My walk on Sunday 4th March 1990 had begun at Clapham Junction in Battersea and I had ended my first post, St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990 next to Trinity Road in Wandsworth.
From 1562 to 1598 France was at civil war between Catholics, supported by the Catholic League including the Pope and Spain, and Protestants – the Huguenots – whose backers included Protestant England under Elizabeth I. Although Henry IV had become King of France in 1589 after the death of his ninth cousin once removed, Henry III, he was not recognised across the whole country.
Henry IV had been born and baptised a Catholic but brought up a Huguenot, and was the first (and only) Protestant King of France, but under pressure and to be recognised in Paris and elsewhere he converted to Catholicism in 1593, though whether he actually said “Paris is worth a Mass” is thought highly doubtful.
One of his first actions as king was the Edict of Nantes which granted the Huguenots – Calvinist protestants – the right to practise their religion while maintaining Catholicism as the established religion of the country. The Catholic authorities were never happy with the edict and Henry survived several assassination attempt before one succeeded in 1610.
The Edict gave Huguenots religious toleration in certain towns and cities in France and allowed them to play a part in civil society, including holding public office, running their own schools, organising militia, carry out some trades and professions and to travel freely in France – and to avoid the Inquisition when travelling abroad.
Over the years the various freedoms granted by the Edict were lessened and in 1685, Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, renounced the Edict and declared Protestantism illegal in all of France. Ministers were given two weeks to leave the country, while others were prohibited from leaving, though as many as 400,000 did, many coming to England.
Although Spitalfields is well-known for its Huguenot population, others settled elsewhere in London becoming around 5% of the area’s population. And Wandsworth, then a small village on the outskirts attracted some, probably because there were already some French speakers there, running various small industries on the River Wandle as well as market gardens. They became involved in textile mills and as hat and dressmakers, with Wandsowth becoming famous for hat making.
There was religious persecution in England too, although the established church had broken from Rome, but protestants suffered as well as catholics. But it seems that in Wandsworth, French speakers were allowed to set up their own chapel since none of the English would understand their language. A plaque in Chapel Yard suggests that Flemish and French Protestants had set up a house of prayer there as early as 1573, when such chapels were clearly illegal.
The Huguenot Burial Site – also known as Mount Nod Cemetery – between East Hill and Huguenot Place was in use by 1687 and burials continued until 1854. In 1911 a memorial was erected – seen in two of my pictures, remembeing the contribution made by Huguenots to the “prosperity of the town of their adoption.”
The cemetery has recently been given local historic park and garden status has apparently been refurbished, though I’ve not visited it for some years, though I think may do so later this year.
This Italianate locally listed building adjioinig the Huguenot Burial Ground was built in 1888 as County House for the Wandsworth District Board of Works. After the Nation Book League moved into it in 1985 it became Book House, and was also home to the Publishing Training Centre. More recently it has been converted into flats.
I left East Hill and walked up Alma Road; this area was developed between 1865 and 1895, but the north end of the street dates from soon after the Battle of Alma and appears on Stanford’s 1862 map. Alma was the first major battle of the Crimean War, when the British and the French defeated the Russians close to the mouth of the Alma, a small river which flows into the Black Sea not far from Sevastopol. The war dragged on until February 1856.
Fullerton Road crosses Alma Road and I walked a few yards down it to take this picture of a covered motorbike or scooter in front of Rose Cottage, Lansdown House and Gordon House.
Alma Road joins Old York Road opposite Wandsworth Town station and a few yards down to the left Ferrier Street leads off west, with a view of the Wandwworth gasholder. The superstructure of this was demolished I think over 10 years ago, but its base remains, visible from the railway.
Old York Road still exists, although the shops have shifted significantly upmarket and I’ve been to exhibition openings there, and the area around to the north and west is bristling with new towers of flats.
No trace remains of the HOVIS sign on this house on the corner with Edgel Street and Lawrence’s Shoe Repairs are long gone.
I went into Wandsworth Town Station and climbed the stairs to the platform to lean over and photograph the Alma Tavern. This was built in 1866 although there appears to be a pub here on the 1862 map. It was acquired by Young’s brewery – nearby in the centre of Wandsworth on the River Wandle – in 1888. Still operated by them it now has a hotel extension on the site of the former 1880s Victorian factory behind the pub in Alma Road, since 1983 occupied by Winstanley Metal Fabrications.
Further along the platform I took this view looking along Old York Road. This area along to what is now Swandon Way used to be Fairfield, the site of Wandsworth Fair, discontinued in the 19th century. York Road was once called Pickpocket Lane, then Slough Lane and only relatively recently becoming Old York Road. Much of the area was designated a conservation area in 2019.
My next post on this walk shortly.
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