Battersea (London)

Comments

• 
  batterseachas (guest)

  battersea is an innner london urban area, bordered by the suburban areas of wandsworth to the south west. Industry has declined to be replaced as a white collar office work destination, but it still has several imporant industrial centres including London's main fruit and vegetable market. Gentrification was first identified and named in Battersea, but 'immigration' is not from Chelsea. Many people move to Battersea from the English suburbs so that they can live as close to Chelsea as they can afford. Between 5 and 10% of the population is now French, there have also been waves of immigrants from West Africa (principally Ghana), East Africa (Ethiopians, Somalians and Kenyans) and emigration of previously ethnic waves (Irish, Maltese, Italian, Spanish, Portugeese, Afro-Carib and Cockney). There was previously a more even spread of income groups in the borough, this has been replaced by an increasingly bipolar system of rich and poor. The previously good social services of Battersea Brough Council including adult education centres, labour exchanges, student accomodation, discount office working facilities and local schools have all been stripped out to pay for our suburban neighbours in the borough of wandsworth.

  16 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  resident (guest)

  The whole area is now run by the Wandsworth council who are very efficient and have one of the lowest rates (local taxes) in the greater London area.but they seem to put the building of new road junctions above the services such as meals for the elderly although there does not seem to be any corrupt practices, One local newspaper has had many people write in & appears to be looking into the running of the area,which consists of gentry in one section & working lower incomes in the other.

  16 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  born and bred (guest)

  this relatively well placed and linked borough on the river with major overground rail links. The borough's name comes from the name recorded in the Domesday book of 1066, Patricsey, and probably means Isle of Patrick (Badric) and was called such because of the early christian chapel built on the site of the current St.Mary's near Battersea bridge, which may have also been built on an early pagan site. It was once at the heart of the industrial revolution, some of the earliest horse powered railways were in use along the Wandle River, also industrialized. The current riverside docks of the Lambeth dump and Battersea Power station, now under Wandsworth management are all that remains of this industrial town west of early Victorian London that stretched from Vauxhall to Wandsworth Town, and brought entrepreneurs, laborers and skilled business classes to this area from all over Europe. It has been turned from a social, varied and forward thinking independent borough and member of Greater London, into a service stripped, class divided property and land development area for Chelsea wanna-be's, City-boys, and Yummy Mummy's. The native and migrant population (mostly working class but a genuine mix) are kept mostly to housing estates and rented accommodation as the lack of proper investment into health, education and social services have produced an ever decreasing amount of clear minded young adults, and an ever increasing price of living, with diminishing returns of investment for living in the area.

  12 years ago | reply | hide comment