Archive | February 2026
February 2, 2026  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, February 2026, Newsletter (# 200)

  1. 2026 is a special year for us councillors, as it is the year of the Borough General Election, and the date is May 7th. For me this is the last year with fellow councillors, Juliana Annan and Maurice McLeod. Juliana, I know will continue her work in the community, but perhaps more especially in the Winstanley Estate than in Battersea Park; whilst Maurice will spend more time in Tooting constituency. We have had a successful four years – but people move on. Good luck to both of you, Juliana and Maurice.
  2. My new colleagues are Battersea Park residents Daria Haas, and Victoria (Vicky) Asante. Daria lives on the Doddington Estate and Vicky in the Winstanley Estate, and they join me as the prospective Labour candidates for Battersea Park ward at the election. Daria is, or was, a primary school teacher but has recently resigned to concentrate on the election campaign. Vicky is a community worker with very close links with Battersea’s minority community. In the picture Daria is on the left and Vicky on the right, with me, Tony Belton, between. I look forward to campaigning with Daria and Vicky, and working with them over the next four years.
  3. Long-time readers of my newsletter will know that my Penny was the President of the International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies from 2019-23. We (well certainly I) had hoped that it would have meant lots of international trips but unfortunately Covid destroyed much of that, though we did have trips to Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. But now, in recognition of her work as President and of her status as a historian, the Brazilian Association has invited her to their conference in Belo Horizonte (200 miles inland from Rio) in June. And that is a long intro to saying that on 9th January we hosted our Brazilian host, Prof Karine Salgado, to an enjoyable dinner in the West End.
  1. On the 12th January, Penny and I went to MP, Marsha de Cordova’s, annual welcome to new Labour Party members in the House of Commons Jubilee Room. Marsha was, of course, her usual very cheerful self, hosting a morale-boosting occasion. A week later, we walked over to her place to deliver a birthday card. On the way we called in at the Providence Theatre on the Common for a quick lunch, where we came across a group of jazz musicians, from Battersea, who play there in various groupings on Sundays. Apologies for the rotten picture – but I thought the saxophonist was very cool!
  1. Some of you will know that every month I deliver welcome letters to all newcomers on the electoral register. Of course, frequently people are not at home – out working, shopping, or just out – but it is good to talk to the approximately 25% who are at home. Very occasionally, I get a really big surprise but not usually do I meet someone quite like Sandra Martin. Now I have to confess that I had never seen Gogglebox, but when she answered the front-door, I met face-to-face a TV personality, new to Battersea Park ward, who tells me that in the 4 years when she was a regular on Gogglebox she had literally millions of followers on social media – definitely a mark against me that I had never seen Gogglebox. Do you have memories of Sandra on Gogglebox, 2013-17?
  2. I deliver about 200 of these letters every month, which takes me about 6 three-hour sessions each month. It keeps me fit, but it is also a good way of keeping an eye on what is going on in the ward. So here are a few examples of January sightings, which I report to the Town Hall, and which hopefully get cleared soon afterwards. Abandoned bikes, Xmas trees & bad bike parking, building materials, a door and a mattress – just why are some of our neighbours so anti-social? No tree roots and bad pavements this time, but often there are. It would help the Council an enormous amount if everyone of my readers photographed obstructions like these and reported them on the Council’s website, which is always being updated to make reporting like this much easier – search for fly tipping. But it would not only be helping the Council; it would also make life better for us all to see the rubbish cleared quickly and cleanly.
  1. I, and Mike Jubb of the Battersea Society, met one morning with residents of Hester Road, including the Thameswalk Apartments, in Parker’s Café on the corner of Parkgate Road and Radstock Street. There we had coffee and croissants, whilst we talked through with them, what to expect in the upcoming March hearing into the Glassmills appeal against the Council’s rejection of the proposed skyscraper development on Battersea Bridge. The friendly and popular proprietor, Parker, pictured here, kept us well plied with both coffees and croissants!
  1. On 17th January, Penny and I went to see Othello at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. It was the first time that I had seen the tragedy on the stage, although I do recall seeing Franco Zefferelli’s 1986 film, starring Placido Domingo as the Moor. My memory of that was of its cinematic qualities but I was not at all convinced about Desdemona, or Othello’s turbulent moods, or indeed the evil Iago. But this play was totally different. The staging was simple but very effective. The acting was, however, brilliant. Toby Jones was suitably oleaginous as Iago, and David Harewood made Othello’s epilepsy and his moods not only credible but convincing. However, for my money, Caitlin Fitzgerald won the acting plaudits. She managed to be loving, justifiably terrified and sensuous all equally and almost simultaneously. We were delighted to catch the play on its last night.
  2. I chaired the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on 20th The big issue of the evening was the future of the Vivienne Westwood Headquarters in Elcho Street, off Parkgate Road. We agreed to the development plans, for a 6-10 storey building, which will accommodate the expanding work-force operating out of one of the UK’s leading fashion houses. Hopefully the new building will be a more architecturally suitable building than the current one.

Also, at PAC that evening was a TPO or Tree Preservation Order, which we agreed for the Grapefruit Tree in Queenstown Road, thought to be the only one in the UK, and which recently got much coverage in the London media.

  1. On the 22nd of January I had the Finance Committee. We discussed the steps the Council is having to take to live through the coming cuts in Government funding. We also noted the Leader’s, Simon Hogg’s, ambition to make Wandsworth Council the most digitised council in the country by 2030. This will inevitably mean that many more council services will go online, and that many of the jobs and the departments will need to be re-engineered and re-constructed over the next four years. Exactly how this will work is difficult to say at this stage of the process (almost the beginning). The only plausible alternative would be a massive reduction in services – an option Labour councillors will refuse to take.
  2. On the 29th January I could/should have gone to Wandsworth’s Planning Forum or the Labour Group but instead I went to hear Penny lecturing in St. Mary’s to the Battersea Society on “Homo Sapiens to Homo Zappiens: How variously human beings describe themselves” – a typically ambitious project. Like much of this January it was a cold, blustery evening and the attendance was not great and also to be blunt Penny was not at her best – the lecture needs some refinement. But two completely very different things were striking about the evening. First was just how exciting the night-time view of Chelsea Harbour and Imperial Wharf is from the church steps, especially at high tide – see picture. But secondly, we were looking for somewhere to eat in Battersea Square and Battersea High Street, and it was worrying to see just how desperately short of custom the restaurants were. They need our support! At least that is how it looked in one unscientific survey on one cold Thursday evening in mid-January.
  1. On 30th January I attended the funeral of Martin Johnson, a St. Johns ward councillor 1968=71 and then councillor for Northcote ward 1974-2018. Martin was one of, what Mrs. T would have called, the ‘wettest of wet Tories.’ Because of that, Martin was Yo-Yo-like in and out of the 44 year-long Tory cabinet (1978-2022), that ruled Wandsworth Council. In that time, two major victories of his come to my mind. One was essentially the final defeat of the London Motorway Ringway ‘plots’ – Martin played a big part in avoiding Battersea being at the heart of a Spaghetti Junction to rival the real one in Birmingham – and having studied the history extensively I say ‘plots’ and not plans advisedly. Secondly, he was the major inspiration behind a project called the Hidden Homes Programme, which created some 250-350 new council homes from unused spaces on the estates.

The picture is of Martin on the left and me on the right being presented with diplomas by then Mayor Jane Cooper.

It was appropriate that Putney Vale Crematorium was packed not only with many senior current and ex-Tory councillors but also, a Wandsworth Council Chief Executive of the past and many departmental heads. RIP Martin.

  1. Finally, unusually, indeed uniquely, for this newsletter, can I burden you with some real politics. In my view the Brexit vote was the biggest catastrophe to hit the UK since World War 2, but it is possibly the biggest self-imposed catastrophe ever. As the world has moved on since 2016, as Putin pursues his imperial dreams and Trump leads his violent way back to American isolationism, it simply becomes more and more urgent to pursue rejoining the EU. I know that it will not be easy; we might even have to face the odd rejection; but it is nevertheless crucial for our future. If you agree with me, then please add your names to the rejoin register at this link rejoinregister.org/?recruiter_id=1272

My February Programme

  1. I have the Council Meeting on 4th
  2. I have the Alf Dubs Lecture by Professor Philippe Sands KC, international human rights lawyer and author on 5th
  3. I have the Transport Committee on 11th February, the Environment Committee on the 12th and the Planning Applications Committee on 19th,
  4. I will be speaking at the unveiling of a plaque to Shapurji Saklatvala 20th

Did you know?

Last month I said that this Battersea pub was rumoured to have had a secret tunnel, used by smugglers, linking it to the Thames. What was the pub’s name, and where is it?

Quite a few answered that it was the Ship, either the now lost pub at St. Mary’s or the one at Jew’s Row. But, as some correctly replied, the one in the picture is/was the Raven in Battersea Square – now an Italian restaurant.

In any event all three are so near to the river and so low, I cannot see how they could keep a tunnel water-free – but that’s the story!

And this month?

 Who was the distinguished architect, who designed Battersea Town Hall (now the Arts Centre) and Battersea Library, as well as the Old Bailey? OK some of you will know that but can you also name a religious building in South Battersea, that he also designed?