Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea February 2022, Newsletter (# 152)

1. Maureen Larkin died on 4th January, aged 89. Amazingly she died in the very house, in Knowsley Road, where she was born on 10^th October 1932. Her daughter, Terry, wrote to me, saying that her mother and I “did go back a long way together, and Mum was thrilled and honoured to receive her Civic Award in 2010 following your nomination”.

• • When I first met Maureen she was part of the organising team for the legendary Poyntz Road Triangle summer street parties. She was the first to invite the Mayor and to arrange for the presence of police cars and s fire engine – all very popular with the local kids.
  • The first of these parties was, Terry tells me, organised for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 and it continues to this day, 45 years later. The parties always had a barbecue, and plenty of party grub and they always ended with a disco.
  • Maureen’s Battersea connection runs deep. Her mother, Lily, moved into the house in Knowsley Road during the First World War. She and her husband, a Battersea man of course, had two daughters, Monica and Maureen. Maureen was born upstairs in the front bedroom.
  • Eighty-nine years later, Terry writes, “she died peacefully in her sleep where she always wanted to be, in the same house, with her daughter and granddaughter by her side”.
    

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2. Terry reminds me that the Poyntz Road Triangle, between the two bridges on Latchmere Road and the railway lines, was threatened with demolition for a time in the 1970s. She claims it was for slum clearance but in Sue Demont’s very informative article in the current issue of Battersea Matters, there is a very different version of the story, a version which accords with my memory. Sue’s very informative map shows that Abercrombie Street and Knowsley Road were absolutely on the line of the Government’s planned Ringway 1 – all part of the giant Motorway Box planned for London in the 60s. The road plans were the cause of many, many political arguments and campaigns until well into the 80s.
   

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5. Indeed, for everyone interested in anything to do with Battersea and its history this edition of Battersea Matters (Jan 2022) is spectacularly good: beg, borrow or steal a copy to read about: Battersea’s lesser-known parks; St Mary’s Cemetery on Bolingbroke Grove; the infamous 1907 Brown Dog Riots; my obituary of Brian Barnes; and many other titbits.
   

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6. On 14^thJanuary, I had a guided tour of Battersea Power Station. It was the first time I’d been there for a detailed visit for about a year. Inside the Power Station itself, there are some spectacular sights, such as the two main turbine halls and the command room. We can expect a grand opening of the Power Station, for public access, later this year, when the expectation is that it will become, overnight, one of the Borough’s six town centres. There will be many, including me, who think it a tragedy that so little attempt was made to make the development more affordable for ordinary people; but I urge everyone to take a trip to the Power Station for the opening or soon thereafter.
   

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7. This newsletter is unusually focused on literary events and one I have to include is the publication of my partner’s book, The Georgians: The Deeds and Misdeeds of 18th Century Britain. I must say it has had spectacularly good reviews, the pithiest being in, of all places, the Daily Mail, where the age of the Georgians was said to have “Splendid houses…shame about the teeth: The Georgians had terrible hygiene, but beautiful architecture”. To be fair to the Georgians they had just discovered cheap and plentiful cane sugar … and more controversially were getting rich on African slavery – you can read more about all that and more in Penny’s book – blatant plug!
   

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8. The January edition of Private Eye also has a Wandsworth/Battersea story about the Council’s £60,000 cut in grant to Battersea Arts Centre. The Eye got at least some of the story from a speech, which  I made in a Council meeting in December and the Eye concluded that the Council “tried to camouflage its decision with weasel words, claiming that this isn’t a funding cut but a ‘change in strategy”, and who am I to argue with the Eye? I must say that I admire the Eye’s capacity for information gathering. I did not report this small item of Council business but someone did.
   

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9. The Planning Applications Committee on 25^th January really was a non-event as far as Battersea was concerned! There were, in fact, three Battersea applications – but only about varying the details on previously agreed applications. One was the large residential development on the site of the old gasometer next to the Dogs’ Home; another on the shop development where the Prince of Wales pub used to be; and the third about air conditioning units at the Chesterton Centre – a committee for the specialists!
   

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8. On Friday 28^th Penny and I finally decided to break our Covid-induced lockdown and went to the Clapham Picturehouse to see Kenneth Branagh’s film Belfast. I had read one review, which described it as a nostalgic trip down memory lane, in tribute to the city he loved. I was particularly interested as I have a mild acquaintance with Belfast and Ulster and we have friends who live there. I must say, though that the reviewer cannot have seen the film we saw. It was dark, even the cinematography was dark (it was in black and white). I am not sure that the sun came out at any time during the film; more significantly it explored a brutal gang culture but not about drug money or gambling or prostitution, but between two distortions of Catholicism and Protestantism, or in the local jargon between the Micks and the Prods. It is a great film but not exactly fun and thrills for a Friday night. If you have seen it, what do you think?
   

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9. On Saturday, 29^thJanuary, Wandsworth LabourLeader, Simon Hogg, launched Labour’s Borough Election Campaign, 2022. The launch took place in King George’s Park and was attended by about 100 people. The picture shows London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, with the Borough MPs, Tooting’s Rosena Allin-Khan and Putney’s Fleur Anderson clearly amused by the point Battersea’s Marsha de Cordova is making. It was a good session – energising for all our candidates.
   

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10. The following day Penny and I went to Ham Land, on the Thames Bank between Kingston and Richmond. I have lived in this area of London for most of my life but had never before been there! This small column marks the inner boundary of the Port of London Authority’s territory: the sea boundary is at Leigh-on-Sea. Because Ham Land is cut off by the bend of the river and Richmond Park – and because there is no bridge across the river, except the pedestrian crossing at Teddington Lock – Ham Land is, for London, quiet, deserted, and attractive. I recommend it for anyone who wants to avoid the crowds in Richmond Park!
    

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11. Finally, it was a shock to hear of the death of Robert Molteno on 31^stJanuary, especially given his relative youth and his apparent good health. Many will know of Robert’s work in making our streets safer; about his campaigning on behalf of better public transport, and more consideration for pedestrians and cyclists. Robert was always so concerned and involved in Battersea life; he was also courteous, determined and optimistic; he will be much missed.
    

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My Programme for February

1. There is a Council Meeting on 2^nd February, of which a little more next month.
2. I hope to be at a Battersea Society presentation on Whistler on 9^th Whistler was an American painter (1834-1903), who spent most of his life in the UK. He was, I suppose, an impressionist. He spent much of his time in Chelsea, from where he painted many Thames-scapes and pictures of Battersea Bridge, like this one. It should be fascinating.
3. There is a Labour Shadow Cabinet on 10^th February, which will be interesting given the proximity of the Borough Election on May 5^th.
4. The Planning Applications Committee will be on 22^nd.
5. The Strategic Planning and Transportation Committee is on 24^th February, which will be good for me as it will be the first time, I have been on one of the main working committees of the council for a few years.
   

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Did you Know?

Last month I asked, what do you think was the first thing we did immediately on taking control of Wandsworth Council to defy the then Education Secretary, “Margaret Thatcher Milk-Snatcher”? Actually quite a few of you did know that, along with a sizable group of other Labour local authorities, we decided to provide free school milk out of the Council’s own resources. Given the very tight central government controls on local spending, it would be much more difficult to do that today!

And this month?

How many of you recognise this lion and can place him in Battersea? I don’t know what he is doing there or indeed why? He is at about hip level and he is in a very normal, even average, Battersea terrace street. Can you name the street and house number, where Leo lives? And better still does anyone know how and when he got there? I don’t know that.