From island village to railway suburb
A charter of 693, drawn up by King Aethelred of Mercia, records the place as Badrices Ege. The Battersea Society says the name probably refers to the gravel island by the Thames where the church, manor house and main field lay. By the Domesday Book of 1086, the village was well established.
From the 17th to the early 19th century, Battersea was best known for its market gardens. They sent vegetables, fruit and flowers to the London markets, while the centre of the village was still the riverside around St Mary's. Then the railways arrived from the 1830s. The population grew from 6,617 in 1841 to 168,907 in 1901, as railways, housing and industry took over the farmland. The opening of Battersea Park in 1858 came just in time to save the riverside from being swallowed by industry. Today Battersea is a district of the London Borough of Wandsworth.
St Mary's Church and Battersea Village
A church at Battersea was mentioned in a papal bull in 1157. Today's St Mary's replaced it. The architect was Joseph Dixon, and the first stone was laid in 1775. The church opened on 16 November 1777, keeping the old church's east window and some of its monuments.
St Mary's is listed Grade I, and it's the only Grade I listed church in the borough. It stands at the heart of what remains of Battersea Village, around Battersea Square. The poet and artist William Blake married here in 1782, and J. M. W. Turner often painted from the church grounds.
Battersea Park
Before the park, this was Battersea Fields, marshy land where lavender and asparagus were grown. In 1843 Thomas Cubitt and the vicar of St Mary's proposed a large public park here. Sir James Pennethorne and John Gibson laid it out in 1855-57, and Queen Victoria opened it in 1858. The park and the streets around it, a conservation area, line the Thames between Chelsea Bridge and Albert Bridge. The park itself is a Grade II* registered park and garden.
The park has a riverside promenade, a large lake, play areas, a children's zoo, the Pump House gallery and sports facilities. It's managed by Enable for Wandsworth Council. Look out for:
- The lake and Pump House: the lake was dug in 1861, and the Italianate Pump House was built the same year.
- Football history: the first game under Football Association rules was played here on 9 January 1864.
- Festival of Britain: in 1951 the park hosted the Festival of Britain Pleasure Gardens. John Piper and Osbert Lancaster designed its Grand Vista and Fountain Lake, and the Fountain Lake has been restored.
- The Peace Pagoda: a Buddhist stupa completed in 1985, 33.5 m high and one of around 80 in the world.
- Activities: Go Ape's treetop high ropes and ziplines, the company's first course in a city.
- Sculpture: Henry Moore's Three Standing Figures, and Barbara Hepworth's Single Form on the south side of the lake.
- The Sub-Tropical Garden: restored in 2000, with the Victorian Cascades rockwork still in place.
Pedestrian gates are on Albert Bridge Road, Prince of Wales Drive and Queenstown Road, and the council's park page gives opening times. Bikes and e-scooters are allowed only on the carriage drives, not on the River Walk or anywhere else in the park. Wandsworth Council also holds fireworks displays in Battersea Park, with dates on the official site.
Battersea Power Station
The Power Station stands on the south bank of the Thames. Work on it began in 1929. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect behind Britain's red telephone boxes, joined the project. The first stage, Battersea A, was finished in 1935, and the fourth chimney in 1955. At its peak it produced a fifth of London's power, supplying the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. The Boiler House is big enough to hold St Paul's Cathedral.
In 1940, RAF pilots used the white plumes from the chimneys to find their way home in the mist. In 1977 an inflatable pink pig floated between the southern chimneys on the cover of Pink Floyd's album Animals.
The Power Station was listed Grade II in 1980 and closed in 1983. It was upgraded to Grade II* in 2007. After decades of disuse, it was bought in 2012. Work began the next year to redevelop the 42-acre site around it, with homes, shops, restaurants, cafes, cultural venues and open space. The Power Station opened to the public on 14 October 2022.
You can now go up one of the chimneys. The Chimney Lift starts with an exhibition in the Art Deco Turbine Hall A. Then a round glass lift climbs the north-west chimney to a viewpoint 109 metres up. It was first named Lift 109, after that height. The Power Station is also a shopping destination, with fashion, beauty and high-street stores.
Two Battersea institutions
Battersea Dogs & Cats Home began in 1860. Mary Tealby opened a home for lost and starving dogs in an old stable yard in Holloway, North London. Charles Dickens wrote in its support in 1862. After noise complaints, the Home moved to Battersea, in south-west London, in 1872. It began caring for cats in 1883.
Battersea Arts Centre looks after the former Battersea Town Hall, designed by Edward Mountford and listed Grade II*. It's a registered charity, and most of its shows are Pay What You Can. It's on Lavender Hill, a 7-minute walk from Clapham Junction station, which has good wheelchair access. Several bus routes stop outside.
Getting there
| Battersea Park | Battersea Power Station | Battersea Arts Centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Lake, gardens, sculpture, play | Chimney Lift views, shopping, history | Performance in a Victorian town hall |
| Station to use | Battersea Park (rail) | Battersea Power Station (Northern line) | Clapham Junction (rail) |
- Battersea Power Station Underground station is in Zone 1 on the Northern line, with its entrance on Battersea Park Road. It opened on 20 September 2021.
- Battersea Park station has Southern trains to London Victoria. Queenstown Road station has South Western Railway trains to London Waterloo. Both lie south of the Power Station.
- By river: the River Bus runs between piers from Putney to Barking Riverside, with a stop at the Power Station.
Card photo: Peace Pagoda, Battersea Park by Simon from London, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
