Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, November 2026, Newsletter (# 209) 

1. Apologies for this newsletter being a couple of days late. October was a very busy month and, in the last week, I’ve been trying to complete the index for my book – still a day’s more work to do on it. Time simply has not allowed.
   

   ---

2. News items.

• Albert Bridge has an approved capacity for 600 pedestrians – normally, of course, no problem – but on the 7^th and 8^th November the bridge will be closed, even to pedestrians, for some three hours. That’s the penalty for having the popular Fireworks Display on both those days. (Physical works on the bridge are due to start in the last week of November).
• The long-promised second entry/exit to Queenstown Road station via Patcham Terrace was opened on 12^th
• And in case you hadn’t noticed The Spread, a small and congenial café, has opened in the once derelict changing rooms on Clapham Common – near to the One-Way section of the South Circular.
• Andrew MacKinnon, the Council’s Residents’ Participation Manager, has asked me to draw to your attention the Council’s current survey about life on the council’s estates. If you are interested look online at Give your views on council homes and estates – Wandsworth Borough Council.
  

  ---

3. On 1 October there was a celebration of Wandsworth’s achievement as last year’s London Borough of Culture. A fun time was had by all who attended but the outstanding feature of the evening was the Council’s welcome announcement that it intends to proceed with commissioning and installing a statue of John Archer, Mayor of Battersea, the first black mayor in London. The question is where? The pavement outside the Town Hall/Arts Centre? The wide pavement opposite the Falcon pub at the Junction? Do you have any ideas? Let me know, if so.
   

   ---

4. On the weekend of 3-4 October, Penny and I went and stayed with a friend, who lives in Hastings. The highlight of the weekend was a stunning walk along the beach-front at Pett Level Beach – very British, none of the style and glamour that one might see on the French equivalent. It is a rugged beach, which includes the remains of a petrified forest – it was new to both of us – and the weather was worthy of this spectacular – too spectacular for me at times, and for the climate crisis – summer.
   

   ---

5. On the 5th of October I had the Doddington and Rollo Community Association (DRCA) AGM followed by the review of the year by Wandsworth’s the Neighbourhood Watch Associations. And two weeks later I also attended the Battersea Park ward Special Neighbourhood Team’s regular meeting. My guess is that you will not be surprised to hear that most of us think that anti-social behaviour and parcel theft are our major concerns, with car crimes being a close second. Anyone can take part in Neighbourhood Watch, and clearly the more of us that do, then the safer and more secure our community will be. Why don’t you take part in strengthening our security here in Battersea? All are welcome.
   

   ---

6. Friday 9^th October was a sad day for many of us in the Battersea Labour Party, because it was Hywel Lloyd’s funeral. Hywel died suddenly, presumably of a heart attack, whilst fell walking on Scafell – one of his of his favourite pastimes – at age 61. A proud Welshman, Hywel loved his rugby – playing and watching – his beer, and people. He was always good humoured and enthusiastically green – he was a long-time Chair of Labour’s ‘climate change’ think tank, SERA. Hywel lived in Battersea in the 1990s and 2000s and stood for election as a Labour councillor in the 1998 Council election in Queenstown ward. RIP, old friend.
   

   ---

7. On Saturday 17^th October the Labour Group (of councillors) had an Away Day. It was not very ‘away’ as it was held in the Borough but it was away from the Town Hall. It was a ‘team building’ exercise – and very enjoyable.
   

   ---

8. Wednesday 21^st October was the day of a Council Meeting. This was the first formal announcement to councillors of the administration’s threat to raise Council Tax by 80+%. With the Greater London Authority’s precept (levy) added on top, the figure looks more like 100+%. I think it would be fair to categorise the speeches as, on the one hand, dry, statistic-laden, cooly authoritative Tory ones – opposed by impassioned, emotional, moving Labour ones. But as I said last month, I still believe that we are in shadow-boxing mode. All these estimates are based on the accounts as they were on 31 March this year, the end of the last financial year. They do not take account of this year’s actual performance, or of the full year impacts of any savings made this year nor of any savings newly planned for this year. Therefore, I still doubt that the increase is going to be as large as the Tories threaten.
   

   ---

9. The following day(22/10/26) was the last Planning Applications Committee to be held under the ‘old’ rules. Even under the old rules there were only four applications to be considered but they had the kernel of really important if minor decisions, which in future will be left to officers. One involved re-building a clubhouse to provide modern facilities at the cost of a couple of not very significant trees; and the other was about the opening times that should be allowed for a restaurant. On one we agreed with the officers’ recommendation and on the other we opposed their recommendation. In future councillors will not have a say. Sorry to say it but a bad move by the Government, which hardly fits with Andy Burnham’s devolution agenda!
   

   ---

10. Penny and I went to see James Graham’s The Standard of Living, starring Rory Kinnear as John Maynard Keynes, at the Theatre Royal in Haymarket, on Friday 23^rd The play is almost compulsory viewing for anyone interested in the perennial debate between left and right, between Keynesian economics and Friedrich Hayek’s traditional view of economics, between borrow-and-spend policies as opposed to austerity policies, often between Labour and Conservative views of how to run a nation’s economy. Just as fascinating as the economic/political element of the play was the extraordinay and complicated life of Keynes himself.

He was a Professor of Economics at Cambridge who became the most important diplomat at the Bretton Woods allied conference in 1944, which essentially settled the shape of the world economy from 1944 until the financial crisis of 2008. He was a six-foot-plus promiscuous heterosexual, who fell in love with, married and stayed faithful to a diminutive ballerina, Lydia Lopokova. He was a civil servant (yawn) who funded much of the ‘Bloomsbury Set,’ in their rural retreat at Charleston, painted here by Vanessa Bell. They included Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf, and painter Vanessa Bell. As well as the Bloomsbury Set, he knew Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Ludvig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell.

The stage set was simple but powerful and left space for one of the most unusual elements of the play – the exquisitely performed ballet vignettes danced by Natalia Osopova playing Lydia. Highly recommended.

11. One of the tiring things about advancing age is just how much time is spent looking after yourself. So this month I have had my flu jab, plus the pneumococcal, shingles, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and COVID-19 vaccinations, of course my osteopath appointment and dental checks – thank goodness for the NHS – but there is no time for anything much else. So, after the play I had to be up early the next morning to get to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for my right-eye cataract operation at 8 a.m. on a Saturday! But it was well worth it. The operation is almost a psychedelic experience – with three stars coasting around a dark sky, besmirched by the occasional flashes of comets and shooting stars – totally painless of course. And I came out seeing the world clearly for the first time since childhood. Again, highly recommended.
    

    ---

My November Programme

Given the slimmed down size of committees, my formal commitments are limited to the following. Hopefully that will allow me to get the book finally off to the publishers!

1. There are Guy Fawkes Fireworks displays in Battersea Park on 7 and 8 November – I am going on the 8^th.
2. There will be a Remembrance Service in St. Mary’s Church on 8 November; but I will be at the Remembrance Day service on the eleventh at the memorial statue in Battersea Park.
3. The Planning Applications Committee on 18^th
   

   ---

Did you know?

Last month I asked whether anyone knew the origin of the names on the Ethelburga Estate, such as Heron House, and Henty, Maskelyne, and Searles Closes. This resulted in quite a few responses, especially about Maskelyne, who depending upon the respondent was either a magician, an eminent scientist or an astrologer.  They could all have existed, but I am taking a punt on the one which was the most likely the one, that the 1960s ‘namer’ was thinking of when s/he named the block.

And my most comprehensive answer came from Rob of Alexandra Avenue. He says (and he is correct) that:-

1. Searles Close is named after Searle Street, a road in the old, demolished area, which was badly bomb damaged, and Watford Close after similarly damaged Watford Villas.
2. Maskelyne Close is named after John Nevil Maskelyne, a watchmaker and magician, who lived in Nevil House, which stood where Jagger House now stands. He also says that “the common assumption is that the name honours Nevil Maskelyne, the 18th-century Astronomer Royal. That is wrong for this street.”
3. George Alfred Henty, the nineteenth century author of many best-selling ‘boys’ adventure stories about empire and thin red lines gave his name to Henty Close. Henty lived in 33 Lavender Gardens. The pub that stood at the corner of Lavender Gardens and Lavender Hill was called The Cornet of Horse after one of his best sellers.
4. Heron House he speculates is named after the herons in the Park. OK, so maybe.

And I can add that Jagger House is named after Charles Sargent Jagger, who was a locally resident sculptor, best known for his First World War memorial sculptures, the most famous of which is the Hyde Park Corner Royal Artillery memorial pictured here.

And this month? 

A professional welterweight boxer, who was born in Tooting and brought up on Battersea’s Surrey Lane estate, fought 33 fights, winning 29 but sadly losing his 4 championship fights, and retired from boxing in 2022. Who was he?

PS For back-dated numbers, web-search ‘Tony Belton’ to access my blog: to sign on for future copies email tonybelton99@gmail.com.