Editing Battersea (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of London|Hundred of Brixton}}
Battersea is mentioned in the few surviving [[Anglo-Saxon]] geographical accounts as {{langx|ang|Badrices īeg|lit=Badric's Island|label=none}} and later {{langx|ang|Patrisey}}. As with many former parishes beside tidal flood plains, the lowest land was reclaimed for agriculture by draining marshland and building culverts for streams. By the side of this was the [[River Heathwall|Heathwall]] [[tide mill]] in the north-east, with a very long mill pond regularly draining and filling to the south.

Battersea ({{langx|enm|Patricesy}}) appears in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 in Surrey within the [[Hundred (county division)|hundred]] of [[Hundred_of_Brixton|Brixton]] ({{langx|enm|Bricsistan}}) as a vast manor held by [[St Peter's Abbey, Westminster]].<ref>[https://opendomesday.org/place/TQ2676/battersea/ Battersea]. Open Domesday. Accessed 19 March 2025.</ref> Its ''Domesday'' assets were: 18 [[hide (unit)|hide]]s and 17 [[ploughland]]s of cultivated land; 7 [[gristmill|mill]]s worth £42 9s 8d per year, {{convert|82|acre}} of [[meadow]], [[woodland]] worth 50 [[hog (swine)|hog]]s. It rendered (in total): £75 9s 8d. Price inflation was close to zero in the 11th and 12th centuries, so netting an annual income of £75 9s 8d would be {{Inflation|UK|75.48333|1209|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}.<ref>[http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm ''Domesday Book'' for Surrey] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030192829/http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm |date=30 October 2007 }}</ref>

The present church, which was completed in 1777, hosted the marriage of [[William Blake]] and [[Catherine Blake|Catherine Boucher]] in 1782. [[Benedict Arnold]], his wife [[Peggy Shippen]] and their daughter were buried in the [[crypt]] of the church.

[[Battersea Park]], a {{convert|200|acre|km2|adj=on}} northern rectangle by the Thames, was landscaped and founded for public use in 1858.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tipped.co.uk/listings/224731/battersea-park |title=Battersea Park – Battersea Park Battersea London SW11 4NJ |publisher=Tipped |date=27 October 2008 |access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> Amenities and leisure buildings have been added to it since.

Until 1889, the parish of Battersea was part of the county of [[Surrey]]. In that year a new [[County of London]] came into being and the parish was made part of it.

===Agriculture===
Before the [[Industrial Revolution]], much of the large parish was farmland, providing food for the [[City of London]] and surrounding population centres; and with particular specialisms, such as growing [[lavender]] on [[Lavender Hill]] (nowadays denoted by the road of the same name), [[asparagus]] (sold as "Battersea Bundles") or pig breeding on Pig Hill (later the site of the [[Shaftesbury Park Estate]]). At the end of the 18th century, above {{convert|300|acre|km2}} of land in the parish of Battersea were occupied by some 20 market gardeners, who rented from five to near {{convert|60|acre|ha}} each.<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45371 'Battersea', The Environs of London: volume 1: County of Surrey] (1792), pp. 26–48.<!--Date accessed: 27 February 2009.--></ref> Villages in the wider area: Wandsworth, Earlsfield (hamlet of Garratt), Tooting, Balham – were separated by fields; in common with other suburbs the wealthy of London and the traditional manor successors built their homes in Battersea and neighbouring areas.<ref name=vh>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43025 |title=Parishes: Battersea with Penge |editor=H.E. Malden  |publisher=Institute of Historical Research |date=1912 |work=A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4 |access-date=4 November 2014 }}</ref>

===Industry===
[[File:Battersea power station 2.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Battersea Power Station]]]]
Industry in the area was concentrated to the northwest just outside the Battersea-Wandsworth boundary, at the confluence of the River Thames and the [[River Wandle]], which gave rise to the village of [[Wandsworth]]. This was settled from the 16th century by [[Protestant]] craftsmen – [[Huguenot]]s – fleeing religious persecution in Europe, who planted lavender and gardens and established a range of industries such as mills, breweries and dyeing, bleaching and [[calico]] printing.<ref name=vh/> Industry developed eastwards along the bank of the Thames during the [[Industrial Revolution]] from the 1750s onwards; the Thames provided water for transport, for steam engines and for water-intensive industrial processes. Bridges erected across the Thames encouraged growth; [[Putney Bridge]], a mile to the west, was built in 1729 and rebuilt 1882, and [[Battersea Bridge]] in the centre of the north boundary in 1771. Inland from the river, the rural agricultural community persisted.<ref name=vh/>

Along the Thames, a number of large and, in their field, pre-eminent firms grew; notably the [[Morgan Crucible]] company, which survives to this day and is listed on the [[London Stock Exchange]]; Price's Candles, which also made cycle lamp oil; oil refiner and paint manufacturer [[S. Bowley and Son]]; and Orlando Jones' Starch Factory. The 1874 [[Ordnance Survey]] map of the area shows the following factories, in order, from the site of the as yet unbuilt Wandsworth Bridge to Battersea Park: Starch manufacturer; Silk manufacturer; (St. John's College); (St. Mary's Church); Malt house; Corn mill; Oil and grease works (Prices Candles); Chemical works; Plumbago Crucible works (later the [[Morgan Crucible|Morgan Crucible Company]]); Chemical works; Saltpetre works; Foundry. Between these were numerous wharfs for shipping.

In 1929, construction started on [[Battersea Power Station]], being completed in 1939. From the late 18th century to comparatively recent times,{{as of?|date=April 2023}} Battersea was established as an industrial area with all of the issues associated with pollution and poor housing affecting it.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Industry declined and moved away from the area in the 1970s; local government sought to address chronic post-war housing problems with large scale clearances and the establishment of planned housing. Some decades after the end of large scale local industry,{{when|date=April 2023}} resurgent demand among magnates and high income earners for parkside and riverside property close to planned Underground links has led to significant construction, {{citation needed|date=May 2023}} Factories have been demolished and replaced with modern apartment buildings. Some of the council owned properties have been sold off and several traditional working men's pubs have become more fashionable bistros. Battersea neighbourhoods close to the railway have some of the most deprived local authority housing in the Borough of Wandsworth, in an area which saw condemned slums after their erection in the Victoria era.<ref>[http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&m.l=3&m.d.l=0&m.p.x=5679&m.p.y=10057&m.p.w=500&m.p.h=309&m.p.l=1&m.t.w=128&m.t.h=80&b.v.x=265&b.v.y=110&b.p.x=9042&b.p.y=14930&b.p.w=500&b.p.h=309&b.p.l=2&b.p.p.l=5 Booth's Poverty Map] [[London School of Economics]] archive. Retrieved 4 November 2014</ref>

===Railway age===
[[File:London V2 Frissell2.jpg|right|thumb|Aftermath of a [[V-2]] bombing at Battersea, 27 January 1945]]
Battersea was radically altered by the coming of railways. The [[London and Southampton Railway]] Company engineered their railway line from east to west through Battersea, in 1838, terminating at the original [[Nine Elms railway station]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10301565&wwwflag=2&imagepos=4|title=Image of nine elms station, london, 1838-1848. by Science & Society Picture Library|website=www.scienceandsociety.co.uk}}</ref> at the north-east tip of the area. Over the next 22 years five other lines were built, which continue to carry all of the trains to and from London's [[London Waterloo station|Waterloo]] and [[London Victoria station|Victoria]] termini. An interchange station was built in 1863 towards the north-west of the area, at a junction of the railway. Taking the name of a fashionable village a mile and more away, the station was named '[[Clapham Junction railway station|Clapham Junction]]':<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/13780930.is-clapham-junction-in-clapham-or-battersea/|title=Why is Clapham Junction not in Clapham?|website=Your Local Guardian|date=24 September 2015 }}</ref> a campaign to rename it ''Battersea Junction'' fizzled out as late as the early twentieth century.

During the latter decades of the nineteenth century, Battersea had developed into a major town railway centre with two locomotive works at [[Nine Elms Locomotive Works|Nine Elms]] and [[Longhedge Railway Works (Battersea)|Longhedge]] and three important motive power depots (Nine Elms, Stewarts Lane and Battersea) all in an initial pocket of north Battersea. The effect was precipitate: a population of 6,000 people in 1840 was increased to 168,000 by 1910; and save for the green spaces of [[Battersea Park]], [[Clapham Common]], [[Wandsworth Common]] and some smaller isolated pockets, all other farmland was built over, with, from north to south, industrial buildings and vast railway sheds and sidings (much of which remain), slum housing for workers, especially north of the main east–west railway, and gradually more genteel residential terraced housing further south.

The railway station encouraged the government to site its buildings in the area surrounding [[Clapham Junction (area)|Clapham Junction]], where a cluster of new civic buildings including the town hall, library, police station, court and post office was developed along [[Lavender Hill]] in the 1880s and 1890s. The [[Arding & Hobbs]] department store, diagonally opposite the station, was the largest of its type at the time of its construction in 1885; and the streets near the station developed as a regional shopping district. The area was served by a vast music hall{{snd}}The Grand{{snd}}opposite the station (nowadays serving as a nightclub and venue for smaller bands) as well as a large theatre next to the town hall (the Shakespeare Theatre, later redeveloped following bomb damage). All this building around the station shifted the focus of the area southwards, and marginalised Battersea High Street (the main street of the original village) into no more than an extension of Falcon Road.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

===Social housing estates===
[[File:Not really built of Lego...... - geograph.org.uk - 183398.jpg|thumb|Doddington and Rollo Estate.]]
Battersea has a long and varied history of social housing, and the completion of the [[Shaftesbury Park Estate]] in 1877 was one of the earliest in London or the UK. Additionally, the development of the [[Latchmere Estate]] in 1903 was notable both for [[John Burns]]' involvement and for being the first estate directly built by a council's own workforce and therefore the first true "council estate". Indeed, both of these earlier estates have since been recognised as [[conservation area (United Kingdom)|conservation area]]s due to their historical and architectural significance and are protected from redevelopment.<ref>{{cite web |title=Latchmere Estate Conservation Area |url=https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/media/1604/latchmereplusappraisalplusms.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606113209/https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/media/1604/latchmereplusappraisalplusms.pdf |archive-date=2020-06-06 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Shaftsebury Park Estate Conservation Area |url=https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/permitted-development-and-article-4-directions/article-4-directions/shaftesbury-park-estate-conservation-area/}}</ref>

Battersea also has a large area of mid-20th century public housing estates, almost all located north of the main railway lines and spanning from [[Fairfield (Wandsworth ward)|Fairfield]] in the west to Queenstown in the east.<ref>[http://www.wandsworth-pct.nhs.uk/pdf/public%20health/reports/locality%20Merged%20profiles.pdf Battersea Profile] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080229080650/http://www.wandsworth-pct.nhs.uk/pdf/public%20health/reports/locality%20Merged%20profiles.pdf |date=29 February 2008}}, from Wandsworth Primary Care Trust, citing Census 2001</ref>

There are four particularly large estates. The [[Winstanley Estate]], perhaps being the most renowned of them all, is known as being the birthplace to the garage collective [[So Solid Crew]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-housing-estate-where-so-solid-crew-formed-set-for-demolition-9141056.html|title=London housing estate where So Solid Crew formed set for demolition|author=Mark Blunden|date=20 February 2014|work=London Evening Standard}}</ref> Winstanley is close to Clapham Junction railway station in the northern perimeter of Battersea, and is currently being considered for comprehensive redevelopment as one of the London Mayor's new Housing Zones.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.london.gov.uk/media/mayor-press-releases/2015/02/mayor-names-londons-first-housing-zones|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025003341/https://www.london.gov.uk/media/mayor-press-releases/2015/02/mayor-names-londons-first-housing-zones|title=Mayor names London's first Housing Zones – Clapham Junction to Battersea Riverside zone|archive-date=25 October 2015}}</ref> Further north towards Chelsea is the [[Surrey Lane Estate]], and on Battersea Park Road is the Doddington and Rollo Estate. East, toward Vauxhall, is the [[Patmore Estate]] which is in close proximity to the Battersea Power Station.

Other smaller estates include: York Road (see [[Winstanley Estate]]), Ashley Crescent, Badric Court, Carey Gardens, Chatham Road, Ethelburga, Falcon Road, Gideon Road, Honeywell Road, Kambala, Peabody, Robertson Street, Savona, Somerset, Wilditch and Wynter Street.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

===World War I: The Battersea Battalion===
{{main|10th (Service) Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) (Battersea)}}
On the outbreak of [[World War I]] in August 1914 [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Earl Kitchener of Khartoum]], issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You'. But the flood of volunteers overwhelmed the ability of the Army to absorb them, and units began to be raised by local initiative rather than at regimental depots, often from men from particular localities or backgrounds who wished to serve together: these were known as '[[Pals battalions]]'. The 'Pals' phenomenon quickly spread across the country, as local recruiting committees offered complete units. Encouraged by this response, Kitchener approached the 28 [[Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London]], and the 'Great Metropolitan Recruiting Campaign' went ahead in April 1915, with each mayor asked to raise a unit of local men.<ref name = McCue>Paul McCue, ''Wandsworth and Battersea Battalions in the Great War, 1915–1918'', Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84884194-9, pp. 10–1, 165–240.</ref> 

One such unit was raised on 3 June 1915 by the [[Metropolitan Borough of Battersea|Mayor and Borough of Battersea]] as the [[10th (Service) Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) (Battersea)]].  (Although Battersea was by then in the County of London, the [[Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)]] was still the [[British Army|Regular Army]] regiment covering South London, while the [[London Regiment (1908–1938)|London Regiment]], including the [[23rd (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment|23rd Battalion]] based at Clapham Junction, consisted entirely of part-time soldiers of the [[Territorial Force]] (TF).)<ref name = McCue/><ref name = Wylly>Colonel H.C. Wylly, ''History of the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment in the Great War'', Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1925/Uckfield, Naval & Military Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1-84342539-7, pp. 252–66.</ref>

The Battersea Battalion served alongside Pals battalions from [[Lambeth]] (11th Queens), [[Bermondsey]] (12th [[East Surrey Regiment|East Surreys]]) and [[Lewisham]] (10th [[Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment|West Kents]]) in [[41st Division (United Kingdom)|41st Division]] on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]], including the battles of the [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]], [[Battle of Messines (1917)|Messines]], and [[Battle of Passchendaele|Ypres]], on the [[Italian front (World War I)|Italian Front]], and then back in the west against the [[German spring offensive]] and in the final victorious [[Hundred Days Offensive]]. The Battersea Battalion was kept up to strength with dismounted cavalrymen from the [[Surrey Yeomanry]] (TF), based at [[Clapham Park]]. After the [[Armistice with Germany|Armistice]] it took part in the [[Occupation of the Rhineland]] and was finally disbanded in 1920.<ref name = McCue/><ref name = Wylly/>