A History of Wandsworth Common

Added

IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

ST JOHN'S HILL, FALCON RD, LAVENDER HILL

Benedict Mackay: [I have left bits out and changed the sequence a little] Development came with the construction of the railway in 1838 and of its associated interchange in 1863. Around the junction grew railway-related industries and the workforce slum housing. Civic amenities, more genteel housing and a regional shopping district were created to the south of Lavender Hill. Green spaces such as Wandsworth Common were saved from development. Reckoned at 6,000 in 1840, the Battersea population increased 28-fold by the time Thomas wrote In Pursuit of Spring. The frontage of Debenhams across Lavender Hill declares its origins as Arding & Hobbs. This was the company's flagship emporium, built in 1884 and remodelled after a fire in 1909. The owners had shrewdly anticipated high profits from the rapid retail and domestic developments that would follow on from the building of Clapham Junction. The store would have been familiar to Wandsworth residents like the Thomas family. Lavender Hill In The Icknield Way Thomas created the character of the Oxford-educated A.A. Bishopstone, the head of a vagrant family which perishes in tragic misery. In the deceased man's diary which he 'finds' he reads various statements of a philosophical nature and quotations from many sources, often mirroring, unsurprisingly, Thomas's own thinking. At one point he has Bishopstone write, "The road northwards out of Arundel leads to Heaven"; to which he had added, "So does Lavender Hill.". Given Thomas's warm recollection of his youthful years in Battersea, this has the ring of a very personal conviction. [5]

Falcon Rd Falcon Rd was a main thoroughfare, leading to crossroads and the junction of Lavender Hill and St John's Hill off to the right. The latter would have led to the Unitarian Chapel, attended by the Thomas family — reluctantly by Edward — and the private John's Hill House School he attended after Board School. The Falcon Inn on the left, built as a hotel and pub in 1882, was preceded by an inn dating back to 1733 and possibly much earlier. It had been by the Falcon Brook (previously named the Hydeburn brook) and faced the former turnpike road St John's Hill St John's Hill off to the right. The latter would have led to the Unitarian Chapel, attended by the Thomas family — reluctantly by Edward — and the private John's Hill House School he attended after Board School. The Falcon Inn on the left, built as a hotel and pub in 1882, was preceded by an inn dating back to 1733 and possibly much earlier. It had been by the Falcon Brook (previously named the Hydeburn brook) and faced the former turnpike road.

[Also another small private school in Battersea, and Battersea Grammar.] St John's Road Cross Lavender Hill and go down St John's Rd. On walking down these streets, a view of the late Victorian houses can be gained by looking up above the shop fronts. Croosh Alley on the left gives a partial glimpse into a past world with its setts, courtyard and bordering trees. The Victorian shops were established to meet the needs of the local population. A directory of 1893 lists a great variety touching on all aspects of life — dining rooms, builders, warehouses, cheesemongers, grocers, butchers and greengrocers. There was even a sculptor and an umbrella manufacturer as well as a 'medieval smiths'. Business relating to the near-defunct farming in the area include corn merchants and dairymen9.

In the past couple of decades, the area has been extensively gentrified, the shops showing the pervasive influence of prevailing consumer fashions. Currently there are wine shops, a homeopathic practice, abundant outlets for coffee or for chic items, eating places, hair stylists and quick food joints. The shops gradually give way to domestic terraces. Cross Battersea Rise and on to Northcote Rd where Thomas, in his Childhood notes, says that one winter there were playing grounds of the hills of snow lining Northcote Road, the principal street — 10. This runs to the south in a shallow valley, flanked by parallel roads which rise gently on either side. Continue down Northcote Rd and, seventh on the right, turn up Wakehurst Rd, taking the short walk up to number 49 on the right.

Subhead

Text

Send me an email if you want to comment on anything you've seen or read on the site, or would like to know more about something, or just want to be kept in touch.

Philip Boys (aka "HistoryBoys")