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Goodbye to Wandsworth – 1990

Goodbye to Wandsworth – 1990: The final post on my walk on Sunday 4th March 1990 which had begun at Clapham Junction in Battersea with St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990. The previous post on this was walk was Point Pleasant and the Thames.

It wasn’t of course the last time I went to Wandsworth – I was even back there a couple of weeks ago, walking through the same areas, though much of it now hardly recognisable.

*West Hill Primary, School, Broomhill Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-25*

The school building is locally listed and its address is 5 Merton Road, but this is the view from Broomhill Road.

*London Theatre School, Chapel Yard, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-26*

On a second image I made of this building I can just about make out the inscriptions on the frontage as at left ‘Erected 1573, Enlarged 1685 and on the right ‘Repaired 1809 – 31, Rebuilt 1882’. You can read all four plaques lower on the building on the London Remembers site.

This is Wandsworth Chapel and possibly the site was first used by Huguenots, though perhaps only rather later than this. Another plaque lower down mentions a Dutch congregation but from 1713-87 this was the ‘French Church.’ Later from 1809 it was Congregational and a plaque states they continued to use it for mission work until 1939 after moving to a new church on East Hill in 1860. Its history reflects the many immigrants who settled in Wandsworth and set up industries along the Wandle using its water and the power it could generate.

The current building with a hall which could hold 500 people opened in 1883 and is locally listed. Since housing the London Theatre School it became the National Opera Studio.

*Pizza Delivery, Scooters, Wandsworth High St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3e-65*

Pizza Delivery began in the UK in the mid-1980s, but back in 1990 you had to phone for a pizza, with on-line ordering only becoming widespread in the late 1990s. It was still fairly unusual in 1990 and HIPPO PIZZA with this row of five scooters ready and waiting for a call was something of a pioneer.

*Entrance, Car Wash, Wandsworth High St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3e-66*

‘Welcome, Please Drive In’ for a ‘Guaranteed Complete Clean’. At at right someone sits waiting. There is still a ‘HAND CAR WASH’ here on the High Street.

*Gas Holder, Armoury Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3e-51*

I walked up Ram Street again to Armoury Way and took a few more pictures of the gas holder – which I’ve written more about in earlier posts about this walk.

*Gas Holder, Armoury Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3e-53*

I think I then looked at my watch and hurried to Wandsworth Town Station taking no more pictures to catch a train rather than have to wait another half hour for the next one.

Finally, here is just one picture from the area I made on my last visit in April 2026, looking across where Bell Lane Creek and the River Wandle join. On ‘The Spit’ is a sculpture, ‘Sail’, by Sophie Horton placed there in 2003, financed by the Wandsworth Challenge Partnership. It was inspired by the sail of a dinghy, though I don’t think these have ever sailed up here. But perhaps in the new Wandle Riverside they will.

The flats are part of a new development on the former site of the Wandsworth Gasworks. And where I was standing to take this picture where there is now a riverside path leading to the River Thames was, back in 1990, part of the Shell Oil Terminal.

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Yet More Wandle – 1990

Yet More Wandle: Continuing my walk on Sunday 4th March 1990 had begun at Clapham Junction in Battersea with St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990 and the previous post to this was A Wandle Wander – 1990:

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-25*

I found it hard to drag myself away from this spot on the path beside the River Wandle where the previous post had ended and took several more pictures before moving on, including this one.

*Tyres, River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-53*

I didn’t move far, just a few yards further on before taking the picture above, which shows the same heap of tyres and the same covered pipe bridge – but from the other side. I think most of these pipe bridges date from the time the east side of the Wandle was occupied by the gas works.

River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-65

Much of the former gasworks site was then occupied by the concrete plant I wandered back and forth for some time taking pictures and cannot now remember the exact locations as the area has changed so much. This area is now a huge building site with a tall residential tower now going up.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-54*

This is where the River Wandle and Bell Lane Creek rejoin, running to the right of this picture into the Thames just a few yards away. The tide was low and you can see there is little or no water running out from the Wandle with all the flow all going down Bell Lane Creek. The Shell Oil Terminal Site was in Osiers Road and this and adjoining sites have now been redeveloped with blocks of flats of various heights, the tallest around 15 storey. One gain from this is that there is now a walkway by the Wandle leading to the Thames; the previous diversion was not without interest – but had an overpowering strong smell of oil.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-55*

Here I think I was looking roughly south I think over or through a fence at the north edge of the cement works where there is a cement lorry. I think this may be part of the works, possibly a water intake or perhaps a settling tank for water used for hosing down the lorries and plant, but that is simply guesswork. But as often with my pictures I did record a six-figure map reference – 257752.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-56*

Also taken from The Causeway a few feet west from the previous image you can see the gasholder in the background – and at right the railway viaduct.

Finally I dragged myself away from the Wandle and made my way west to Point Pleasant where my next post on this walk will begin, coming back to those oil storage tanks beside the Wandle.

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A Wandle Wander – 1990

A Wandle Wander – 1990: Continuing my walk on Sunday 4th March 1990 had begun at Clapham Junction in Battersea with St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990 and the post before this was Court, Citadel, Gas & Brewery – 1990

*River Wandle, Armoury Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-34*

The area between Armoury Way and the River Thames was and still is very much an industrial one. I think most of the pictures in this post, probably including this one were taken from The Causeway, a street that leads from the junction between Armoury Way and Dormay Street, running beside the west bank of the River Wandle. A dead end for vehicles you can walk along it to reach a footpath which leads to the path beside the Thames towards Putney – or if you turn east, to Smugglers Way. Here across the Wandle you can see a cement plant and cement lorries.

*Bell Lane Creek, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-42*

Bell Lane Creek is the western of two mouths of the River Wandle and I think part of its original course though it was described as ‘a marshy area’ and might have had more channels. It was improved by the addition of a half lock from the Thames in the 1970s and apparently remains navigable from the River Thames an hour or two each side of high tide, though only as far as where I was standing to take this picture, next to a weir. The sluice gates here – which I photographed on another visit – have a bell on them inscribed ‘I AM RUNG BY THE TIDES’. The area to the right of the creek is Causeway Island.

To the left had once been the Wandsworth Royal Laundry and the creek had also extended further west to several wharves.

*River Wandle, Railway Bridge, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-35*

Looking south up the Wandle under the railway bridge which carries the line from Reading and Windsor to Waterloo. Above it as left is the giant Wandsworth gasholder.

*Railway Bridge, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-51*

The Staines and Windsor line is on a viaduct here, with three bridges. As well as one over Bell Lane Creek and this one, a few yards to the east is one built to carry the lines over the Wandsworth Cut – later called McMurray’s Canal – there is a very clear map from 1891 here.

This quarter-mile long canal was built in 1802 to link the Surrey Iron Railway to the Thames and had an entrance lock from the river a few yards east of the Wandle where the Wandsworth Solid Waste Transfer Station now is. The horsedrawn Surrey Iron Railway, the first public railway ceased operation in 1846 and the canal was sold to the owners of a nearby flour mill.

The mill was later owned by William McMurray who made paper from esparto grass brought from farms owned by his family in Spain and North Africa – and from the docks by barge to his Royal Paper Mills in Wandsworth. After a fire bankrupted the company, the canal was sold to the Wandsworth and District Gas Company in 1910. In the 1930s they filled it in and built over its route.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-23*

A rather confusing array of bridges and pipe bridges across the Wandle just to the north of the railway bridge. At right past the parked concrete lorries is the Wandsworth Solid Waste Transfer Station.

*Footpath, River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-63*

A narrow footpath leads to the section of The Causeway at the west end of Smugglers Way. aAt right is the Waste Transfer Station and just getting into the picture at left a little of a large electrical substation.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-64*

And from exactly the same position looking across the Wandle. I had probably intended to produce a panoramic image from these two exposures.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-26*

And I too a third picture moving closer to the river at the same location.

I found this a fascinating area and continued to take pictures for some time – and will share a few more in a later post.

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