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December 10, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, December 2025, Newsletter (# 198)

  1. I did not go to the Battersea Park fireworks display – seen a few of them in the past, also not so keen on the ludicrous noise levels of modern displays – I miss the Ooohs and Aarhs of old. But on 5th November I did attend a lecture at the National Gallery, on Joseph Wright (1734-97), better known simply as Wright of Derby – bit like the Italian style, coming to think of it such as Leonardo of Vinci. The National Gallery is curating the first major exhibition of his work. His contemporaries were the more famous Reynolds and Gainsborough. A generation later they were followed by Turner and Constable. Hence, Wright has been overlooked. His paintings are, however, more relevant to the Age of Enlightenment – they are about science, inventions, the future and the Industrial Revolution – the threats and excitements of the new world. There is a case to be made for Wright to be considered the greatest of British painters. I will go to the exhibition and recommend it to anyone interested in Britain in the modern world.
  2. I was asked to contribute my comments about life in Battersea half a century ago as part of the 2025 Wandsworth Borough of Culture programme – I was the only one they could think of who could remember THE WORLD CUP (upper case deliberate), the great smogs of those years, bomb sites and slum tenements in Battersea. We shot me on 10th November on the ‘beach’ under Battersea Bridge in the pouring rain – atmospheric. I do hope that it comes out slightly better than this one I took of the production team. Their good cheer in the pouring rain was admirable. Merry Xmas to them all.
  3. On Remembrance Day, I went as usual to the service held in Battersea Park next to the Memorial statue. The service includes a parade of wreath presenters at the statue, by representatives of all the Borough’s public services and wings of the military service. As ever, I find the simplicity of the service very moving, especially in the late, but somehow appropriate, autumn weather. In all the years I have been going I remember only one service held in heavy rain – when it was also blowing a gale. This year’s service was conducted by the new vicar of St. Mary’s, the Reverend Erin Clark seen here leading the event.
  4. It was also the same day as the Wandsworth’s Civic Awards ceremony, when the Council honours just some of the many thousands, who work in the voluntary sector. Until recently this event has been angled very much towards the “more mature members” of our community – partly because the criteria included the length of time people had been volunteering. But this Council has made a point of encouraging youth involvement and hence this year there were also equivalent youth awards. As it happens, a dear old friend of mine, who many of you will know – Sarah Rackham, won an award and another old friend, Phil Burrows, was in a silver medal position. In this picture of the award winners, Sarah is at the front left. Well done and well deserved, both Sarah and Phil.
  5. On Sunday 16th November, Penny and I went to World Heart Beat, Embassy Gardens, to see The Jazz Physicians: Critical Mass Album Launch, part of the Battersea Jazz Festival, itself part of the Wandsworth Borough of Culture Year. The World Heart Beat venue is situated half-way between Nine Elms Lane and the Wandsworth Road, and it is a very smart, intimate concert hall and recording studio. As for the Physicians, they were terrific. The trio, as seen here, are a pianist, a bass guitarist and a percussionist, playing a 21st century version of cool chamber music – Mozart would have loved them; we certainly did.
  6. I chaired Wandsworth’s Planning Applications Committee on 19th  I could hardly claim that the agenda was either very challenging or very significant, but it does give me the opportunity to discuss one of the many conflicts that arise in the political world, and especially my bit of it – planning applications. A few months ago, the committee approved a planning application against the officers’ advice. The officers advised that the development would cause some level of visual damage to the conservation area. But the Committee decided that the social value of the proposal was of greater value than the damage caused. Here is a picture of the development – the one behind the red car. Clearly the building is not the ideal fit within the area but in the Committee’s view it was not sufficiently damaging to be unacceptable, given the useful community service it was designed to fulfil. Stop Press. The developers have put in an appeal against our decision to refuse planning permission for the block on the Glassmills site at Battersea Bridge.
  7. The next day, 20th, I had the Transport Committee, followed on 26th by the Environment Committee, but neither would have excited much interest on a quiet, wet February evening, let alone just before Xmas. Much more interesting was a session I attended on 27th at London City Hall, entitled Holding Mayors to Account and chaired by an old colleague of mine, Councillor Len Duvall (pictured here), who was the Leader of Greenwich, when I was Labour’s Opposition Leader on Wandsworth Council. The keynote speaker was Lord (Michael) Heseltine. Heseltine’s speech was in essence a pragmatist’s charter, completely void of dogmatic content but full of fascinating vignettes of his long life of being in Government and dealing with people as diverse as Mrs. Thatcher and Red Ken Livingstone, and Liverpool’s Derek Hatton. The most interesting part of the day, for me anyway, was a lunch-time chat with Len, John Biggs (ex-Mayor of Tower Hamlets), Prof. Tony Travers and Andrew Boff, Tory Member of the Greater London Assembly. Put bluntly, it was generally agreed that the elected councillors just did not have the powers or the resources to scrutinise Mayors effectively – or, in my words, the new Mayoral systems are in effect elective dictatorships.
  8. On my way home I stopped off to inspect the work being done on the Falcon Road under-pass, under the tracks at Clapham Junction. Whilst I was there, I heard a couple of cynical comments from passers-by – waste of money style. I, however, think that it is brilliant and a massive stride in over-coming the very damaging divide between north and south Battersea. Whilst I was there a lady came up to me and asked me whether I was taking pictures for my newsletter – recognition! So, this picture is courtesy of Falconbrook resident, guest photographer Kate Wallis – thanks and Merry Xmas, Kate.
  9. On 28th November Penny and I went to the Mayor’s Charity Comedy night in the Ceremonial Suite at Wandsworth Town Hall. There are great advantages having an event there – one being its capacity to take the 100+ audience and allow space for socialising, or as we say nowadays networking. However, I suspect, it is a difficult venue for stand-up comics, who are more normally used to performing in smaller, intimate surroundings like pubs. I do admire comedians for their courage and tenacity in performance. Well over £10,000 was, however, collected for the Mayor’s three charities, namely Mindworks UK, Wandsworth Oasis, and Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees. Serving behind the bar was a regular reader of this Newsletter, Martine pictured here. Thanks to her and all the other Town Hall staff, who made the occasion a success.
  10. Finally on 29th November, I went to the Friends Meeting House in Wandsworth Town Centre for the launch of Labour’s Campaign for the 2026 May Election. There were 100+ candidates and supporters there on a very bubbly, good-mood occasion. We had speeches from Simon Hogg, the Leader of Wandsworth Council, Fleur Anderson MP for Putney, and Rosena Allin-Khan MP for Tooting. Rosena (pictured here) wound up with a storming speech with lots of, what Donald Sutherland said in Kelly’s Heroes were, “positive vibes, man”.

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November 1, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, November 2025, Newsletter (# 197)

  1. October started for me, with a couple of jabs, against Covid and influenza. It is really good that the NHS has for a few years now got onto the offensive against these highly infectious diseases. Let me urge you, especially if you are eligible for free jabs, if you haven’t got around to it, to get your free jabs now. And if you are one of those scared of injections or with other objections, or distrust, can I ask you to re-consider your position. These are infectious diseases and if you get them then you are also endangering the rest of us.
  2. As Chair of the Planning Applications Committee, on 8th October I attended a Design Review Panel (DRP) of a new council development on the Lennox Estate, Roehampton on 8th The Council intends to build some 50 new flats on the estate and I think the DRP process is a really positive newish part of the process. It is in effect a peer review by architects, ecological/landscape experts, engineers, etc. of the architects’ and planners’ plans. The end result is better buildings and, hopefully, in the longer term happier residents.
  3. On 9th October I was off to the Civil Service club, Great Scotland Yard, for the annual summer dinner of the 07 Club. Founded in 1907, this club was established as an informal gathering of men (and I mean men, as women members are a 21st century innovation), whose job it was to run London’s civil government. Originally, they were largely the leading lights of the London County Council or LCC – replaced in 1965 by the GLC and now the GLA, or Greater London Assembly, but now it includes the Fire Brigade, the Ambulance Service and the London Boroughs. Actually, of course, it is an excuse to go into central London and have a harmless jolly – which is what it was.
  4. I was touring Battersea Park ward on 18th October and by chance, as much as by design, I popped into the Carney’s Community youth club in Petworth Street. It was good to see that boxing training was going ahead as vigourously as ever. I also had an interesting chat with Mumtaz, Kyran and Malachi – pictured here, youngsters who were that morning running the club’s bicycle repairs and support shop. It is a positive and useful by-product of the youth club, so if your bike needs repairs and maintenance, or you have an old one that needs a new home, why not pop down to Petworth Street and have a chat with them.
  5. d id you know that before the effective de-industrialisation of Battersea in the 1960s and 1970s, Battersea had a reputation as being one of the heartlands of the London boxing scene? There used to be regular boxing events put on in Battersea Town Hall (now the BAC). Probably the biggest star was Don Cockell, aka the Battersea Bruiser, who in 1955 went 9 rounds with the fiercesome, American heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano. Cockell was British, European and Commonwealth champion. Here Cockell, in black shorts, takes a right-hook from Marciano – in Madison Square Gardens, NY.
  6. I went from the Carney Community into Battersea Park, where I came across the Battersea Park Running Festival. It is an annual event run hosted by RunThrough Events for the benefit of the Battersea Cats & Dogs Home. There are several events such as a marathon, a half marathon, and a 1-kilometre junior race. Smashing!
  7. I had a very sad experience on 22nd I went to a memorial service for a significant Labour figure, being held in the famous de-commissioned church in Smith Square. Not surprisingly, the large audience was mature in years – unfortunately a member of the congregation had a heart attack just as the service was beginning. The occasion was cancelled, much to the distress of widow and family – imagine the emotional and nervous energy used up in preparation for the eulogies and the social sympathies involved in such an event. That was followed, in the evening, by the Council Meeting, but there isn’t anything to say about that routine event.
  8. On the return journey, I popped into the Tate Gallery to see the Clive Branson paintings on display. Branson was a British artist, who fought in the Spanish Civil War and sadly died in WW2 in Burma, now Myanmar, in 1944. He was a true socialist, who lived for many years in Battersea. His most famous painting, Selling The Daily Worker outside the PECO factory, I have shown before but on display with it at the Tate was this social-realist painting Bombed Women and Searchlights. The building under the searchlights are public baths – probably the long since demolished Nine Elms Baths? Note, in this moving and historic picture, the giant barrage ballon overhead, the broken windows and the Dig for Victory poster.
  9. On 23rd October, I chaired Wandsworth’s Planning Applications Committee. There was a contentious application for a hotel in Tooting, but we were assured that this hotel was incapable of being converted for hostel use without a secondary planning application. The liveliest debate affecting Battersea was consideration of another application – but one submitted after the building had already been constructed. The Committee does not like construction proceeding without permission, but on this occasion, we decided to approve it anyway.
  10. I was invited to the opening, on 24th October, of a large new industrial building in Lydden Road, off Garratt Lane, that my committee had approved a couple of years ago. I went there but I had the wrong date, or they had re-scheduled without telling me. It looked all bright, shiny and new and hopefully it will stimulate the Borough’s industrial economy.
  11. Whilst there I dropped into the Font climbing and social centre in Lydden Road for a cuppa. I knew, of course, that climbing is now an Olympic sport with thousands of new devotees, but I did not know that we had a thriving centre for it, just off Garratt Lane. Even if it looks quiet here, early on a Friday morning, it is apparently so busy at weekends that they are hoping to expand to a larger place in the Southside Shopping Centre. Good climbing to them all.
  12. The following day, I went again to Battersea Park to see the unveiling of a plaque to Bob Marley, who lived across the river in Chelsea, but regularly played football in the Park. Self-confessedly, the soccer he played displayed none of the gentleness and love to all men that he sang about. The unveiling was a passionate and cheerful occasion attended by some of his soccer team-mates, our MP, Marsha de Cordova, my fellow councillor Maurice McLeod and launched by the High Commissioner for Jamaica. In this photo Marsha and I are pictured in front of the two plaques – one to Marley and the other to the first football match ever played in the world under FA rules.
  13. October 27th was a sad day for all of us in Battersea Labour Party, being the day that Prunella Scales died. She and her husband Tim West were, as well as being truly great actors, substantial contributors to the party – and not just financially. They occasinally hosted summer garden parties at their home facing on to Wandsworth Common; and they acted in a couple of revues, which my partner Penny wrote. Prunella will be best remembered as Sybil in the hilarious Fawlty Towers sit-com, and for the range of meanings she managed to convey in the five letters B_A_S_I_L. But if they show it on TV in tribute, I recommend making a point of watching Hobson’s Choice a classic of British film, starring Prunella and many others. RIP Pru, true friend and comrade to Battersea Labour Party.
  14. Lunch with Battersea Park Rotary Club at the Albert 30th October and a talk given by Syeda Islam on Moghul art, design and architecture in the 15th-18th century India. She took us through the six great Emperors, from Babur, a descendant of Genghis Khan, who led an invasion of India from central Asia to the golden age of Shah Jahan, who romantically built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife. This painting of Babur, is a portrait of a learned and cultured man and a fine example of Moghul art.

My November Programme

  1. I have my Council surgery at 11 am at Battersea Park Library on 1st November.
  2. On the 4th there is the Conservation and Heritage Committee.
  3. I am attending a National Gallery lecture on Wright of Derby and his paintings on 5th November. Wright is an interesting eighteenth-century painter who loved painting works about the Age of Enlightenment, of science and the origins of the then Industrial Revolution, which could almost be centred on the growth of engineering in the West Midlands – still the home of Rolls Royce.
  4. I will be at the Remembrance Day Service in Battersea Park on 11th November in the morning and the Council’s Civic Awards presentation in the evening.
  5. The Planning Applications Committee is on 19th November, followed by the Transport Committee on 20th.

Did you know?

Last month I asked which fragrant flower grew wild, and was cultivated commercially, in Battersea, before full urbanisation? But still left its name to SW11.

The answer was, of course, Lavender, as answered correctly by many of you. There are, of course, Lavender Hill, but also Lavender Sweep, Gardens and Mews. And notoriously the Mob!

And this month?

I took this picture of a pastoral autumnal scene during one of my recent tours around Battersea Park ward but it is NOT in the Park. Where is it?

October 13, 2025  

Fox House Fire

Nick and Angela Stone live in neighbouring Buxton House. They sent me the following – Nick wrote the words and Angela took the pictures.

The fire started before 7.00 PM on Wednesday, 10th September.  The first call to emergency services was made at 7.08 PM.

This is what we saw when we stepped out of Buxton House at around 7.30 to see what was going on.  At the time, only the one flat was on fire, in the middle of the top floor.

Within an hour the fire had spread to the roof and into other flats.

An hour later the blaze had almost reached the end of the top floor.

Firemen, taking a break, while others get ready to go into the building.

I don’t remember the flames turning blue, and this may be just the way the photo came out, but the last flats to burn down were near the gas pipe.  The crowd – some fifty people – were moved back shortly after this.  At one point we heard small explosions as the gas canisters in people’s freezers blew up.

The following morning, the fire brigade were still hosing down the embers.

And this is what the front of the building looked like.

The building is now covered in scaffolding and boarded up.

Nick & Angela, thanks for that story. Please do keep us updated if anything else dramatic happens in Maysoule Road area.

I have always promised to send just the one newsletter every month. I made an exception for the August riots in 2011. For the second time, we have an issue worth a special edition – the Fox House fire.

October 7, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, October 2025, Newsletter (# 196)

  1. Last month, Tom was kind enough to “protest” about the brevity of my August newsletter, because he claimed that he enjoyed my rambling. I hope that I do not disappoint him with this busy version.
  2. So off to Weymouth on 1st September for a fortnight of editing and writing a/the book. I must be mad to trail such an event as, after all, there must be a hatful of reasons why I don’t get there, including not finding a publisher. But it went quite well in two weeks in Weymouth and the town itself is a delight, squeezed as it is between the harbour and the sea, Portland Bill and Chesil Beach.
  3. The seafood restaurants and pubs in the town stand comparison with their rivals in Brittany, whilst the Town beach is three or four miles of sand – the type that’s better for cricket than football – at low tide anyway. It was also George III’s favourite holiday spot, where he was known as a rather amiable “Farmer George” rather than the “tyrant”, who drove the 13 rebellious colonies to declare independence. He had a good taste when it came to choosing seaside resorts within striking distance of London. Great night life, too, for such a small town, not in high season.
  4. At the beginning of September, the Meadbank Care Home on Parkgate Road was closed for new clients. The home for 80 mature residents in need of care was originally run, I believe, by the Council or the NHS, but has long since been owned by BUPA. Today, according to its owners, Meadbank has passed its “sell-by” date – the bedrooms are not en-suite. BUPA have put forward plans for a new-build replacement on the same site and these plans have been considered by what is known as a DRP (Design Review Panel). We can expect the submission of a planning application soon.
  5. On the 11th September, as many will know, a potentially deadly fire was ablaze in Fox House, Maysoule Road. (I was on holiday at the time). It could have been worse, but both the emergency services and the Council acted quickly, and no one was even injured, but all 37 flats were immediately uninhabitable. The Council placed all residents into temporary accommodation of some kind and by 26th September 29 households had been offered alternative accommodation in SW11. The town hall officers have assured me that the remaining eight households are OK – they have decided to move elsewhere or made independent arrangements – well done, to Council staff, fire brigade and police first respondents.
  6. A day or two later, a Council employee was stabbed whilst at work on the Rollo Estate. It was a serious injury incident, and he had emergency care – I (and we) do not need to know the details, but I am reliably informed that he is recovering reasonably well, whilst the alleged perpetrator is in protective care and is suffering from some form of mental health disorder.
  7. Trees, trees, trees: you’d be surprised how much correspondence councillors get about trees. Do cut them down, don’t cut them down, prune them, don’t touch them, you planted the wrong ones, they are too big, too small – every complaint under the sun. Why am I telling you this? – because on 16th September I got the following notice in a council email. “I am writing to inform you of the planned removal of 17 highway trees (street trees) across the Battersea Park and St Mary’s wards. These removals are part of our routine maintenance programme and are necessary due to the defective condition of the trees, which pose an unacceptable risk of damage or injury in the event of failure. Felling notices have been placed on all affected street trees, with a scheduled start date for removal of 29 September 2025. The following roads all have one or two trees that will be replaced:-

In Battersea Park Ward: Beechmore Road, Juer Street, Reform Street, Rosenau Crescent, Thames Walk, and,

In St Mary’s Ward: Morgans Walk, Inworth Street, Stanmer Street, Ursula Street, and Simpson Street.

So, if your favourite tree is cut down – one outside my house was removed much to my anguish – remember that there is a reason and it will be replaced – mine, on the right, has been!

  1. On the 18th September a lorry-driver drove into and demolished Battersea Park’s Albert Gate. It was built in 1881 and formed a small but essential part of the splendour of the Park. You will be pleased to know that work has already begun on its restoration.
  2. The Labour Group, councillors and candidates for next May’s Borough Election, had an AwayDay on 20th It was exactly what it should be – friendly, inclusive, stimulating and fun. Whatever the political mood is elsewhere, and one can hardly pretend that it is good – right here in Wandsworth, Labour faces next year in buoyant mood, and with an excellent slate of candidates.
  1. Does LBOC mean anything to you? No, what about London Borough Of Culture or LBOC? I have been to a couple of events featuring in LBOC but not as many as I would have wished. There have been a few sceptics round and about the event, and I have my own minor criticisms. But overall, I think it has already been a great success and will continue to be so through to its end in April, next year. Do try and to take in a few events if you have not yet done so. The year runs through until April next year – we are at the halfway point – give it a go.
  2. Battersea Bridge has been a real pain for anyone trying to get over it, or even near it for some months. The work has been aimed to improve safety at the junctions on both sides of the bridge. It has also affected Albert Bridge of course, and much else besides. But now, I am told that at long last we are in the final stages of the work. The road is going to be completely re-surfaced overnights – the road will need to be closed at night during much of October. But by November, Battersea Bridge Road, Parkgate Road and Elcho Street should all be done and dusted. Hopefully we will have a safer and better environment – remember: this is all being done after a fatal accident. The details of the works are far too complex to list here but if you are concerned look up –  https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/battersea-bridge-safety
  1. I attended the Transport Committee on 18th The main items on the agenda were Wandsworth’s installation of EV (electric vehicle) charging points and the introduction of “school streets.” The borough is in the top four of London boroughs in terms of EV installations, along with Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Southwark. We have also installed school streets for every school that has demonstrated a positive interest. These are, however, demand-led services so if you are aware of a major shortage of EV installations or you want a school street near you, then let me know and I will try and get support for you.
  2. In August, I talked about giving permission for the development of the derelict site at the corner of Culvert and Battersea Park Roads – and in Dagnall Street. At the time, I said that at last, the kids at Harris Academy will have a decent gym/sports hall. Well, on 24th September I visited the site and here I am on the roof of the gym building, which will include changing facilities, and two new class – note, the field of photovoltaic cells on adjoining parts of the school. The aim is to complete this building by May 2026, and to have the main site re-developed by spring, 2028.
  3. I chaired Wandsworth’s Planning Applications Committee on 25th Frankly, this was not the most significant month in terms of big or particularly major applications – the largest, in Battersea, was permission to expand Thomas’s School’s school role from 660 to 690 – so, I will just take this opportunity to note that the committee has this year been watched online by some 1500 Wandsworth residents. Judge for yourself whether the cost of giving people the ability (and right?) to see decisions being made about life in their streets is justified or not at that level of participation.
  4. On 26th September, I attended a memorial service to Timothy West, on behalf of Battersea Labour Party – Tim lived in Battersea. The service was held in St. James’s Church, Piccadilly. Tim as well as being a great actor – he played Churchill twice, Stalin, Edward VII, King Lear, and many other roles – was, with his wife, Prunella Scales – a major contributor to Battersea Labour Party funds. The service was attended by many well-known actors, who gave everything in what was quite a performance – from the singing, no shy rendition of hymns here, and lessons read, from the personal memories to the couple of scenes from Tim’s own plays enacted by his family and friends. Tim, great actor, great friend of BLP, RIP.
  5. I don’t know about you, but I had to watch the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final on 27th September – wasn’t it brilliant, especially in the first-half – it had too many scrums, mauls and indecipherable rules in the second half, but that’s rugby. What with that and the Lionesses triumph at Wembley – and the crowd behaviour – the feminisation of sport – or of the crowds – has been a great bonus, especially when contrasted with the scenes from the USA during the Ryder Cup. But three great triumphs for British team sport – with a considerable helping of European input.

My October Programme

  1. Battersea Labour Party’s Junction Jazz night is on 5th October – always a splendidly pleasant and informal evening.
  2. On 9th, I have lunch with old colleagues who worked with me in the GLC – now 36 years ago and in the evening the Finance Committee.
  3. I intend to attend the Older People’s Forum at St. Peter’s Church on 14th October.
  4. On 22nd October I will attend the memorial service to David Lipsey and later that day a Council Meeting.
  5. I have the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on the 23rd,
  6. The PAC, that I chair, gave permission for a large industrial and office complex in Lydden Road, Tooting – immediately off Garratt Lane. On the 24th October it is being officially opened and I, and the ward councillors, have been invited to its opening. I look forward to seeing how it has turned out.

Did you know?

Last month I asked whether anyone could add details about any names on the Dodd? What was Park Court South called before it was sold off by the council. Why Voltaire Court? Or Turpin House?  Why Charlotte Despard and Francis Chichester? But I got not one reply! Ah, well, here are a couple of answers:

Park Court South was previously named Jay Court after long-serving Labour Cabinet minister and Battersea MP, Douglas Jay 1946-73, but the private owners did not want it named after a Labour politician!

Francis Chichester was a famous Devonian, who became the first person to sail solo around the world, arriving back in Plymouth on 27 August 1966 just as the Doddington Estate was first being planned.

And this month?

What fragrant flower grew wild, and was cultivated commercially, in Battersea, before full urbanisation? But still left its name to SW11.

August 31, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, September 2025, Newsletter (# 195)

  1. OK, I know some of you think I can be a bit verbose; you are probably right. So, this month’s newsletter is going to be brief. Twenty odd years ago, I started writing a history of the London Borough of Wandsworth. In August I have been trying to finish it! I have done nothing else; I didn’t even attend those fun events in the Park – great shame. And Penny and I are going to spend the first two weeks of September editing it. Then it will just be a matter of getting it published; and what a relief that will be.
  2. I did fit in just a couple of other events. On 6th August, I met with other members of Northcote ward Labour Party to choose our candidates for next May’s Borough Election. They are Clare Fraser, who brings with her eight years of experience as a councillor, and her colleague from Tooting, John Heywood. We have now completed our selections across the borough, and have a great team eager to fight next May’s election.
  3. But of greater public significance I chaired Wandsworth’s 20th August Planning Applications Committee. This month there were three big applications, all of significance to Battersea. The first was for two ten-storey hotels next to the United States Embassy, between the Embassy and the Waitrose store on Nine Elms Lane. There is likely to be another couple of applications in the area in the next few months. Whether you like Nine Elms Lane as it has turned out, or not, there is no doubt that it is a relief to see it nearing completion, after 40 or so years of dereliction.
  4. The second application was, at long last, a realistic plan coming forward to proceed to develop both on the derelict site at the corner of Culvert and Battersea Park Roads – and in Dagnall Street. The main site is for student accommodation and the Dagnall Street one is for the sports hall/gym that the Harris School has been expecting for the last 20 years. At 18 storeys it is far too high for my taste, but I got out-voted on that issue years ago, when the Tories were in control – and once permission has been given, it cannot unfortunately be revoked. The key point is that this version looks like getting built – at last and the kids at Harris Academy will have a decent gym/sports hall.
  5. The third site is the rather difficult site between Armoury Way and the Wandsworth Gasworks site. The application is a large one, for over 400 student accommodation units, which I know is not to everyone’s taste. However, it is squeezed between Armoury Way, the traffic on Wandsworth’s one-way system, and the railway. S the site is not everyone’s ideal for family housing either. I think students will find the environment less difficult than mothers and babies – or even not to be genderists, fathers and babies. I attach some artists’ impressions, on the next page, – I know, they don’t show the site on a foggy/rainy day in November, but they are just what it might look like in June!
  6. Of course, there were a mass of events in the Park for the London Borough of Culture 2025, including the unfortunate demolition of the Park gate. But many of you will have your own experiences of all that and so I will not comment further. Except to say that the Council will insist a total restoration of the gate in all its old Victorian splendour, as soon as possible.
  7. On 30th August Pen and I went to a celebration in memory of Mark and Priscilla Cornwall-Jones. Mark and Prill, as we called them, were some people’s definition of an odd couple. Mark was a card-carrying member of the Tory party, who went to the Scottish moors and shot stag for some of his holidays; Priscilla was a card-carrying member of the Labour Party and a Labour councillor representing the then St. Mary Park ward from 1982-90. They met and socialised with both Thatcher and Blair Cabinet members. For twenty years after her death, Mark continued to pay her monthly contributions to the Battersea Labour Party – because he loved her and the memory of her. One day in 1968, Mark & Priscilla saw the classic Battersea, ‘us-and-them’ movie Up the Junction and were so moved by it, that they went home and in the front room of their Albert Bridge Road home, where August’s celebration took place, they devised a plan. So, with Mark’s financial skills and Priscilla’s commitment, Battersea Churches’ Housing Association was created (now Battersea and Chelsea).
  8. The lead organiser of the great and happy celebration was the oldest of the kids Kate, with her brothers Adam, Matthew and Jason all in attendance with assorted partners, children and grandchildren as well as a few politicos and church colleagues of Mark’s. For those of you, who may have known them Priscilla is in the front on the left of this 1980s picture with Mark at the back on the right. The others from l to r are (unbelievably) me, John Slater (Roehampton councillor), possibly Mrs Johnstone, Bill Johnstone (St, Mary Park councillor) and Penny.

My September Programme

  1. I have the Transport Committee on 18th September.
  2. The Labour councillors are having an Away Day on 20th. That will not be a grand corporate-style awayday in a 5-star hotel, but a hard-working preparation day for next May’s Borough election, held in a church hall – or similar local venue.
  3. I have the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on the 25th,

Did you know?

Last month I asked, “Why the Dodd?” I didn’t know the answer to that one, so many thanks to Robert, an assiduous reader from Falconbrook. Robert says that “Henry Hart Davis (who has been described as a “persistent but hapless speculator-builder in Battersea during the 1840s”) owned land in Battersea Fields, including Doddington Lodge, which he named after his birthplace in Somerset. He went bankrupt in 1851 following the failure of the Crown Estate to pay compensation promptly for the land which was purchased from him”.

The public sector was then clearly irresponsible about its commercial obligations – not something anyone would say now. But on the other hand, was the Crown Estate trying its best at land assembly for what was to become Battersea Park? The timing is about right. 

Robert went on to say, “I suppose Doddington Lodge was somewhere in the area of the Doddington Estate.” If my surmise about the Park is right, then that is very possibly true.

And this month?

Last month was about the name of the Doddington Estate itself, but this month, can anyone add details about any of the other public names on the Dodd? What was Park Court South called before it was sold off by the council. Why Voltaire Court? Or Turpin House?  Why Charlotte Despard and Francis Chichester? Why any of the block names? I can have a stab at a few of those names but I look forward to your replies and hope to learn something new!

July 31, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, August 2025, Newsletter (# 194)

  1. I was walking through Wandsworth Town Centre on 7th July, with a few minutes to spare, and I decided to pop into Belton & Slade, the hardware shop, just yards away from the church. Over the years many people, especially councillors have asked me whether there was a family connection. I always said “No”, without ever knowing. So, I popped in and discovered a fabulous old-style store – stacked with hardware stock of all shapes and sizes, imperial and metric. It’s a treasure trove, which I wish I had known about in my DIY years. I introduced myself to the man in charge. I think he was a bit suspicious at first but fortunately I had my Council lanyard with me – he was/is Michael Belton. We had a brief conversation but unfortunately, there does not seem to be a family connection, which is strange as there are not many Beltons around. Anyway, here is Michael, standing proudly in his shop doorway.
  2. The next day, Penny and I went to Saragossa (Zaragoza) Spain. It was an interesting experience from at least 4 different standpoints. Firstly, we had a problem with my rash insistence to travel eco-consciously by train. Paris was the problem; going out road traffic chaos resulted in us missing our train from Gare Montparnasse to Biarritz. Hence, we lost a hotel booking and had to buy a second set of train tickets. And, on our return, our Metro train was stopped because some un-authorised person was on the tracks. We had to take a taxi to the Gare du Nord but missed our train.
  3. Secondly when we left a sweltering London at about 37C (high 80s), we feared the worst and sure enough Zaragoza was 41-42C (high 90s). I’m sorry to say I don’t think that I can manage the Mediterranean countries in the months of July and August any longer – unless on the Atlantic coast, which is where we were in San Sebastian (see photo) on one lovely day!
  4. But thirdly the conference itself was interesting and Penny’s presentation about the evolution of the handshake as a business and sporting symbol and as an egalitarian, demotic greeting, was well appreciated. And the social events around academic conferences are always entertaining, as indeed was this one.

  5. However, fourth my real interest was in exploring Zaragoza, which was far too hot most of the time. But I did get out early in the morning and explored a little of the old city. Founded by Augustus Caesar, it was captured by Islamic forces in 714 and not re-captured by Catholic forces until the early 12th century, when it became the capital of Aragon for three centuries before the capital of (now) Spain moved to Toledo and then Madrid. This complex history is fascinatingly illustrated in its public places where Islamic and Gothic/Catholic styles both clash and mingle – the picture is of the two cathedrals that dominate the city and the River Ebro – one of the cathedrals is built in the curtilage of the mosque it replaced. I am not sure that I agree with the Spanish proverb that “Africa starts at the Pyrenees”, but there is no doubt Spain really is very different from the rest of Europe – in challenging ways.

  6. On the 17th July I took Wandsworth’s new Chief Executive and his PA for a walk around the ward, finishing off in Battersea Park, at the café where we were joined by one of the locals, pictured here enjoying his “elevens”. We discussed:-

    The tiled roof of the Pagoda, which has reached the end of its lifespan and requires replacement. The Council is consulting with Japanese specialists and awaiting responses to initial enquiries. For health and safety reasons, the Pagoda has been fenced off until the works begin. A timeframe for these works is yet to be confirmed.

    The limited public toilet facilities in Battersea Park, at all times but specifically during the highly successful fun-runs. I have hopes that the CEO might seek funding from the Community Infrastructure Levy to fund additional toilets.

    The paving around the Royal College of Art. Unfortunately, the pavement works I highlighted last month are being revised again to address several challenges, including boundary level discrepancies, utility conflicts, and potentially unauthorised works by other frontagers. Subject to approval, the revised works are expected to commence in late August or early September.

  7. I chaired the Planning Applicatins Committee on the 23rd July. There were a couple of applications in Blenkarne and Thurleigh Roads, which were, of course, of great interest to the immedate neighbourhood but not of much to the rest of Battersea.
  8. The Council planted this two-year old sapling in my road, but it was listing about 15 degrees and in a dead, dry patch of earth. I rang the council’s tree helpline and it was staked and I added some of my not very well composted compost and now look at it – flourishing in its own street garden.
  9. Talking of adding colour to Battersea, watch for the work on the Falcon Road underpass of the railway lines. Work is starting right now – which we know will be a pain for bus passengers and all drivers, who can not avoid Falcon Road – but what a bonus it will be making that underpass bright, breezy and colourful.
  10. On the 31st July I went to Bridge Lane Clinic for a health check – everything seems to be in working order (kind of), but I noticed that the clinic has also bought into the let’s prettify Battersea philosophy, with this magnificent new mural of Chelsea Bridge and the Power Station.

My August Programme

  1. I have the Councillor’s surgery on 2nd August.
  2. The Northcote ward selection of Labour’s candidates for the Borough Election is on the 6th August, and
  3. the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on the 20th, and that is all in what will be a quiet month.

Did you know?

Last month I asked, “How many pubs are there in Battersea named after members of the British aristocracy? And where are they located?” This proved to me how difficult it can be to ask questions, which everyone understands and interprets in the same way. So, I received answers, which included the Crown on Lavender Hill, and another which included Churchills on St. John’s Hill, which I had omitted – though Winston was, of course, descended from the Duke of Marlborough, and therefore an aristocrat. But, no one mentioned the Royal Standard in Ballentine Street, or the Queens Arms (St. Philips Street).

The answer that I was looking for was, the Duke of Cambridge (Battersea Bridge Road), the Duchess Belle (Battersea Park Road – opposite the Power Sation tube station), the Albert (Albert Bridge Road), the Victoria (at the junction of Silverthorne and Queenstown Roads), and the Churchill on St. John’s Hill. But what about the Bolingbroke (Northcote Road) – is that a pub or a wine bar? – he certainly was an aristocrat, and also lord of the manor of Battersea. Anyway, they are all worth a visit – so Cheers everyone.

And this month?

Someone last month asked me, “Why the Dodd?” I assume that is simply a chatty abbreviation but why the Doddington – does anyone know? And what about the other names on the Dodd – pictured here? Francis Chichester, Charlotte Despard, Lucas, Cromwell, Arthur, York, Kennard, Youngs, Bolton, Turpin, Park South? Most of them I guess are the names of councillors of the time, but does anyone have an interesting story about any of them?

July 2, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, July 2025, Newsletter (# 193)

  1. On the 7th I went to a Doddington roof garden summer social, where I met a few old friends and tried one or two home-made snacks. Whilst I was there, I had a chat with a team of firefighters from the Este Road fire station, for whom despite the nature of their job – travelling all around the area – the garden was a completely new and pleasurable experience. However, in the middle of chatting about the garden their buzzers sounded and they had to dash off to their fire engine! Dramatic.
  2. Four days later, I was in Parkgate Road visiting some constituents, when I noticed that work is at last taking place laying decent pavements around the block where the Royal College of Arts building stands. This has been outstanding for all of the last 4 years and I (and residents) have raised it with the Town Hall on what has seemed like a monthly basis. Good news!
  3. I went from Parkgate Road directly to one of the three Thrive gardens in Battersea Park. This charity helps people with disabilities to face mental and physical issues through the pleasure and relaxation of gardening. This was an occasion to meet their chief executive and show support for the charity. However, the gardens especially the one near the river, are well worth visiting in their own right – a great place to sit and think for 30 minutes or so.
  4. I had the Transport Committee on the 19th June. There were plenty of important items but not specifically of great interest to Battersea except for the important cycling facilities in both Queenstown Road and Nine Elms Lane. The cycle lanes are desperately needed, especially in the stretch between Battersea Park and Silverthorne Roads. I just hope that there is not too much interference with traffic during the implementation because it has certainly been difficult getting around in North Battersea this last month with hold ups in Falcon Road, York Road and on Battersea Bridge Road.
  5. I went to Merton to attend the North-East Surrey Crematorium Board on the 24th.  It was a mundane, uncontentious meeting quite unlike Sunday, the 29th, which was the selection meeting to vote for Labour’s three candidates for Battersea Park ward in next year’s Council Election. It was at least my twentieth such selection meeting, and, if you’re interested, it does not get less nerve-racking – indeed possibly the reverse. I am glad to say, however, that I was successful and, all other things being equal, my name with two colleagues will be on the ballot paper on May 7th 2026.

My July Programme

  1. I have the Finance Committee on 3rd July.
  2. I will be accompanying Penny on her business trip to Saragossa, Spain from 9th July to the 12th – I hope the current heatwave breaks before then!
  3. We have the Council Meeting on 16th July.
  4. There is the Conservation and Heritage Advisory Body on the 17th and the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on the 23rd.

Did you know?

Last month I asked, if anyone recognised this corner? And what is there now? Only one of you tried but I am afraid she got it wrong.

Note the 1960s cars (and the almost empty streets!); but the give aways are the lift shafts sticking up alongside the cranes on the construction site of the Doddington Estate. This corner at the junction of Queenstown and Battersea Park Roads was completely cleared, a new left-turn lane added to the junction and the pavement widened. Immediately next to the corner is Turpin House, which is the end block of the Dodd(ington).
 
And this month?

Here’s a nice, easy one for any one with their eyes open as they travel around. How many pubs are there in Battersea named after members of the British aristocracy? And where are they located?

June 8, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, June 2025, Newsletter (# 192)

  1. 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?
  2. 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!
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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!
  8. 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

  1. I will be at the Doddington Garden Party on the 7th.
  2. 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.
  3. The June meeting of the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) is on the 26th.
  4. 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?

May 2, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, May 2025, Newsletter (# 191)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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!
  10. 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

  1. I have my surgery in Battersea Park Library on 3rd May at 11 am.
  2. The Conservation and Heritage Advisory Committee meets on 6th May
  3. I hope to go to the Ethelburga Tower Residents Association AGM on the 15th.
  4. The May meeting of the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) is on the 20th.
  5. 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?

April 9, 2025  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea, April 2025, Newsletter (# 190)

  1. The Council Meeting on 5th March confirmed the long-discussed Council Tax freeze, already agreed at Committee level. The somewhat academic discussion centred on when a freeze is a freeze and when it is not. I doubt whether the public is as interested in the finer points of the argument as leading councillors are. What I am sure residents are interested in is that Wandsworth is now the only Council in the country where the standard Band D Council Tax (the gold standard) is below £1,000 a year, only just perhaps but definitely below £1,000.
  2. On the 6th March, I attended the North-East Surrey Crematorium Board’s quarterly meeting at Sutton Town Hall. The main discussion this quarter was whether we should spend potentially £1/4 million on providing separate pedestrian access along the main access to the Crematorium. I do not think that the clash between car traffic and pedestrians is a major feature of cemetery concerns in the UK today – see picture! For aesthetic as well as for financial reasons, I was opposed – a real Clochmerle story if ever there was one. (If you haven’t heard of Clochmerle, then let me tell you it was a comedy novel about French rural small-town politics by a man called Gabriel Chevallier, which centred on the location of the town’s proposed new public lavatories. It’s an amusing read, and I am rather afraid that I might be at the centre of a similar story!)
  3. Off to the Renaissance Hotel, St. Pancras, on 14th March for the very classy launch of Penny’s latest (of six) book, called Time-Space We are all in it together. (She says that it has to be Time-Space and not Space-Time because that would be a physicist’s book and not a historian’s!) The picture is of me introducing the author to the audience, which, although not obvious from this scene, was over 100 strong. It was a great evening, enjoyed by all.
  4. On the 21st March, I joined our MP, Marsha de Cordova, and the local police team on a walk-about on the Doddington Estate. The main focus of our concerns were drug-dealing criminals, but we were also concerned about fly-tipping and problems with damp and mould. Marsha is really good at these walk-about events; chatty, welcoming and friendly to all passersby. We left having plenty of practical issues to follow up.
  5. On the morning of the 24th March, the members of the Planning Applications Committee went for a site visit to the Wandsworth Gasworks site. It is a large, derelict, noxious, industrial ruin of a site, covered with gas pipes, concrete, scrap metal and the detritus of a century of heavy industry. The water in the picture is NOT the Wandle but the drowned, very deep, very large foundations of the old gasometer.
  6. And two days later on the 26th, I chaired (pictured centre, along with Nick Calder, the head of planning development and the clerk) the Planning Applications Committee, where the main decision to resolve was the application for the development of the Gasworks site. The choice we were presented with was to accept the current application or leave the site as it is now and wait for some hypothetical future application, which would need to be as viable in financial terms as the current application, but also better in policy terms. Better in policy terms would, in reality, have to mean more than 40% affordable housing and/or less than 29 storeys of height. But we are where we are with a dangerous, toxic, empty, under-used site so we accepted the application by 6 votes to 3. One possible beneficiary of a much-improved site was this heron spotted in the Wandle Estuary foreshore.
  7. Between these two occasions, on the 25th, I had the Conservation and Heritage Advisory Committee largely uneventful and business-like. And then on the 29th Penny and I decided to have a day in Weymouth. For those, who don’t know the town, it is well worth a day return from Clapham Junction, with a delightful harbour, a really, great very long, sandy beach, good very British food next to the harbour – my fisherman’s pie was terrific – if it had been a hundred miles away in Normandy/Brittany we’d have been raving about French cuisine!
  8. The Borough’s March highlights:
    • In the last year, Wandsworth has recycled an extra 5,000 tons – the equivalent weight of 400 double-decker buses.
    • The next phase of the Cleaner Borough Plan starts soon, including additional bins in town centres, jet washing and more regular sweeping of high streets, as well as clearing fly-tips on private land not owned by the council.
    • Wandsworth has the biggest bike hangar programme of any local authority in London. Residents told us that more safe storage would make it easier for them to cycle, so we’re installing another 120 hangars around the borough, taking the total to almost 350. 
    • Wandsworth has helped secure thousands of pounds in Attendance Allowance through our campaign to sign up eligible residents. This benefit, for pension-age residents who need regular support, is not provided automatically by the government, so we’ve used data from the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) platform to target a campaign at those who should benefit. Since the start of our campaign, £230,000 has been put in their pockets, and they will be set to receive an extra £1.5m over the lifetime of the claims. We will also investigate ways to support disabled residents who may be impacted by proposed reductions in their support

My April Programme

  1. On the 3rd April, we are off on Eurostar to Brussels, Cologne and Essen, Germamy, for a history conference, where Penny is giving the Keynote speech and we will be staying for three days. We will take the opportunity to visit Cologne Cathedral, one of the great European cathedrals and which neither of us has previously visited.
  2. I have the Wandsworth Town Together event on the 11th. I have not been to this before,but it looks like a great celebration of the Borough’s youth.
  3. The April meeting of the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) is on the 24th.
  4. The official launch of the Wandsworth Borough of Culture Year takes place with the Strictly Wandsworth event in Battersea Park on 26th April.

Did you know?

Last month I asked, “Do you know where Leo lives and why did he settle there?”

I am afraid that you clearly were not very interested but Roy did point out quite correctly that I had asked that once before and the answer is simply Macduff Road, off Battersea Park Road, but neither of us knows exactly who put him there or why.

And this month?

So, ok it’s a wall. It is not a Roman wall or a last remaining Medieval London wall? But what is unique about this particular wall? And where is it? And why? And what is it called?  

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