All about Battersea

by Henry S. Simmonds

Mr. Wright took the house of Mr. Swaine, but after Mr. Wright left, the house was taken by a man of the name of Ireland.

James Rock, a respectable ferryman and lighterman, whose house was hard by, was accidentally drowned in the river Thames, August, 1874. His son, George Rock, is now Pier-master at Battersea Park Railway Pier.

The "Red House" was famed for aquatic sports. Adjoining the premises were grounds for pigeon and sparrow-shooting, and the performance of athletic feats. Pigeons were there sold to be shot at, at 15s. per dozen; starlings at 4s., and sparrows at 2s. The place attained a notoriety not surpassed by the number of excursionists who in summer visit Rye House. Subsequently the Red House with its shooting ground and adjacent premises was purchased by the Government for £10,000.

"The Old House at Home" was a small thatched hut, kept by Farmer Hall, where beer was sold direct from the cask, to be drunken on the premises. It answered the six-fold purpose of shop, dormitory, fowl-house, pig-sty, stable and cow-shed. Within this hovel were gathered pigs, fowls, cats, dogs, singing-birds, ducks, cows, horses and donkeys, which, together with the landlord and his customers who regaled themselves here, constituted a "happy family!" This was a famous place for "egg flip," which consisted of new-laid eggs taken from the hens' nests, beat up in hot ale or porter, sweetened with sugar, and sold to persons who preferred roaming about at mid-night or in the small hours of the morning.

On the Lammas land, in the summer months, gipsies pitched their encampments. On Sundays the place presented the aspect of a pleasure fair, lawlessness, Sabbath desecration, immorality, and vice were rampant. At length the place became a scandal and a public disgrace, and even now, notwithstanding the vast improvements in the neighbourhood, Battersea, as a Parish, to a certain extent is ignored, and persons would no more have smiled at Battersea Park being called Lambeth Park than they do now at Clapham Junction being called by that misnomer, and so with other parts of the parish. A great boon was conferred upon the inhabitants of the South-west of London when this infamous locality was converted into a public park. The intolerable nuisance complained of did not take place previously to the year 1835, after Lord Spencer's first sale when the land fell into the hands of small proprietors. Irrespective of social propriety, public decency and order, horse-racing, donkey-riding, fortune-telling, gambling, cock-shying, swings, roundabouts, boxing, and all the paraphernalia of a pleasure fair with its concomitant evils were the constant scenes witnessed here on Sundays. Mr. Thomas Kirk (now Curate of St. George's) who was for many years a Missionary in Battersea, in his report published in the "London City Mission Magazine," September 1, 1870, states, "that which made this part of Battersea Fields so notorious was the gaming, sporting, and pleasure-grounds at the 'Red House' and 'Balloon' public-houses, and Sunday fairs, held throughout the Summer months. These have been the places of resort of hundreds and thousands, from royalty and nobility down to the poorest pauper and the meanest beggar. And surely if ever there was a place out of hell which surpassed Sodom and Gomorrah in ungodliness and abomination this was it. Here the worst men and the vilest of the human race seemed to try to outvie each other in wicked deeds. I have gone to this sad spot on the afternoon and evening of the Lord's day, when there have been from 60 to 120 horses and donkeys racing, foot-racing, walking matches, flying boats, flying horses, roundabouts, theatres, comic actors, shameless dancers, conjurers, fortune-tellers, gamblers of every description, drinking booths, stalls, hawkers, and vendors of all kinds of articles. It would take a more graphic pen than mine to describe the mingled shouts and noises and the unmentionable doings of this pandemonium on earth. I once asked the pierman 'how many people were landed on Sunday from that pier?' He told me that according to the weather, he had landed from 10,000 to 15,000 people! This influx was besides that by the various land roads by which hundreds of thousands used to come, till the numbers have sometimes been computed at 40,000 and 50,000." Mr. Thomas Cubitt, in 1843, suggested to Her Majesty's Commission for Improving the Metropolis the advisability of laying Battersea Fields out as pleasure-grounds, and this design was subsequently pressed upon their attention by the Hon. and Rev. Robert John Eden. An Act of Parliament passed in 1846 empowered Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods to form a Royal Park in Battersea Fields. Acts to enlarge their powers were passed in 1848, 1851 and 1853, by which a Commission, incorporated as the Battersea Park Commission was appointed with power to sell, demise or lease lands not required for the park. Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Pennethorne's plan was approved, by which 320 acres were to be enclosed at an estimated cost of £154,250. The fields were entirely overflowed by the river at high water, until about three hundred years ago when an embankment was raised, and the land reclaimed.[1] Brayley referring to this period says, "The land reclaimed went to the Lord of the Manor, but was subject to some ill-defined rights of inter-commonage exercised by the inhabitants of Battersea at stated periods of the year. From various causes these rights have been nearly extinguished and most of the land is now held by different proprietors, and partly let for building and other uses." Wild flowers grew abundantly in Battersea Fields.[2] A learned botanist in the last century compiled a flora of Battersea, and many of the plants that luxuriated in these fields were not to be met with elsewhere, except at places much farther from London. Its surface was raised by a million cubic yards of earth from various sources, particularly from the London Docks (Victoria) Extension. The Park comprises 198 acres, was purchased at a cost of £246,517, and laid out in 1852-58 at a further cost of £66,373. In 1857 planting was commenced. Up to this period the works had been executed under Mr. Pennethorne, Architect of the Office of Works, when the late Mr. Farrow was appointed to take charge and complete the unfinished works. The park has a grass surface of nearly 66 acres. About 40 acres are set apart for cricket and croquet. There are two match grounds, which, together, admit of seven matches being played at the same time. On these grounds between 600 and 700 matches are played annually. The spaces are assigned by ballot. There is a practice-ground for organized adult cricket clubs, on which from 70 to 90 cricket clubs practice on different days; and a general practice ground, appropriated to schools and junior clubs, and the public generally. The season for cricket is from 1st May to 30th September. Other large spaces are used for the drill and exercise of troops stationed at Chelsea Barracks. Various volunteer corps as also the district police are drilled here. The park contains one of the richest collections of shrubs and trees in or near London. Its soil is specially suited to the rose, so that visitors who take delight in the queen of the English garden resort to the rosery.

[1] It was a miserable swamp, said to have been gained for the parish of Battersea by the act of charitably burying a drowned man there who had been refused sepulture in the adjoining parish. This act was held in a subsequent law-suit to prove a right of ownership, and thus a good deed was amply recompensed.

On the northern side of the river Thames is conspicuously situated that grand national asylum for decayed and maimed soldiers known as Chelsea Hospital. This Hospital was begun by Charles II., carried on by James II., and completed by William III. in 1690. The first projector of Chelsea Hospital was Stephen Fox, grandfather to the Hon. Charles Fox. "He could not abear," he said "to see these soldiers, who had ventured their lives, and spent their strength in the service of their country, reduced to beg." And with the munificence of a philanthropist, he subscribed £13,000 towards the establishment of the Hospital. It was built by Sir Christopher Wren, at a cost of £150,000, on the site of an old theological college escheated to the Crown. In 1850 there were 70,000 out and 539 in pensioners. The body of the Duke of Wellington lay here in state 10-17 Nov., 1852. Ranelagh Gardens lay at the northern foot of Vauxhall Bridge, a portion now forming the pleasure-grounds of Chelsea Hospital, and were formerly the gardens of Lord Ranelagh's Mansion. They were opened 1733. The amusement were masquerades, illuminated and day-light fêtes, dancing, music, and promenading, which was continued until the end of the century. The grand rotundo, which somewhat resembled the Pantheon of Rome, had an external diameter 185 feet, the internal 150. It was taken down in 1805. In Cheyne Walk was a famous Coffee-House, first opened in 1695, by one Salter a barber, who drew the attention of the public by the eccentricity of his conduct, and furnished his house with a large collection of natural and other curiosities. Admiral Munden and other officers who had been much on the Coast of Spain enriched it with many curiosities and gave the owner the name of Don Saltero, by which he is mentioned more than once in the "Tatler," particularly in No. 34. This coffee-house was frequented by Richard Cromwell and many of the wits and authors of that day. "The Folly," a gilded barge where music and dancing and other amusements delighted the beaux and belles of the day of the Restoration, was moored in the Thames not far from the Modern Cremorne. Adjoining Chelsea Hospital is the Physic Garden belonging to the Company of Apothecaries, which was enriched with a great variety of plants, both indigenous and exotic, and given in 1721 by Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., on condition of their paying a quit-rent of £5, and delivering annually to the Royal Society fifty specimens of different sorts of plants of the growth of this garden till the number amounted to 2,000. In 1733 the Company erected a marble statue of the donor, by Rysbrack, in the centre of the garden, the front of which was conspicuously marked toward the river by two noble cedars of Lebanon, the first ever planted in England, of which only one remains. Sir Hans Sloane was born at Killileagh in the north of Ireland, in 1660, of Scottish extraction. He retired at the age of eighty to Chelsea, to enjoy a peaceful tranquillity, the remains of a well-spent life. He died Jan. 11, 1752. He published the "History of Jamaica" in 2 vols. folio. In the churchyard is the monument of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., founder of the British Museum; and on the south-west corner of the church is affixed a mural monument to the memory of Dr. Edward Chamberlayne, with a punning Latin epitaph, which for its quaintness, may detain the reader's attention. In the church is a still more curious Latin epitaph on his daughter; from which we learn, that, on the 30th of June, 1690, she fought, in men's clothing, six hours against the French, on board a fire-ship under the command of her brother. The Chelsea Embankment extends along the north bank of the river from Chelsea Hospital to Albert Suspension Bridge; it was opened 9th May, 1874, by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Lieut. Col. Sir James Magnaghten Hogg, M.P., Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works; Sir Joseph Bazalgette, C.B., Engineer. A beautiful view of Chelsea Embankment with its adjacent buildings may be had from the broad Boulevard running along the river-side in Battersea Park; including the lofty spire of St. Luke's Church, Old Chelsea Church, the Gardens of the Apothecaries' Company, the fine old trees and picturesque Dutch-like houses of Cheyne Walk, the Gardens and Buildings of Chelsea Hospital, the New Barracks beyond, and the lofty Pumping Station and Tower near Grosvenor Road Station.

[2] We are acquainted with an aged gentleman well skilled in medical botany who in the early part of his professional experience used to have gathered certain choice herbs for therapeutic purposes which grew abundantly in this locality.

The following are the names of some of the indigenous plants:—

Circea intetiana—Enchanter's Night Shade (in the lane from the fields to the Prince's Head, Battersea, uncommon in shady lanes). Valeriana dioica—Small Marsh Valerian. Fedia olitoria—Corn Salad (dry banks Battersea Fields and Lavender Sweep). Panicum Vertiullatum—Rough Panic Grass (rare). P. Viride—Green Panic Grass (near the Red House and Nine Elms). P. Crusgalli—Loose Panic Grass (near the footpath). Bromus diandrus—Upright Annual Broom Grass (rare, on an old wall near Battersea Church). Avena flavescens—Yellow Oat-Grass (not common, in the footpath from Battersea Bridge to Lavender Hill). Myosotis palustris—Great Water Scorpion Grass or, Forget me not, (ditches and marshy grounds; plentiful in Battersea Fields). An elegant plant, the emblem of affection among the Germans. Lithospermum arvense—Corn Gromwell, (Battersea Cornfields; not common). Primula vulgaris—Primrose. P. Veris—Cowslip (Fields on Lavender Hill). Hottonia palustris—Water Violet, (plentiful in Latchmere). Scirpus Triqueter—Triangular Club Rush, rare, (Banks of the Thames between Vauxhall and Battersea). Lysimachia vulgaris—Great Yellow Loose Strife. Samolus valerandi—(Brook weed, Water Pimpernel). Chenopodium bonus Henricus—English Mercury. C. olidum—Fetid Goosefoot, (rare). Cicuta Virosa—Water Hemlock, (deadly poison to men and cattle). Conium Maculatum—Common Hemlock, (a very dangerous plant). Œnanthe fistulosa—Water Dropwort. Œ. crocata—Hemlock Water Dropwort, (deadly poison to men and cattle). Œ. Phellandrium—Fine-leaved Water Dropwort, (a very poisonous plant). Smymium Olusatrum—Alexanders, (waste grounds near old houses). Ornithogalum umbellatum—Star of Bethlehem. Rumex Sanguineus—Blood-veined Dock, (rare, bank of a ditch on Lavender Hill, between the Nursery and the footpath). R. pulcher—Fiddle Dock. R. palustris—Yellow Marsh Dock. R. Hydrolapathum—Great Water Dock. Triglochin palustre— Marsh Arrow Grass. Alisma plantago—Water Plantain, (ponds and marshes). Polygonum Bistorta—Bistort, or Snake Weed. Butomus umbellatus—Flowering Rush. Saxifraga granulata—White Saxifrage. S. Tridactylites—Rue-leaved Saxifrage. Sedum reflexum—Reflex Yellow Stonecrop. Lychnis flos Cuculi—Meadow Lychnis. Chelidonium majus—Celandine. Papaver dubium—Long Smooth-headed Poppy. Stratiotes aloides—Water Aloe. Thalictrum flavum—Common Meadow Rue. Nepeta Cataria—Cat Mint. Lamium incisum—Cut-leaved dead Nettle. Scutellaria galericulata—Common Scull Cap. Prunella vulgaris—Self Heal. Pedicularis palustris—Tall Red Rattle. Antirrhinum Cymbalaria—Joy-leaved Snapdragon. A. spurium—Round-leaved Fluellin or Snapdragon. A. orontium—Lesser Snapdragon, (Cornfields, etc., Battersea Fields). Cochlearia armoracia—Horse Raddish. Nasturtum amphibium—Amphibious Yellow Cress. Sisyonbrium irio—Broad Hedge Mustard. S. sophia—Fine-leaved Hedge Mustard. Erysimum Cheiranthoides—Worm-seed Treacle Mustard. Geranium pratense—Blue Meadow Crane's Bill. G. Robertianum—Herb Robert. G. Lucidum—Shining Crane's Bill. G. pyrenaicum—Perennial Dove's-foot Crane's Bill. G. rotundifolium—Soft Round-leaved Crane's Bill, (by the road side near the Prince's Head, Battersea). Malva rotundifolia—Dwarf Mallow. Lathyrus aphaca—Yellow Vetching. Ervum hirsutum—Hairy Tare, (Osier ground near Battersea). Trifolium fragiferum—Strawberry-headed Trefoil. Hypericum humifusum—Trailing St. John's Wort. H. pulchrum—Small upright St. John's Wort. Tragnopogon pratensis—Yellow Goat's Beard. Cichorium Intybus—Wild Endive; or, Succory. Onopordum Acanthium—Common Cotton Thistle. Bidens cernua—Nodding Bur-Marygold. Tusslago Petasites—Butter Bur. Orchis morio and maculata are said to have been found in Battersea Meadows. Listera ovata—Common Twayblade. Typha augustifolia—Lesser Cat's Tail; or, Reedmace. Sparganium ramosum—Branched Bur-Reed. Carex dioica—Common Separate-headed Carex. C. remota—Remote Carex. C. riparia—Common Bank Carex. Sagittaria sagittifolia—Arrow Head. Mercurialis annua—Annual Mercury. Equisetum limosum—Smooth naked Horsetail.