Tag Archive | london
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?

December 2, 2024  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea December 2024, Newsletter (# 186)

  1. I didn’t feel too hot on 1st November, so I gave Junction Jazz at the Bread & Roses a miss (I gather the band was good), but did feel well enough on the 2nd to go to the Councillors’ Surgery at Battersea Park Library. Saturday mornings at the surgery can be a very peaceful time, simply reading the papers, but not this time. As usual, the cases were about housing issues, about wanting a transfer or the conditions in rental properties. It can be depressing listening, but I do follow them up and, from time to time, really do resolve the problems.
  2. I discovered one victory this month quite by chance. I was doing my normal monthly tour of the Picture1ward, including a walk Picture2down Anhalt Road, a quiet road near the Park. On my last visit there I came across this trip hazard on the left, created by an aggressive tree root. Now the Council has doctored the tree and re-surfaced the pavement and it is no longer the very serious hazard it was. A small triumph perhaps but mine own!
  3. On 4th November I had a Battersea United Charities (BUC) meeting at the main Battersea Library. Nothing particularly momentous happened but it is worth noting the existence of this small body, which distributes small grants to individuals and/or organisations that live, work or play in Battersea. For example, BUC gives financial assistance to other charities that organise Xmas Day Dinners; or to Providence House to help fund summer schemes for Battersea’s younger people; or to families that have hit hard times and who need carpets, furniture, ovens, fridges, etc. The Chair of BUC is Phil Beddows, once a Tory councillor, but don’t hold that against him too much. For a long time now Philip has been a passionate Battersea boy and has given hours of his time to the charity.
  4. On 5th November I did not go to a fireworks display but went Picture3instead to Wandsworth Council’s Civic Awards. At this annual event, the Council praises and appreciates people, who have contributed their time and efforts to support the community. The Labour administration has added some new features, such as video descriptions of the award winners at work rather than the previous over-long reading of their commendations. One of the stars of the evening was Gonçalo da Cal Martins, Wandsworth’s Young Musician of the Year 2024, who played a beautiful violin concerto.
  5. I went to the Armistice Day Commemoration ServicePicture4 in St. Mary’s on Sunday 10th November, and then on the 11th itself, I went to the service in Battersea Park. I always find the open-air service the more moving of the two. The late autumn weather is very appropriate and the sound of the lone bugle playing The Last Post followed by Reveille almost haunting. The only blemish, of course, is that the Park was right under the day’s flight path into Heathrow! The picture is of our MP, Marsha de Cordova, walking away from the monument having just laid a wreath.
  6. Pen was due to present a paper at a small conference in Antwerp on 14th-15th November, so I decided, more or less at the last minute, to Picture5accompany her. We stayed in the centre of the city from 13th-17th. It was magnificent. Why has everyone kept so quiet about Antwerp? It is certainly the largest city within easy reach of London that I have never been to, and it is only just over 4 hours away, from door to door, by Eurostar. The city centre is substantially traffic free, so it is a pedestrians’ delight and the trams work like a dream. It is very lively, and very cosmopolitan. Belgium’s colonial record was not good – to say the least – and Belgians are very conscious of that, but one result is that it has made Antwerp a culinary delight. It includes African, Caribbean and Indo-Malaysian food of every kind and, of course, some say that the best French cuisine is actually Belgian. Added to that, the many museums and art galleries are replete with works by the three Breughels, Reubens, Van Dyck, and countless other Flemish masters. We had a great time – Oh, and Pen said the conference wasn’t bad either (which is English for a great success). The picture shows part of the Grote Markt.
  7. The Transport Committee on 19th November was quiet and uncontentious but full of interesting matters, not least the extended hours of operation of the controlled parking zone (CPZ) around Battersea Park. The residents had campaigned for the extended hours since before the opening of the Power Station, but that had been the final straw. Other matters of interest were:-
  • The competition to design the transformation of the Falcon Road railway bridge – probably the worst environment in the Borough – which effectively cuts north Battersea off from Clapham Junction and will hopefully be completed by late 2025;
  • more new school streets; and
  • amendments to the Borough Plan designed to encourage the development of more affordable housing.
  1. I chaired the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on 20th We approved five applications:-
  • three, which in total amounted to some 50 residential units, as part of our 1,000 homes project – odd how it is that everyone thinks that we ought to build more homes at affordable prices but no one wants them built next door – am I being cynical, or jaundiced?
  • one, which involves the total demolition of a terraced Battersea house – except the front wall – and the construction of a modern house in its place. No one on the committee liked it but one does not need permission to demolish property unless it is either listed or in a conservation area – and we could hardly refuse permission for replacing it with a modern version.
  • the fifth was a technical change to a previous planning approval.
  1. Prezza, aka John Prescott, died on 21st November, and with him, some people argue, an old-style Labour brand. I do not know about that, but I do have one very clear memory of him. I was sitting at home one Saturday afternoon watching one of the autumn rugby internationals. The year was 1997 and Labour had stormed into power on 1st May.
    Prezza determined to get between Blair and Brown

         Prezza determined to get           between Blair and Brown    

    I was the Leader of Wandsworth Labour councillors and had recently written an angry letter to John, the Deputy Prime Minister, protesting that he had recently walked around Battersea Park with Wandsworth’s Tory leadership without informing anyone in Wandsworth’s Labour Party, and that despite John making improved communications between the Government and Labour councillors a major theme. I didn’t expect anything other than a formal civil service acknowledgement.

    The phone rang, “on my way to Heathrow and the Kyoto climate change conference”, John spat out, “thought I’d give you a ring about the Battersea Park event”. I was so surprised that I do not recall the rest of the conversation, but I do remember that I could not make sense of the syntax, nor of some of his sentences. But I do remember the meaning, the apology, and the thought that Prezza made a point of ringing me, whilst he was on the way to being a prime mover at one of the world’s most important ever conferences.

    I much appreciated the thought then and have done ever more so since.

  2. Picture7The 22nd of November was the night of the Battersea Ball held in the Battersea Park British Genius site. This is always a noisy, showy, fun event, held to fund the Battersea Summer Scheme for Battersea youth. Pen and I usually go, and often get caught pretending to be training for Strictly!
  3. Picture8I have just heard of the death of Battersea Labour Party member, Timothy West, earlier in November. Timothy and Prunella have been substantial supporters of BLP for many years and have played their part in several revues that BLP staged at Battersea Arts Centre. I will say more about Tim in next month’s newsletter, meanwhile RIP Tim.
  4. And other news about Battersea and Wandsworth:
  • The Council plans to update the Latchmere Estate playspace and is asking users and residents to get involved in its design. Do get in touch if you are interested.
  • Battersea Park Rotary asked me to remind pensioners about Rotary’s Xmas Day special – contact Senia Dedic (seniadedic@hotmail.com) for details.

My December Programme

  1. I have a meeting of North-East Surrey Crematorium Board on 3rd The members are the London Boroughs of Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth, so it should more accurately be called the South-West London Crem.
  2. On 5th December, I am having Xmas Lunch with the soccer team I played with in the 60s-80s – always nostalgic, “remember that goal Prodg scored” days.
  3. On 11th December, we have the last full Council Meeting of the year.
  4. December’s meeting of the Planning Applications Committee is on the 12th and much of the rest of the month is standard stuff, Christmas Carols, eating and drinking too much. I hope that you have a great Christmas too.

Did you know?

Last month I asked who was “an Irish Protestant dramatist, clearlyPicture9 torn between both his Irish and British heritages in that he was at once an Irish Republican and a British patriot, this socialist born in North Dublin spent many of his later years in Prince of Wales Drive, Battersea. Who was he and can you name his most famous play, and even one other of his works?”

Not quite do many correct answers as about Bob Marley and Spurs, but some knew about Sean O’Casey and his most famous play Juno and the Paycock. There is a plaque on the wall of 49 Overstrand Mansions, Prince of Wales Mansions.

And this month?Picture10

Born in Cheltenham, became a Bachelor of Medicine at St. George’s Hospital, met his wife in Caius House, Battersea, where he did missionary work in the worst of Battersea slums, has a plaque in Battersea Square. He died, a peculiarly British heroic death 10,000 miles from home and he looked like this. Who was he?

November 1, 2024  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea November 2024, Newsletter (# 185)

  1. On 3rd October, I visited London’s space-age City Hall for the very first time. Amazingly enough, it was sixty years and one month after my first day Picture1in a real job (as opposed to vacation jobs, etc.) at the “real” County Hall, which was then the home of the GLC (Greater London Council), which on that day took over from the LCC (London County Council). I worked there for twenty years. Since then the centre of London government has moved to Borough and now Docklands. Can you imagine the USA or France messing around with both the governance and the HQs of New York or Paris in such a cavalier, shambolic way? Neither the Americans nor the French mess with their capital cities. Why do you think we do?
  2. I went to City Hall to participate in the Hearing on the Springfield Park development in Tooting. I know that it is not Battersea but the development is one of the very largest in Wandsworth and the new park is a delight – if you have not been therePicture2 I recommend it – the G1 bus goes from the Junction right there. My Committee, Planning Applications, had turned down the application for an extension of the park and the construction of 449 homes, 225 of which were to be “affordable”, on the grounds that it was an over-development and exceeded the capacity of the local public transport infrastructure. I suspected that Deputy Mayor Jules Pipe was going to rule in favour of the developer and against Wandsworth’s decision. The developer is, after all, the NHS, and the development is a significant part of the Springfield Hospital renewal project. As they say, a no-brainer, and the development was approved. The photograph dates to 2023; the park has matured a bit in the last year.
  3. I had the Transport Committee on Monday, 7th October. The most significant item was about the installation of bike hangars. From having Picture3none just a few years ago Wandsworth now has the largest number in London. What is more, they are occupied the instant they are installed. I can understand why. When I cycled I had three bikes stolen (at over £500 a pop) as well as a saddle and as for rear lights – they just get nicked for fun. No wonder so few cyclists bother with them. Indeed I have recently had requests for bike hangars from Prince of Wales Drive and Cambridge Road – from sharing young renters, who cycle to work. If that includes you, then register an interest in getting one installed near you – it is easy. Look up the Wandsworth website and ask about bikehangars.
  4. Penny and I went to see Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, on 11th October – my first encounter with this iconic play. It was written by an Irishman, theoretically neutral during WW2, but a member of Picture4the French resistance. He narrowly escaped torture and death at the hands of the Gestapo. He was awarded The Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Reconnaisance Française. Having experienced war and totalitarianism, he never joined any political party, but he did fund and support various leftist causes such as black rights in Alabama. Waiting for Godot is an apparently endless, inescapable quest for peace in an inevitably violent and unpleasant world. But despite its occasionally funny dialogue, I am not going to recommend it for those seeking a fun evening, however as a commentary on the desolation of war and chaos it is crushingly powerful!
  5. Wandsworth Council organised its first 5K Fun Run in Battersea Park on Saturday 12th I should have been there – perhaps you were – but I had other commitments including visiting the Glassmills exhibition of plans for a 28-storey tower on Battersea Bridge Road. The Run was very popular and marked the start of a six-month trial of weekly runs. There are probably enough runners in Battersea to keep that going on a weekly basis but I have my doubts whether the organising team can continue at that rate – we will see. I will be happy if you prove my scepticism unfounded by turning up to run and/or volunteer on a coming Saturday at 9 am.
  6. The 14th October was a big day for the River Thames – the Thames Tideway Tunnel was finally opened. The Tunnel complex is about 25 miles Picture5of water storage, running parallel to the river. It is much, much bigger than a tube tunnel and is designed to take rain and river flood waters out of the Thames, during the peak wet weather. Easing pressures on the sewage system and raising the river’s water quality back to the level we deserve. I hope it succeeds in doing just that, because it cost us Thames Water customers £4,5 billion.
  7. On October 30th I had a Design Review Panel (DRP) at what turned out to be Vivienne Westwood’s company HQ in Battersea. The company is doing well Picture6and expanding rapidly. It is in desperate need of more space and is well on the way to submitting a planning application to extend its current site. Whilst I was there I discovered that a couple of hundred people work at the Battersea HQ; there is another, complementary HQ in Milan. Nearly all the employees live locally and travel to work on the several buses that cross Battersea Bridge – others cycle. Well over 50% of the company’s sales go abroad. The Panel discussion was positive although not totally without criticism. With luck we should see an early planning application.
  8. And other news about Battersea and Wandsworth:
  • On 15th October, I had a meeting of the Met. Police’s Battersea Park ward Neighbourhood Team in the Doddington Estate. It is a useful exchange of views between the Met and the local community about police priorities.
  • The Council Meeting on 16th was the usual rubber-stamping of the month’s decisions. Regular readers will know my views about this formulaic, essentially pointless event. Over the years it has lost all its old spontaneity and drama and desperately needs a re-think as to both purpose and format.
  • I cancelled the Planning Applications Committee due on 24th October, because of lack of business – a worrying sign for the building industry or just a temporary blip?
  • Plans proceed for building a new primary school in thePicture8 Nine Elms linear park The construction costs will be carried by all the private developments that have taken place in the area in the past few years. I doubt that it will look quite like this but here was the visualisation presented to councillors.
  • Battersea Park Rotary asked me to remind pensioners about Rotary’s Xmas Day special – contact Senia Dedic (seniadedic@hotmail.com) for details.
  • The Battersea Park Fun Run began in October and on 18th October we held the largest such run anywhere in the world ever – or so my friend Simon says but how anyone can possibly know defeats me! But no matter; it takes place every Saturday morning at 9.30. Why not give it a go? (I don’t think my knees would take it!)
  • The Council has installed traffic lights at each end of the Culvert Road Tunnel. I was frankly a bit dubious about whether they would have any real impact but fellow Councillor Sara Apps from Shaftesbury & Queenstown ward pressed for them. I must say that first indications are good. There is more compliance with the signals than I had anticipated; but let’s see if they are still as successful in a few months.
  • On 30th October the Council in association with TfL started works on Battersea Bridge to make it safer for both cyclists and pedestrians – readers no doubt remember the recent fatal accident involving a cyclist. Unfortunately, I suspect whilst the work is being done, there will be delays crossing either Battersea or Albert Bridge.

My November Programme

  1. I have a meeting of Battersea United Charities on 4th November.
  2. And how could one forget November 5th Fireworks Display in Battersea Park.
  3. Junction Jazz are playing one of their occasional fund-raisers for the Battersea Labour Party on 1st November.
  4. The 11th is, of course, Armistice Day and as always, I will be attending the Battersea Park ceremony.
  5. The Conservation and Heritage Committee meets on 12th November.
  6. I have the Transport Committee on 19th.
  7. November’s meeting of the Planning Applications Committee is on 20th.

Did you know?Picture7

Last month I asked “which Jamaican singer-songwriter lived in Chelsea, but loved playing football in Battersea Park? Name him – and one of his songs – and name the English football team that he supported?”

I have never had so many correct answers. Yes, Bob Marley and Spurs. As to the song, well that was a matter of some dispute but probably No Woman, No Cry won by a short head.

And this month?

An Irish Protestant dramatist, clearly torn between both his Irish and British heritages in that he was at once an Irish Republican and a British patriot, this socialist born in North Dublin spent many of his later years in Prince of Wales Drive, Battersea. Who was he and can you name his most famous play, and even one other of his works?

April 2, 2024  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea April 2024, Newsletter (# 178)

  1. March began (for me, in Council terms,) with the North East Surrey Crematorium Board of which I am a board member, on 5th March. Why – North East Surrey? Because, Battersea Borough Council bought the land for a large cemetery, somewhere cheap between Raynes Park and Merton in the early twentieth century. The crematorium was built for use by Wandsworth, Sutton and Merton Councils – and hence the name – North East Surrey. Not much happened at the Board meeting.
  2. Much the same could be said for the Council Meeting, Picture2which took place on 6th March. Its main purpose was formally to rubber stamp the Council Tax agreed at the February Finance Committee. However, there was some discussion of the state of our roads and pavements, which for some years have been deteriorating at a faster rate than we have been repairing them. I am pleased to say that we were able to announce a multi-million pound plan to do the necessary repairs and maintenance to tackle this problem – how is this for example in affluent Anhalt Road?
  3. Off to Southend-on-Sea on 10th March to have lunch with Penny’s relatives – her brother lives in a flat with a fantastic view over the Thames Estuary. I used to spend school holidays in Southend in the years immediately after WW2 – I guess it must have been 1948 and 1949 – so I have a bit of a soft spot for the town. But my, how economically depressed the town appears now – this is not affluent Brighton, much more like poverty-stricken Blackpool.
  4. On the 13th March, Penny and I were off to the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) to Picture3see The Seven Deadly Sins, but first, an Accordion Concerto – yes a concerto for an accordion – violins obviously, organs of course, but had you ever heard of an accordion concerto? It was brilliant, interesting, fun but I’m not sure that this work is sufficient to raise the reputation of the accordion. On the other hand, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s reputations are assured – they were both émigrés from Nazi Germany, Weill because he was Jewish and Brecht because he was a Marxist. Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins is described as a sung ballet with German words written by Bertolt Brecht and sung here in translation by Danielle de Niese (pictured). It is the dramatic and harrowing story of a young woman, exploited by her family and torn between money and morality.
  5. The Planning (PAC) Applications Committee was held on the 19th March. There were only four applications to be considered. One was a purely technical event and the second of no great consequence nor contention. However, we did approve the development of a school unit in central Tooting, and then, after a near three-hour debate, we rejected an application to develop 449 residential units on Springfield Hospital It was a close decision; in my view the wrong one; but what concerned me most was the mechanical, clearly “whipped” votes of the Tory members. PAC has a quasi-judicial function. It relies upon the individual judgements of its members. It is NOT whipped, although naturally most Tory and most Labour councillors vote the same way as their party colleagues – but on this occasion, Tory councillor votes were very suspiciously both uniform and predictable. (For the record: As the Chair of PAC, I do not discuss decisions before the meeting but the way I voted on this issue is now a matter of public record.)
  6. This time of the year is dominated, Picture4for those with sporting inclinations, by two traditional events, the culmination of the Six Nations Rugby Championship and the Boat Race (the National and the finale of the soccer season come in the next two months). For Oxonians, like me, the least said about the Boat Race the better but, just, maybe the E-coli scandal surrounding the event, might force change on the water industry – and about time too! And I have little to say about the Six Nations but talking rugby gives me an excuse to show a picture of Battersea Labour Party’s new organiser pursuing her sport on a typically muddy north London pitch – she’s the one with the large white gum shield! Good rucking, Zara!
  7. In the third week of February, the Labour Group had its two-evening, two-part Annual General Meeting. Simon Hogg was re-elected as Group and, therefore, Council Leader. We elected Sana Jafri as the new Mayor, and Jamie Colclough as the new Chair of the Environment Committee. Unfortunately, we also had a resignation from a West Putney councillor, who decided after six years to call it a day.
  8. On the 21st February, I chaired the Wandsworth Planning Forum, which is a twice-yearly discussion forum between the main planning societies, the Battersea Society, the Wandsworth Society, the Putney Society, the Clapham Junction Action Group and organisations like the RIBA and the Council. It was not dramatic; I can’t think of any notable decisions; but it was a very useful exchange of views, confirming our intention to do the best for the Wandsworth environment.
  9. On the 23rd March, Penny and I went to thePicture5 splendid St. Ann’s Church on St. Ann’s Hill for a performance of Handel’s Messiah by the South West London Choral Society and the Otranto Chamber Orchestra. It was spectacular, even if that is a ludicrous adjective to apply to an audio event! As the choir reached the climax of the Hallelujah Chorus and perhaps even more spectacularly the final Amen Chorus, I could feel just why choral societies are so popular in today’s individualised culture – they are clearly, at their best, magnificent collective celebrations. We were totally wowed.
  10. On 27th February, I had the Conservation and Heritage Advisory Committee (CHAC). This may seem like a niche interest, but it does important work – for those Picture6interested in our history. I was happy to say that work had started on St, Mark’s Vestry School in Battersea Rise – had you noticed? The school was built in the 1860s, just before the introduction of free, compulsory education in 1870, and is one of the last remaining vestry school buildings left. Not long ago, the roof was bust, the walls were cracked and the windows broken, but now it is on the way to being the home of a small, but obviously a very professional architect’s practice.

  11. Picture7One other thing that I learned at CHAC was that there is an original eighteenth-century cottage on Clapham Common Northside. Did you know? I hadn’t even noticed despite having lived here a mere – well many years! It is not a particularly notable building but/and it is probably the only pre-1800 building in Wandsworth that is neither protected nor listed. Should it be? Here it is – what do you think?

My programme for April?

  1. On 1st April, we are off to see a performance of Nye (Aneurin Bevan, creator of the NHS in 1948) at the National Theatre.
  2. On 4th April I have a special Finance Committee convened by the Tory councillors. Masochistically, the Tories seem to want to argue about how Labour has been handling the Council’s finances. Odd given that we have just announced successive Council Tax “freezes”.
  3. The Planning Applications Committee is on 24th April.
  4. And that seems to be that for formal Council events but I guess that there will be plenty of activity going on as we build towards the Mayoral and GLA elections on 2nd May and on the West Putney by-election also to be held on 2nd May.

Did you know?

Last month I asked, given that the International Day of Women Picture9was on 8th March who could name the woman (born in Huntingdon; died in Biggleswade), who founded which major Battersea institution, without ever, as far as we know, visiting the borough?

Two or three people emailed me with the answer, which was Mary Tealby (1801-1865), a “kindly woman”, who took pity on a stray dog, where she lived in Islington and ended up looking after several dogs in her scullery before founding a dogs’ home (1860), which moved to Battersea in 1871.

And this month?

 In paragraph 10 above, I write about an eighteenth-century building on Clapham Common Northside, which I did not know about. So, I wonder just how many surviving pre-nineteenth century buildings or structures in Battersea you/we can name? I will be really interested in seeing the result and how many of us can name 10, 15 …?