Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, June 2025, Newsletter (# 192)
- On 3rd May, I had my regular surgery at Battersea Park Library. Only one couple, mother and daughter, came, and as is usual nowadays, the issue was about housing. In this case, the cause was family breakdown. It was a very serious problem, and I will certainly treat it as such. But is it efficient to run a surgery for just one case? Would the NHS keep surgeries open if they had only one patient? Surely, the NHS would find a better alternative. Shouldn’t we? So, what do you think about councillor surgeries? And would you ever go to one?
- On the 7th in the morning, I had a brief Zoom-style tour of the plans for the new Vivienne Westwood building in Elcho Street. The Elcho Street office is the centre of the business, with all the design work and much of the manufacturing
done on site. The company is one of our largest and most successful exporters in the fashion trade. The company has exciting and ambitious plans both to expand and to rebuild their Elcho Street office/factory, shown in this picture, and to keep the business operating from the same Battersea HQ. Situated in the same block as the Royal College of Arts building, this corner of Battersea is one of London’s most dynamic design hubs. And with the Fosters architectural business also in Hester Road, Battersea Park ward must rank very, very high amongst the UK’s most important export centres. PS. In Elcho on 28th May, I see some preparation for construction work has already started! - That same evening, I went to St. Anne’s Church and to the second public meeting of the Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign – WPIC. Once again, the attendance was impressive – 250 people, maybe – and the seriousness of their intent was very clear. A considerable number of the audience were parents of, or partners of, or actual ex-prisoners. There were many contributions from the floor, and they were, as ever, many comments and complaints about conditions in the prison. We heard about the health, drugs, and discipline issues as exposed by the recent very worrying Channel 4 documentary.
- However, I found the event a little worrying. In the last analysis, the main issue is, I think, quite simple. As a nation, we need either to imprison fewer people or spend more money keeping them there. If that is NOT a political issue, then I don’t know what is. But people at the meeting appeared to me to want to steer clear of politics – currently and stupidly the dirtiest word in the language – but, let me repeat, if the solution to Britain’s current prison crisis is not a political one, then I wish someone would explain to me what it is. Meanwhile, I strongly support Putney MP, Fleur Anderson (the prison is in Putney but virtually on the boundary with Battersea) and the Council in their efforts to improve the conditions in the prison.
- On the 20th May, I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC). After the excitement of last month’s Glassmills decision, this was a quiet and calm
occasion, with the most significant decision being to support the Council’s plan to create a pocket park in Allfarthing Lane. I make no excuse for posting this picture again to remind readers about the Glassmills application, that we refused last month. In the last week of May, it was announced that Mayor Sadiq Khan and the GLA have decided NOT to oppose Wandsworth’s decision – great news, indeed.
- We had the annual Mayor-Making Council Meeting on 21st. The new Mayor is Councillor Jeremy Ambache, a popular choice on both sides of the Council. In this picture at his inauguration, he is accompanied by his choice as Deputy Mayor, Tory Councillor Rosemary Birchall. Jeremy was popular in his first mayoral year of 2022-23, and we are all confident that he will do a great job again.
- On the 27th June, I went to Wembley with a group of 14 Wimbledon AFC supporters to see the Football League 2 Play-Off Final. Wimbledon beat Walsall 1-0. It was not one of the better
Wembley Finals, but it was nevertheless greeted with enthusiasm by the winning team, pictured here with the cup. With at least five councillors, Critchard, Henderson, Hogg, White and me in the crowd, it is definitely the councillors’ team. Talking soccer – what a fortnight for locals, with Wimbledon and Chelsea, both grounds within a quarter of a mile from the Borough boundary, winning major trophies and near neighbours Palace winning the Cup. And my team, Spurs, winning a major European trophy – what a fortnight for local soccer fans! - One of my Newsletter’s readers sent me this picture taken
from a room in Price’s Court, on York Road. He tells me that the building manager says these excavations are of the Bishop’s Palace that existed on the site in Elizabethan times. I knew about the palace, but nothing about these excavations, and so it was a surprise to me. I am making a couple of enquiries, and hopefully I will know more about it next month.
My June Programme
- I will be at the Doddington Garden Party on the 7th.
- I hope to be at the re-launch of the Thrive Garden in Battersea Park on June 11th. The Thrive Garden is operated by a charity that uses gardening as a therapeutic resource for people with disabilities. Unfortunately, it is also on the same day as a Design Review Panel looking at the reconstruction of the Meadbank Care Home, and I also would like to attend that, so we will have to see how the timing works out.
- The June meeting of the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) is on the 26th.
- I am not sure how the rest of June will pan out, as it will be the first month of a new and hopefully more democratic and open way of working at the Council. But most Labour councillors and candidates will be on tenterhooks as we try to win selection as the party’s candidates for the Borough Elections in May 2026. If you are a Labour Party member keen to take part in this process, let me know at tonybelton99@gmail.com, and I will tell you when and where your candidate selection date will be.
Did you know?
Last month I asked, “In the fifty-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 two popular names. Do you know either or both of those names?
The ‘real’ answer was known by a dozen of you. It was 
the Prince’s Head, the name of the old Victorian pub that used to stand on the south-west corner where the Kambala Estate was built in the seventies. It was so well known that the 19 bus used its name as a destination point, as you can see from this photo taken in Islington, showing its destination as Battersea, Prince’s Head.
The second answer as only one reader knew, was Jonjax Corner, which some might say is a bit of a cheat, as Jonjax Corner was named after a shop based in the ground floor of this building, actually on the corner of Winders Road and Battersea Park Road. The Jonjax shop was a classical, typical old Battersea shop of knick-knacks and useful gadgets – very iconic but unfortunately long since closed.
And this month?
Another corner as it used to be in Battersea. Did you know it? Where was it? And what is there now?
Tony Belton
Tony Belton 