Home › Building histories › Building & Architectural History: A Guide to Sources
ISBN 0-905121-02-3 • © Wandsworth Historical Society, 1985
Reproduced by permission of the Wandsworth Historical Society.
Note on archive details: This guide was published in 1985. All addresses, telephone numbers and institutional names reflect the position at that date. Several organisations have since changed their name and/or address; these are noted in square brackets where known. Readers are advised to verify current details before visiting.
– Introduction
Section A: Original Sources (Not Printed)
– 1. District Surveyors’ Returns
– 2. Building Notices to the Wandsworth District Board of Works
– 3. Rate Books
– 4. Deeds
– 5. Other Manuscript Sources
Section B: Original Sources (Printed)
– 1. Local Government Records
– 2. Directories
– 3. Maps
– 4. Sale Catalogues
– 5. Local Newspapers
– 6. Census
– 7. Photographs and Other Illustrations
– 8. Specialised Journals and Books
Section C: Secondary Sources
– 1. General Works on London
– 2. More Specific Books
– Section D: Libraries and Archives
– References
– Postscript
– Appendix 1: Rate Books in the Wandsworth Local History Collection
– Appendix 2: Local Government Documents in the WLHC
– Appendix 3: Principal Local Newspapers in WLHC
– List of Illustrations
– Acknowledgement
This guide is concerned not with a single source, but with a wide variety, to be found in an equally varied selection of record depositories. The subject matter can include anything from the history of a well-known public building and its architect to the date and builder of your own house. The fact that the population of the Wandsworth area grew by more than 300,000 between 1800 and 1914, and that there were more than 100,000 dwellings of all sorts, gives some idea of the magnitude of the area of research encompassed by these sources. In all, there were something like three hundred separate building estates in the present area of the London Borough of Wandsworth between c.1820 and 1939, each of which has its own fascinating story and includes the products of thousands of builders and tradesmen. This is apart from a large number of public buildings such as churches, libraries, railway stations, baths, halls and schools.
Because of the scope of the Guide, it is proposed to divide it into four main sections — Original Sources (not printed); Original Sources (printed); Secondary Sources; and Libraries and Archives. The appendices give an indication of the location of the main sources in the first two sections.
For reasons of convenience, and also historical change, we are here concerned with the period since 1800. This marks the final phase of the area’s history as a series of separate villages and the first glimmering of the growth in population and housing which was to transform them into part of the built-up mass of south London.
It should be stated at the outset that it is rarely possible to identify the architect of the ordinary house — in some cases this is even true of public buildings. It may be assumed that where plans and applications for new houses emanate from the office of an architect, itself a new profession in the early 19th century, then he, or his firm, were responsible for the design of the houses if these show some pretence to style or uniformity. Often, however, landlords and developers were content to stipulate the nature of the buildings in broad terms, often setting a minimum value on each construction in the hope that this would maintain the desired social tone of an area, although this all too often failed. Many thousands of houses in this area, as throughout London, were based on a pastiche of styles and designs culled by builders from so-called “pattern books” and what were thought to be fashionable architect-designed houses of the time, usually allowing a time-lag so that the potential tenants in the suburbs would not be deterred by something which was too avant-garde, and hence unlettable. The study of the evolving style of London terraced housing is a fascinating one, although considerably more collection of data is needed before a full typology can be produced.1
The first district surveyors for suburban areas were appointed in 1845 and were concerned with the implementation of the various London Building Acts and the completion of houses and other buildings to laid-down standards. This required inspection of all new buildings and alterations to existing ones and the levying of appropriate fees. And, whatever one may consider about the quality of some of the structures pronounced fit for use, the returns which the district surveyors made monthly to the Metropolitan Buildings Office and its successors the Metropolitan Board of Works (hereafter MBW) and the London County Council (LCC) form an invaluable record of the pace and spread of building from 1845. The original returns are available for the years 1845–52 and 1871 onwards. They are all kept at the Greater London Record Office [now The London Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0AB] (GLRO — see Section D for address), although some of the volumes for the Edwardian period are not currently available for examination owing to their poor physical condition. The number of surveyors in the Wandsworth area tended to increase in the late nineteenth century as building reached ever more estates. The basic structure about 1900 was: North Battersea; Central Battersea; South Battersea and Clapham; East Wandsworth and Tooting; West Wandsworth; West Streatham (Balham etc.) and Putney and Roehampton. There is a comprehensive index to all volumes at the GLRO.
In broad terms, the District Surveyors’ Returns give details of: street-name, although sometimes it is described only as X’s Estate; the person giving notice; the builder — these are usually, but not always, the same person; the owner — again, this is often the builder, who had already purchased the plot; the nature of the work; the height and number of storeys of the building. In other words, a concise picture of the work and the principal people concerned is given, including the address of the builder, which provides invaluable information on their frequent moves to be near new work. One often finds builders moving into a house built in the first year of an estate and remaining there until work is finished.
Although not a manuscript source, it is appropriate to mention here the annual printed reports of the District Surveyors which were produced by the MBW from 1856 onwards (set at GLRO). These only give annual totals for the various districts, which often include areas outside the present Wandsworth boundaries, but they do act as a partial bridge for the period 1856–70, for which the original returns have been destroyed.
From its creation as part of the reorganisation of London local government in 1855 until its replacement, in the case of Battersea by the Metropolitan Vestry in 1889, and for the rest of the area by Wandsworth Borough Council in 1900, the Wandsworth District Board of Works (WDBW) was the body which received notices from builders and developers of their intention to build. These notices almost invariably include a plan, showing the connection from the proposed building to the drainage system, as well as details of the builder, his address, and the location of the property, usually described more exactly than in the DSR.
The actual applications survive in large quantities and are kept in the Wandsworth Local History Collection at Lavender Hill Library [now the Wandsworth Heritage Service, Battersea Library, 265 Lavender Hill, London SW11 1JB] (WLHC). For most parishes, the series commences in the mid/late 1870s. They are arranged by parish and date and there is a good index of those streets which formerly lay in the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth. The plans are usually bound in with the applications. One word of warning is necessary concerning this source. It was often the case that the DBW objected to the initial proposal, especially regarding the sanitary arrangements, and referred the plan back for amendment. When amended it would be resubmitted, and it is necessary to check details carefully to avoid double-counting and also that the plan as submitted and sanctioned was actually executed.
There are several hundred plans for the parish of Battersea, covering not only new houses and other buildings, but also alterations and extensions to existing structures. These are indexed, and many bear the signature of George Pilditch, the Battersea surveyor. Again, they are invaluable for giving details of new work, although elevations are very much the exception.
Prior to the 1870s, the only record of these applications is to be found in the minutes of the WDBW. This usually met fortnightly and recorded those applications made since the last meeting, together with any decisions on amendment. These again help to bridge the awkward gap in the DSR from 1856–70, which includes a peak of building activity from 1863–6, although the same caveat concerning alterations and failure to build after making an application must be repeated.
In general, this is the best source for locating the date and builder of individual houses, as the plans normally indicate precisely where the work is to take place. From these one can pass on to other sources.
From the applications to build and the survey of work completed, we pass on to the evidence for the dating of new developments and their occupation. The most important of these is the Rate Book. Rates levied on property have a long history and were mainly concerned with the relief of the poor and other works undertaken by the parish. The parish remained the unit of assessment for poor rates even after the setting-up of the Unions in 1834, providing useful continuity. Unfortunately, the only part of Wandsworth with a more or less continuous series of rate assessments during the nineteenth century is Battersea parish. Records from the former Borough of Wandsworth in this respect are sadly deficient (see Appendix 1).
The Battersea rate-books survive in a more or less complete series from 1750 to the 1880s, although coverage of the detached hamlet of Penge is far from consistent. Often assessments are available quarterly or half-yearly, and hence provide an invaluable record of the progress of building, especially during the 1860s when there are lacunae in other sources.
One problem with rate books, however, is that they often had difficulty adjusting to the very rapid rate of building after 1850, and new houses and streets are often appended at the end of the regular itinerary or inserted amongst prepared listings. The pace of development also means that information on both owners and occupiers is spasmodic after about 1840, although sometimes one finds builders assessed for rates who can be cross-checked with the DSR and DBW Building Notices. Apart from indicating the date when a property was completed, the rate books also show its estimated annual rental value, which formed the basis of the rate calculation. This information is sometimes the only real guide we have to the nature of a house, and plotting of estimated rental (or rateable) values highlights social variations in different parts of a parish. This detail is especially useful where whole streets have disappeared under redevelopment schemes.
While all the previous sources tend to be located in one archive and be easy to use and understand and analyse, the same cannot be said of this class of document. Given the intimate relationship between the law and property in England, it is not surprising that even the most humble dwelling has left behind it a large amount of legal documentation. The main problems with this are: i) the patchy survival; ii) the scattered location of the material; iii) its sheer bulk; and iv) the unavailability of deeds for almost all houses still standing and in private ownership.
In view of the fluid situation regarding transfer of deeds from solicitors’ offices to archives, and the proportion of material which has not been catalogued, it is impossible to give an estimate of the amount of such material which is currently available, or may be so within five or ten years. The principal locations for deed materials are: WLHC [Wandsworth Heritage Service — see above]; GLRO [The London Archives]; and the Minet Library in Lambeth [Lambeth Archives moved in 2024 to 16 Brixton Hill, London SW2 1ET]. This does not mean to say, however, that there are not relevant deeds in other public collections, or that more will not become available over the years.
In general terms, the best-served areas are those which have undergone comprehensive redevelopment since 1945, and these tend to be located in the former Borough of Battersea, north of the railway between Wandsworth Town and Vauxhall. This is because the process of compulsory purchase transfers ownership, and hence deeds, to the local authority. For the rest of the Wandsworth area, coverage is much more patchy and at best gives a random sample of the processes underlying development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
One fortunate side effect of the legal importance of these documents is that they usually contain the same information described in standard formulae. This enables the researcher to cut through the mass of verbiage and extract the salient features of interest in building history. The principal types of document are briefly described below.
This is the ideal from the historian’s viewpoint, because it contains, in convenient summary form, details of all known previous deeds relating to a property. This may take us back into the eighteenth century and show how often land could change hands before building occurred. For example, an abstract of no less than 65 pages for a house on the Park (Lavender Road) Estate in Battersea goes back to the 1760s, when the land belonged to the Archbishop of York,2 whilst others, for the Haward Estate at Nine Elms, detail some of the history of the family after whom it is named.3
These give details of sales of land and other property, naming the principals involved, together with the sums which changed hands and also any restrictive covenants on the use of the land or buildings.
At a time when virtually no house was owner-occupied, this class of document not only includes the original lease between ground landlord and builder or developer, but also subsequent leases to tenants. Since the latter were often for a short term compared with the basic 99-year lease, these documents tend to be voluminous. It is the original lease which is most significant for the local historian, detailing as it does the parties involved — often as many as five or more, including the lessee, the lessor and third parties such as lawyers and financiers — the term of the lease, the ground rent and any special conditions about the value of the house to be built and the uses to which it could be put. In many cases there is a plot, or even a ground, plan of the property and its abuttals. In the case of estates developed by companies or individuals of means, there is often a standard, printed lease form, into which details of each house are entered. The information on builders and owners contained in the lease and other deeds can be cross-checked with sources such as the District Surveyor’s Returns, building notices and rate books.
In the nineteenth century these were principally, although not exclusively, a means for raising money for further building operations on the security of a property already built, rather than a means of buying it for occupation. In other words, it is builders who are found mortgaging their recently-built houses to raise cash to build more, a vivid illustration of the hand-to-mouth nature of the industry. They raised capital from many sources, including the aptly-named building societies, on whose early history these deeds throw valuable light. Money also came from lawyers, financiers, banks, and from a host of private individuals with capital to invest and who sought a steady, if unspectacular, return from property. They include spinsters, rural clergy, tradesmen and many others.
These form the main classes of deeds, although one may find all sorts of documents included in the bundles relating to specific houses. For example, letters from lawyers to clients, bills and, most interesting for the local historian, prospectuses for estate development, usually printed. These extol the virtues of the area, its site and communications, and set out the conditions for the intending purchasers of plots and builders. The best have large coloured plans showing all the proposed roads and house lots.
One sometimes finds prospectuses for estates which were not actually built, historical might-have-beens, such as the intriguing Hygeiapolis proposed for a most unlikely site hemmed in by railways in Battersea.4
There remain a few types of non-printed record outside the categories already described. The most unfortunate gap in the sources for building history is the almost complete absence of records of individual firms, builders and architects. Although there were literally thousands of these operating in the Wandsworth area in the period after 1820, few have left any first-hand accounts, either literary or financial.
Pride of place must go to the autobiography of the Victorian architect William Willmer Pocock. This was written around the turn of the century for the edification of his family, as an example of the way in which a determined individual could make his way in a burgeoning economy and society. Pocock’s autobiography is available in the RIBA Library, and contains many fascinating insights into building activity in this area. For example, there is a detailed account of the working and economics of his brickfield off Falcon Road, Battersea, over a thirty-year span. The account of his work as an architect-developer is supplemented by accounts of his family, politics and religion — all in all, a unique source.
Apart from this, and from chance survivals of correspondence and bills amongst the corpus of house deeds, it is only the memories of the children and grandchildren of Victorian and Edwardian builders which help the historian to recapture an essentially lost world, and there has, as yet, been no systematic attempt to record such memories in this area. It is to be hoped that this lacuna will soon be filled.
Certain classes of printed document have already been mentioned under the appropriate heading in the previous section (for example, the Annual Reports of the District Surveyors and standard, printed lease forms). This section is concerned with other classes of printed source which assist with the study of building history.
The printed records of all tiers of local government in the century after 1840 occupy many hundreds of volumes, some of them with good indexes, others with none at all. The records of the MBW and its successor the LCC are kept at the GLRO. They include such things as the minutes of the main council meetings at which approval was given to developers’ applications for new streets, often subject to amendment at the direction of the Superintending Architect with respect to width, drainage and even name. These are available from 1856 and form an essential preliminary to sources such as the DSR and the Building Notices. These records also cover the Committees of the Board of Works and the LCC, relating to all aspects of the building industry and its ancillaries.
The printed records of the Wandsworth Board of Works are similar, with minutes from 1856, superseded by Battersea Vestry in 1889 and the two Borough Councils in 1900. These record matters related to the MBW/LCC, as well as more local items such as the building of drains, paving and adoption of roads, nuisances and street lighting. They also reveal how often builders and architects, and also estate developers, were to be found in local government, even if outright jobbery is hard to detect. Reports from the various Local Committees are also included, giving a good idea of the sorts of problems faced by local government in a period of unprecedented growth.
As with many of the sources already discussed, it is often necessary to examine a large amount of material in these records in order to obtain the desired information about building activity, although such searches are seldom without reward.
Three essential publications for tracing the date of streets, changes of name and renumberings, together with associated abolition of subsidiary names, are:
LCC: List of the streets and places within the Administrative County of London, 3rd ed. (1929) — includes a list of names abolished 1856–1929.
LCC: Ibid, 4th ed. (1955) — includes list of names abolished since 1st August 1929.
GLC: Supplement to the names of streets and places in the former Administrative County of London for 1955–1966 (1969).
The Official Orders related to these printed sources are kept at the GLC Street Naming Section, Middlesex House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, SW1. [The GLC was abolished in 1986. Street naming records are now held by the individual London Boroughs; for the Wandsworth area, contact Wandsworth Council.]
These have already been discussed in detail in Rita Ensing’s excellent Guide.5 Their principal use in the study of building history is that they give a reasonably accurate indication of the date in which a house or shop was first occupied after building. There is often quite a time-lag, because the cyclical nature of building tended to over-provide accommodation in boom periods, which then stood empty until tenants could be found. Directories also show how rapidly the occupiers of houses changed in an era when most were let on weekly or annual bases.
Also important is the information which directories provide on the location and duration of builders and suppliers of building materials in the area. The trade sections, as well as the street listings, should be searched to build up a systematic index of such individuals, which may then be cross-checked with other sources. Many directories also contain useful advertising material of relevance to building history.
The importance of maps in tracing the spread of building development cannot be too highly stressed. We have already noticed the plans which often accompany sale particulars and also some deeds, as well as the plans submitted to the WDBW with building notices. These, however, generally cover only a small area. The whole of a parish or district needs to be examined on a series of large-scale maps in order to be able to form an understanding of the location and pace of development.
Earliest of such maps are the series prepared in the late 1830s and 1840s for the purposes of Tithe Redemption. These, by a fortunate coincidence, are not only the first really detailed maps of the whole area, but also depict it at a time when urban development had scarcely begun. This enables one, using the accompanying books of reference, to ascertain the pattern of land ownership and use, and to compare field boundaries with those of the later building estates — which shows, incidentally, how many medieval field boundaries are now fossilised in the layout of streets and houses in the area.
After the Tithe Maps, there is a series of large-scale Ordnance Survey plans at intervals of twenty-five to thirty years — mid-1860s; mid-1890s and 1913–16. These are available at scales of 25 inches to the mile and 5 feet to the mile and show a wealth of detail which has not survived, either on the ground or in other sources. A physical check on the number of houses forms a useful supplement to the evidence of the DSR and Building Notices, for example. The 5-foot plans usually show the detail of the interior ground plan of churches, many of which have already been destroyed in the War, or demolished subsequently. These OS plans also show the relationship between the buildings and their support functions, such as industry, railways and tramways.
Other maps tend not to be on a large enough scale for detailed building history, although some early maps, such as those of the seventeenth century for Putney, Balham and Allfarthing,6 should be compared with the Tithe Maps, since they show how relatively little development had progressed in the two centuries prior to the mid-Victorian explosion of London. The so-called “Crace” map of north Battersea of c.17607 serves a similar function, since it marks the end of a period of stagnation, followed by rapid population growth at the end of the eighteenth century, although, as the Tithe Map of 1839 shows, this did not affect the pattern of building dramatically.
Like deeds, these important documents are scattered in many archives and new ones often come to light. They can cover the initial sale of farmland and grounds for building, the sale of house plots in newly-laid-out roads, or the sale of houses already built. They usually contain plans of the affected property, often giving the only large-scale representation of an area before development took place, or the detailed ground plan of a now-demolished property. In the text, details of the individual rooms and outbuildings are often given, especially important in the case of industrial or semi-industrial premises. Information on leases and tenants is often given where small houses are being sold at auction for investment purposes.
One of the most important sale catalogues relates to the disposal of the Spencer Freeholds in Battersea and Wandsworth in 1835–6. These not only have a series of excellent maps of the fields involved — many of them still open strip fields — but also depict the area on the eve of the first wave of suburban development. Many of the individuals who purchased land in these sales, although they carried on as farmers and market gardeners in the short term, were responsible for the transformation of large areas of Battersea in the 1850s and 1860s. Examples of these sale particulars, which are available in WLHC [Wandsworth Heritage Service], are illustrated in this Guide.
The use of local newspapers will form the subject of another Guide in this series, and it is necessary here only to highlight those aspects which are of relevance to building history. The fact of rapid suburban development was so commonplace in the 1860s and after that it was seldom regarded as newsworthy. Occasionally, however, items are found. Two examples are the Park Town estate, developed after 1863 by the architects James and Charles Knowles father and son, for Philip Flower, which features in the Clapham Gazette, and the Shaftesbury Park estate of the Artizans’ and General Labourers’ Dwellings Company, which attracted the notice of the South London Press in the 1870s.
Apart from this, it is worth scanning the small print for items such as notices of builders’ bankruptcies — a common event in an industry which ran on very small margins; for correspondence about houses built and standing empty for want of tenants;8 for examples of gerry-building;9 and, in the small ads, for houses to let, which gives a good idea of rentals charged in various streets and areas. Given the nature of the source, and the very large impact of building on local history, along with the absence of systematic indexes, this can be a long, though often rewarding, process.
This, too, is strictly both a printed and a manuscript source, although it is convenient to deal with it under this heading.
The Census was instituted in 1801 and has taken place at ten-yearly intervals ever since, with the exception of 1941. Printed Parliamentary Papers summarise the position for counties and parishes every decade, giving the basic detail of the number of people, and also the number of inhabited and uninhabited houses on the day of the census. Information on age- and sex-profile and occupational structure are also available, which enable one to trace, at the macro-scale, the evolution of the local community in relation to the progress in building. These printed papers do not, however, contain details of individuals and the houses in which they lived.
For the latter, one must turn to the manuscript Census Enumerators’ Returns. These are subject to a “hundred-year” rule, which means that they are not yet available for consultation after the 1881 Census. [Note: the position has changed considerably since 1985; Census returns are now available up to and including 1921, with later returns subject to access restrictions. Online access via sites such as Ancestry and Findmypast has greatly widened availability.] In practice, only the returns for 1841 and subsequently are of any value for the study of building history. These are available, on microfilm, for all Census years 1841–1881 at WLHC.
They contain information on a street-by-street basis of all houses occupied, empty and under construction, and this forms a useful supplement to the DSR, Building Notices, Rate Books, Directories and Maps already discussed, albeit at ten-yearly intervals. The principal value is that they pinpoint all those who worked in the building industry, enabling one to chart their geographical distribution, family structure, birthplace and so on. This information can then be tied back to the other sources, such as deeds, and helps in part to make up for the dearth of personal records. Members of related professions such as architects and surveyors may also be traced through the Census. It should be emphasised, however, that although there were several thousand building-trade workers in Battersea by 1881, there were still many builders and others who lived outside the parish, and the same is no doubt true of the other parishes within the Wandsworth area.
These are another important source in tracing the history of an individual building and also the general evolution of the townscape. Like many of the other sources mentioned in this Guide, illustrative material is widely scattered. As usual, a good starting place is the library at Lavender Hill [Wandsworth Heritage Service, Battersea Library, 265 Lavender Hill, SW11 1JB], which has, apart from the engravings in journals such as the Builder and the Illustrated London News, a reasonable collection of photographs and old postcards depicting most parts of Wandsworth, including areas which have now been redeveloped. This does not mean to say, however, that every street or public building has been captured by the photographer.
Another good collection of photographic and other illustrative material will be found in the GLRO [The London Archives]. There is a Maps and Prints section and a Photographic Library, the latter specialising in “official” pictures taken in connection with the activities of the MBW, LCC and GLC [now The London Archives; the GLC was abolished in 1986]. This also includes photographs of streets demolished for redevelopment, as well as public works. The material is arranged by the former Metropolitan Boroughs. The prints section, and also the Greater London History Library, contains the extensive topographical collection of John Burns, the Labour politician whose career began in Battersea, and which contains much local information of value.
The Minet Library [Lambeth Archives, 16 Brixton Hill, London SW2 1ET] also has a wide range of illustrative material, including extra-illustrated editions of some of the standard county histories, which contain pictures of many of the houses which existed in the area prior to the onset of urbanisation.
Guildhall Library [the collections of the former Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section are now largely incorporated into The London Archives] and the British Library are also worth trying for pictorial material relating to the Wandsworth area, and there is a growing trade in picture postcards dating from the period c.1900–1914, with dealers in many parts of London, and indeed throughout the country. Many are listed in the IPM Catalogue of Picture Postcards and Year Book, 1985 (11th edition). [This catalogue is now long superseded; online sites such as eBay and specialist postcard dealers offer much wider coverage.]
By a fortunate chance, Battersea Library holds the Metropolitan Special Collection of books and periodicals in this field, although there are also many other archives and libraries which have relevant material. In such a significant industry as building it is not surprising that there is a very large literature aimed at its practitioners, and also at potential patrons, owners and tenants.
First place amongst the periodicals must go to the Builder, founded in 1843. This is a first-rate source of information about new buildings and their architects, although not so much at the lower end of the social scale. It contains many plans and illustrations of new churches, schools and other public buildings, as well as noteworthy houses, which often acted as the pattern for others. Its items of London interest have been indexed by the Greater London Council’s Survey of London team [the Survey of London is now published by UCL; a searchable index is available online at www.surveyoflondon.org]. Also important are the notices of tenders for public works, which give useful data on prices, as well as on local firms involved in this kind of work. The Builder also has many discussions and debates on architectural styles, on building materials and techniques, and also on many of the social issues which concerned the Victorians, for example, sanitary conditions in great cities and the housing of the working classes.
Other periodicals of note include the Building News, the Architect, the Building World, the Illustrated Carpenter and Builder. They often contain architects’ designs for new houses and other buildings, some of them not constructed, and they include examples from the Wandsworth area.
There was also a brisk trade in books designed to appeal to the average builder by offering suggestions on design, both interior and exterior, and also to developers and others on ways in which to realise the benefits of speculation in real estate. Examples include: Tarbuck Handbook of House Property (1875); Emden The Law Relating to Building Contracts (1882); Kinnear Principles of Property in Land (1890) and Maitland Building Estates: A Rudimentary Treatise (1883). There are many other such books, as will be seen from an examination of the catalogues in such places as the RIBA Library and the British Library. Books on specialised subjects within the overall framework of building and architecture include E.R. Robson (Architect to the London School Board in its formative period) School Architecture (1874, reprinted 1972) and A.W.N. Pugin Contrasts and C.L. Eastlake A History of the Gothic Revival, the last two dealing with that quintessentially nineteenth-century phenomenon, the Gothic Revival.
As with many other categories of information discussed in this Guide, the list of contemporary printed sources is almost infinite, and it is possible only to point the researcher in the direction of possible leads. The initial work always leads on to further avenues, some of them quite unsuspected at the outset.
This term is meant to cover all those works which are an essential introduction and adjunct to the study of building and architectural history in a vast city like nineteenth and twentieth century London. They will not only assist in the location of possible sources for the specific task in hand, but will also, very importantly, help to relate work on the Wandsworth area with that which has been done elsewhere in the Metropolis.
Barnard, J. The Decorative Tradition, (1973), a detailed survey of various aspects of decoration on buildings, with illustrations.
Burnett, J. Social History of Housing, 1815–1970, (1978).
Cannadine, D. and Reeder, D., eds. Exploring the Urban Past, (1982), a collection of essays by H.J. Dyos on various aspects of the subject, many from relatively inaccessible journals.
Cruikshank, D. and Wyld, P. London: The Art of Georgian Building, (1975), a very thorough survey of the first period of mass-building in London, which paved the way for the Victorian period.
Dixon, R. and Muthesius, S. Victorian Architecture, (1978), good general introduction.
Dyos, H.J., ed. The Study of Urban History, (1968), perhaps the first textbook on the subject, note especially pp.1–46; Part II and pp.253–271.
Dyos, H.J. and Wolff, M., eds. The Victorian City, (1973), 2 vols. Although this work is not exclusively about London, it is essential reading for anybody who wants to get a feel for all aspects of the city and its development in the Victorian era, and it highlights all sorts of new avenues for research, few of which have yet been attempted in the Wandsworth area.
Gauldie, E. Cruel Habitations, (1974), a good general study of the history of working-class housing, 1780–1918.
Girouard, M. Victorian Pubs, (1975), covers all aspects of architectural and social history; another area of much-needed research in Wandsworth.
Girouard, M. Sweetness and Light, (1977), a history of the Queen Anne movement, 1860–1900. Valuable, inter alia, for comments on Board Schools.
Gloag, J. Victorian Comfort — Design 1830–1900, (1961).
Gloag, J. Victorian Taste — Social Aspects of Architecture & Design, 1820–1900, (1962). These two works form a useful introduction to these topics, especially that of interior design and decoration.
G.L.C. A Revolution in London Housing, (1980), an important study of the work of the LCC Architect’s Department, 1893–1914, when ideas about municipal housing were first being formulated and put into practice, contains references to the cottage estate at Tooting.
Howard, D. London Theatres and Music Halls 1850–1950, (1970), complete listings, together with information on dates of building, alteration etc.
Jackson, A.A. Semi-detached London, (1973), covers not only the inter-war period, but also has valuable sections on the housing scene 1900–1914 and on the development of public transport facilities.
Kellett, J.R. Railways and Victorian Cities, (1969), the best general guide to the impact of the railway on the structure and sociology of cities, including London.
Survey of London. Although none of the volumes produced since 1900 covers the Wandsworth area, many of the volumes refer to builders and architects who were active there, especially the three volumes (37, 38 and 41) so far written about the parish of Kensington, and there is also much of value on domestic building styles. [The Survey of London has since published volumes on Battersea (vols.49 & 50, 2013) and Southwark, directly relevant to the area. See www.surveyoflondon.org]
Metcalf, P. Victorian London, (1972), useful general survey, with a bias towards building history.
Muthesius, S. The English Terraced House, (1982), a first-rate account of this very British phenomenon, essential reading for any study of the Wandsworth area.
Olsen, D.J. The Growth of Victorian London, (1976), another essential general study to be read before undertaking detailed local research.
Owen, D. The Government of Victorian London 1855–1889, (1982), definitive study of the work of the Metropolitan Board of Works and certain of the Vestries.
Powell, C.G. An Economic History of the British Building Industry 1815–1979, (1980), the only general history to cover the evolution of the industry, again essential for background to the local scene.
Rasmussen, S.E. London: The Unique City, (1934, revised ed. 1982), a classic view of the city through the eyes of a discerning foreigner.
Rubinstein, D., ed. Victorian Homes, (1974), a useful series of contemporary accounts of housing conditions across the spectrum with an emphasis on the working classes.
Saint, A. Richard Norman Shaw, (1976), detailed biography of a very influential architect.
Sheppard, F. London 1808–1870: The Infernal Wen, (1971), useful general history of the period when London’s great physical expansion began.
Stamp, G. and Amery, C. Victorian Buildings of London 1837–1887, good pictorial survey of the first fifty years of the Victorian era.
Summerson, J. Georgian London, (1946, revised ed. 1978), definitive study of the period prior to the great outward growth of London, and one which heavily influenced suburban house styles for most of the nineteenth century.
Thompson, F.M.L., ed. The Rise of Suburbia, (1982), includes valuable introductory survey by the Editor, and essays on Bromley, outer West London 1850–1900 and Bexley.
Wohl, A.S. The Eternal Slum, (1977), a very thorough survey of housing and social policy in Victorian London.
Dyos, H.J. Victorian Suburb, (1961), a seminal study of the growth of one suburb — Camberwell — a must for anybody researching this period in the Wandsworth area, with a valuable bibliography.
Metcalf, P. Park Town & The Battersea Tangle, (1978), surveys the building history of a Battersea estate.
Metcalf, P. James Knowles: Victorian Editor and Architect, (1980), Knowles and his father were the architects of the Park Town development.
Roebuck, J. Urban Development in Nineteenth-Century London, (1979), essentially an account of local government in Lambeth, Battersea and Wandsworth, 1838–1888.
Thompson, F.M.L. Hampstead: Building a Borough 1650–1964, (1974), another study with invaluable background on the subject.
The object of this section is merely to list the principal repositories of material on building and architectural history. Examples of especially important holdings of certain classes of document have already been mentioned under the appropriate heading, although this does not mean that it is not worth examining the catalogues and indexes of all libraries and archives for relevant material — it is, remember, a very large subject for research.
All details below reflect the situation in 1985. Current names, addresses and contact information are given in square brackets where the position has changed.
Further details of all but the last two of these will be found in the Wandsworth Historical Society’s Notes on Archives for Researchers, (1983), along with other institutions which may contain material of relevance. [This publication is now out of date; the Wandsworth Historical Society website (www.wandsworthhistory.org.uk) carries current guidance on archives and sources.]
1 See, for example, Muthesius, S. The English Terraced House, 1982.
2 WLHC, MSS 1062.
3 GLRO, B/NTG/1596 and 1612.
4 WLHC, Wandsworth DBW Plans, no.316 (Battersea).
5 Ensing, Rita J. Guides to Local History Sources, No.1 — Directories, Wandsworth Historical Society, 1985.
6 Putney, 1636 by Nicholas Lane; Balham, 1622 by Nicholas Lane; Wandsworth (Allfarthing), 1633 (1640) by Peter Gardner.
7 Copy in WLHC.
8 South London Press, 16, 23 October and 20 November, 1869.
9 SLP, 19 October 1867, concerning the collapse of two newly-built houses in York Road, Battersea.
In order to chart a course through the maze of different sources for studying the history of an individual house, street or building estate, it is necessary to lay down at least a rudimentary plan of campaign. A good example of this is to be found in the BBC publication History on Your Doorstep, (1982), pages 30–47, which traces the history of an ordinary semi-detached house in Ealing. Although some of the sources discussed in this Guide are not mentioned there, it nevertheless forms a useful basis before one embarks on the search. Eight basic stages may be discerned:
Stage 1
Examine all available large-scale (25-inch to the mile or larger) maps, starting with the most recent and working backwards, probably as far as the Tithe Map of c.1840. This will tell you, within a generation or so, when the house or street was built.
Stage 2
Examine the Building Notices to the local authority. If the house dates from later than c.1880, this should reveal the exact date, together with details of the builder. This can then be checked with the applications to the MBW/LCC for new streets, and also with the District Surveyor’s returns for the area. If the house dates from the period 1856–80, it will be easiest to go to the MBW/LCC Minutes first, to find out when the street was approved. This search is made much easier by reference to an early edition of the LCC’s excellent book Names of Streets and Places in the Administrative County of London, which will also indicate changes of name, quite common in this area. For houses dating from prior to 1855 (apart from those covered by the 1845–52 series of DSR), the best approach is through directories, maps and rate assessments.
Stage 3
Discover what deeds are available for the house or its neighbours. It may be possible to get current documents from building societies or solicitors. Earlier ones, where they have survived, may also be located at solicitors or in one of the archives noted already. These will hopefully reveal much about the processes surrounding the building of the house, together with subsequent changes of owner.
Stage 4
If you are lucky, the deeds will have a plan of the whole estate, with the plots marked, together with details of restrictive covenants and house values. There may also be sale catalogues prior to the break-up of an estate for building.
Stage 5
It is worth checking printed sources for the history of the area, which may contain some reference to the development of an estate, or information on those who owned the land in the past.
Stage 6
Directories should be checked for details of the first occupation of the house, together with subsequent changes. They will also give a valuable picture of the development of local shops, schools and other essential support activities.
Stage 7
Rate Books and Census returns should also be examined to show who occupied the house, their family structure and also the estimated value of the property. This should also be related to the wider context of the street/estate and its neighbours, to see if there are any underlying patterns of social structure.
Stage 8
The local press may contain some information about the laying-out of the estate and its subsequent history, although this will usually be fragmentary.
Stage 9
Any old photographs (or other illustrations) of the house and the area prior to development should be examined. Again, this helps one to place it in context and to trace the evolution of domestic architecture over the decades.
[Now held by the Wandsworth Heritage Service, Battersea Library, 265 Lavender Hill, SW11 1JB.]
Battersea
Poor Rate 1751–78, 1792–
Church Rate 1793–1878
Highway Rate 1798–1855
Lighting Rate 1853–8
General Rate 1858–64
Local Rate 1866–79
Parochial Rate 1880–5
Poor & Local Rate 1890–9
Borough Council Rate 1900–
Putney Poor Rate 1735–1820
Streatham Church Rate 1806–48
Wandsworth Church Rate 1836; Borough Council Rate 1900–
[Now held by the Wandsworth Heritage Service. See indexes for details.]
Battersea Vestry, Annual Reports 1889–1900
Wandsworth District Board of Works, Annual Reports 1856–1900
Sanitary Department Reports 1856–97
Committee Minutes 1871–1900
Minutes 1856–1900
Wandsworth Local Committee Minutes 1892–1900
Metropolitan Borough of Battersea, Minutes 1900–64
Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth, Minutes 1900–64
Metropolitan Board of Works, Minutes 1856–89
London County Council, Proceedings 1889–1918; Annual Reports 1900–64
Clapham Gazette & Local Advertiser 1853–59
South London Press 1865–
Wandsworth Borough News 1885–
Wandsworth & Battersea District Times 1890–1905
South Western Star 1890–
Battersea Herald & Mid-Surrey Gazette 1890–1901
Clapham Junction & District Review 1910–9
Note: Battersea Reference Library has complete sets of the Illustrated London News (from 1842) and the Builder (from 1843), both essential sources. Also in WLHC are two series of scrapbooks of local and other cuttings and material, one for the former Borough of Battersea, 1901–1939, and the other for the former Borough of Wandsworth, c.1880–1939. These often have items on the break-up of old estates for building and also on the personalities associated with building and architecture, especially at the opening ceremonies of new public buildings and obituaries.
[The following illustrations appeared in the original printed Guide and are reproduced here as image placeholders.]
[Fig. 1: Building Notice, 1908]
[Fig. 2: Accompanying Plan to Building Notice]
[Fig. 3: Extract from the Battersea Poor Rate Book, 1864]
[Fig. 4: Page from the Minutes of the Wandsworth District Board of Works]
[Fig. 5: 25″ O.S. Map 1865 — West Hill Area]
[Fig. 6: 25″ O.S. Map 1893 — West Hill Area]
[Fig. 7: Sale Catalogue, 1835]
[Fig. 8: Detail from Accompanying Map to Sale Catalogue]
[Fig. 9: From the Illustrated London News, July 1857 — The Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum]
[Fig. 10: From The Builder, July 1892 — Battersea Polytechnic Institute]
Our thanks to Local History Librarian, Tony Shaw, for providing the photocopies for the illustrations included in this guide and to Valerie Thomas for the typing.
First published 1985. © Wandsworth Historical Society, 1985. Reproduced by permission.
ISBN 0-905121-02-3