Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea December, 2019, Newsletter (# 126)
- This November was going to be a quiet month, and so it started. Penny was in China on a Presidential tour for her 18th century historical society, including lectures in Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing, so I got myself invited to a “drinks social” on 7th with Christine, dinner with Sarah on the 8th and the Providence House Fund Raising dinner on Saturday, 9th. This was only the second time that Providence House has tried a relatively expensive fund-raising dinner and there’s no question that this was a significant step up from 2018.
The meal was exquisite, prepared and cooked by Hadas Hagos – quite a feat with a guest list of well over 100; the entertainment was provided by friends and members of Providence House, the largest and best youth club in Battersea.
- I went to St. Mary’s Remembrance Day Service on 10th November and then the “real thing” on 11th November in Battersea Park. The St. Mary’s Church service was very special and very moving. The front cover of the service programme had a photograph taken at the first
Armistice Parade in Whitehall in 1919 – a new photo to me. The reading was from US Marine, Sergeant Jonathan Kirk Davis, on returning from combat to “home” – again new to me and very moving. And as for Canon Simon Butler’s own sermon, it managed to be moving but neither sentimental or jingoistic, to be full of religious feeling but totally acceptable both to an atheist like me, and I would have thought to those of different faiths. I am sorry to say that the following day’s service, organised by Enable on behalf of Wandsworth Council, was less successful. The presence of local school children was good and appropriate, but the format of the occasion is rather dated and needs review. The weather was, however, fantastic; very cold, very breezy, very autumnal.
- On 13th November I went, with Marsha de Cordova, to the Wandsworth Civic Awards Ceremony. I had a particular reason for going because my old friend (we met in 1967, I calculate) Ron Elam was receiving one. Ron has been a school governor for the best part of 50 years, including a long spell at Chesterton Primary. He kindly “blames” me for getting him started on this path – if so, then I did state education a service, as Ron has been a dedicated governor and also a constructive Ofsted inspector.
- On 16th we went to Newark, Nottinghamshire, for the week-end. Why Newark? Penny was chairing a public lecture given by fellow historian, Professor Norah Carlin, on petitioning during the Civil War (1640s) – the one which finished with the execution of Charles I. The petitions, which were essentially about what to do with the then constitutional crisis (sounds a bit like 2019!), and they came from all over the British Isles, very definitely including Ireland, and seemed to be targeted at a much more united set of kingdoms than exists today.
- After the lecture, we went to Newark’s
Palace Theatre to see a production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – a nice if slightly sanitised production featuring an unusually youthful Scrooge. What the unreformed Scrooge would make of today’s marketised Christmas one hesitates to speculate but safe to say that he would certainly have exploded “Bah! Humbug!” The next day, we had a quick tour of the town, which took in the Castle, which was destroyed in 1646, and a visit to the National Civil War Centre, before returning to Battersea. -
On the afternoon of 21st November, I attended a very special War Memorial at
Christchurch 
Gardens. It commemorates civilians, who died in the Second World War, and is held in Christchurch Gardens, the site of the first V2 bomb to land on Battersea at the old Church exactly 75 years earlier on the afternoon of 21st November, 1944. The church was a grand nineteenth-century building; and I am afraid, that its relatively modern replacement lacks a similarly iconic presence!
- On Sunday, 24th November, I was
invited to a key soccer match for all-conquering Battersea FC’s U13 team at the new Falcon Park all-weather pitch. Their opponents were an equally successful team from Lewisham and appropriately enough the result was a hard-fought 1-1 draw. Some Latchmere residents (and others) were unhappy with the installation of this “un-natural” pitch but, on a day when every other pitch in the Borough was water-logged, we three spectators were happy to see the match proceed. Marsha de Cordova is on my left and Queenstown councillor, Maurice McLeod on my right.
- A week later on 27th November, I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC). There were several applications, which attracted interest and concern in Battersea. The first was for the use of the Thames slipway, next to St. Mary’s Church, as a launch-pad for the amphibious tour boats that can be seen on the Thames nowadays. This particular application was withdrawn but I am sure it will come back to the Committee in the near future. Two others were the redevelopment of the two industrial sites in Ferrier Street, next to Wandsworth Town station, and Jaggard Way, next to Wandsworth Common station. The Ferrier Street application included 102 residential units of which, forty-one are to be affordable, along with a modern replacement of the industrial units. This development was approved but only possible by providing the residential units in a 10-storey block, alongside the Station, just about opposite the Alma pub. The Jaggard Way application was, however, rejected because it was over-large and dominant next to the Common, despite the fact it included 72 residential units in four 4-storey blocks. I was unhappy with both decisions! The first, because I think a 10-storey block is too high to fit into the Old York Road environment; the second, because I did not consider four-storey blocks to be over-large for a site separated from the Common by a four-track railway line (though to be fair there was a specific objection about the unreasonable impact on one particular neighbour).
- On Friday, 29/11/19, we went to see a revival of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. This iconic play of the 1970s was written by Peter Nichols, one of the lesser-known so-called “kitchen sink” dramatists. The synopsis, telling of a marriage under strain as husband and wife struggled to bring up a disabled adolescent daughter, was hardly encouraging – it didn’t look like the stuff of a great evening out. How wrong can you be? Sensational acting from Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner lit up a hugely sympathetic, humane and understanding work. The dialogue was very funny despite, or was it because of, the totally unsentimental script. It was not surprising to discover that the content was partly autobiographical. I will be doing a review on this play, which will be on https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/
- Finally, a word on the election. I know that for some Battersea residents this poses a really difficult question. What do Remain-inclined Tories do? And Labour folk concerned about Jeremy Corbyn’s “extremism”, or Lib/Dems who want a plague on both “major parties”, or Greens for whom the only priority should be climate change? But the only certainty in Battersea is that the winner will be either Labour’s Marsha de Cordova or Tory’s Kim Caddy. In 2017, Labour had 25,292 votes as opposed to the Tories 22,876, with the Lib/Dems back on 4,401 and the Greens 866. The only real impact vote switching could have in Battersea would be to the current Prime Minister’s benefit – is that the impact any doubtful voter really wants?
My Programme for December
- December is all about the General Election on Thursday, 12th!
- Not even the Planning Applications Committee, “the committee that never stops”, is meeting this month!
- Though, of course, there will be the usual round of Xmas parties and drinks. As for me, I will be having a quiet Xmas day, with Boxing Day in Winchester and then a few days in Bath, taking a swim or two in the hot mineral springs that have attracted tourists ever since Roman times.
Do you know?
Deferred this month: back again after the Election!
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 