Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea May 2023, Newsletter (# 167)

1. On the 1st April, we went to St. Anne’s Church to hear a brilliant choral concert given by the SouthWest London Choral Society. Where we met old friend and Council colleague Rex Osborn and his wife Kim, who is a member of the choir, along with Su Callaghan, wife of another old friend, Chris. The concert featured religious works by Dvořák, and others, but, in particular, by Martin Everett, who is seen here conducting the concert (standing left). The church itself was one of the so-called Waterloo Churches built soon after the great battle (in this case 1822) in celebration of Britain’s victory over Napoleon. I prefer the interior of the church to the exterior, which I find a little austere.

2. On the 3rd April, I visited the Wimbledon Park Rifle Club, which would have been lost, if the site had been approved for use as a day nursery – but see para 13 below. I was surprised at how small these 50, and 100, yard targets actually are, as indeed is the range tucked in, as it is, with assorted small allotments between the District line and a row of back gardens.

3. On the 5th I was back at St. George’s having a procedure – what Putin might have called a ‘special medical operation’, but I must confess a lot less painful. It did, however, take several days of mental pain and digital anguish before my heart was successfully linked to some sovereign heart-checker in the sky – well, at St. George’s! The capsule inserted into me is about an inch and a half long, and a bit smaller in diameter than the average biro, but the nurse tells me that it costs the NHS £4,000 a time. The new-fangled, ‘permanently-on’ piece of kit, started its nightly broadcast of my heart-beats on 11th April – older people (and kids) do cost the NHS a lot.

4. Off to Chichester and the Goodwood Hotel for Easter. Chichester is a very pleasant, touristy spot for a quiet stroll around town and its beautiful Cathedral. It has this magnificent fifteenth-century cross in the heart of the city, with the four roads converging on it, conveniently called North, East, South and West Streets. It also has a very good lunch pub just down South Street, near the centre of town. The Goodwood Hotel is a great place for recreational swimming (and it’s got a great jacuzzi), eating and walking under bright, sunny skies, in the beautiful West Sussex countryside.

5. I was due to have a management meeting about the Randall Close development in the week beginning 10th April, but we cancelled it as things were going so well on site. Then, of course, Murphy’s Law kicked in with first a power line being cut by foundation works and then, just as that was repaired, a water pipe was cut! The fact of the matter is that there really is no such thing as a comprehensive map of underground London. Hill, the builders, and Wandsworth Council, and I as a councillor, can only apologise for the inconvenience, first of no power for some and then no water for other residents. Thankfully the disruption was brief and hopefully the works will be completed without further upsets.

6. On the 12th April, I was doing some deliveries in Brynmaer, Warriner and Lurline Gardens and so had some time to study the new cycle contraflow scheme, which has caused so much angst amongst some residents. I was probably in these three roads for about an hour, but I did not see one bicycle, or any sign of traffic confusion. Admittedly, it was a quiet Easter weekday, but I hope that it is a harbinger for further incident-free days.

7. The Wandsworth Mayor’s Charity Quiz Night was on 20th April but I am afraid that my team (I guess I ought to call it the Mayoral Team rather than mine) did not win. I did, however, have the pleasure of competing with the Blingiest team in the competition. As you can see here, the bling, in the form of the mayoral chains of office, was provided by Wandsworth’s Mayor, Jeremy Ambache, and his special guest the Mayor of Lambeth.

8. On the 21st April I went to the Quaker Socialist Society (no I hadn’t heard of it either) to hear Rupert Read give the Salter lecture on “The Horrible, Wonderful Truth about Climate Change”. One could hardly say it was a warning about the dire consequences of climate change but rather a presumption that we will inevitably face, in the next few decades, not only heatwaves and floods, but famines and mass migrations. Read’s “wonderful” truth came from his faith, that a new generation will have learned positive lessons from the coming dreadful times, in which we are soon going to be immersed. Wow! After the lecture, we plunged into Chinatown for a bit of peaceful relaxation! The red paper lanterns strung across the road, originally for the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit, added to the festive spirit.

9. On 22nd April we went to the Ritzy, Brixton, to see Rye Lane. It’s the first time that we have been to the pictures for … well this year anyway. I was attracted by the title – a reference to Peckham Rye, though it seemed mainly about Brixton as far as I could tell. It was a RomCom with the main protagonists both Afro-Caribbean British Londoners; it was sassy, sexy, witty, inventively directed and shot and acted, written, and concocted by people with very little big film experience – perhaps they were all recent students. It was great fun and highly to be recommended. Do go and see it, if you get a chance – apparently it is also on the Disney Channel on May 3

10. On the 23rd April we went to an Exhibition of Georgian fashion and dress in Buckingham Palace, Queen’s Gallery. This was perhaps more Pen’s ‘thing’ than mine but, as it happens, I found it more interesting than she did – I think she knew it all anyway. There were, of course, the somewhat ridiculous formal court styles, but there were also some interesting examples of underwear, though boringly more of the top than the bottom half – why do exhibitions always shy away from the details that fascinate us most! My favourite picture though was of an aging roué being helped into the latest fashion in, as the picture’s caption says, of “Elastic Breeches”. He was visiting his tailor, who was a merry, portly-looking lady, and her two assistants, who were providing the muscle. The breeches were made of ram’s skin, which shrank into shape on first wearing. Kind of reminds me of fellow students, many years ago, lying in the bath in blue jeans and shrinking them to shape!

11. No doubt everyone recognises 23rd April as Shakespeare’s birthday and St. George’s Day, but this year it was also notably the London Marathon Day. After we left the gallery , we watched some of the Marathon, seen from above in this picture, and walked round St. James Park, where the pelicans were very relaxed about being the centre of massive attention and the flower beds were truly spectacular. All three were worthy of pictorial record, I thought.

12. I guess that I should add that at 3.23, whilst watching the Marathon, I googled scores in the Premier League and the score came through Newcastle United 5 Spurs 0. What a disaster! Being smashed – after 23 minutes – by yet another Premiership club, owned by a foreign country prepared to put limitless money behind a Premiership football team; first Chelsea funded by a Russian plutocrat friend of Putin’s, then Manchester City, now Newcastle United owned by Saudi Arabia. OK, Spurs is owned by big money, but at least it is our money and, as far as I know, reasonably cleanly earned. I don’t think that this “Big Money” can be good for the national game in the long run – or is it just that at the top level my team is just not quite getting there?

13. On the 25th April, I had the Planning Applications Committee. What a small techno-nightmare! The IT did not work smoothly and effectively. But I hope I managed the Committee reasonably well in the circumstances. Only one of this month’s applications related to Battersea and that was about the Arding & Hobbs building, and even that was about details that very few will ever notice. Incidentally, by the time you read this, the scaffolding may well be down and the handsome building looking as good as new. In the next six months new tenants will be moving in and the Arding & Hobbs building, will be alive again. Oh, and the Committee decided to reject the nursery application referred to in para 2 above and hence the rifle club was saved.

14. Finally, I had this dreadful dream last month that I lived in a great country, which had, in 1946 invented a truly remarkable National Health Service, like no other in the world. But in the last few years, this country had treated its doctors and nurses so badly that many are leaving to live in places like Australia, NZ and Canada. And so, the NHS recruited staff from poor countries like Sudan, who could not afford to keep their trained medical staff. And then, when some of these NHS staff were visiting their parents in Khartoum, civil war broke out. They tried to return to their jobs in the NHS, wishing to bring with them their aging parents, but discovered that they were not welcome back into this previously great country. The great country was, by the way, desperately short of medical staff. Can one ever forgive a political party for governing the country so badly that one feels ashamed?

My programme for May

1. My street’s Coronation Party on 7th May.
2. Yet another ‘special medical operation’ at St. George’s followed by the Conservation Committee on 9th May.
3. The 07 Club Dinner on 11th May; the 07 is a reference to 1907 when officers of the then London County Council started a club which now includes ‘civil servants’ from many branches of London local government.
4. On the 12th May I will be at the blue plaque ceremony at the Shrubbery, Lavender Gardens, commemorating Marie Sparteli, a pre-Raphaelite painter and artists’ model, who was born in this grand Georgian house.
5. On the 15th May, I have a meeting of Battersea United Charities.
6. We have ‘training’ for members of the Finance Committee on 16th.
7. On the 23rd May I have the Planning Applications Committee.
8. And on the 24th-28th May, I am off to Geneva to accompany Penny at her penultimate Executive meeting as President of the International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies.

Did you Know?
Last month, I asked, ‘Who were the three sisters and what was their unique nominal connection to Battersea?’ and I was amazed by the number of you who knew the answer and responded within 24 hours.

First off the mark was JP, who correctly and comprehensively, replied that, ‘The three sisters were not actually sisters at all, but the mother (Ursula), the shared name of first wife and daughter (Edna), and the name of second wife (Octavia) of Victorian solicitor Edward Pain, whose West Country family had acquired the land, knocked down Tower Lodge and sold the site for development. And not a single affordable/social house in sight – plus ca change?’

What he did not add, although, I think he knew, was that ‘the three sisters’ is hence the name popularly and incorrectly given to the conservation area containing those streets in North Battersea. One correct answer came, by the way, from ex-Tory councillor Roger Bird (1998-2006), who bet that I would not mention that it was, he claimed, his idea to give the area that name. I win the bet, Roger, but I really don’t believe that it was your suggestion!

And this month?

Which social reformer lived in Battersea; has a block on a Council estate in Battersea named after him; and made a great speech against slave trade in the House of Commons, ending with the ringing words: ‘You may say that you didn’t know. Well, you know now!’