Plough Rd | >Re-PHOTO

St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990

St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea: My next London walk was on Sunday 4th March 1990 and began at Clapham Junction station, which is not in Clapham but in Battersea. The London and South Western Railway, London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the West London Extension Railway deliberately chose the misleading name for their interchange station as Clapham was so much more respectable than the rather working-class industrial Battersea and so would be more acceptable to the upper and middle class customers they wanted to use their trains.

Shop window, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-51 — *Shop window, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-51*

I walked south through the tunnel under the lines inside the station and made my way out to the exit onto St John’s Hill, Battersea, where I found this shop window with an intriguing range of content. at top left are directions ‘IF YOU NEED AN AMBULANCE’ and in the centre’ AND IN THE CENTRE ‘PLENTY OF MEN’S OVERCOATS ALL SIZES FORM £2.50 to £4=’ followed by the opening hours, the days listed in the rather odd order ‘MONDAY THURSDAY SATURDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY’.

On the bottom at left is a purse with a chain and then an incomprehensible rectangle, perhaps written in some alien language from outer space. Next is what I think could be a collapsed Japanese-style lampshade and then a 12 inch vinyl record cover for Star Wars and other space themes by Geoff Love and His Orchestra, a 1978 LP. Inside the shop – perhaps a ‘charity shop’ – there appears to be another basket full of what look to me like 78’s, but most of what we can see is reflections of the opposite side of the stree – and my body as I made the photo.

*Entrance, Plough Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-53*

A short distance up the Hill I turned right into Plough Road and photographed this rather strange brick wall with an door-less doorway leading into what looks like a rubbish yard. I carefully lined up a block of flats in the aperture for the picture, but can tell you nothing more about it.

Shops, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-55 — *Shops, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-55*

Back on St John’s Hill at No 80 was KEARNS ANTIQUE COPIES, since replaced by a larger block, Langford Mews. The two properties with the roof balustrade are still there but the unnamed 76 now has an extra storey. But to my delight, HAPPY VALLEY is still there, looking much the same and still a Fish and Chicken bar. I think this building probably dates from around the 1850s. To its right is another new block with ground-floor retail which has replaced H J Golding & Co Ltd and the building to its right.

Shops, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-41 — *Shops, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-41*

Shops and houses on the north side of St John’s Hill on each side of Louvaine Rd. These terraces probably date from around 1870 by which time most of the street was built up. The church in the distance, St. Peter and St Paul’s Church (now the LARA community centre and nursery) was built around 1868. These buildings are since 2009 part of the St John’s Hill Grove conservation area.

Brian J Reed, Silverline Press, St John's Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-42 — *Brian J Reed, Silverline Press, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-42*

Two businesses both doomed by changes in technology, with electronic components being replaced by integrated circuts and much of the printing business being transformed by computerisation. The works through the gateway is now part of a Sainsbury’s Local with a shop front a little further up the street.

*Gateway, LCC, East Hill Estate, East Hill, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-44*

Further along the street St John’s Hill becomes East Hill and it was here that the London Country Council built their East Hill estate in 1928, having bought the site five years earlier. These Grade II listed gates date from 1851 and were preserved from St Peter’s Hospital (Fishmongers’ Almhouses) formerly on the site and re-used as the main pedestrian gateway to the new estate. The almshouses had been built to house 42 residents along with a chapel, hall and library and rooms for the medical officer, clergyman and paymaster. They replaced those in Newington, South London dating from 1618.

The 1928 LCC estate was demolished in 1981 and replaced by the more modern flats on the site in my photograph.

*Garden, Birdhurst Rd, Trinity Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-45*

The Trinity Road dual carriageway had started to be planned when Wandsworth Bridge was build in the 1930s as a part of extensive road and motorway schemes which included a real South Circular, but only materialised in the 1960s as a rather forgotten part of London’s Ringway schemes, intended at some date to link up north of the river with the West Cross Route at Shepherds Bush.

Fortunately sanity prevailed and after a few disastrous short sections of road were built most of these schemes were abandoned. I’m unsure when this section of Trinity Road was converted to dual carriageway, going under the A3 and East Hill and the famous square roundabout were built, but I think some time around 1970.

This small garden is immediately north of East Hill on the corner of Birdhurst Road and has now lost all of its railings and is surrounded by a ring of rather delicate-looking metal bollards. A board about environmental improvements has a graphic including Battersea’s most famous building.

Charterhouse, A Diary, School, Church & Houses

Charterhouse, A Diary, School, Church & Houses continues my walk on Friday 4th August 1989 in Battersea from the previous post, St Peter & St Paul, Candles, A Pub & Distillery. My walk began with Council flats, Piles of Bricks, A House Hospital and Brasserie.

*Charterhouse Works, Eltringham St, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-65*

I turned south from York Road into Petergate and turned int Eltringham Street where I think I took this picture of the Charterhouse Works. It’s hard to read the peeling paint of the notice on the side, but I think these were once the works of Sandle Brothers, Manufacturing Stationers, Wholesale & Export with City Offices & Showroom at 4 Snow Hill EC4. You can see more about them on Spitalfields Life.

There appears to be a very long list of current occupants on the front of the building and on the full size image I can make out some of the names of what appear to be small businesses with workshops or offices in the building.

I think this is now the site of Charterhouse Appartments at 21 Eltringham St, a large modern block.

*Nicholson & Co, 115, 119, Plough Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-52*

I made my way through the back streets to Plough Road, probably going along the footpath beside the railway line, Tours Passage. On the way I passed a heap of black sacks of rubbish with horse that had come from a fair roundabout, which I photographed but have not yet digitised.

Going under a railway bridge and walking down the road took me opposite the works of Nicholson & Co Ltd at 115-7 Plough Road, Heating – Ventilating – Air Conditioning Engineers established in 1904. Next door at 119 is a rather more ornate building with the date 1902 in its gable. The 2013 Survey of London tells me this was a former diary “designed by William Clinch Poole for the Dairy Supply Company Ltd.”

*Plough Road School, Plough Terrace, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-53*

Plough Road School is Grade II listed as Highview Primary School and was built in 1889-90 (the date 1890 appears on it though not in my picture) designed for the London School Board by its architect T J Bailey who was proud of his work and exbibted the designs at the Royal Academy in 1891.

My view is of the back of the building, probably because much of the rest was covered by scaffolding when I made it, but perhaps becuase I thought the architectural influence was more evident. At the right of my picture is a little of the schoolkeeper’s house built at the same time.

St Pauls, Church, Community Centre, Vardens Rd, St John's Hill, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-54 — *St Pauls, Church, Community Centre, Vardens Rd, St John’s Hill, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-54*

At the bottom of Plough Road I turned right into St John’s Hill and took this picture of St Paul’s Church from the corner of Vardens Road, I think to contrast the slender spire with the pillars of the corner doorway of 129 St John’s Hill. This block, shops with flats above has a rather more delicate entrance to the flats, Harvard Mansions, on Vardens Road. Those pillars seemed unusual in that they clearly were not supporting anything – with a top looking like a chimney. The block was built in the late 1890s in an Arts and Crafts style.

Although this is on St John’s Hill it was built in 1868 as St Paul’s church, as a part of the parish of St John’s Battersea which was on Usk Road. It was needed to accommodate the growing number of worshippers in the area which was beginning to expand rapidly. Later numbers fell and St John’s closed in 1950. This church became part of the parish of St. Peter & St Paul Battersea. Chad Varah who founded the Samaritans was its vicar from 1949-53.

Designed by H E Coe this Victorian Gothic church was build in a Decorated style using Kentish ragstone. Despite some on-line statements it appears to be only locally listed. When I made this picture it was in use as a community centre for the local residents association and as a nursery and it seems only to have been formally de-consecrated in 2013 to allow parts to be converted to flats.

*Houses, 13-17, Spencer Rd, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-55*

I walked west to the next turning on St John’s Hill and went down Spencer Road where a short distance down I found these splendid Victorian villas. Much of the housing in the road is interesting but I was particularly interested in these for their combination of Victorian Gothic and Dutch gables.

Spencer Road presumably gets its name from the various Spencers who were Lords of the Manor in this area. The street was laid out before 1871 but was developed piecemeal and these houses are I think probably a little later.

This walk will conclude in a later post.

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St Peter & St Paul, Candles, A Pub & Distillery

St Peter & St Paul, Candles, A Pub & Distillery continues my walk on Friday 4th August 1989 in Battersea from the previous post, River Thames, St Mary’s, Church Rd, Chelsea Harbour & A Bridge. The walk began with Council flats, Piles of Bricks, A House Hospital and Brasserie.

St Peter & St Paul, Church, l21, Plough Road, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-74 — *St Peter & St Paul, Church, 121, Plough Road, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-74*

I left the riverside and walked down Lombard Road and crossed York Road into York Gardens probably to find a pleasant spot to rest a while and eat my sandwiches before going through the gardens to exit on Plough Road close to the church.

St Peter’s Church is still very much alive now on Plough Road, but SPB looks very different to my picture in 1989. The first St Peter’s Battersea was built in 1875 but was seriously damaged by fire in 1970 and the church moved into the building in my picture which had been its church and school hall.

According to ‘Clapham Junction Insider’ Cyril Ritchert, the demolition of this Grade II listed building, “an accomplished example of the free gothic style“, was opposed by the Ancient Monuments Society, English Heritage, the Battersea Society and the Wandsworth Society but was approved by Wandsworth Council in 2010. The developers made a second application in 2015 before any building on the site had started. Google Street View shows the church still in use in 2012.

To finance the new church the developers had been granted permission for an 8 storey block of flats also on the site. Local residents were angered that the developers managed to game the planning system to eventually build a 10 storey block of housing with minimal affordable housing on the site.

*Shop, St Peter & St Paul, Church, Flats, Holgate Ave, Plough Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989*

The view of the church from Holgate Avenue shows clearly the position of the church on the edge of the Winstanley Estate to the north of Clapham Junction station. The view of the tower block Sporle Court is now blocked by the new 10 storey block on the church site. The trees at left are in York Gardens.

There is still a billboard and a shop on the corner of Holgate Avenue, but what was then BRITCHOICE is now SUNRISER EXPRESS POLSKI SKLEP. Holgate Avenue was until 1931 known as Brittania Place or Brittania Street and took its name from the Brittania beer house which was possibly in this shop, part of a group of two buildings at 38-40 Plough Lane which are the only remnants of the original 1860s development of the area.

Apparently the Revd Chad Varah, the founder of The Samaritans, was vicar at Saint Peter’s during the 1950’s. St Peter’s was amalgamated with St Paul’s at some time after 1969 – and St Paul’s had been amalgamated with St John in Usk Road in 1938.

*Houses, Holgate Avenue, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-75*

According to the Survey of London, “Holgate Avenue, started in the 1920s, was Battersea’s first
successful slum-clearance scheme.” Poorly built Victorian houses from the 1860s were replaced by these three-storey tenements built by Battersea’s Labour Council in 1924-37 to high standards with some impressive brickwork and detailing. Probably more importantly for the residents they were provided with electric cooking, heating and lighting facilities, unusual luxury for the time.

There was little land in Battersea for building and while the council would have liked to build single family homes it had to compromise with these. But at least tenants at most had only to walk up three flights of stairs, while most new council building by the LCC in the interwar period was in five-storey tenement walk-up blocks.

Price's Candles, York Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-62 — *Price’s Candles, York Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-62*

I walked back up Plough Road to York Road, and continued my walk towards Wandsworth Bridge. There was no access to the River Thames on this stretch before the bridge, as the area was still occupied by industrial premises.

Price’s Candles on York Rd was built on part of the site of York House, the London residence of the Archbishop of York from which York Road got its name. You can read more than you will ever want to know about York House in All about Battersea, by Henry S Simmonds published in 1882 and now on Project Gutenberg, which also has a long section on the Belmont Works or Price’s Patent Candle Factory.

Price’s Candles was begun in 1830 by William Wilson and Benjamin Lancaster who had purchased a patent for the separation of coconut fats. They chose the name Price for the business to remain anonymous as candle-making was not at the time a respectable occupation.

They moved to this site in 1847 setting up a large factory and workforce, making candles, soap and other products with stearine wax for the candles and the by products of glycerine and light oils coming cocunuts grown on a plantation they bought in Ceylon. In 1854 they began to import large quantities of crude petroleum from Burma and developed paraffin wax candles. Later they developed processes to work with other industrial wastes, animal fats and fish oils. By 1900 they were the largest candle manufacturer in the world.

The company was taken over by Unilever in 1919, and became owned by other oil companies including BP, who sold part of the site which opened in 1959 as the Battersea Heliport. A few of Price’s buildings remain, though most with added floors, and the rest of the site is mostly new blocks of flats.

*York Tavern, pub, 347, York Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-63*

The York Tavern was on the corner of York Road and Usk Road in the late 1850s but was given a makeover later in the century in the typical 1890s Queen Anne style with fake gable facades. I can’t find a date for the closing of this pub but it was clearly very shut when I made this picture. The building was demolished in 2003.

*John Watney & Co Ltd, Wandsworth Distillery, York Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8c-64*

Wandsworth Distillery on York Rd was founded by Richard Bush at Gargoyle Wharf around 1780. By 1874 it was owned by John and Daniel Watney. Gin was produced here, having become popular after heavy taxes were imposed on French brandy, and later particularly in the colonies to counteract the unpleasantly bitter taste of the anti-malarial quinine.

Acquired by Guinness, the distillery was demolished in 1992, and I photographed its occupation as the ‘Pure Genius Eco Village‘ by The Land is Ours in 1996. It was redeveloped as Battersea Reach housing from 2002 on.