Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, May 2025, Newsletter (# 191)
- On 3rd-7th April, we went to Essen, once the heart of Germany’s iron and steel industrial base in the Ruhr valley. Now it is known for its green transformation. We were there so that Penny could give a keynote talk on the Handshake at an international conference of European social historians.
- These conferences are great fun. Historians in general are a social bunch, and hence the evening entertainments are usually convivial and friendly. And fortunately, nearly all the formal sessions are conducted in English – there was one French session that I ducked out of. There is very little in the study of history, which is technically obscure, and so I like to think I play the role of an intelligent observer.
- The transition from being the home of the Krupp-owned Nazi armaments industry to, it is claimed, the greenest province of today’s Germany is spectacularly on show at the Zollverein Museum, based in a massive, closed colliery – see picture. The museum told the story of the area’s transition from a Victorian-era industrial magnet for immigrant workers from the countryside and from Eastern Europe, through its Nazi past using slave and PoW labour, through to the Germany of today – fantastic.
- We went by train and on our way back stopped off for a few hours to see
Cologne cathedral. That too is on a colossal scale as I have tried to capture in this photograph of its spectacular nave. One thing that surprised me though was that, despite all the work done to modernise Germany and to recover from both the war and the demise of heavy industry, nothing has been done to clean up the exterior of the cathedral, which looks as black and filthy as St. Paul’s looked 30 years ago. - On the 11th April, I attended Brian Reilly’s retirement drinks at the Town Hall. Brian was Wandsworth’s Chief Executive, who had also previously been the long-serving Director of Housing. He brought a robust common sense and practical drive to the job, especially as the Director, where his commitment to the successful provision of public housing was obvious to all. Well done, Brian, and I know you will enjoy your retirement – PS he will be in Sicily by the time you read this newsletter.
- Off to the Boat Race, on 20th Wandsworth’s Mayor always hosts a charity event in one of the boathouses on the Thames riverside – after all the
boatrace does start in the Borough. But it can be a bit dispiriting for me! I have been a Dark Blue ever since I was at Oxford as an undergraduate, and this year like in most years, we were on the losing side. Still the Deputy Mayor, Finna Ayres, on the left, I and the Mayor, Councillor Jafri, managed to enjoy the occasion. - On the 24th April, I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC), where the main decision excited a lot of media coverage, especially in The Telegraph,
which featured it for three consecutive days. The application was to build a 28/29 storey tower on the riverside at Battersea Bridge, as illustrated here. The application, known as the Glassmills, was for 110 residential units, 50% of which would have been at social rent levels, for a riverside restaurant and an improved riverside walk, plus a couple of gyms. The application was rejected unanimously, and although readers of The Telegraph might find this difficult to believe, none of the committee members were lobbied by either Mick Jagger or Eric Clapton, or even by Felicity Kendall, despite The Telegraph’s encouragement to so believe. PAC decided on the merits of the case. - On 26th April we were off to Battersea Park, to take part in the first event of Wandsworth’s London Borough of Culture (LBOC) Year – Strictly Wandsworth – and great fun it was too, even if difficult to photograph. This pic shows the milling crowd, with dancers in the middle distance! Twenty plus Wandsworth dance groups
took part in the show from ballet to break dancing, from St. Marys’ Royal School of Dance to Battersea Park’s own Baked Bean group. Marvellous! We look forward to a year of culture. - Finally, on 22nd and 29th April, the Labour Group held its two-part Annual Meeting and Simon Hogg was re-elected as Leader to take the Labour councillors right through this Council from May 2022 to May 2026. Simon and I and another 60+ aspiring Labour councillors are also starting our re-selection process in the build-up to the election on the 7th May 2026. Assuming I get selected to stand again in Battersea Park, it will be my 15th election – certainly a record in Wandsworth!
- On the way home from the Strictly
Wandsworth event it was encouraging to see that work is at long last racing ahead on the provision of a pavement for the long-suffering pedestrians of Elcho Street! Dare I say it, but the pressure, from both residents and myself, is finally bearing fruit.
My May Programme
- I have my surgery in Battersea Park Library on 3rd May at 11 am.
- The Conservation and Heritage Advisory Committee meets on 6th May
- I hope to go to the Ethelburga Tower Residents Association AGM on the 15th.
- The May meeting of the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) is on the 20th.
- And on the 21st we have the Annual Meeting of the Council, which is when the next year’s Mayor is elected.
Did you know?
Last month I asked, “What is unique about this particular wall? And where is it? And why? And what is it called?
Once again, I am afraid that you were not very interested or perhaps not very knowledgeable about it. The answer is that it is called the Ballast Wall and it can be found in Enable’s main depot in Battersea Park.
It was built in the 1850s, during Battersea Park’s construction. 
The 1850s was at the height of British power when London was by far the largest port in the world. One problem that the port authorities had was “What to do with all the ballast brought in by the merchant marine?” At the same time the designers of Battersea Park needed hard core as a base for some of the work being done in the marshes being converted to Battersea Park – so here was a solution to two problems, which leaves us all with the puzzle of guessing the geographical origins of individual stones.
And this month?
In the sixty-odd years that I have lived in Battersea, the junction of Falcon Road and Battersea High Street, of York Road and Battersea Park Road, has had at least two popular names – a bit like Tooting’s Amen Corner. Do you know either or both of those names?
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 