Tag Archive | history
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?