ulcon’. The 1871 O.S. Map shows a horse trough outside the original public house, which no doubt had become a popular staging point for horse drawn traffic.
[You can also see the farm in between plots 503, which is currently #22 Mossbury road]
The first railway to be constructed was the London to Southampton line (1838), which terminated at Nine Elms, but at this time there was no station at Clapham Junction. The Richmond railway line opened in 1846 and in 1848 a third track was completed from Vauxhall to Falcon Bridge, together with the opening of Waterloo station as the main terminus; and in 1860 a fourth track was added. As a result, the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) decided that an interchange station with the West End and Crystal Palace, the West London Extension and the London Brighton and South Coast Railways (LBSCR), could be justified. In 1863 the new station at Falcon Bridge (i.e. Clapham Junction) was opened where the Richmond railway branched away from the main line. Each company had their own platforms and entry to the station was from St. John’s Hill. A long subway linked the north and south sides of the station, only six feet wide. New buildings for the LBSCR were opened in 1874 and those of the LSWR in 1876, the latter being architecturally more significant.
The construction of the railways and the opening of the stations was the catalyst to the development of the open fields of Battersea and Clapham, which were progressively transformed into new housing estates. The strips and furlongs of Battersea’s fields often represented the boundaries of the new residential estates. Between 1840 and 1910 some 141 building estates were developed in the parish of Battersea. The population increased during this period from 6,000 to 168,000. The Falcon Brook, which was an open river running along the line of St. John’s Road was culverted at this time.
[And in 20 years, Clapham Junction transformed from mostly fields to a dense populated area with rows of similar Victoria terrace houses (developer Alfred Heaver built 4,419 houses in the area!). You will also notice that all what is now made by the tower blocks of Winstanley estates was originally similar to the terrace houses of Eccles road, lavender Sweep, etc.]
The early housing was mainly for low-income families associated with the local workforce. During the latter quarter of the nineteenth century, though, this changed to more speculative housing. The developer Alfred Heaver made an enormous impact on the Battersea townscape with the construction of some 4,419 houses in the area between 1878 and 1898.
The construction of houses brought with it a demand for goods and services and St. John’s Road, Lavender Hill and St. John’s Hill became thriving commercial areas. By 1885 the commercial importance of the area was such that Arding and Hobbs, the largest department store south of the River Thames, was built. A fire destroyed the building in 1909, which was replaced by the current much grander building.
The burgeoning population also created a demand for leisure and entertainment. The New Grand Palace of Varieties (now The Clapham Grand) opened in 1900. The Shakespeare Theatre was established in Lavender Hill, near the former Town Hall, the Pavilion Cinema, with its grand Triumphal arched frontage was built where now the entrance to ASDA supermarket lies in Lavender Hill. Both buildings were sadly lost in enemy action in the Second World War, the latter being destroyed by a V-2 rocket in 1944. The former horse drawn tram depot in St John’s Hill was turned into Pykes Circuit Cinematograph. Later a cinema was built in St. John’s Hill, on the site of the former Battersea Grammar School, and became known as the Granada Cinema.
Change has been constant in the area. A Freemasons School for Girls in Boutflower Road was opened in 1853, but demolished in the 1930’s to make way for the Peabody housing estate. The bombed site of the former Pavilion Cinema remained vacant until the 1970’s, when a supermarket was constructed for Carrefour (now ASDA). The buildings in Clapha