third runway is built, there will be significant impact on no scheduled flights between 11pm A Battersea. Although the and 5.30am. That is seen, however, flight path to the new runway as simply a minor concession. Most would be north of the river – over people in Battersea don’t plan on Hammersmith and Chiswick – the starting their day at 5.30! number of flights over Battersea The Government argues that a would increase as planes flew new runway at Heathrow offers most across the area to join the new for the economy. It also looked at flight path. Heathrow expects a the option of an Estuary Airport but quarter of a million aircraft to use rejected it on a number of grounds, the third runway each year. Not including cost. It has said it regards all of these will fly over Battersea a second runway at Gatwick as a but it will not escape an increase credible option. Wandsworth Council in aircraft numbers. backs Gatwick. It argues that with At present the Department Gatwick being little more than half for Transport is consulting on its an hour from Clapham Junction by proposals for the new runway. fast train, a second runway could increase both employment and Vote travel opportunities for Wandsworth The consultation ends on 25 residents. May. If, after considering the Gatwick would certainly have fewer consultation responses, the local impacts than a third runway at Government decides it wants to Heathrow. At present over 725,000 proceed with the third runway, people are impacted by noise from it will have a vote in Parliament, Some of the planes that fly over Vauxhall in a single Heathrow. At Gatwick it is less probably towards the end of this hour. © Phil Weedon than 12,000, rising to 37,000 with a year. the new runway. second runway. Gatwick has neither If Parliament gives the new runway Most local authorities in west the air pollution nor traffic problems its backing, Heathrow Airport would are opposed to it and five of associated with Heathrow. draw up detailed plans for it. These them, including Wandsworth Council, would be put out to consultation next are expected to mount a legal Connectivity year and go to a Planning Inquiry challenge if Parliament gives it the At present, though, the Government in 2019. The earliest a new runway go-ahead. seems set on expanding Heathrow. could open would be 2024. Of course, we have been here It believes it has a majority in The proposal has divided west before. Ten years ago the last Labour Parliament to get it through. It says London. The polls show there is Government agreed to a third runway that a third runway is needed to some support for it but it is also at Heathrow only for the Coalition increase our connectivity to the meeting considerable opposition. Government to cancel it in 2010. rest of the world and particularly to Noise is the main worry of local This time round the Government emerging nations such as China and people. There are also concerns is talking up what would be on India. It argues that, unless we build about air pollution – already areas offer to residents if a third runway a new runway, we are in danger of around Heathrow exceed the legal was built. Night flights have long being overtaken by rival European limit – as well as the extra traffic it been an issue in Battersea. The first airports such as Frankfurt or Charles might generate on London’s roads. plane, arriving at 4.30am, acts as de Gaulle as, on current projections, And, of course, thousands of people the unwanted alarm clock for many all the runways in London and the will lose their homes to make way for people. Heathrow is saying that, if continued on page 3

Don’t forget to visit our website: batterseasociety.org.uk for regular updates on Battersea Society news, events and planning matters From the editor to have fun with others or how to help Individual high street shops are often other people. Our talks and outings considered to be a guarantor of What is are a way of engaging residents. We neighbourliness. But chain stores can neighbour- encourage them to get involved. provide that too. I had a mildly risqué liness? Do My own experience of Battersea is conversation with a member of staff you feel your of an area full of neighbourliness and a at B&Q recently that set me up with a neighbour- strong sense of community. However smile all day. hood is the rapid turnover of the population Another reason to smile is the neighbourly? makes this more and more diffcult weather, and the wonderful spring Can you give to maintain. The exorbitant price of we are having. Temperatures your house houses and flats means that many like July and a mass of glorious keys to someone, or ask them to feed people rent, often for short periods, blossom – better this year than your cat, or pop round for a cuppa if so they are unlikely to develop much ever, I think. The cemetery on you’re feeling a bit fed up? Or at least emotional commitment to the area and Bolingbroke Grove/Battersea say hello when you see them in the have little incentive to make friends Rise was awash with primroses street? As more of life is conducted locally. and bluebells and whitebells and online, especially but not exclusively Mostly these are things that we alive with birdsong. And the winter for the young, there is more need can’t do much about individually. But garden in was a joy. for personal contact – we are highly we can pass a few words on the street [email protected] social animals after all. I think this is or the communal staircase and, if the 020 7350 2749 a role that the Battersea Society can neighbour is a longer term resident, help to fll. We tell people about what perhaps we can encourage them to is going on locally, where you can go join the Battersea Society.

Man on the Battersea Bus Mike Roden looks at family history, and takes a trip on a slow boat to Greenwich.

‘Reveal where your ancestors came that they’d been in that area on was a from’ is the call to action from the English/Welsh border for a very controversial ancestry.co.uk, promising you that long time and the test declared political the results of their DNA testing me to be 84% British and 5% issue. Since will give you ‘a breakdown of your Irish. Unfortunately the test doesn’t factories, ethnicity, revealing your ethnic mix distinguish between , Wales sweatshops and building sites from the past 500 – 1000 years.’ As a or Scotland so I can’t claim to be a depended on low paid labour from Christmas present to ourselves (more quintessential Englishman, though of out of town the government could exciting than socks or chocolates!) course I am. not ban immigrants. Instead ministers we both gave it a go in the spirit of attempted to assuage the fears of the discovery. Muttered public by claiming to get tough on the It’s a pity that the actor John Hurt I did try to maintain my English stiff criminals and work-dodgers – which didn’t try this before agreeing to upper lip a few weeks ago as we meant locking up large numbers of appear on the TV programme Who stood in a long queue to buy tickets innocents. Offcers scanned the new Do You Think You Are? The show for a boat to Greenwich. Of course arrivals … and arrested those they forensically demolished his fervent there was nothing stoical about the thought looked drunk, work-shy or belief in his Irish ancestry, and his way I muttered intolerantly about even slightly untidy.’ relationship to the Marquis of Sligo the customers in front of me who The year in question was 1777 and – a history which had been entirely clearly did not have English as their the people were arriving not from invented by his great grandfather. frst language and would cause us to overseas but from all over England. When the results of our tests miss the boat. In fact, the ticket offce The paragraph is taken from Kate arrived by email there were few coped perfectly well and we made Williams’s 2006 biography England’s surprises. Angela knows that her it in time and I felt duly chastened Mistress, the compelling story of the family travelled from Ireland to about my attitude to the foreign rise and fall of Emma Hamilton a Manchester in the early 20th century, visitors. woman who was so much more than and she’s 95% Irish. Her late mother I was reminded of this incident simply Nelson’s mistress. would have denied this, unlike John when I read these words the other Plus ça change. Makes you think, Hurt always insisting that she was day: doesn’t it? Mind how you go, and see English. ‘With hundreds of new people … you next time. My own forebears were clay arriving in London every day and pipe manufacturers in Shropshire the population complaining about in the mid 1750s with all the signs overcrowding and crime, immigration

2 continued from page 1 back getting these better links to the promising quieter planes and steeper South East will be full by 2040 at the rest of the world for years as a third approaches to cut the noise. These latest. runway will face so many obstacles will be welcomed but, for most Few would deny that aviation and so much opposition that it may residents, it is the sheer volume of is important to maintaining and never be built. aircraft passing overhead that is the increasing our trade links with the real problem. The worry is that the rest of the world. Historically, trade Nervousness extra runway will simply add to the has increased growth and prosperity. Certainly there will be nervousness in number of planes in the sky and lead But politicians of all parties continue Battersea about what a new runway to a deterioration in the quality of life to express doubts whether expansion will mean for the area. Already aircraft for many people. at Heathrow is necessary for that to noise is the dominant sound in green John Stewart is chair of HACAN happen. In fact, a number of senior spaces such as Battersea Park or www.gov.uk/government/news/ politicians such as former aviation Clapham Common. A walk by the major-step-forward-in-building-a- minister Theresa Villiers believe that river is inevitably accompanied by global-britain-as-public-has-its-say- the choice of Heathrow might set the roar of aircraft. Heathrow is on-airport-expansion.

Richworth or Wandsmond? The two councils to share staff David Lewis looks at the implications of Wandsworth and Richmond’s joint staffing arrangements

These boroughs are the outcome of authorities. There will be opportunities a 1965 reorganisation which created to reduce overheads and rationalise 32 boroughs in London, swallowing contracts. up Battersea in the process. Some The Battersea Society has people have begun to think there are most contacts with the planning still too many London boroughs, they department. Tim Cronin from cost too much, and they sometimes Wandsworth has become Assistant have difficulty in retaining all the Director Planning and Transport. expertise they need to perform Among other familiar faces John their functions efficiently. Another Stone is Head of Planning and wholesale reorganisation is not an Transport Strategies and Mark attractive prospect, but there have Hunter will handle large projects in been various forms of co-operation both boroughs. Open Spaces come between individual boroughs, some under David Allister, Head of Culture; of which have not lasted. Cuts in some services in Wandsworth will grant from central government, and continue to be provided by Enable, the further cuts now looming, have against 29%) and fewer people under the staff-based mutual. Air quality is sharpened minds. 21 and over 65. Richmond has a another key issue for us and we are The radical solution Wandsworth Council for Voluntary Service and encouraged that Houda al-Sharifi will and Richmond have devised is to the borough council has put more remain as Director of Public Health for have a shared staff under a single emphasis on using the voluntary both boroughs, and will be part of a chief executive (Wandsworth’s Paul sector. Wandsworth has more council small Chief Executive’s Group. Martin) and a single set of five chief housing and continues to manage it, The Battersea Society will be officers. The two boroughs will remain while Richmond has followed many keeping a close watch on how the independent. Ravi Govindia remains other authorities and hived off its new arrangements work in practice. the Leader of Wandsworth Council, council housing. Assurances have been given that and Wandsworth councillors will there will not be any cross subsidy continue to apply their own policies Redundancies from one borough to the other. There and scrutinise the performance of The combined staff will be the largest is no obvious basis for fears that tall services in their area. in London and count as the 8th residential towers will spread from Both boroughs are Conservative- largest local authority in Britain. It Battersea to Richmond or that council controlled but they differ in many has become possible to remove 400 tax in Wandsworth will rise toward the ways. Wandsworth has been part posts in Wandsworth (though with much higher figure in Richmond! of London for more than a century; only 50 compulsory redundancies). We were grateful to be invited Richmond was part of Surrey until Each authority will save £10 million to attend a meeting held by the 1965. Labour councillors provide a year. Most staff in Wandsworth will Putney Society in January at which the opposition in Wandsworth but in continue to serve Wandsworth and be representatives of Wandsworth Richmond it’s the Liberal Democrats located here, but some joint units are Council explained the new (who controlled the council from being formed to serve both boroughs. arrangements. 2006 to 2010). Richmond has fewer As far as possible the same systems Further details can be found through people from ethnic minorities (14% and procedures will apply in both the Putney Society’s website

3 Welcome to Wandsworth, new citizens! himself singing God Save the Queen. We are shown into the Grand Jenny Sheridan attends a citizenship ceremony Chamber, with its art deco glass roof and grand chandelier. The Enni o C al Mayor, Richard Field, zo n e

‘I’m a Londoner frst and foremost,’ ‘I like hearing about where they have in his scarlet robes

and chain of offce, says Ennio Calzone, as he waits in come from. People often want to

Wandsworth Town Hall before the UK tell you the good things about their is preceded by an citizenship ceremony. ‘I wanted to country – how beautiful it is and how offcial carrying become a British citizen – I’ve lived good the food is. So if it’s somewhere the mace. It’s in the UK for ten years, I’ve worked like Afghanistan or Somalia and all impressive. Sarah and paid my taxes here and last year you ever hear about it is war and Taylor tells the I bought a flat here in Wandsworth. famine, you learn about the things four women and six It formalises becoming part of the that people love and miss.’ men that it is a pleasure community; I want to be an active In order to qualify for British to welcome them to citizenship. citizen.’ citizenship a person has to have The Mayor’s speech emphasises The citizenship ceremony is a lived here for fve years (three if the importance Wandsworth places small one this week. Just ten people, married to a British citizen), be of on tolerance and respect. He says six men and four women, will be good character and not bankrupt, we value people for who they are given their naturalisation certifcate. with an adequate grasp of English. and what they contribute, not their ‘Most weeks, we have thirty or forty There are restrictions on the amount background. We value diversity and people,’ says registrar Sarah Taylor. of time they can have spent outside are enriched by many cultures. He ‘They come from all over the world. the UK. They have to pass the cites John Archer, London’s frst The majority come from South Africa, Life in the UK test, which includes black mayor, Battersea MP Shapurji India, the USA, the Philippines, questions on the British constitution, Saklatvala, Irish Charlotte Despard and we have a surprising number the Commonwealth and – ironically and the family of Wandsworth from Mongolia. And then there are – the EU. Multiple choice questions Council’s leader Ravi Govindia. ‘I refugees who have struggled to get may include the population of the welcome you to the Wandsworth here, such as Afghans and Somalis.’ countries of the UK, saints’ days community’, he says. The ceremony on 7 March 2017 or the role of the Parliamentary The candidates then read the oath introduces new citizens from South opposition. of allegiance, fve of them choosing Africa, the Philippines, Turkey, to swear by God, fve by affrming. Somalia, Canada, Ghana, Singapore, Oath The Mayor presents each with a Italy and Lebanon. Sylvia, from If they satisfy the Home Offce that naturalisation certifcate and each has Lebanon, has lived in Wandsworth they qualify for citizenship, and pass his or her photograph taken with the for six years and works in the the test, they are expected to attend Mayor. A woman from Ghana brings pharmaceutical industry after coming a ceremony. It is not until they have her husband and two smartly dressed to the UK to study. Being British spoken the oath of allegiance that little boys into the photo. A young will make life, and especially travel, they can call themselves British woman from the Philippines has her easier, and shows commitment to the citizens. After that they can apply for parents stand with her. They look UK, she says. She looks excited and a British passport. thrilled. pleased, chatting with the two friends I ask Sarah Taylor if there has The Mayor processes out of the who have accompanied her, bringing been an increase in demand for chamber and Sarah Taylor wraps a gift of David Starkey’s life of Queen citizenship since the EU referendum. up by saying, ‘May you fnd your life Elizabeth I. She replies that it has not yet reached enriched, and may you enrich the ‘It’s quite a daunting procedure to Wandsworth, but the Home Offce lives of others.’ go through’, says Sarah Taylor. ‘There has seen signifcantly more enquiries, There is a no more than usually is a huge amount of documentation, especially from people from countries ragged singing of the National including a 30 page form where you that joined the EU in 2004, including Anthem and we all leave. The new have to list in detail every single Hungary and Poland. ‘Long-term citizens queue to pick up their absence from the UK over the last residents are starting to think they photos. I take the bus to go to the fve years (three years if you are should either get a visa or become a Wandsworth Gardening Group married to a UK citizen). It can be British citizen.’ meeting, a very British affair. quite nerve-racking. For £50 we offer Many Europeans living here fear On the wall of a corridor in the a nationality checking service to help that they will have to leave the country registry offce, there is a Union Jack people make sure they have flled out and reapply for residence, forced to clock, printed with the words ‘God the form correctly and to photocopy leave their families, homes and jobs. save the Queen and Wandsworth and certify passports and birth Chatting before the ceremony, Ennio Borough, the brightest city in the certifcates.’ The Home Offce charge Calzone tells me he has two sides world’. ‘It was given us by a lady who for naturalisation is £1,236. to his personality – ‘I’m Britalian!’ had had her citizenship ceremony ‘You meet such a huge variety of he says. A small boy, waiting for his here,’ says Sarah Taylor. people in this job,’ says Sarah Taylor. Canadian father to join him, conducts

4 Planning Matters: Those tall building proposals just keep coming Developers are reaching for the sky: can the infrastructure cope, asks Monica Tross

TALL BUILDINGS York Road and Wandsworth Town seem all set to be a new Nine Elms. There are further proposals in for a 25 storey building behind the Candle Factory, 2017/0745, added height to buildings at Plantation Wharf, 2016/5644 and a new scheme for the Homebase site at Swandon Way, 2016/7356. Further east there is a vast proposal for Palmerston Court, opposite the Dogs and Cats Home. This could result in the loss of Flanagans Public House, much to the dismay of many locals, including ourselves, 2016/5422. Take a look at the Townscape document on the Candle Factory application website and you will see diagrams of the existing consented developments along the river A view of a zinc extension from Frere Street including the focal point of the Barratt tower in Lombard Road. There will be providing you are fit and active and library facilities but have reservations yet more development in relation to are not worried by traffic pollution about the detail of the proposals renewal of the Winstanley Estate and, that is one way round the problem. put forward. Again, you can see our while we welcome improved housing Cremorne Bridge is being comments at www.batterseasociety. for existing residents, we continue to supported as a way of spreading the org.uk. Follow the link to planning be fearful of the cumulative impact of load as residents can walk across the consultations. the proposed density. Our comments river and pick up the train at Imperial on the Candle Factory development Wharf. Work is continuing on plans VAUXHALL BUS STATION will be on the Society’s website in due for this bridge. Currently the council is Vauxhall Cross and bus station: a course and our views on the others tendering for consultants to undertake reminder that you can find details of can be seen there now. specialist surveys and assessments TfL’s proposals at tfl.gov.uk/roads/ of the riverbed, including soil surveys, vauxhall-cross. CLAPHAM JUNCTION the railway bridge piers and ordnance Capacity at Clapham Junction is a investigation. CONSERVATION AREAS perennial problem. Each planning We want to celebrate the 50th birthday application along York Road EXTENSION of conservation areas. Do you live in puts forward the accessibility of Is zinc part of Battersea’s one of Battersea’s eleven conservation Clapham Junction in support of their streetscape? That is what one areas? Check out the details on the proposals. Each time we comment developer thinks, despite neighbours council’s website where you will find that the station is already over-busy of 313 Battersea Park Road, maps of the Battersea Park, Battersea at peak hours. Increased capacity 2016/5617 and of 1 – 5 Gowrie Road, Square, Clapham Common, Clapham on Network Rail and the London 2017/0631 disagreeing. A member in Junction, Latchmere, St. John’s Hill Overground will help but commuters Atherton Street sent us this picture of Grove, Park Town, Shaftesbury Park, and other travellers still have to get one development so you can judge Three Sisters, Town Hall Road and into the station and on to the trains. for yourself. Wandsworth Common conservation Apparently the large Earls Court areas. We would like to celebrate our development is also offering West Northcote Library conservation areas 50 years after Brompton as a transport benefit, as As those of you live in the immediate Stamford, the first to be designated, no doubt is Imperial Wharf included in area will know, the Council has been started this protection for historic support of proposals for development consulting on plans to demolish the areas. at Chelsea Wharf. I guess Battersea existing library and Chatham Hall If you live in one of these areas and residents will at least have the benefit across the road and rebuild as a could help, contact me at planning@ of getting on the Overground at the linked scheme for market housing, a batterseasociety.org.uk. I do hope to start. Each development includes library and community facilities. We hear from you, on this, on Vauxhall or vast storage capacity for cycles – so have welcomed further investment in on any other planning matter.

5 From trout stream watermills to provide mechanical power. More power than horse or ox to sewer and back could generate, more reliable than again the wind and if the mill-owner was fortunate, at little cost. The watermill Ian Bull explores the many is an ancient invention and the successes of the Wandle Domesday Book of 1086 records eight on the Wandle, all of them remaining as industrial sites into the Battersea’s rivers were culverted in late 20th century. the 19th century, their fate sealed by the Metropolitan Commissioners for Profit Sewers, yet to our immediate west is Today we think of the watermill as a a highly visible river with a proud past charmingly bucolic addition to the and a bright future. landscape. But until steam engines Once rising near Crawley, the became more affordable in the early ancient Wandle flowed across a 19th century they were vital organs broad plain to the Rhine’s then of industry and far from bucolic. By tributary, the Thames. Over many 1600 the eight mills had grown to at millennia forces in the Earth’s crust least 18 and some accounts state in Wandsworth and Mullards at caused that plain’s underlying chalk that by the mid 19th century there Hackbridge which employed some strata to rise, eventually forming were 100. This is unlikely but 60 to 70 5,500 people. the North Downs. The early Wandle is probable and the Wandle became initially eroded a deepening valley known as the hardest worked river in Noxious through the rising hills but the England for no other could sustain so The Wandle had given life to industry inexorable uplift overcame the river’s many mills per mile. but in return industry killed the erosive powers and the headwaters Prior to 1600 the mills would have Wandle. Noxious residues poured were cut off from the course. The generally ground corn, but trade and out of dyeworks, leather works and a dry valley of the former river across a growing economy saw considerable host of others from the 18th century the Downs is now known as the diversifcation. The purpose of a mill to the late 1970s. Classifed as an Merstham Gap. would change depending on what open sewer, by 1960 all life had gone Despite having lost its original task offered the best proft but textiles from its stinking waters. The riparian headwaters the river north of the became predominant, particularly boroughs and concerned local bodies Downs flourished as the rising, after the repeal of a cotton tax in began to act from the early 1980s porous chalk provided a vast and 1774. During an operational life of growing reservoir. Supply became over 900 years a mill in Wandsworth’s ever more copious and as the land Garratt Lane dealt with corn, rose, the flow ever faster. The ‘new’ iron and paper before producing Wandle was becoming an especially gas mantles and fnally electrical vigorous river. The river’s signifcant wiring for aircraft. catchment area is demonstrated The extant Carshalton Lower by the numerous valleys that reach Mill handled corn, copper, paper, south of Croydon up into the Downs, corn (again), flax and linoleum a myriad of feeders. before becoming part of a chemical refnery during its 760- Fishing odd industrial years. Many of No doubt the frst human usage of the mills were among the largest the Wandle would have been fshing, factories in the country and their for it had become a fne example of transport requirements led to a chalk stream, a perfect piscean the construction along the valley environment. The most famous angler floor of the pioneering Surrey of all, Izaak Walton, 1594 – 1683, Iron Railway in 1802/3. waxed lyrical of the Wandle in his Compleat Angler as well he might, for Industrial it was one of the fnest trout fsheries Established as an industrial in the world. As Izaak perused the corridor, the early 20th century river he would have noticed a human saw provision of high-tension contribution to the banks: watermills. electrical supply in the The volume and steep descent valley. Firms specialising in of the Wandle gave the river electrical products included considerable kinetic energy which major concerns such as could be harnessed through The Gramophone Company

6 A most attractive walk, the Wandle Trail, has been devised to follow the river’s entire course. It forms the backbone of the nascent Wandle Valley Regional Park. Sign-posting is poor but a good map can be downloaded from Merton Council. Walkers will realise that the upper reaches consist of two branches converging at Hackbridge and that the walk cleverly manages to combine both. They may also wonder how so many mills were viable given today’s amount of flow. It isn’t what it was even in the 1990s, due to abstraction of drinking water from the river’s aquifers. The remaining flow is sparklingly clear though, a true chalk stream. Izaak Walton would approve, as once again it teems with trout. Left: Fishing in the Wandle; above: A and in barely 35 years two centuries group of walkers enjoying the Wandle Trail of pollution have been reversed. The A map of the trail is also available Environment Agency considers the from Sustrans. Wandle to be the most improved urban river in the UK.

What next for EU citizens in Wandsworth? had done nothing wrong, but we were forced to worry Post-referendum, local resident James Williamson and his wife face about our right in the future to live uncertainty and anxiety together as a couple in the country we call home. We ask ourselves the I am English. My wife is Irish. We the UK once Britain leaves the EU. same ordinary questions about the met in London at a time when our There are at least 24,000 EU citizens future that any young(ish) couple freedom to live and work and study in Wandsworth Borough. These asks themselves – except they all in each other’s country could be people are our family, colleagues, become linked to nagging worries taken for granted. I had previously neighbours and friends. They are about our rights. ‘Should I apply studied and then worked in Germany. people just like us. for a new job?’ became ‘How will She had been working in London for This shouldn’t even be a problem. my application be treated as a non- years. But the moment we awoke The moment that Theresa May citizen who may or may not have on the morning after the 2016 EU became Prime Minister she could the right to live here permanently?’ referendum, when no-one knew what have guaranteed EU citizens rights ‘Should we move temporarily closer the vote meant for Europeans in because it was the right thing to do. If to her parents if we have children?’ Britain, these freedoms were cast into we had voted to leave the European became ‘Will that hurt a claim of doubt. Union, the least Britain could do continued residence in the UK?’ was offer security to its inhabitants. We do have an option. EU citizens Unresolved Instead, the Government has ordered who have exercised free movement The Brexit referendum result left a its MPs in three votes to deny us treaty rights (eg self employment, huge mound of issues unresolved, that guarantee. In the fnal vote on a employment, studying, self- issues that in other circumstances House of Lords amendment in early suffciency) for more than fve years and at calmer times, would have March, The3million, a group lobbying can apply for permanent residence. received the meticulous scrutiny that to keep EU citizens in the UK, called However, acquiring this piece of they deserved. They would have been the amendment a ‘last chance’ for EU paper is mired in bureaucracy. In the discussed with a detailed plan laid nationals to be ‘treated like human last six months 135,000 applications out and agreed before the vote but beings’. The consequences are clear: have been made for permanent instead they were debated endlessly, at best we are goods to be bartered; residence, but fgures suggest that but without any conclusion offered at worst, we will see families ripped approximately a quarter are being by the two sides. Unfortunately, apart. refused. Those refusals (often referendums have no manifestos. because of minor paperwork issues) The issue that sits on the top of Politics have meant applicants have been this mound is the right of the three For me and my wife, politics leapt asked by the Home Offce to make million EU citizens who were lawfully uninvited into our personal and preparations to leave. I am not keen resident before Brexit, to stay in private lives on 24 June 2016. We to take the risk.

7 Great Bus Journeys of the World No 19 Mike Roden takes the scenic route to the City on the number 11.

Back in 1906 when route no 11 those tourists who insist on bringing hastily built scaffold to meet the was introduced it ran from Victoria suitcases the size of small wardrobes. axeman. These days visitors can lie to Hammersmith via Chelsea. The bus weaves its way to Victoria back on giant bean bags and stare Nowadays it sets off from Fulham Street. Rather like the station the up at the magnifcent Rubens ceiling. Town Hall and arrives at Liverpool interior of Westminster Cathedral is The bus moves swiftly past Street station taking in some of the still not quite fnished, but it’s been Trafalgar Square and we enter most historic sites in the City. You’ll in that state for rather longer having theatreland. First up is the Adelphi. have to imagine the frst part of its been consecrated in 1910. For a Since it opened in November 1806 meanderings via New Kings Road, as modest fee you can take the lift up it has operated under no fewer than I join it at the Beaufort Street stop in the cathedral bell tower and enjoy seven different names and from four Chelsea. tremendous views over London and different buildings on the site. Kings Road has been covered beyond. comprehensively in other bus journeys There is a brief hiatus during the Luxury (go to batterseasociety.org.uk) so winter when tourism slows to a trickle, Further along is the Savoy Theatre forgive me if I shut my eyes during but the floodgates have opened again built by Richard D’Oyly Carte on the this part of journey and open them and the visitors have returned to site of the old Savoy Palace as a again as the bus arrives at Sloane Parliament Square staring in wonder, showcase for the work of Gilbert and Square. This is dominated by the Peter or bewilderment or possibly both Sullivan. The profts from their comic Jones store which started life here in at the Mother of Parliaments while operas enabled D’Oyly Carte to 1877, originally occupying just three taking selfes with Big Ben behind fnance the building of London’s frst properties, eventually expanding to them. luxury hotel, unsurprisingly named cover most of the block. The current Parliament Street becomes the Savoy. Afternoon tea there will set building dates from the 1930s. Whitehall, and the Cenotaph you back anything from £52 upwards, approaches. I told the story of how in with not a Marmite sandwich in sight. Mozart 1920 this ‘empty tomb’ became the The Lyceum Theatre has been Heading down Lower Sloane Street focus of remembrance for the all the showing The Lion King since 1999, the bus turns onto Pimlico Road unknown warriors of the great war which makes you wonder whether which is now overshadowed by the in my account of the 87 bus journey there’s anyone left who hasn’t seen it. towers of the Chelsea Barracks (Battersea Matters Spring 2013). The theatre itself arrived here in 1765. development. A bronze statue of Steely-eyed armed police keep an In its early days it hosted a variety of Mozart aged eight stands in the eye on the cluster of tourists gathered entertainments including Madame centre of Orange Square, marking the outside the gates of Downing Street. Tussaud’s frst London exhibition. At prodigy’s stay in a house in nearby There are lots of interesting things I the end of the nineteenth century Ebury Street in 1764. could tell you about number 10, but Henry Irving and Ellen Terry made And so we trundle onto instead I’ll pass on the information frequent appearances here. Buckingham Palace Road towards that the house’s last private inhabitant Now we take a short detour along Victoria Station. There are signs was called Mr Chicken. Frustratingly Aldwych. In Anglo-Saxon times there that the manic home improvements we know nothing else about him. was a village here called Lundenwic which have been taking place for (London trading centre) probably ever are coming to an end and a Scaffold using the mouth of the Fleet river as sparkling new ticket hall opened on However, we do know that the a harbour. Abandoned by the time Bressenden Place in January. By this Banqueting House, just up the road, of Alfred the Great it became known time next year there will apparently is all that remains of the Palace of as Ealdwic (old trading town) and be step free access throughout the Whitehall. In January 1649 Charles by 1211 its name was recorded as station. This will afford some relief to I stepped out of a window onto a Aldewich.

8 Left to right: Astatue of young Mozart, Orange Square; the face of Big Ben’s clock; the Savoy Hotel; El Vino’s, Fleet Street; statue of Queen Anne outside St Paul’s (photo Colin Smith), St Bride’s (photo John Salmon)

Leaving Aldwych, we pass the You can hardly miss the art deco years she went to the Bank asking Victorian Gothic hulk of the Royal magnifcence of the Daily Express for her brother. When she died she Courts of Justice on one side and building, which opened in 1932. was buried in the old churchyard St Clement Danes on the other. One Opposite that building is St Bride’s that became the Bank’s garden, and of Wren’s post Great Fire churches, Avenue leading to the church of according to legend her ghost has it was severely damaged during the the same name. During restoration often been seen here. Nothing wrong Blitz. After restoration in 1958 it was following Blitz damage it was found with a good legend, I say. adopted as the central church of the to stand on a site which had been Onto Broad Street now and we’re RAF. home to at least six other churches. near journey’s end. It’s taken well over We’re now entering the city It’s been dubbed the journalists’ an hour, and there’s not much more at Temple Bar where the Strand cathedral. to report, apart from a glimpse of the becomes Fleet Street. A stone former Natwest Tower, now known gateway designed by Christopher Replica somewhat boringly as Tower 42. Wren stood here until 1878 when – Onto Ludgate Hill we approach St And so we reach the rather shabby to ease traffc congestion – it was Paul’s. Wren’s masterpiece was not back door of Liverpool Street Station. replaced with the current winged completed until 1712, during Queen Time for a coffee before heading back dragon memorial. On the right is Inner Anne’s reign, and a statue of the to Battersea. Temple Lane leading down to Temple monarch was erected at that time. church, and the Inner and Middle The original statue deteriorated so Temple Inns of Court. Wren’s original much that in 1886 the Corporation The Battersea Society arch can now be seen in Paternoster of London stumped up the cash to Square next to St Paul’s. commission a replica, and that’s what Chair Sara Milne The church of St Dunstan-in-the- we see now. You can attend Sunday [email protected] West is famed for its chiming clock, service or choral evensong here with fgures of two giants, perhaps without paying, but they discourage Secretary Harvey Heath representing Gog and Magog, who sightseeing so you’ll have to stay in [email protected] strike the bells with their clubs. In your seat. 1828, when the old church was The bus stop near St Paul’s is a Committee Chairs demolished, the clock was sold to the good place to break your journey if Marquess of Hertford who installed it you want to visit Tate Modern, as you Planning Liz Walton at his house in Regent’s Park. It was can walk down to the river and cross [email protected] returned to the church by press baron the Millennium Bridge. On the way Lord Rothermere in 1935. you’ll pass the Firefghters’ Memorial Open Spaces openspaces@ which records the names of over batterseasociety.org.uk El Vino’s 1000 men and women who have died And there is our frst mention of on duty in the fre service. Events Sara Milne Fleet Street’s long association with The Bank of England has had its [email protected] newspapers. Strange how little is home on Threadneedle Street since left of that era. But there’s El Vino’s 1734. I’ve learned that term ‘Old Lady General enquiries wine bar (no longer refusing to serve of Threadneedle Street’ may refer to [email protected] women at the bar) and Ye Olde a real person called Sarah Whitehead. Cheshire Cheese pub to remind us Her brother Philip who worked for Website of the legendary liquid lunches that the bank was executed for forgery in batterseasociety.org.uk journalists enjoyed before dashing 1811. Sarah became ‘unhinged’ with back to yell ‘Hold the front page’. grief and every day for the next 25 Registered charity no.1103560

9 Founded, lost and reborn Sue Demont uncovers the story of north Battersea’s churches

Anglicans and atheists alike will be familiar with Battersea’s landmark churches – historic St Mary’s on the river, St Mark’s, Battersea Rise with its commanding ‘candle snuffer’ spire, the copper-topped campanile of St Luke’s, Thurleigh Road, perhaps the hefty red brick Ascension, . But in 1900 there were no fewer than ffteen Anglican churches between Lavender Hill and the river alone – my latest quest was to fnd 13th century style with what was out what happened to them. described unflatteringly as a stump of St Mary’s was always the ‘mother a tower. church,’ being by far the oldest St Andrew’s operated as a Church of England establishment separate parish for the next 70 in the ancient parish of Battersea. years, but both churches suffered Its energetic vicar of 1872 – 1909, badly during the Second World War. Canon John Erskine Clarke, is Worship continued at St George’s rightly credited with initiating the despite bomb damage until 1953, explosion of church building in but after being closed and leased Battersea between 1872 and 1900. to a theatrical agency, the church Not for nothing was his family motto was destroyed by fre in 1960. One Fortiter ubique (Bravery everywhere); contemporary noted that ‘the district of E church was its fourth oldest – his mission was to establish new had become hopelessly dreary, and St John’s, Usk Road, built in 1863. parishes all over Battersea and his the church was not needed.’ Its frst vicar was so determined to memorial duly records him as ‘builder ensure that the local workforce had of many churches’. Land mine access to worship that he conducted However a latter day Canon Clarke services in Price’s Candle Factory; 800 worshippers thought otherwise, though it was the though interestingly he had the But even before Clarke’s day site of the more severely damaged vicarage built in the more salubrious Battersea had a signifcant second St Andrew’s (hit by a land mine in neighbourhood of Wandsworth church, St George’s in Nine Elms 1940 and demolished in 1953) at Common! The poverty of the York Lane, designed by renowned the heart of the new Patmore Estate Road area was reflected in the architect Edward Blore and opened which was chosen for the erection ‘remarkably inexpensive’ building, in 1828. It stood on the exact site of a replacement church in 1955. In although it could still seat 750. of New Covent Garden between acknowledgement of its history, the now vanished Ceylon Street and new church was dedicated to ‘St Cheap Haines Street Its burial ground was George with St Andrew’, and its most This was probably optimistic, as St closed after just 30 years, though distinctive feature, a soaring tower John’s Parish was subsumed into astonishingly some of the monuments with copper covered spire, housed St Paul’s, St John’s Hill, as long ago survived until 1974. the 1913 bell from St George’s. as the 1930s and after severe bomb The original ‘neat building’ In contrast to its predecessors, damage the ‘cheap brick church’ was constructed on the meeting the new church lasted just 40 years; was demolished around 1950 and house model, but under Canon rebuilding a congregation in post-war replaced by housing. Today not a Clarke’s influence St George’s was Battersea was not easy, and there trace of St John’s remains – even enlarged by two additional aisles was no resident vicar after 1974. In the name has gone as the parish to accommodate 800 worshippers. 1994 the second St George’s was was renamed St Paul’s – though it Already the second largest in declared redundant and demolished is just possible that the two clumps Battersea, the parish continued – but rather appropriately, it has of relatively mature trees on the site to expand so rapidly that Clarke risen again. The diocese managed once framed the church... supported calls for an additional to retain the tower and spire whilst By contrast the nearby lost church church; and thus was constructed incorporating a new smaller church of St Peter’s, Plough Road, was St Andrew’s, Stockdale Road (now within its 1990s housing scheme, positively lavish; a ‘beautiful Gothic Patmore Street). Initially housed in meaning that St George’s, Battersea structure ... with lofty tower and spire a temporary iron building, the new is now in its 190th year of worship. pointing like a fnger to the sky’ and church opened in 1886, built in Probably Battersea’s ‘most lost’ C a spacious interior with rich carving,

10 William White, one of his fve despite the eminence of its architect, commissions in Battersea. St Peter’s the church was demolished in 1966 building has also had a chequered and replaced by a namesake tower post-war history; the church was block. The only trace of White’s largely destroyed by fre in 1970 and church footprint is a fragment of a meagre replacement was built churchyard wall adjacent to the flats. adjacent to White’s original church The smaller but not unattractive hall, whilst the tower and spire, having replacement church from 1970 was survived the fre, were removed itself declared redundant in 1991 but as unsafe in 1994. In 2014 both has not been lost to worship; it is now church and hall were demolished for the Philippino Iglesia ni Cristo. Such redevelopment, but the congregation transformations have saved several of continues to meet for regular worship Battersea’s Victorian churches from and the developers have promised demolition, including St Stephen’s, a new church; like St George’s, St Battersea Park Road (another White Peter’s should rise again. church) – now the Assembly of the First Born; St Bartholomew’s, Impressive Wycliffe Road (which John Betjeman The most striking architectural loss campaigned to save), now Greek Far left: St Bartholomew’s, Wycliffe Road; was another White church, St Mary Orthodox, and St Philip, Queenstown above left: St Mary Le Park today; below left: the original St Mary Le Park; above: St Le Park on the corner of Albert Bridge Road, now Ethiopian, while seven of George’s and Parkgate Roads, described the original 1900 churches remain as having an ‘impressive interior’ in Anglican use. 50 years ago the a tessellated pavement and an although White’s design was never future of many of these buildings alabaster font. Consecrated just 13 fully realised – a common occurrence looked bleak; today in a fast changing years after St John’s, St Peter’s cost among late Victorian churches. physical environment, Battersea’s more than three times as much – one Conceived as a chapel of ease to churches represent an encouraging reason being that it was designed the parish church, St Mary Le Park journey of survival, adaptation and by eminent High Victorian architect, became a parish in its own right, but renewal.

New society launches at the Picturehouse via the email address below. Nicola Brine introduces The Arts Society Clapham Common Our next lectures are: (formerly NADFAS) 19 April Linda Smith: Great Tarts in Art: High The new Clapham Common branch Antony Penrose provided a very culture and the oldest profession. of The Arts Society welcomed a entertaining lecture with fabulous throng of new members to our photographs of himself and Picasso 17 May inaugural meeting on 15 March. The in the Penrose family home at Farley Peter Medhurst: Vivaldi in Venice. group’s venue for its lectures is to House, East Sussex. Later in the year we plan to organise be the Clapham Picturehouse. The We already have almost 150 cultural trips and study groups. organisation’s national chairman members and would welcome June Robinson swore in the frst more. We are experiencing teething TheArtsSociety.org/ClaphamCommon chairman of the local Art Society, problems with our website so or email: ClaphamCommon@ in the presence of the Mayor of if you have diffculty accessing TheArtsSociety.org Wandsworth. it, please apply for membership

Third generation butcher sells up One of the oldest shops in Bob bought the building 30 Battersea has closed. Dove years ago and has lived over and Son Butchers in Northcote the shop ever since. It was Road closed its doors on 26 known for the quality of its March after 128 years. meat and butchery skills and The shop has existed on the for Jo Dove’s excellent pies corner of Mallinson Road since and ice creams, as well as for 1889, when current owner Bob Bob’s acerbic style of customer Dove’s grandfather opened service. it. Bob Dove described his ‘It’s the business rates that grandfather as ‘a tough old have done for us,’ said Bob seafarer originally. He sailed Dove. round Cape Horn on a clipper.’ 11 The Battersea Summer Scheme: we’re here for the kids Sue Demont meets the chair of the BSS, Henrietta Croker Poole MBE

SD: I understand that the Summer was born. Of course we now do a community. For example, we are Scheme is one of the projects run by lot more than just that one event. developing links with the Somali the Battersea Crime Prevention Panel Youth Club whose leader is doing SD: So you were instrumental in (BCPP), of which you are a trustee. a good job in working with whole setting up the scheme? How did it all start back in 1992? families from whom he can then HCP: The important thing in the identify young people to participate in HCP: It began when I met a local early stages was to have a ‘can the Scheme’s activities. police constable, John Johnson, do’ approach. Plans could easily following a spate of break-ins in SD: It feels as though the co- get bogged down in trying to work my area of Battersea. I became the operation of other agencies is critical out who would do what on which Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator to the success of the Scheme. premises. I’ve even cleaned the loos and was invited down to the police on occasion! HCP: Yes. The BCPP tries to engage station to meet his inspector. It with local schools; for example, transpired that some of the young SD: How important was the police they’ve had a highly successful people on the Ethelburga estate had input in getting the scheme started? partnership with Primary nothing to do and were becoming HCP: PC Johnson and Inspector Gary for the last three years. It’s harder to involved in antisocial behaviour and/ Kitchen were very supportive. Initially build contacts with the secondary or criminal activity. It struck me that it was John Johnson who identifed schools, and we would love to get this was something that ought to the young people who might beneft more from schools generally. We still be tackled, so I went to meet the from the scheme – he really knew the work closely with the police through local youth club leader – whose young people on his patch – whilst the BCPP, although the identifcation club was not being well used at the Gary Kitchen assigned some of his role subsequently moved from police time – and asked him what would offcers to take part. offcers to the Council’s outreach make a difference. He said ‘a bus!’ I workers – an excellent service which approached the Council to see if they SD: The Scheme seeks to involve has unfortunately been scaled right could make a school bus available to young people in positive and back. take some young people down to the enriching activities to try and divert We are now largely reliant on youth New Forest. them from drifting into criminal workers, though not all the estates Although this particular initiative behaviour or from becoming victims have a youth club. I am working to didn’t get off the ground, I persisted. of crime. What’s the profle of the secure support from the Battersea I organised a day out on the Sir young people you support? Power Station Foundation at Nine Walter St John’s Sports Ground, HCP: We work primarily with 8 – 16 Elms, who are required to engage eliciting food contributions so the year olds, boys and girls. Most live on with local community projects ‘in young people could stay all day, and the high rise estates and essentially kind’ ie by providing staff, time and thus the future Battersea Summer their profle matches that of their access. Scheme Sport in the Park Week

12 SD: How is the Scheme funded and HCP: It tends to be a verbal rather as economically as possible. For staffed? than a statistical process; we example we still hand deliver 90% of listen to the feedback from our our post to save money. HCP: You can’t get away from the staff and volunteers each year. For fact that we rely on fund raising and SD: I’ll end with a personal example, after Sport in the Park donations. We don’t get sponsorship. observation if I may. The Scheme both volunteers and parents remark The police are not allowed to fund feels very much like your baby and that the children come back talking raise for crime prevention themselves you’ve given it an impressive 25 years completely differently. They are more so it’s a big part of the BCPP’s work. of your time and energy. And despite confdent because they’ve achieved We employ temporary staff on a all the liaising with other agencies, and succeeded in activities they have ‘needs’ basis but we also have a lot you seem to do an awful lot yourself! never done before. Recently I met of volunteers. For our away trips we up with a young man who had gone HCP: I must emphasise that I have buy a package which includes the on from Sport in the Park to join the people around me all the time to help, staffng for all the specialist activities Cadets and who now works for Jamie and I like to think I listen to them. I such as rock climbing, kayaking etc Oliver. haven’t undertaken any long term but we have to provide supervisory succession planning; we are always staff for the evenings. The volunteers SD: What would make the biggest looking a year ahead, but not much can get a lot out of the Scheme single difference to the effectiveness beyond that. Obviously at some stage themselves; one teacher said he’d of the Scheme? I suspect I know the a younger trustee will need to take learnt things about young people from answer... the Scheme on, and then there will be spending a week away with them HCP: Yes, it is money. Put simply, changes – but that’s not a bad thing! that he would never have found out with more money we can put on more in the classroom. And our younger For more information, including an activities, make the youth clubs more volunteers get the opportunity excellent video of the Scheme’s attractive and increase their footfall; to develop and demonstrate activities and how to support it then becomes easier to signpost qualities like trustworthiness, them, log onto http://www. the right young people towards reliability and leadership which batterseasummerscheme.org.uk participation in the activities which can be cited in job references. The Battersea Summer Scheme is work for them. We try not to beg or a registered charity in England and SD: How do you evaluate the success badger too much, and we operate Wales no. 1076855 of the Scheme? Battersea Society Sara thanked the executive The speaker was David Jubb, artistic committee and offered special director of . AGM 2017 thanks to the hard-working and He gave a well-received talk on the effective planning committee, to Mike aftermath of the fre in the Grand Hall The Society’s AGM was held at St Roden for his work on the website and the creative b Mary’s Church on 9 March. Fifty- and updating our systems, and to responses to it. b u seven members attended. Suzanne Perkins and Jenny Sheridan David also spoke J id v Sara Milne, the chair, announced for Battersea Matters. about BAC’s a that two trustees were retiring: The Society now has almost 400 projects such as D Wendy Deakins and Peter Warburton. members and a membership group The Agency on Sara thanked them for their work, is working to recruit more. Sara said the Winstanley especially Wendy who was a founder that our open spaces were ever more Estate and the member and a long-term trustee. She important and urged any member Moving Museum. will remain on the events committee. with an interest to join a working Sue Marshall was elected as a trustee. group.

Congratulations to the Coach Mark Costin said Wandsworth Girls Cricket team, ‘The girls played absolutely who were champions in the fantastically …. It was a real London Youth Games on 26 team effort. Some of these girls February, at Lords. The girls, all are certainly good enough to go aged under 14, train at St John on to play for the country.’ Bosco College in Battersea. According to Matt Doherty, They won by 143 runs to sports development officer 91.against last year’s winners, for Enable, cricket is ‘growing Hammersmith & Fulham. massively with girls. Most of The medals were presented by these girls play at Spencer former England cricket captain Cricket club, off Garratt Lane. Mike Gatting. Wandsworth’s A generation ago you wouldn’t deputy mayor, Cllr Wendy Speck, have seen these girls playing, congratulated the girls on their particularly not to this standard.’ victory. It’s not just in Ambridge that girls play cricket!

13 Living on a barge led to the Booker Prize Janice Morphet explores the life and writings of Penelope Fitzgerald

When Penelope Fitzgerald won crucial moment when children the Booker Prize in 1979 for her realise that their parents are novel Offshore, about life aboard younger than they are had long a Thames barge moored by since been passed by Martha’. , few readers For the children, this was also the appreciated how closely this was waterside of Turner and Whistler, drawn from her own experience and on seeing their pictures in the of living with her family on Grace Tate, their questions about them between 1960 and 1962. The were about practical rather than barge eventually sank, with all artistic matters. their possessions and papers in The move to Almeric Road it. The novel was written nearly after Desmond’s death enabled twenty years later, following her Penelope to have more time husband’s death in 1976 when to write and she reduced her she was living with her daughter teaching to two days a week, and son-in-law in Almeric Road. although she taught until she was It recalled the lowest point in her 70. She was also researching life. a biography of L P Hartley and Penelope was born in 1913 Duchess of Cornwall, and at made friends with Francis King, an into the Knox family and her aunts Westminster Tutors, where she met authority on him as well as being an and uncles had distinguished Antonia (A S) Byatt and taught Helena author and publisher. In June 1978, careers including as a Bletchley Bonham Carter amongst others. she invited Francis to visit her in Park codebreaker, a novelist and a Penelope started writing Battersea, sending directions by letter theologian. Her father was editor of biographies before novels – of Burne beforehand: ‘the 49 stops at Arding Punch. Penelope, known as Mops Jones in 1975 and then and Hobbs, the Mecca in her family, was the brightest child her own family, the Knox of , and if at school and after Oxford worked Brothers (1977). Her first you get out at the next in the Ministry of Food and then of novel, The Bookshop request stop, quite soon Information during the war. In 1942 (1978), was set in 1959, after, in St John’s Road, she married Desmond Fitzgerald, written about the time walk on a bit, then turn whom she had met at university that she was living with left up Battersea Rise, and shortly after this, he went to her family In Southwold, and Almeric Road is first war, winning a military cross for his and then came Offshore on right – at the bottom bravery. But when he came back (1979). Her next two is a notice board of the he was an alcoholic and this was novels were also Tulipean Brethren, a an issue that she contended with autobiographical – religious sect – don’t go for the rest of his life, although drawing on her time at in there – we are 25 with without complaining or requesting the BBC, Human Voices, a laurel hedge’. help. Desmond was a barrister but (1980) and at the Italia In 1980, Penelope was struck off when he was caught Conti School, At Freddies (1982). moved to live in Hampstead with stealing client cheques. Her later novels were more historical her other daughter. While Offshore and philosophical including The Blue brought her fame and some Houseboat Flower (1995). financial stability, it had a mixed There then followed a period in the What did Penelope think about reception following the prize, not 1950s and early sixties when the her time in Battersea Reach? The least from television pundits like family was very short of money. Their first draft of Offshore used the names Robert Robinson who would have time on the houseboat reflected the of her own children and reflected preferred a more well-known author cheapest and most central home on their lives there including being to interview. Nevertheless, Penelope she could find. After the boat sank, mudlarks, finding William de Morgan demonstrated that Offshore was not a they were taken into temporary tiles and selling them in the Kings one-off achievement and confounded accommodation, eventually living in Road. We first learn about Nenna these judgements in the end. a council house in Poynders Road and her family through one of the in Clapham for 11 years. During this neighbouring barge owners. He Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life Hermione time, Penelope worked at the Italia reflects that she seems to have little Lee, London, Vintage 2014 Conti Stage School in Clapham, the or no contact with her husband and So I have thought of you: The letters Queen’s Gate School in Kensington, had little post. Nenna’s children of Penelope Fitzgerald, ed. Terence where her pupils included the had to fend for themselves and ‘the Dooley, London: Fourth Estate 2008

14 A concrete example Antonia de Lima is blown away by the Winstanley Estate murals

The concrete wall murals on Thomas Baines Road, Winstanley Road and Fowler Close have been admired by residents and visitors to the Winstanley estate over the past fve decades, but few know the background to these rare works of art. The development of this part of the Winstanley Estate was cited in the 1960s as an example of progressive council development – using industrialised building methods and achieving a speed record for building in London. The commissioning of work of a decorative nature on an estate and the creation of these particular murals resulted from similar visionary approaches, as revealed by the sculptor, William Mitchell.

Vision In an interview with the regeneration team, Mr Mitchell explained his philosophy – to create artwork on the estate from the material used to construct the buildings. His vision for the murals consisted of two parts: to expose the constituent parts of the concrete walls – sand, cement, and stones; and to achieve a natural colour. He did this using innovative techniques, such as aiming a compressed air tube to ‘blow away’ Striking sculptures on walls and entrances on the Winstanley estate, showcasing the parts of the concrete. The abstract materials used to build the estate in the 1960s designs of the murals arose from Mr Mitchell’s desire to reveal to residents the Winstanley development in the wall sculptures can be admired what they would fnd if they peeled 1960s. It still, to this day, houses whilst walking the streets on the back the layers of the walls where one of Mr Mitchell’s unique internal west side of the Winstanley Estate. they lived. He found that he could sculptures in its entrance hall. Antonia De Lima is the better showcase the materials of the Another two internal murals can be Winstanley and York Road buildings through shapes, rather than found in the foyers to Shaw Court Regeneration Project Assistant through images of objects or people. and Sendall Court, and his external Mr Mitchell overcame several challenges when constructing the War Comes Home hope to produce a leaflet, at least Winstanley murals. He needed to Did you live in Battersea during the one talk and perhaps a theatrical foster a good relationship with the war? Or do you know or remember performance in 2018. Local schools contractor who had been appointed someone who lived through those will be invited to be involved. We to build the estate. In this way, he times? will start on 18 June this year with could ensure that the concrete was If so you may be interested in a a tea party in Christchurch Gardens of good quality, and that he could new project that aims to celebrate on Battersea Park Road, home to a continue to use the contractor’s and recall the approximately 500 memorial to those killed in the raids. yard as his studio, despite the large local civilians who lost their lives The tea party is sponsored number of visitors who came from during the bombing in 1940 – 45. by the Battersea Society. The project will aim to identify around the world to witness this If you would like to know more or to the individuals who died, through unique project. get involved, email warcomeshome@ research and through recorded Clarke Lawrence Court was the mailwise.co.uk frst block to be built on this part of interviews with living people. We

15 Dance for all: from tiny tots to silver swans Battersea has been home to The Royal Academy of Dance for 45 years. Aiden Truss describes its role

left: The future RAD on York Road; above: Silver Swans at the barre

The forerunner of the Royal Academy expand. We have had to look for a classes to children on the autistic of Dance was founded in 1920 with new home. Despite looking at several spectrum, including those with the ambition of raising standards for sites across London, it was important moderate to severe and complex the art form in the UK. It received to everyone concerned to attempt to learning diffculties. These are its Royal Charter from King George stay in the Borough of Wandsworth, delivered by a small team of highly V in 1936. Its association with and if possible within Battersea, the experienced teachers on a weekly Battersea goes back to 1972 when it RAD’s long-time home. basis at primary schools in south- moved here from Knightsbridge. The This ambition was made reality west London. current site is a former warehouse after a deal was struck with The RAD’s other big recent on Vicarage Crescent, previously developers to swap the Battersea success has been ‘Silver Swans’ known as Hall’s Granary and built in Square building for space within a classes, specially designed for older the late 19th century. The RAD’s then new development on York Road, just learners. Free of charge, these help President, Dame Margot Fonteyn, a mile away. With residential space to improve mobility, posture and co- welcomed Her Majesty the Queen above, the new RAD headquarters ordination and have grown hugely in (the RAD’s patron) to offcially open will occupy the ground and part of popularity. Currently running only in the revamped building with its eight the frst floor of a building with brand Wandsworth, the RAD is now looking purpose-built studios in 1974, and the new studios, offces, a café and a to expand the classes nationwide. RAD has been here ever since. dedicated performance space. All of Our new building will offer greater this will look out onto the local area possibilities to expand on these All ages through a mainly glass frontage. existing community projects as well As well as offering its own That locality is essential to the as opening up spaces for new ideas internationally recognised RAD’s aim of being an advocate for in the future. examinations, the RAD now the benefts of dance to the wider encompasses a Faculty of Education community. Part of the arrangement Celebrities offering teacher training from with Wandsworth Council is that local The move is scheduled to take certifcate through to Master’s level. community dance groups should place in 2020, in time for the RAD’s We also house the Philip Richardson be given the chance to use the new centenary celebrations. In many Library, one of the largest specialist facilities. The RAD fully embraces this ways it will be sad to leave a building dance collections in the UK. Our opportunity to play its part in getting that has been the backdrop to so dance school teaches hundreds of more local people involved in dance. many great occasions: graduations, students each week from age 2½ to Among our current projects are royal visits, celebrities rehearsing for over-60s in everything from ballet Step into Dance, the UK’s largest Strictly Come Dancing, not to mention to musical theatre and ftness. On fully inclusive secondary school the myriad smaller, though no less top of that we administer a global dance programme. Since 2007 it has important personal victories of young membership of over 14,000. The given over 22,000 young people the dancers passing their Solo Seal, or RAD is also something of a tourist opportunity to dance, with regular Silver Swans returning to ballet for attraction, with regular guided tours classes and the chance to perform the frst time in decades to fnd that taking place for dance enthusiasts at big events. 25% of the schools they still have perfect turn out. The from all over the world. participating cater for children with old building means so much to so The RAD has, however, been Special Educational Needs, a fact of many, and it will be a wrench to leave. outgrowing its facilities for some which we are very proud. But this is tempered with a great time. There is only a limited amount In 2016, the RAD attracted funding optimism for the next chapter in the that can be done within the confnes for another SEN initiative, RADiate, story of the RAD and our community of the old building and no space to which provides subsidised dance in Battersea.

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