1. On the 1st April, we went to St. Anne’s Church to hear a brilliant choral concert given by the SouthWest London Choral Society. Where we met old friend and Council colleague Rex Osborn and his wife Kim, who is a member of the choir, along with Su Callaghan, wife of another old friend, Chris. The concert featured religious works by Dvořák, and others, but, in particular, by Martin Everett, who is seen here conducting the concert (standing left). The church itself was one of the so-called Waterloo Churches built soon after the great battle (in this case 1822) in celebration of Britain’s victory over Napoleon. I prefer the interior of the church to the exterior, which I find a little austere.

2. On the 3rd April, I visited the Wimbledon Park Rifle Club, which would have been lost, if the site had been approved for use as a day nursery – but see para 13 below. I was surprised at how small these 50, and 100, yard targets actually are, as indeed is the range tucked in, as it is, with assorted small allotments between the District line and a row of back gardens.

3. On the 5th I was back at St. George’s having a procedure – what Putin might have called a ‘special medical operation’, but I must confess a lot less painful. It did, however, take several days of mental pain and digital anguish before my heart was successfully linked to some sovereign heart-checker in the sky – well, at St. George’s! The capsule inserted into me is about an inch and a half long, and a bit smaller in diameter than the average biro, but the nurse tells me that it costs the NHS £4,000 a time. The new-fangled, ‘permanently-on’ piece of kit, started its nightly broadcast of my heart-beats on 11th April – older people (and kids) do cost the NHS a lot.

4. Off to Chichester and the Goodwood Hotel for Easter. Chichester is a very pleasant, touristy spot for a quiet stroll around town and its beautiful Cathedral. It has this magnificent fifteenth-century cross in the heart of the city, with the four roads converging on it, conveniently called North, East, South and West Streets. It also has a very good lunch pub just down South Street, near the centre of town. The Goodwood Hotel is a great place for recreational swimming (and it’s got a great jacuzzi), eating and walking under bright, sunny skies, in the beautiful West Sussex countryside.

5. I was due to have a management meeting about the Randall Close development in the week beginning 10th April, but we cancelled it as things were going so well on site. Then, of course, Murphy’s Law kicked in with first a power line being cut by foundation works and then, just as that was repaired, a water pipe was cut! The fact of the matter is that there really is no such thing as a comprehensive map of underground London. Hill, the builders, and Wandsworth Council, and I as a councillor, can only apologise for the inconvenience, first of no power for some and then no water for other residents. Thankfully the disruption was brief and hopefully the works will be completed without further upsets.

6. On the 12th April, I was doing some deliveries in Brynmaer, Warriner and Lurline Gardens and so had some time to study the new cycle contraflow scheme, which has caused so much angst amongst some residents. I was probably in these three roads for about an hour, but I did not see one bicycle, or any sign of traffic confusion. Admittedly, it was a quiet Easter weekday, but I hope that it is a harbinger for further incident-free days.

7. The Wandsworth Mayor’s Charity Quiz Night was on 20th April but I am afraid that my team (I guess I ought to call it the Mayoral Team rather than mine) did not win. I did, however, have the pleasure of competing with the Blingiest team in the competition. As you can see here, the bling, in the form of the mayoral chains of office, was provided by Wandsworth’s Mayor, Jeremy Ambache, and his special guest the Mayor of Lambeth.

8. On the 21st April I went to the Quaker Socialist Society (no I hadn’t heard of it either) to hear Rupert Read give the Salter lecture on “The Horrible, Wonderful Truth about Climate Change”. One could hardly say it was a warning about the dire consequences of climate change but rather a presumption that we will inevitably face, in the next few decades, not only heatwaves and floods, but famines and mass migrations. Read’s “wonderful” truth came from his faith, that a new generation will have learned positive lessons from the coming dreadful times, in which we are soon going to be immersed. Wow! After the lecture, we plunged into Chinatown for a bit of peaceful relaxation! The red paper lanterns strung across the road, originally for the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit, added to the festive spirit.

9. On 22nd April we went to the Ritzy, Brixton, to see Rye Lane. It’s the first time that we have been to the pictures for … well this year anyway. I was attracted by the title – a reference to Peckham Rye, though it seemed mainly about Brixton as far as I could tell. It was a RomCom with the main protagonists both Afro-Caribbean British Londoners; it was sassy, sexy, witty, inventively directed and shot and acted, written, and concocted by people with very little big film experience – perhaps they were all recent students. It was great fun and highly to be recommended. Do go and see it, if you get a chance – apparently it is also on the Disney Channel on May 3

10. On the 23rd April we went to an Exhibition of Georgian fashion and dress in Buckingham Palace, Queen’s Gallery. This was perhaps more Pen’s ‘thing’ than mine but, as it happens, I found it more interesting than she did – I think she knew it all anyway. There were, of course, the somewhat ridiculous formal court styles, but there were also some interesting examples of underwear, though boringly more of the top than the bottom half – why do exhibitions always shy away from the details that fascinate us most! My favourite picture though was of an aging roué being helped into the latest fashion in, as the picture’s caption says, of “Elastic Breeches”. He was visiting his tailor, who was a merry, portly-looking lady, and her two assistants, who were providing the muscle. The breeches were made of ram’s skin, which shrank into shape on first wearing. Kind of reminds me of fellow students, many years ago, lying in the bath in blue jeans and shrinking them to shape!

11. No doubt everyone recognises 23rd April as Shakespeare’s birthday and St. George’s Day, but this year it was also notably the London Marathon Day. After we left the gallery , we watched some of the Marathon, seen from above in this picture, and walked round St. James Park, where the pelicans were very relaxed about being the centre of massive attention and the flower beds were truly spectacular. All three were worthy of pictorial record, I thought.

12. I guess that I should add that at 3.23, whilst watching the Marathon, I googled scores in the Premier League and the score came through Newcastle United 5 Spurs 0. What a disaster! Being smashed – after 23 minutes – by yet another Premiership club, owned by a foreign country prepared to put limitless money behind a Premiership football team; first Chelsea funded by a Russian plutocrat friend of Putin’s, then Manchester City, now Newcastle United owned by Saudi Arabia. OK, Spurs is owned by big money, but at least it is our money and, as far as I know, reasonably cleanly earned. I don’t think that this “Big Money” can be good for the national game in the long run – or is it just that at the top level my team is just not quite getting there?

13. On the 25th April, I had the Planning Applications Committee. What a small techno-nightmare! The IT did not work smoothly and effectively. But I hope I managed the Committee reasonably well in the circumstances. Only one of this month’s applications related to Battersea and that was about the Arding & Hobbs building, and even that was about details that very few will ever notice. Incidentally, by the time you read this, the scaffolding may well be down and the handsome building looking as good as new. In the next six months new tenants will be moving in and the Arding & Hobbs building, will be alive again. Oh, and the Committee decided to reject the nursery application referred to in para 2 above and hence the rifle club was saved.

14. Finally, I had this dreadful dream last month that I lived in a great country, which had, in 1946 invented a truly remarkable National Health Service, like no other in the world. But in the last few years, this country had treated its doctors and nurses so badly that many are leaving to live in places like Australia, NZ and Canada. And so, the NHS recruited staff from poor countries like Sudan, who could not afford to keep their trained medical staff. And then, when some of these NHS staff were visiting their parents in Khartoum, civil war broke out. They tried to return to their jobs in the NHS, wishing to bring with them their aging parents, but discovered that they were not welcome back into this previously great country. The great country was, by the way, desperately short of medical staff. Can one ever forgive a political party for governing the country so badly that one feels ashamed?

My programme for May

1. My street’s Coronation Party on 7th May.
2. Yet another ‘special medical operation’ at St. George’s followed by the Conservation Committee on 9th May.
3. The 07 Club Dinner on 11th May; the 07 is a reference to 1907 when officers of the then London County Council started a club which now includes ‘civil servants’ from many branches of London local government.
4. On the 12th May I will be at the blue plaque ceremony at the Shrubbery, Lavender Gardens, commemorating Marie Sparteli, a pre-Raphaelite painter and artists’ model, who was born in this grand Georgian house.
5. On the 15th May, I have a meeting of Battersea United Charities.
6. We have ‘training’ for members of the Finance Committee on 16th.
7. On the 23rd May I have the Planning Applications Committee.
8. And on the 24th-28th May, I am off to Geneva to accompany Penny at her penultimate Executive meeting as President of the International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies.

Did you Know?
Last month, I asked, ‘Who were the three sisters and what was their unique nominal connection to Battersea?’ and I was amazed by the number of you who knew the answer and responded within 24 hours.

First off the mark was JP, who correctly and comprehensively, replied that, ‘The three sisters were not actually sisters at all, but the mother (Ursula), the shared name of first wife and daughter (Edna), and the name of second wife (Octavia) of Victorian solicitor Edward Pain, whose West Country family had acquired the land, knocked down Tower Lodge and sold the site for development. And not a single affordable/social house in sight – plus ca change?’

What he did not add, although, I think he knew, was that ‘the three sisters’ is hence the name popularly and incorrectly given to the conservation area containing those streets in North Battersea. One correct answer came, by the way, from ex-Tory councillor Roger Bird (1998-2006), who bet that I would not mention that it was, he claimed, his idea to give the area that name. I win the bet, Roger, but I really don’t believe that it was your suggestion!

And this month?

Which social reformer lived in Battersea; has a block on a Council estate in Battersea named after him; and made a great speech against slave trade in the House of Commons, ending with the ringing words: ‘You may say that you didn’t know. Well, you know now!’

1. After my late January mini-stroke, it was no surprise that I spent half of March either in St. George’s Hospital or on the 219 bus from Clapham Junction to Tooting High Street. Unfortunately, either due to my own incompetence or NHS bureaucratic complexities, a fair proportion of my time was wasted. On the positive side, my vision seems to have improved a bit since then, but it still has some way to go.

2. ---

   On the 3^rd March we booked Clapham Junction’s Waterstone’s for a launch of Penny’s book The Georgians, The Deeds and Misdeeds of Eighteenth Century Britain – it had prime spot in the window. Some 50 or so local friends and neighbours attended. A fortnight later, on 17^th March, the book had a second launch, in Samuel Johnson’s untouched 18^th century house – a stone’s throw from the Strand. This second launch was largely attended by University friends, mainly from London but also from Edinburgh, Paris and New York. Pen had given me some nonsense about not making a speech on either occasion; but, after I introduced her, she enjoyed spouting, as much as ever, about writing the book and about Johnson’s house (not forgetting Hodge the cat, who, in this picture, has the prime spot overlooking Gough Square).

3. ---

   I had the Finance Committee on 1^st March and the full Council Meeting on March 8^th. The main business of the Committee was the detailed and essentially very important but boring business of confirming the details of the Council Tax, which was finally agreed at the Council meeting. There were some very good speeches during the debate in the Council Meeting itself, but they did not have a great deal of gripping or dramatic content. I tried, in my own fashion, to liven things up and make the event slightly more challenging to the viewing public – if there were any. You can make your own judgement by viewing the debate at – https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=296&MId=8791&Ver=4

4. ---

   On the 11^th March, I took part in a public commission on air quality in Wandsworth, which was held at Battersea Arts Centre. This meeting was a fascinating innovation introduced by the new Labour Wandsworth Council, under the lead of Cabinet member Councillor Judi Gasser. I was there only as a silent observer. The people invited to participate in the commission had been chosen at random and were intended to be as representative of Wandsworth residents as possible. It will be fascinating to see what the Commission’s final recommendations will be. At a time when there is so much concern, and even anger, about such policy initiatives as the Mayor’s ULEZ expansion, this commission is indeed timely. Judi is seen here, standing mid-right during a tea break.

5. ---

   I paid quick visit to the Randall Close site, on the Surrey Lane Estate, on March 13^th. I am sure that many will have noticed the colourful new hoarding on Battersea Bridge Road, pictured here and masking the building site of the first of our 1,000 new Council homes that the Labour Council promised the Borough in last May’s election. The building company Hill (strapline ‘Creating Communities’) appears, to this lay observer, to be doing an excellent job in keeping the noise and nuisance, inevitably associated with large-scale building works, to a minimum; and hopefully, the end result will reflect their efforts and their competence.

   ---

6. I had the Planning Applications Committee on March 23^rd. There were not many applications and not very large, or indeed very significant, for Battersea. But they were interesting and posed some fascinating questions. For example, there were two applications for new piers on the Thames at Putney, right next to and complementing the pier that can be seen on TV at the start of the Boat Race. Committee members were eager to get the two applicants to get together and work collectively for the good of all – but, unfortunately, that is not our role. We are there purely to judge the applications that private individuals, companies, public utilities and/or any other operations put before us; not to act as development facilitators, nor to negotiate deals. We can only hope that the developers listen to the debate and review their applications in the light of any comments we make.

7. ---

   One of the applications, in Spencer Walk in Putney, interestingly had two Tory ward councillors arguing against each other, with a third Labour councillor asking what they thought of each other’s arguments. Another application provoked opposition, but largely about the current operation on the site and not about the planning implications of the new application. It was an interesting evening.

8. ---

   On March 29^th the CAB (Citizen’s Advice Bureau) hosted a reception at the PCS building at Clapham Junction (that is the office building immediately behind the Falcon pub on the main crossroads). This event was a get-together with many, perhaps most, of the organisations coping with both the pandemic and the current cost-of-living crisis. We heard of the problems faced by the Foodbanks, sadly so much needed currently, by children’s charities and by charities concerned for the elderly and many other disadvantaged groups. It was a large and vibrant gathering of many of the Borough’s most important charities– what people mean by ‘positive networking’.

9. ---

   Towards the end of the month, the issue most dominating my in-tray was the cycle contra-flow plan for Brynmaer Road, and Warriner and Lurline Gardens, which together are a parallel route between Prince of Wales Drive and Battersea Park Road. The new scheme comes into operation on 3^rd April and, if the worst fears of its opponents are realised, the £11,000 cost of the scheme may result in increased danger for cyclists, increased vandalism, damage to cars and traffic dislocation. I have said that this outcome has not been my experience of other similar schemes in Battersea, notably in Chivalry and Candahar Roads. Indeed, on the basis of my experience, the impact on both roads has been much less dramatic than either opponents or supporters had feared or hoped.

My programme for April

1. The month starts at St. Ann’s Church, on 1^st April, with a choral concert given by the SouthWest London Choral Society.
2. I am visiting the Wimbledon Park Rifle Club on the morning of 3^rd
3. On the 5^th April, I am having a ‘procedure’ at St. George’s Hospital, but right now I am not even sure what it is – I think I was a bit dopey with medical drugs when I must have agreed it. I am sure that ‘the medics’ are doing their best for me, but I need to do a bit of checking first!
4. On 7-9^th April I (we) look forward to spending a couple of days lounging and swimming at the Goodwood Hotel.
5. On the 15^th April, we have lunch with friend, Sarah Langton, at her fantastic Thames-side bungalow – hope that the weather is good.
6. I will be going to the Mayor’s Charity Quiz Night on 20^th
7. On 23^rd April, we have tickets for the exhibition ‘Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians’ at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
8. The Planning Applications Committee is on April 25^th.

Did you Know?

Born in Teddington, lived in Battersea, Clapham and Brixton, but sought and found fame in the West End and Hollywood. He wrote a ditty about people who lived in Battersea Rise for a war-time review, which uses names for our war-time enemies, which would not be acceptable today. Intensely patriotic, in a very sentimental way: who was he? And special praise from me, if anyone can pin down the addresses he lived in, in Battersea and Clapham (which I suspect was, actually, Clapham Junction). Slightly to my surprise far more of you knew that this was Noel Coward than apparently knew last month’s answer was Frank Bruno.

And this month?

Who were the three sisters and what was their unique nominal connection to Battersea?

1. Naturally, after my mini-stroke on 28^th January, February started relatively quietly, if three days in hospital can ever be described as quiet. I am sure that you all know what I mean. If it’s not someone taking your temperature, or asking about today’s bowel movements, someone else is being moved in alongside you, or being discharged to ‘another place’. Funny how close relationships are struck up with people, who for a very brief period you know more intimately than even their partners do. Yet you will never meet them again, and don’t even know their full names – it’s the stuff of a Harold Pinter play. But I must note the many good wishes I got from so many of you. Thanks; they were much appreciated. Oh, and about the patient? On the way to recovery, thanks to the NHS, but still a little restricted in my vision, especially with the left eye.
   

   ---

2. Last month I said that I would review The Best of Enemies. I am afraid that promise got lost in the wash of events – suffice to say, that it was a fascinating play written by an Englishman, James Graham. The play is about the modern culture wars between left and right in the States, and the role of the media in those wars. With these battles so dramatically tearing up the political scene in the USA – and with developments in the Ukraine, as they are, could anything be more gripping?
   

   ---

3.  I did, however, get discharged from St. George’s in time to go to the funeral of an old friend, Piers Haggard. Piers had worked in film and theatre, most notably directing the BBC drama series Pennies From Heaven written by Dennis Potter and starring Bob Hoskins (1978). But, in reality, Piers’ fame in the industry, as I discovered from the stories and anecdotes of friends, was as an effective de facto shop steward for British film directors. From a personal point of view, I would add, he was a man of great charm and wildly attractive. He is much missed – RIP.
   

   ---

4. On the 23^rd February, I took part in a ‘Peer Review’ of Wandsworth Council, organised by one of the local authority organisations. The purpose of the review is to have outsiders (in our case, for example, the Mayor of another London Borough and a Chief Executive, were part of the team) giving a high-level overview of the Council’s operation. I found it fascinating – just how useful as well as interesting, we will discover this month or next, when the recommendations are published.
   

   ---

5. On the 23^rd February, I had the Planning Applications Committee. As I noted last month, large applications have for the moment dried up, but there were a couple of medium-sized Council-led developments for council housing, though neither in Battersea. By far the most important in Battersea was an application for a development in Ingate Place, which should result in creating some 500 jobs. However, except for those intimately involved, I rather suspect most people will barely notice the new development. Ingate Place is surrounded by railway lines, running on embankments as high as a three-storey house, and by busy Queenstown Road.
   

   ---

6. And that was February, except that the Labour Group took a decision on what to recommend to the Council as next year’s Council Tax, but of that more next month.
   

   ---

7. And finally, and at long, long last we had positive news about the future for St. Marks Vestry Infant school, on Battersea Rise. The school was built in 1866/67 to cater for the rapidly growing population of Battersea, and just four years before the 1870 Education Act, which made primary education free, universal and compulsory throughout the country. I am also pleased to say that I moved, and the Council accepted, that the school be locally listed at a Planning Committee, in either the 1980s or 1990s. I hope to say more about the school and its future next month.
   

   ---

My programme for March

1. The month started with the, 1^st March, Finance Committee.
2. On the 6^th March, I have an in-depth Design Review Panel on a major development in Lombard Road.
3. I will be off to Sutton on 7^th March for an exciting meeting of the North-East Surrey Crematorium Board – in fact as decorous and sober as you would deem appropriate. But someone’s got to do it!
4. On the 8^th there is a Council Meeting, which will finally confirm our decision to freeze this year’s Council Tax level.
5. The following day, 9^th March, I have my first-ever meeting of the so-called Planning Policy Forum. It is a meeting between the Planning Chair and the various community groups with an active involvement in planning issues, such as the Battersea Society and the Clapham Junction Action Group, to discuss planning policy developments and issues. I have never been before because way back in 1978 (when Labour was last in control of the Council) it did not exist AND because only the controlling party (now Labour) speaker is invited.
6. The Planning Applications Committee is on March 21^st.
7. And to round the month off, I have the Conservation Advisory Committee on 28^th March, where amongst other things we will be discussing the precise details of the future of the Vestry school (see para 6 above).

Did you Know?

Last month, I asked who was the famous Wandsworth born-and-bred athlete who starred in the Council’s recent (October) celebrations of Black History Month? It was, of course, Frank Bruno, British and World Heavyweight Champion in 1990s. Frank famously fought and lost to Mike Tyson (USA) for the world championship. Frank famously had a very powerful punch, hence the very high proportion of bouts he won by a knock-out. Overwhelmingly, Bruno, also a popular TV personality, gave the impression of being a really nice guy with a sense of humour – not a bruiser and fighter like Tyson.

And this month?

Born in Teddington, lived in Battersea, Clapham and Brixton, but sought and found fame in the West End and Hollywood. He wrote a ditty about people who lived in Battersea Rise for a war-time review, which uses names for our war-time enemies, which would not be acceptable today. Intensely patriotic, in a very sentimental way: who was he? And special praise from me, if anyone can pin down the addresses he lived in, in Battersea and Clapham (which I suspect was actually Clapham Junction).

1. Continuing with the Xmas spirit, I went to the Battersea Society’s Xmas dinner on Twelfth Night. The evening is a very traditional occasion and a good chance to meet old and new friends, but, if I may say so, to those old friends in the Battersea Society, the format needs to change a bit. There were some new people there this year, which was great, but insufficient. The format needs to be refreshed just a bit – or those new people might not come again!

2. That was, of course, on the 6^th January, and the next day we were off to Westcliff-on-Sea to see the Saturday matinée performance of The Nutcracker ballet. The Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea, is magnificent; it seats a 600+ audience and it has a large orchestra pit as can be seen here. The troupe was from Bulgaria and the dancers were of the highest quality but the direction, alas, was wooden and, despite the appearance from this rather poor picture, neither the lighting nor the staging were, however, up to the quality of the dancing.
   

   ---

3. The next morning, the Thames estuary at Southend was grand, almost Dickensian, and forbiddingly chilling – one could almost hear Magwitch’s chains rattling. It was a tranquil ending to a pleasant, overnight stay for a family get-together.
   

   ---

4. On the 13^th January, I went to Roehampton Gate, Richmond Park, to discuss with a Royal Parks team their plans for opening a pedestrian gate into the Park from Roehampton’s giant Alton Estate. It would be a fantastic bonus for residents of the estate to get direct access into the Park, and it has been an ambition for many years – hopefully, it will happen shortly! Whilst there I came across this temple, hidden in a “no man’s land”, between the estate and the Park – quite a sight! The picture is, as it is, as I took it through a gap in the heavy-duty fencing around the temple to counter vandalism – what a shame.
   

   ---

5. Mid-January and back to business. It’s now been eight months since Labour took control of Wandsworth and January is, in any case, a traditional time to take stock. It is the 13^th time I have been at this stage of a Council but for half of my colleagues, it was their first, perhaps daunting, time. On the whole they have been brilliant and energetic – a video of their so-called ‘maiden’ Council speeches would be quite impressive. Moreover, Simon Hogg, the Labour Leader, has taken the opportunity to do precisely that – lead. What have we achieved? Such a lot – I suggest searching Simon Hogg on Google for access to our response to the pandemic; our climate initiatives; our new homes programmes, etc. It is quite a change, after 44 years in opposition, to be one of a group of councillors enthusiastically and positively in control.
   

   ---

6. On the 19^th January, I had the Planning Applications Committee to chair. It was an interesting occasion, for a couple of reasons: one being that large planning applications are becoming almost but not quite as rare as hen’s teeth – no doubt thanks to the nation’s financial situation: but the second reason was that there were a couple of applications, which were in effect retrospective – the developers had already done the work, prior to getting permission. There is almost nothing that a Planning Committee hates more than that, but in itself, the fact that an application is retrospective is not, in law, sufficient grounds for refusal. There were, however, grounds to refuse and that is what the committee decided to do. It will be interesting to see what happens next. In theory, the developers will have to appeal and/or the Council will have to pass an enforcement notice to have the existing buildings amended or demolished – as I said – interesting.
   

   ---

7. I had the Finance Committee on the 25^th An old friend rang me, to say nice things about what I had to say that night so, just before I wrote this newsletter, I watched the webcast of the Committee. I had forgotten after only one week, how much I had relished an exchange about the definition of equality between right-wing Tory councillor Peter Graham and myself. He was proud of being content with equality of opportunity and antagonistic about any form of equality of outcome. He obviously had never heard that “freedom for the pike is death to the minnows” – Christian socialist R. H. Tawney’s famous aphorism about equality and freedom. The webcast can be seen at https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=766&MId=8852&Ver=4
   

   ---

8. And then on Saturday, 28^th January, life took an interestingly new turn. It was not that Spurs won 3-0 away from home, in a televised match; it was not that Heung-Min Son scored twice, once brilliantly; it wasn’t even that in this season, under Conte, that was rare enough. No! But it was because, half an hour later as I settled in to watch, hopefully, ManU lose to Reading (they actually won 3:1), I quite suddenly couldn’t see the TV – or at least not properly.
   

   ---

9. Twelve hours later, I was in George’s Hospital, having had a “minor” (for some but hardly for me) stroke. Painless, but paining; of little consequence, but terribly consequential; two days later, I was back home and recovering, after 48 hours in what also suddenly became a Covid-isolation ward – a fellow patient was discovered to have it although thankfully I have been cleared. So far, so good, but I will say more next month. Meanwhile, I will need to recuperate and reflect.
   

   ---

My programme for February

1. In these new circumstances, who knows exactly but maybe:-
2. The month starts with the, 1^st February, Transport Committee.
3. On 3^rd February we are going to the Coward Theatre to see The Best of Enemies, of which more next month, by when it will have closed. Meanwhile, if you are interested in the theatre, and in politics and, in US politics in particular, then book to see it NOW.
4. On the 6^th January, I have an in-depth Design Review Panel on a major development in Lombard Road.
5. On the 8^th there is a Council Meeting, outlining the background to what will be the decision on this year’s Council Tax level – but it is all background statistics and is NOT the real decision, which will be taken on March 1^st.
6. The Planning Applications Committee is on February 23^rd.
   

   ---

Did you Know?

Last month, I asked what suburb was memorialised by a spoof Peter Sellers sketch, and who were his companions in this photograph.. Many of you, especially those who live in SW 14, knew that Sellers’ catch-phrase was “Bal-ham, Gateway to the South”, His colleagues in the picture were on the left Spike Milligan and on the right Harry Secombe.

And this month?

Can you name the famous Wandsworth born-and-bred athlete who starred in the Council’s recent (October) celebrations of Black History Month?

1. Got to admit that after the quiet Xmas’s of the Covid years, this December was more than usually festive, with many having their first big Xmas festivities since 2019. But I am sure that you don’t want to hear about my soccer club dinner; or my old college mates’ lunch-time drink; or my several neighbourhood Xmas drinks; or even the Labour Group Xmas dinner, which after our election victory was the largest for at least 40 years! However, NYE was worth a mention – mainly because of the great food and company we enjoyed, but also because there was a spectacular and comfortable view of the fireworks. Can you guess from the picture where, in Battersea, this party was?

2. I had the Finance Committee on the 1^st December, but that was largely procedural and, whilst important, not newsworthy. As indeed was the Planning Applications Committee on the 15^th, although some might be sorry that we gave permission for a building conversion in Old York Road, which might spell the end for the Ducati dealership even if it does substantially improve the shop frontage in the road. I also had the North-East Surrey Crematorium Board in Sutton Town Hall on the morning of 6^th December, when we had, sensationally and for the first time in my memory, a vote – unfortunately I have forgotten about what!
   

   ---

3. There was a very pleasant and friendly Northcote ward Labour Party Social on the 3^rd, which would not normally be worth a mention other than it marked the first time Battersea Labour Party tried and succeeded to organise itself on the “new” ward boundaries – well for the first time as far as I was concerned.
   

   ---

4. I went to the Ethelburga Residents Association’s (ERA) Annual General Meeting on the 7^th and was encouraged to see that the Association is flourishing, under the dynamic leadership given to it by the Chair and the Secretary.
   

   ---

5. The Battersea Society’s Xmas social, on the 8^th, was enlivened by a dynamic performance from the Battersea Power Station’s community choir, guided by an inspirational leader, shown here, with the choir in St. Mary’s Church. Both this occasion, and the ERA meeting the day before, illustrated, as though it needed to be demonstrated – the power of good leadership!
   

   ---

6. On the 10^th, I played chess for Surrey against Kent and, for the second month running, rather annoyingly I lost with the white pieces against a Sicilian Defence – that’s pretty basic stuff but the only compensation was that my opponent was graded 200 points above me in the national classification system. I was much better when I, some years ago now, played at school!
   

   ---

7. Battersea’s MP, Marsha de Cordova, hosted her Xmas social for party members in the House of Commons on 12^th. The get-together was as great as usual but getting into the Commons through “the security” is nowadays pretty much as tedious as catching a plane! Though Westminster Great Hall, pictured here, and the only genuinely ancient part of the Palace of Westminster is always worth a visit. It was originally built in 1097-99 and remodelled to some degree 300 years later but it was NOT destroyed in the great fire of 1834, which destroyed most of the rest of the Palace.
   

   ---

8. That was the night of the snow. It is so rare nowadays in London to get such snowfall and the magnificent silence that accompanies it. The sound of silence woke me up at just gone 3 am on the 13^th December and I could not resist the light – So, I recorded the moment in this picture.
   

   ---

9. On the 14^th December we had a Council Meeting. They are rather like hen’s teeth these days. I can remember years when we had 10 or 12 Council Meetings a year and real decisions were posed and real votes taken. But now the decisions are taken elsewhere and there are only four Council Meetings a year; and each one lasts for a maximum of two and a half hours, when a guillotine closes debate. Time was that we continued until the business was finished! What is more, we have to allow new councillors to make their maiden speeches – and there are so many new councillors that it is going to be more than a year before anyone else gets a look-in. Still, I must say that our (Labour) maiden speeches were really excellent and, although some of theirs (Tories) were not bad, ours were universally better – or that was what we unanimously agreed.
   

   ---

10. A couple of days later on 16^th December, I met Councillor Aiden Mundy, who is my equivalent on Merton Council. We had a very specific purpose to the discussion, namely to agree an approach to considering an upcoming planning application. The application will be from the All-England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and is for a major, multi-£million extension of the Wimbledon tennis campus. It is of no direct significance to Battersea itself, except that, as part of the Borough, it is worth noting that this is probably the most significant application that we, in Wandsworth, and Merton will face in the next four years. We are NOT trying to ensure that the two Boroughs necessarily make the same decision, either to approve or refuse the application, but we DO intend to hear the same story, the same facts, the same advice, the same public response, and to act as professionally as we can.
    

    ---

11. Finally, after a very, very quiet Xmas day spent on our own and doing some gardening – I really enjoy winter gardening – pruning the roses, the apple tree, and the forsythia; breaking back the fuchsia and digging out the odd weeds. On Boxing Day, we went to Winchester for a brief stay with family. None of which I might have mentioned except that, on our walk the next morning, we came across this wild (?) pony in the Hampshire woods. Isn’t she a definition of adorable? Or am I getting sentimental in my mature years?
    

    ---

My programme for January

1. I have the Battersea Society’s annual Twelfth Night dinner on 6^th.
2. I am going to see the Nutcracker ballet in Southend-on-Sea on the 8^th.
3. I have the Battersea Labour Party EC on the 10^th and a Labour Group on the 12^th.
4. A briefing on plans for Richmond Park’s Roehampton Gate on 13^th.^.
5. The Planning Applications Committee is on January 19^th.
6. The Finance Committee on the 25^th.
7. The Wandsworth Conservation Area Committee on the 31^st.
   

   ---

Did you Know?

Last month, I asked whether you knew what this briefly famous Battersea landmark was, and the names of the two blocks of flats which nowadays have taken its place? Not many of you replied, but those who did uniformly and correctly said that it was Albert Palace, a very large but short-lived Exhibition Centre, open only from 1885-88. It was a kind of pastiche of the great 1851 Exhibition’s Crystal Palace. The two blocks of flats, now on the site, are appropriately enough Albert Palace Mansions and Prince of Wales Mansions.

And this month?

 Peter Sellers, then a key part of the Goon Show, once made up a verse and a song where he sang the praises of a suburb as the “portal to Worthing and Littlehampton” and thus immortalised one part of the Borough. Do you know which suburb and what actual phrase he used? In this picture from the last Goon Show, Sellers is in the centre. Surely everyone knows, also, who were his two colleagues?

Errata: Last month enthusiastic readers noted a couple of errors. Thanks to all for correcting me. The most significant was a comment that whilst X agreed with my assessment of the film, Living, she wished to nit-pick (her word) about Kasuo Ishiguro’s nationality? She went on to say, “Although he was born in Japan, he is a British writer – having been here since he was five and has had British citizenship for some 40 years”. I stand corrected!

1. I did not get to the Civic Awards on 2nd November – probably the first I had missed for 20 years; just as I missed the Battersea Park Fireworks for the first time in years on 5th November, when instead we took some visiting Italian friends to Rules, Covent Garden’s famous very British restaurant. We had a very pleasant evening but instead of eating something truly British, from haggis to Lancashire Hotpot, our Italian friends went for Italian standards! How disappointing was that! I was also a tad disappointed in the Rules ambience, which over the years seems to be selling out a bit to the tourist trade and losing a little of its uniqueness, as London’s oldest (1798) surviving restaurant.
   

   ---

2. On the morning of 5th I held my first Council surgery since before Covid. Frankly, I think that surgeries have largely lost their point – ever since the mobile phone and the internet took over much of our communications – but a couple of people, who had issues with the Council, did turn up to discuss their problems.
   

   ---

3. On the 11th November, I attended the Remembrance Day Service in Battersea Park. Interestingly, the occasion is being honoured by more, and more people, year by year. One very notable development is the increasing involvement of schools. Here some primary school pupils are being marshalled by Mayor Jeremy Ambache, having regaled us with appropriate readings and hymns. As always, the ceremony was impressive and moving.
   

   ---

4. That evening, Penny and, I went to see Living (dir O. Hermanus, 2022) at the Clapham Picture House, starring Bill Nighy. It was a remake of a Kurosawa film, and has a script written by Japanese Kasuo Ishiguro. It was based on a Tolstoy short story about the sclerotic bureaucracy of Tsarist Russia and many of the sets were in my old workplace of 20 years, London’s County Hall. The film opens with a brilliantly re-constructed 1950s London (grey and boring – not that it ever seemed so to me) and had a brilliant performance from Bill Nighy. But although Bill Nighy was brilliant playing an exaggerated version of Bill Nighy; that in fact was what he was doing, and so he was almost acted off the screen by Aimee-Lou Wood, playing a kind, caring woman, transforming from a potential sexual target into a loving daughter figure. And frankly ‘the Greek chorus’ of London bureaucrats was just too much of a caricature to be credible. As a result, we did not that it was the great film that a couple of friends had cracked it up to be. BUT it was one of our few cinema excursions since the onset of Covid!  And as it was set in my old office, I had lots of fun placing specific shots.
   

   ---

5. Later in the month, 19th November, we took our first trip to the theatre since Covid to see The Doctor. This was Robert Icke’s 2019 adaptation of an Austrian play written in 1912 by dramatist, Arthur Schnitzler, staged at the Duke of York’s theatre after opening at the Almeida.  It was a complex, talkie piece about medical ethics, about professional pride and jealousies, and about politics and media ethics. It was also a pleasant surprise to see my old friend and Battersea Park constituent, Professor of Medical Ethics, Dr Gillon, quoted in the programme. The players, cast in a gender-blind, colour-blind fashion, were led by Juliet Stevenson.  She was simply brilliant. Both the critics and my partner also thought the direction was equally brilliant – I thought the direction very good but unsurprisingly so as the play was first and foremost cerebral. As a result, we left the theatre discussing medical and media ethics, the fickleness of public opinion and much else – no doubt as the dramatist intended.
   

   ---

6. But before then on the 12^th November, the Wandsworth Labour Group of councillors had an Away Day get-together. It wasn’t, however very far away as it was at East Hill Baptist Church, maybe 100 yards from the Town Hall. It was in one sense a standard team-building event, that many of us know from all kinds of work experience. But that didn’t stop it being useful, worthwhile and friendly. It was all day Saturday, and in the evening, I was off to Eastbourne by train – a journey by train, and engineering works, and replacement buses, and late arrivals, and getting to Eastbourne too late for dinner – and Tories tell me that private train services run better than good old British Rail!
   

   ---

8. Why Eastbourne? So that Penny and I could go on the Sunday on our annual family safari from the Birling Gap to Beachy Head. It was blowing a gale on the top of the cliffs, but nicely from west to east propelling us in the right direction. It was, despite the wind, a cracker of a day – take a look at this view of the Seven Sisters as we left the Birling Gap.
   

   ---

9. On Monday 14th November, I went, for the second time, to a meeting of Battersea Together at St. Philip’s Church, Plough Lane. Battersea Together is a coalition of voluntary agencies and groups, brought together by the Katherine Low Settlement, Providence House, Carney’s People and St. Philip’s (apologies if I have left anyone out) to work collectively and constructively throughout the current social, economic and political crisis – and hopefully beyond. It’s a fascinating experiment in community self-help and hopefully, it will produce major community benefits.
   

   ---

9. Last month I commented that work was starting on building 106 new council homes on the Surrey Lane estate; and this month I want to mention the new block 5 being built on the Winstanley Estate, which I had represented for many years prior to the boundary change in May, last. When I went away at the very end of August there was nothing there but a building site. On the 14th November, I took this picture of the new Block 5. This rate of construction marks a spectacular advance in the Labour Council’s efforts to build more council homes! Local people need good quality housing at council rent levels, instead of being exploited by rack-renting private landlords.
   

   ---

10. On Zoom, on 16th November, to hear Sue Demont of the Battersea Society giving us a lecture on Battersea Baths. Everyone will know about the current Latchmere Baths, and many will recall the battle over its predecessor’s demolition in the 1980s, but, not so many will know about the massive Olympic-pool-sized Nine Elms Baths, which stood just about where the Battersea Park Tube Station stands today. A major part of the talk was, however, devoted to the original purpose of public baths, which was, of course, to provide bathing and washing facilities before running hot-and-cold water was available to many, many homes in Battersea. As usual, Sue kept us entertained with fascinating details, as well as her instructive overall message.
    

    ---

11. The November Planning Applications Committee was held on 22nd, when there was little of general interest. Of course, planning applications always interest those involved and their immediate neighbours, but often few others. On this occasion, however, many will note with pleasure the action taken to save trees in Ransome’s Dock, by direct intervention by neighbours and council officers and by imposing Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) on the surviving two trees. In addition, it is worth noting that between 15th-29th November the Council has been hosting the public hearings about the Borough Plan, which sets the framework for future developments in the Borough both by the public and the private sector. The hearings themselves are almost unutterably boring, dry, and hard to take and I have great admiration for the representatives of the Battersea Society, who were listening with rapt attention on the half-a-dozen occasions when I poked my head through the door. However, the fact that the hearings are boring does not mean that they are unimportant – on the contrary. On the basis of these hearings, Government inspectors are now considering what will be in the ministerially approved Borough Plan.
    

    ---

12. To St. Mary’s Church on 24th to hear Penny, otherwise known as Professor Corfield, Emeritus Professor of History, giving a talk on The Georgians to mark the recent publication of her new book. The talk was as interesting as ever – as I suppose I was bound to say; but, if you want a serious, thought-provoking read and are interested in history then I recommend it. By the way, it is not the sort of book where you can find the dates of George II, but rather a discussion of eighteenth-century attitudes to politics, sex, empire, slavery, science, and religion.
    

    ---

13. The 25th was the night of the Battersea Ball – the biggest social occasion of the year, that I know of in Battersea. It is organised by the Crime Prevention Panel and raises money for events designed to keep children and youths entertained during the summer months. It was the first Ball since Covid struck and great fun for at least one table of Battersea councillors and friends – I was even told that one respectable councillor was seen dancing on the table – I missed that! The photo is of Sara Apps, on the left, and Penny; and is a Sara selfie.
    

    ---

14. On the 30th November, I attended a Design Review Panel (DRP), looking at plans for an important potential development site of approximately two-football pitch size. I cannot mention the site because the principle of the review is for interested architects and designers to comment, praise and criticise, plans from the developer’s own architect in the hope, and expectation, that the plans can be reviewed and potentially improved to the highest standards. Hence, as I am sure that you will understand, developers are not keen on exposing their plans to rigorous peer-review without some level of privacy. It is a strange experience as the councillors, who do attend are meant to keep quiet and just listen – some may find that inconceivable, but I can and did even during the three-hour meeting. I think that this is a Wandsworth-only process in the planning process and I think it is a very helpful and constructive – peer reviews usually are.
    

    ---

15. Finally, the evening of 30th November was the occasion for the Council’s investiture of Honorary Aldermen. This event takes place, usually after the Borough election, and is an opportunity to mark and respect the work, the hours, and the commitment that retiring councillors, have made. This honorary title is bestowed on councillors, who have served for at least 10 years. An old, cantankerous councillor friend of mine used to call this sort of event ‘municipal junketing’ or occasionally ‘municipal tomfoolery’. I agree with you, Bernard! What do readers think? Either way the picture is of the Honorary Aldermen of 2022, which means that as the Tories lost the election all but one of them was indeed a Tory!
    

    ---

My programme for December

1. I have the Finance Committee on the 1st December.
2. A Northcote ward Labour Party Social on the 3rd, which is not as some fold would claim a contradiction in terms but a pleasant chance for members of a new branch to meet and blend.
3. A highly sociable Festive season kind of a day on 6th with old college friends at lunch-time and with Council colleagues in the evening.
4. I am going to the Ethelburga Residents Association Annual General Meeting on the 7th.
5. The Battersea Society’s Xmas social, followed by a Labour Group meeting on the 8th.
6. I am playing chess for Surrey on 10th against Middlesex in Hammersmith.
7. The Council Meeting on 14th December, followed on 15th by the Planning Applications Committee.
8. And all that surrounds Christmas Day; but I almost definitely will be having a quiet New Year’s Eve.

Did you Know?

Last month, I asked not very helpfully, just how many of you could name and place these three cottages and name them? And the answer was that none of you knew or were prepared to say. Their official address is 52 and 54 Albert Bridge Road and they are to be found in the south-west corner of Battersea Park. Interestingly they are named Pennethorne Cottages after the principal architect of Battersea Park, James Pennethorne (1801-1871).

And this month?

Do you know what this briefly famous Battersea landmark was, and what it was, and the names of the two blocks of flats which nowadays have taken its place?

1. Having been away for most of September, one of my top priorities was to check on progress with the Council’s development of 106 new council homes on the Surrey Lane estate. I was impressed that work had started, indeed was almost completed, on re-arranging the parking space so that none would be lost – and indeed the work proceeded apace and the car parks were re-surfaced. As always though, there is a problem that has not yet been resolved – and that is the number and positions of disability parking spaces – I have a blue badge owner making her views well-known to the council staff and me – I hope we are able to solve the problem. Meanwhile, other building work seem to be proceeding well.
   

   ---

2. On 5th October I went to the Annual Meeting of the Katherine Low Settlement. In the picture the Director, Aaron Barbour, is looking on amused, it appears, by one member’s intervention. KLS and Aaron deserve a vote of thanks from many people living in the area. The Settlement has maintained most of its services during the pandemic. And indeed added a sizable, and very socially valuable, lunch club to its activities.
   

   ---

3. On the 13^th October, we went to Christine Eccles’ funeral and life celebration. Christine had been a long-time member of the Battersea Labour Party. As so often on these occasions, I wished I had known more of Christine. I am sure that I played a very insignificant role in her life, but there had been a time in the 1970s when I was Chair of Wandsworth’s Planning Committee when she was one of my severest critics, along with the late Brian Barnes and Ernest Rodker (Ernest was at the celebration). Christine was one of the guiding lights of a group that put together an “activist newspaper” called Pavement. It sold, as I remember it, for 2P a week. In those pre-PC days, its production standards were spectacularly high – not something I, and I think most LP members, thought about all of its editorial values. Why did a Labour Council, which by modern standards was quite ludicrously left-wing, get so panned from the further left? The answer, I guess, is that after a Labour victory, the expectations of some are unrealistically high.
   

   ---

4. Christine’s main passion, however, was the stage, as a critic, an actor, and a director. She was clearly very good but, for whatever complex reasons, she did not have the success that she probably deserved and for which she certainly hoped. My main exposure to her talents was in December 2011, when she directed Battersea Labour Party’s Mid-Winter Revue at the Battersea Arts Centre. Battersea Labour Party had (and has) some big stage names, of whom the best known are Prunella Scales and Timothy West; they were all involved but so were many of us amateurs, such as Will Martindale, Labour’s 2015 General Election candidate, Simon Hogg, now Leader of the Council, and me, ex-Leader of the Council. We were, of course, dreadful and, no doubt, an embarrassment to the pros – but how we improved after a couple of rehearsals with Christine in charge. Finally, we put on a great show. In a nineteenth-century complimentary phrase, she was a woman “of parts”. Christine Eccles, RIP.
   

   ---

5. You may recall that, last month, I said that the Planning Applications Committee was on October 18^th. I cancelled it; there was only one application to consider. There was no work to do! Amazingly enough, it appeared that ex-Tory Leader Councillor Ravi Govindia was intent on criticising the still newish Labour Council for this apparent STOP to construction activity in the Borough. I must have mis-understood. After 12 years of Tory (mis-)rule in the country and the Borough, he surely can’t believe that Labour has been the cause of this building hiatus, if hiatus it is. A new PM every month, Home Secretaries falling faster than the autumn leaves – the country becoming an embarrassment to many of its best patriots – how long can this continue?
   

   ---

6. His intervention does, however, give me the excuse to get back onto my favourite hobby-horse of the day! On Saturday, 22^nd October, Penny and I went on the Re-join the EU march. I guess that I must describe myself as a veteran marcher. My first was an early Aldermaston March, which took place every Easter from Aldermaston, a nuclear research station, to Westminster. It was a kind of “Rites of passage” event for many youngsters of the 50s and 60s. It took all four days of Easter and included sleeping in massive marquees in public parks; lots of amateur Bob Dylans; and not a few sexual explorations. They were fun – serious fun – I had a Welsh friend, who went back to mid-Wales during the Cuban crisis, thinking that if the apparently inevitable nuclear war did take place then he had a fighting chance of survival in the mountains of Wales and no hopes at all in London.
   

   ---

7. Then there were the Vietnam War demos, much shorter, much less fun than Aldermaston but also much larger; Penny and I were in Grosvenor 1968 when mounted police charged at us – I will always maintain that the police over-reacted – but, provocation or not, I can tell you that being charged by 4 or 5 mounted police is a very scary proposition – the noise as these heavy animals hit the ground was something else – you can get a feel for it standing by the rails at Tattenham Corner, except those are light-weight racehorses, not intent on scaring you! Fortunately, we kept our heads and simply stood behind the big trees – and horses, being sensible beasts, do not try to charge through large, mature trees.
   

   ---

8. Since then, there have been anti-Thatcher, pro-this and anti-that, marches, although the largest was the 2003 anti-Iraq war march. This one on 22^nd October was different; this was about our lives; about our freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in a continent; about our standard of living and about our futures. It was big, maybe 50,000, of all ages, friendly, very peaceful – multi-national but unfortunately not as multi-ethnic as we need it to be.
   

   ---

9. But I have passed mention of the full Council Meeting on the 19^th When, following Covid, cameras were invited into Council Meetings, all councillors knew their behaviour would have to change; members have become very conscious of just how public their behaviour has become. Perhaps, even more significantly, councillors know that their most flippant or passing remarks are recorded for posterity. Hence Council Meetings, never the most entertaining evenings of the month, have become yet more staged, rehearsed and, for this veteran, dull. As it happens, on this occasion, I did think that we were more and better prepared than the Tory councillors were. But people are not any longer going to go to listen to a Council Meeting because they hope to influence the debate or because they want to listen to real-live, blood-and-guts debates. The whole process has become too homogenised for that.
   

   ---

10. The next day, the red-letter day of 20^th October, was time for the “cataract with complications” operation on Pen’s left eye. It was much feared but thank heavens it has gone brilliantly and now I am being told to clean up all kinds of dusty nooks and crannies around the house, that she hasn’t noticed for years.
    

    ---

11. On the 7^th October, I played chess (and lost) for Surrey versus Kent at St. Mary Cray – miles beyond Orpington! I thought I was doing quite well until my opponent’s fourteenth move but the most astounding thing about that afternoon was the rainbow over south-east London at about 5 pm. I took this picture from the train in Herne Hill. Then on 29^th October, I played again for Surrey against Kent but on our home territory in Cheam. This time I won, in what I thought was a near perfect game. I came home really pleased with myself but then I sat down to analyse the two games on the computer. In the one I lost, I played too defensively. In the second, my opponent missed a winning move on the tenth! As football managers complain about VAR, computers are taking all the fun out of the game!
    

    ---

12. On the 30^th October, we went to another life celebration of another Battersea Labour Party member – Sue Twining. Sue had been living in Italy for many years; prior to retirement she had been the head teacher of a comprehensive school in Chelsea or Kensington; her husband, Richard, was a councillor for St. John ward in Battersea 1980-86. Inevitably most people there had been active in the local Battersea left scene, forty years ago, or from the world of teaching, or indeed from Italy. RIP Sue
    

    ---

13. We went from the Sue event to hear Marc Wadsworth speaking at a Black History Month meeting in the Southside shopping centre. He was helping us to celebrate the centenary of the election of Shapurji Saklatvala as MP for Battersea North (MP 1922; 1924-29). “Comrade Sak” was a commanding orator, and a controversial figure. He was Britain’s first Asian MP and he was also a communist, albeit elected in Battersea with Labour Party endorsement. He was a rich Parsi – according to Wikipedia all Parsis are rich – don’t ask me why! When he lost the Labour Party’s support he was quickly ousted as Battersea North’s by Stephen Sanders, after whom a council block of flats in Salcott Road has been named.
    

    ---

14. On the 31st October, I went at last to the new Battersea Power Station (BPS) It had been opened on the 12th or 14th October, depending whether you were a VIP or a member of the public. You may have seen that Wandsworth’s Labour councillors boycotted the occasion in a principled protest at the low level of affordable housing being provided in the whole of the BPS area – it was a controversial decision.
    

    ---

15. I do not have a record of all the many, many votes that councillors have had on the future of BPS in both the full Council Meeting and in the Planning Applications Committee, but over the years I suspect that I have voted against the development more times than anyone else. That, however, does not mean much nowadays (remember that at one time the Tory Council was pressing for it to be the largest waste incinerator plant, probably in the world). And clearly, it was a triumphant day for the then Tory Leader Ravi Govindia when he could announce that Apple Inc was making the building its European Headquarters.
    

    ---

16. But I must say, I am still not convinced. I appreciate that this high-end shopping mall does not have me in its potential target customers group. But on the Monday, when I went, the half-term crowds had gone; the sight-seers were gone, and I felt like a lonely pea rattling round in an enormous inhuman pod. I have a good sense of direction and I know the building well, having been round it scores of times, but I almost got disoriented. It reminded me of a large airport shopping mall where Mammon is only interested in getting you to part with your cash. I hope that I am wrong but let’s see on a wet November day in a year’s time just how bustling BPS really is.
    

    ---

My programme for November

1. We have a meeting of the Labour Group of councillors on 1^st.
2. I have the Civic Awards Ceremony on the 2nd.
3. I have the Transport Committee on the third.
4. The public hearings on the Borough Plan open on the 15th and will last until 30th
5. We have an “AwayDay” meeting of the Labour councillors on 12^th The aim will be team building and policy development.
6. Penny and I are going on our annual walk from Birling Gap to the top of Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, and back on the 13^th.
7. I look forward to hearing the story of Battersea’s public baths from Su Demont on the 16^th. Did you know, for example, that 100 years ago there was one of the largest indoor swimming pools in the country (50 yards long I believe) just where the new Battersea Park tube station stands?
8. The Planning Applications Committee is on November 22^nd.
9. On the 24^th Penny will be talking at the Battersea Society meeting about her new book, The Georgians.
   

   ---

Did you Know?

Last month, I said, that, there was another smash hit (at least in the UK) from the 1960s and that the film stars a true Brit mega-star as a lothario. I also said that it was incredibly dated and sexist by today’s standards. The film was absolutely loaded with London references including many in Battersea’s St. Mary’s ward. And here is Michael Caine on the steps of St. Mary’s Church in the film Alfie. Many of you knew the answer but most, I think, probably saw the film the first-time round! For the record: Alfie was directed by Lewis Gilbert and premiered in 1966.

And this month?

I am afraid that this picture is not very helpful, but how many can both place these three cottages and name them?

1. As trailed last month, Penny and I went to Croatia on 30^th August. We went by train, catamaran, bus and ferry, staying overnight in Munich and then Zagreb; and we returned through Graz in Austria, where Penny had a history conference. Travelling this way was our attempt to be “green” but, of course, it takes time and is more expensive than flying, with its highly subsidised fares – perhaps I should say low-taxed rather than subsidised. But terrestrial travel is certainly more interesting, more fun, and more ecologically defensible than flying.
   

   ---

2. We have now been to the same small seaside village about 8 times. Consequently, the four restaurant owners and 2/300 locals know us quite well. One of the charms of the place is the quiet, accessible, easy swimming. Every day, we swam across the bay from these steps, in a straight line to the other side, which is about 300 metres. There and back, the swim takes us about an hour, including time, floating about and admiring the view! We are not strong swimmers, but the water is warm and what you see is about as rough as it gets in this secluded bay!
   

   ---

3. Our next stop was Graz, in Austria, a lovely regional capital city with a population of 60,000 people (slightly smaller than Battersea). It is a delightful place to have a conference. The conference was largely for fledgling historians giving their first papers; and hence enjoyable for them and just a little challenging. The subject was “war and its impact” – a topic of perennial relevance. We had papers on meritocracy in the Spanish navy; Poland’s tragic history of victimhood; and elite women’s attitudes to war in revolutionary France; and more. The picture is of the city from the funicular railway that runs out of the city up to the old-time castle hill – the castle was demolished by Napoleon!
   

   ---

4. On August 30^th, we left an England, with some desert-like characteristics, under a Johnsonian PM and still in an Elizabethan Age. We got back and the grass is greener and healthier than ever, but the country is under a completely disastrous Truss administration in a new Carolean Age. All change! The French have a phrase “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” which translates as “the more everything changes, the more it stays the same” – we shall see.
   

   ---

5. Much has been said about Queen Elizabeth, so I will simply add that it was very striking, in Croatia, just how many people of every nationality came up to us after her death and told us how they personally admired the Queen and how they wished us, and by implication GB, well. Now into a Carolean Age!
   

   ---

6. Last month, I mentioned how the Tory Party had been entertaining us during its leadership campaign. Now surely all must agree that it is rather more serious than just entertainment. I can remember in the build-up to Harold Wilson’s first successful election in 1964, that Labour called the previous Tory years “13 wasted years”. Now surely the previous, so far, 12 years have been not just wasted but positively disastrous, and perhaps even dangerous. Truss and Kamikaze Kwarteng have set us on a path to financial crisis and have lost the Tories their undeserved reputation for prudent financial management. Just watch them try and shovel all the blame onto Putin – who deserves everything he gets but I don’t think his objective was simply to destroy Britain’s Tory Government!
   

   ---

7. I had the Wandsworth Conservation Area Advisory Committee on the 27^th September and the Planning Applications Committee on the 28^th. To be honest, both agendas were very thin and were largely, and unusually, mainly of interest to Tooting and Putney residents, so I will say no more. But take this opportunity to show a picture of me chairing the committee with the Development Manager, Nick Calder on my left, and our independent legal adviser, Duncan Moors, on my right.
   

   ---

8. On 29^th September we had the Finance Committee. There were several very technical papers about investment strategies, and about progress to date on capital projects, but probably the most interesting paper was about supporting the community in the current cost of living crisis. The Labour Council was under some attack from the Tory councillors, who wanted the Council to be specific about why it was planning to make £5 million available to support the community. Given that this sum was made available as insurance against, say the foodbanks running out of food, or for emergency funding to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, or for funding for endless other potential disasters in this time of crisis, I thought £5 million was an absolute minimum!
   

   ---

9. I came under attack – you may have seen a tweet from Tory councillors – for saying that £2 million expenditure on Northcote Road (to sustain the weekend closure scheme) was not one of our (Labour’s) top priorities. Very strange that! The Tories think that £5 million is not justifiably allocated for potential emergency expenditure in the Borough in this time of crisis, but they are prepared to criticise me for saying that support for one of the most successful of our town centres, in the heart of one of Battersea’s wealthiest areas (Northcote) is not a top priority. Oh well, it’s a good job that we do not all agree about everything!
   

   ---

My programme for October

1. I have the Katherine Low Settlement’s annual meeting and associated annual party – always a fun occasion – on 5^th October.
2. A meeting of the Labour Group of councillors on 13^th.
3. Battersea Power Station’s public opening 14^th.
4. Planning Applications Committee is on October 18^th and the full Council Meeting is on the next day, October 19^th.
5. On October 22^nd, there will be a National Rejoin (the EU) March from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, which I intend to take part in. I, of course, realise that the Labour Party is not yet committed to that course of action and that it will be a bumpy ride, getting back into the EU from here. But the last opinion poll on the subject that I saw in August 2022, showed a 16% lead for those, who think that leaving was a serious mistake. I can only imagine that since that date the majority has increased, and I believe that for the good of the country we must maintain that momentum to re-join and ensure that the next government takes re-joining seriously.

Did you Know?

Last month, I said, “Pete and Polly have an affair; Polly is a rich girl slumming it; you might be forgiven for thinking that you were in Clapham but no, this is all set in Battersea (and Chelsea and Worthing). What’s the film?

Easy for those of a certain age but how many people aged under 50 know this one?” And it certainly turned out to be very easy for those of a certain age, who all knew that the film was Up the Junction, made in 1969 and directed by Peter Collison. The “Reelstreets” Google entry for Up the Junction has many pictures of the Clapham Junction area as it was in the 1960s, just before the bulldozers moved in. For anyone interested in the sights of Winstanley Road and many other areas of North Battersea this really is a must! My picture is of the old station approach.

And this month?

From the same era, a smash hit (at least in the UK) at the time, this film stars a true Brit mega-star as a lothario – incredibly dated and sexist by today’s standards – it is almost impossible to imagine how successful it was then. Absolutely loaded with London references including many in Battersea’s St. Mary’s ward, which film am I talking about?

1. August was, of course, a holiday month for the Council and so, it was also quiet for this councillor. But on 6^th August I borrowed a friend’s Spurs season ticket and saw “my team” romp home to a convincing 4-1 win over Southampton. Some of my constituents are surprised that I support Tottenham, when I represent a ward, for whom Chelsea is virtually a home team (at its closest Battersea Park ward is less than 2km from Stamford Bridge). But when I explain that, when I was 6-9 years old, I lived 500 metres from White Hart Lane, most understand! 4-1 was a good win but what lives in the memory is the simply stupendous stadium and the 60,000 crowd, bathed in sunlight. And the facilities! A free programme on arrival, a free lunch, a free drink at half-time and a free chocolate chippie post-match. Ok, so there is no such thing as a free lunch and the season ticket price needs justification, but it’s not a bad justification! It’s all a bit of a stretch from the old Lane, with its terraces and its heaving 60,000 crowds, and Tottenham’s then main men, Alf Ramsey and Bill Nicholson – later respectively Managers of England’s World Cup winners of 1966 and Spurs’ Double-winning team of 1961. For those who do not follow soccer, the picture is of today’s main men, Kane & Son.
   

   ---

2. I got home that evening just in time to get to Carol and David’s for a great summer garden party, with lots of neighbours and friends. Exactly a week later, Penny and I went to Islington to a friend’s eightieth birthday. (Today’s 80 really is yesterday’s 50!). Penny had, years earlier, supervised the friend’s PhD on the “Spanish Main”. He became an expert on discovering the wrecks of Spanish galleons, sank in storms or after piracy, carrying gold and silver from the New World to the Old. He hardly needed to tell me that he was lucky, in his choice of subjects, which, ever since, has earned him a living helping salvage companies – what a life! But. as is so often said, someone has to do it.
   

   ---

3. Meanwhile, the Tory Party has been entertaining (?) us all with its leadership campaign. The final debates between Sunak and Truss must be amongst the most depressing and trivial imaginable. Any stranger listening to the debate (?) would find it difficult to imagine that we are on the verge of a climate crisis, a fuel crisis, a food crisis, a war crisis, a poverty crisis, a labour shortage and surely a political crisis. And to think that most of us know that one simple tragic but reversible mistake is the cause and part of the solution for some of this chaos. Yes, Brexit has been part of this disaster and surely it is about time more of us said so. No serious commentator disagrees with the argument that Brexit has hit the British economy badly. And who can doubt that the loss of foreign labour has caused farmers problems with harvest gathering, and construction firms with building skills, and the hospitality industries with lack of bar-staff, hotel and restaurant staff.
   

   ---

4. In my view, Labour made a bad mistake in not distancing itself from the Referendum and its result. Of course, friends said to me that a democratic vote had to be respected and, of course, it did have to be. But democracies do make mistakes. Indeed, after every election, a high proportion of the population thinks that the electorate had just made a mistake (regardless of who won) and immediately commits to reversing the decision. Re-joining the EU will not be easy. Frankly, we will not be quickly forgiven by all, even if we will be very much welcomed by the Irish, the Dutch and some others. We almost certainly will not be able to re-join on such good terms as we had. But, apart from any other gain, a positive attitude to the European Union would, at the very least, help the Union of the four nations of the UK.
   

   ---

5. Keir Starmer is not currently getting a good press, even if he is ahead in the polls. But a positive attitude to the EU would do much to re-vitalise the Labour Party, especially here in inner south-west London. It was no accident that the three Wandsworth constituencies of Battersea, Putney and Tooting all had large Remain majorities, that the three constituencies all had healthy Labour gains in the disastrous 2019 General Election and that Putney was the only Labour gain in the UK. Can I suggest that you write to your MP, and press her (or him) to lobby Keir and start a campaign for the country to re-join the EU as soon as possible? If nothing else, it would give the Labour Party a real cause with which to fight the Tories. Otherwise, we will lose out to the Lib Dems and the Greens.
   

   ---

6. On 22^nd August, enabling works started on the new Surrey Lane development at Randall Close. The enabling works involve re-arranging car parking facilities in several places on the estate in order to free-up the car park in Randall Close and make it available for the new development. Work on the development itself will start at the end of September or early October and will take a couple of years to complete. Wandsworth Council will then have 106 new council homes available to rent. Making all of these properties available to those in the greatest need, as opposed to some being on the open market, was, you may recall amongst the first decisions made by the new Labour Council in May, this year.
   

   ---

7. On 23^rd August I had the Planning Applications Committee. I was concerned by public comments that developers, whether the neighbour creating an extension or a major company building 1,000 new homes, often took little notice of the rules and conditions imposed on them, when permissions were granted. So, I decided to place enforcement notices higher on the agenda. I wanted to publicise that Wandsworth Council does enforce its own rules. It was a success as on this occasion, there were three good examples on the agenda. One was enforcing BT, or their agents, to remove this piece of equipment they had installed without permission on and clearly – see picture – blocking the pavement in Old York Road; another was to remove a semi-permanent bar extension built out on the pavement in Balham High Road and the third was to remove an over-large, un-neighbourly front garden shed.
   

   ---

8. The main item on the agenda, however, was an application to build a 24-storey block on the corner of York and Lombard Roads, largely for more than 500 single units of what is called shared accommodation. “Shared accommodation” is a new concept in the UK, although such schemes are well known in the USA. They are aimed at single-person family units and could be seen as like student halls. The rents are high, but they are all-inclusive and so tenants do not have to pay for the utilities, or Council Tax, or for the use of the communal kitchens, the sports facilities, the cinema, the karaoke bar. Interestingly the fastest growing “family” unit in London is single-person households. As well as well-paid youngish professionals, the tenants could include people who want a London-pad for some days a week, divorcees, bereaved partners – the list is endless. However, the application was refused by 7:1 because of the lack of “affordable” housing and because of its overall size.
   

   ---

My programme for September

1. Penny and I are off to Croatia on 30^th We are going by train, hover-ferry, bus and ferry, staying overnight in Munich and Zagreb; coming back through Graz in Austria, where Penny has a history conference. We get back on 23^rd September.
2. The Planning Applications Committee is on September 28^th.
   

   ---

Did you Know?

Last month, I said, “The Duke was in London and got involved in a car chase up and down Elsley Road, on the Shaftesbury Estate, then under the bridge on Latchmere Road, down York Road and up Trinity Road, finishing on Tower Bridge. Who is the Duke? What is he doing here in Battersea? And when? And I don’t think I have ever had such a flood of correct answers!

Yes, the Duke was indeed, Hollywood star John Wayne, who was in a car chase, which started in the Shaftesbury Estate and finished on Tower Bridge. He was featured in a film called, Branigan (1975; dir. Douglas Hickox), as a Chicago cop of that name, bringing a slightly American style of policing to the streets of London.

And if you have the time let me recommend 20 minutes watching at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pArxm5sfsrk. This Youtube tube video has Steve Brazil narrating the story of how this chase film was shot in London in 1975. He claims that the chase was done through real traffic, which beggars belief as you see one of the cars hurtling past traffic on Latchmere Road and turning hard right into Sheepcote Lane. There are other entertaining chase sequences on top of a multi-storey carpark and finally on Tower Bridge and also of a pub brawl, with distinctly Western references. The Youtube sequence is part of a series produced by Reelstreets, a site which shows films and locations.

And this month?

Pete and Polly have an affair; Polly is a rich girl slumming it; you might be forgiven for thinking that you were in Clapham but no, this is all set in Battersea (and Chelsea and Worthing). What is the film? Easy for those of a certain age but how many people aged under 50 know this one?

1. July started well with an interesting trip around Arding & Hobbs. Every one must have noticed the scaffolding around the famous old building, and I was keen to tour it when invited by the new owner. He expects to provide retail units at ground floor level with high-class office facilities above. Although not known as a location for offices, he believes that the Junction, with its connections to the City and the West End, to Gatwick and Heathrow, is well-placed to become one. He has certainly invested a great deal of time and effort into the project. This view is from inside the famous old cupola atop the building. By the way, have you noticed the new top floor of the building? It is designed to stand back from the bulk of the building to reduce its impact on the building’s profile. I think it will work rather well.
   

   ---

2. I had the first meeting of the Labour-controlled Finance Committee on the 7^th July. This often rather bland and technical committee was very important in that it outlined many of the ambitions of the newly elected Labour leadership of the Council. Amongst the core themes was the Council’s commitment to pay all its workforce the London Living Wage as a bare minimum. I still remember to this day my shock when ex-councillor, now Lord, Lister declared in the 1980s that Tory Wandsworth did not care about the staff wage levels. When introducing the Tory policy of Compulsory Competitive Testing or CCT, he and his colleagues broke with nationally agreed wage levels and started the low wage culture that has left us with the UK’s failing “gig economy”. I am delighted to have been a party to bringing that to an end, at least as far as Wandsworth Council as an employer is concerned.
   

   ---

3. Another crucial commitment made on that day was to increase the supply of council housing available to those in greatest need. The specific target of 1,000 new homes will be difficult to achieve but we have made a start by re-allocating some 50 new-builds on the Surrey Lane estate from market to council housing. There was also a decision to make £100,000 extra available for our hard-pressed voluntary sector, a resource that has been crucial for many during the Covid crisis. And another commitment was to convene a Citizen’s Assembly to focus on climate change and air quality issues.
   

   ---

4. On the 8^th July, I took part in the selection process for Wandsworth’s new Chief Executive. It is a very different process from the one I first took part in some 50 years ago. For a start, Wandsworth’s Chief Executive is now “shared” with Richmond, so the final selection is made by three councillors from each authority. I was part of a “Wandsworth team” of councillors, chosen as a selection of “stakeholders”, who had the task of interviewing the final short-list of candidates about their approach to managing the two authorities. I was very impressed by the final, very diverse, three candidates and look forward to the imminent arrival of Mike Jackson as the new Chief Executive after the summer break.
   

   ---

5. Incidentally, this was the same day that Battersea Labour Party decided that Marsha de Cordova will continue to be our candidate for Parliament at the next General Election. Then, of course, many of us thought that would be in opposition to Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. Now less than a month later it appears likely that the PM will be Liz Truss. Just how many people would have guessed that as an outcome? After centuries as a successful campaigning party, the Tory Party seems to be having a collective Death Wish! I suspect that, unfortunately, it will recover with time but not before suffering some humiliating defeats.
   

   ---

6. June and July are of course the months of garden parties and socials so on the 9^th I went to Putney for a delightful garden party to mark my old friend, Annie Trevelyan’s, birthday. And on 14^th to St. Mary’s for the Battersea Society’s ever-splendid annual summer party, where we were entertained by Junction Jazz. Unfortunately, the party was winding down by the time I took this picture!
   

   ---

7. July 14^th was the day of the Tooting Graveney by-election caused by Councillor Andy Gibbons’ untimely death. Rex Osborn was elected in Andy’s place. Coincidentally and most dramatically Rex played the major role in leading the “celebration of Andy’s life” the very next day, July 15^th, at Putney Vale Crematorium The very large turn-out of old friends and colleagues was testament to the love and respect Andy got from so many of us. RIP, old comrade.
   

   ---

8. Unfortunately, the ceremony and wake turned out to be a super-spreader event, with many of us, including me, going down with Covid 19 in the next few days. I should say that I was very lucky. So many people, of my age, have had really bad experiences but I had virtually zero symptoms though I did get a bit of what some people have described as brain fog – I don’t need the old joke about how could I tell? However, it took me twice as long, as usual, to do my Guardian Sudoku puzzle for a couple of weeks.
   

   ---

9. The sad thing was that I missed our planned trip up to Alnwick for a wedding – a trip, which I was really looking forward to. I also had to miss the Battersea Chess Club Annual General Meeting; the first real full Council Meeting since Labour’s victory in May; and the Wandsworth Society’s summer dinner at Le Gothique.
   

   ---

10. On the 26^th I chaired my second Planning Applications Committee, though not to my satisfaction. I think that perhaps I was suffering from Covid-induced brain fog! It was a little chaotic. I mis-placed notes and lost my way round the agenda. It was not a great performance, though I hope that no lasting damage was done!

My programme for August

1. On August 6^th, I had the pleasure of going to Spurs’ opening match of the season, of which more next month, followed by a great party given by close friends and neighbours Carol and David.
2. I also have several internal “planning” meetings at the Town Hall – though in practice they are all on MS Teams (like Zoom).
3. The Planning Applications Committee is on August 23^rd.
4. And then on 30^th, we are off on our three-week trip to Croatia – I am not complaining as I get around a fair bit but it will be our first holiday since 2019 – and it feels like it!
   

   ---

Did you Know?

Last month, I asked, “Who was St. John Bosco? Did he come from Battersea and if not why does the relatively new Battersea school bear his name?”

That so many of you knew the answer just shows how ignorant I am about the history of Roman Catholicism and how ignorant I am about the strength of Roman Catholicism today. It certainly wasn’t like that when I was much younger! The steady march of organised, usually right-wing, religion, especially in the USA, worries me. One would hardly believe that the American constitution deliberately separates state and church!

But enough of me pontificating (note the irony of me even using a word with papal connections!) and back to Bosco. John Bosco was born in 1815 in Castelnuovo d’Asti, (now ludicrously renamed Castelnuovo don Bosco – it’s just like Petersburg becoming Leningrad and now St. Petersburg) a few kilometres east of Turin.

Bosco spent much of his life teaching and developing education and schools for the under-privileged boys of the Turin area and founded the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, later the Salesians of St John Bosco. Bosco was beatified in 1924, and unsurprisingly when a Catholic school was established in Battersea it was called Salesian College. St. John Bosco School is the latest manifestation of this history.

And this month?

The Duke was in London and got involved in a car chase up and down Elsley Road, on the Shaftesbury Estate, then under the bridge on Latchmere Road, down York Road and up Trinity Road, finishing on Tower Bridge. Who is the Duke? What is he doing here in Battersea? And when?