Living in Battersea: area guide to homes, schools and transport
The image of the inflatable pig floating in the air between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station, from the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album, Animals, is indelibly lodged in the nation’s collective memory.
The story of the pig’s unhappy flight is currently being told in the blockbuster exhibition about the prog-rock band at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington.
For years this image was as close as anyone could get to this iconic building. As numerous attempts to develop the site came to nothing, the glowering hulk of the disused power station sat rotting, cut off from public view.
This all changed in 2012 when Malaysian investors Sime Darby, Setia and the Employees Provident Fund bought the site and now after nearly five years they are ready to let the public in with a raised platform that offers the first close-up view of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s monumental power station building and its breathtaking scale.
The development is now at the heart of an evolving neighbourhood with thousands of new homes, and its message is firmly welcoming.
Entrance to the power station site is from the Thames Path through the brightly coloured arch under the Grosvenor railway bridge designed by the queen of colour and pattern, Morag Myerscough.
Inside are new shops and restaurants, a village hall which hosted the Power of Summer Festival, and small business start-up units. The aim is to surprise with new names not yet common on the high street, such as No 29 Power Station West, a smart new gastropub; Mother, a pizza restaurant that tourists will know from Copenhagen’s meat packing district, and The Battersea General Store, an upmarket corner shop.
Also set to open this year are seafood restaurant Wright Brothers, Italian restaurant Fiume, The Coffee Works Project, Flour Power City Bakery, wine boutique Vagabond, and spin studio, Boom Cycle.
The other big news is that Prince George has been enrolled at Thomas’s Battersea private day school in Battersea High Street where he will start next month.
Estate agent Sophie Poland at the local branch of John D Wood says Thomas’s has long been popular: “We have always had a lot of families move to the area for that school.” She adds that the area attracts Chelsea’s young professionals and families, who come for more living space and the green open spaces of Battersea Park.
Battersea Square is less than four miles south-west of Trafalgar Square on the south bank of the Thames with Chelsea to the north, Vauxhall to the east, Clapham to the south and Wandsworth to the west.
The property scene
Battersea has riverside blocks of flats, the most renowned being Montevetro by Richard Rogers, which overshadows St Mary’s Church, and Norman Foster’s Albion Riverside. In Prince of Wales Drive there are red-brick mansion flats overlooking Battersea Park.
Elsewhere there are roads of two- and three-storey Victorian terrace houses, especially in the area between Clapham and Wandsworth Commons. There are also estates of social housing.
The most expensive house now on the market locally is Old Battersea House, a 10-bedroom late 17th-century listed property in Vicarage Crescent near Battersea Square, for sale at £12 million.
The most expensive flat is an eight-bedroom home in Albion Riverside priced £10 million. At the cheaper end of the market, one-bedroom mansion flats close to Battersea Park start at about £545,000, while a two-bedroom Victorian terrace house on the Shaftesbury Estate to the east of Latchmere Road would start at about £700,000.
What's new?
The transformation of Battersea riverside, which began 20 years ago, is reaching its crescendo at Battersea Power Station. Described as London’s newest neighbourhood, the monumental red-brick power station is being stripped out to provide shops, restaurants, offices, leisure facilities and rooftop flats which will be ready in 2020.
The first phase of the development, Circus West, which snakes around the western side of the power station, is now nearly complete with 300-plus residents already moved in. Prices here start at £600,000.
Next off the block is Battersea Roof Gardens by Foster + Partners, with a two-acre communal roof garden designed by Field Operations, creators of New York’s High Line linear park.
Meanwhile, The Flower, a block of flats designed by Frank Gehry, has a titanium shell and the extraordinary appearance of a crumpled blossom. Two-bedroom flats at Battersea Roof Gardens start at £1.4 million, with prices at The Flower from £1.3 million. Visit batterseapowerstation.co.uk or call 020 7501 0678.
Lombard Wharf in Lombard Road is a Barratt development of 134 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and penthouses that are ready to move into. The flats have wraparound terraces with river or city views. Prices range from £679,000 to £4.9 million. Call 020 7326 9966.
The last phase of St George’s massive Battersea Reach development, between York Road, the river and Wandsworth Bridge Road is now launched with one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and penthouses in Discovery House starting from £565,000. Call 020 7978 4141.
Developer Linden Homes is launching The Podium in York Road in the autumn. The £100 million development has a large VW showroom on the ground floor creating 90 jobs, with one-, two- and three-bedroom flats in the 20-storey building above. Prices start at £699,950. Call 020 3811 5898.
Battersea Power Station includes a range of affordable flats. With one to four bedrooms, these will be available to local people for discounted rent, ie up to 80 per cent of the market rent, and for discounted sale. The first phase of affordable flats will be ready to move into in 2020.
Housing association Wandle has one- and two-bedroom shared-ownership flats at Battersea Reach. Prices range from £119,375 for a 25 per cent share of a flat with a market value of £477,500, and from £156,875 for a 25 per cent share of a flat with a market value of £627,000.
Wandle will also have a range of shared-ownership flats in The Podium. Call 0300 2000 116.
Renting
Lettings manager Anntonia Redding of estate agents John D Wood says Battersea attracts a wide range of tenants, everyone from student sharers, to families, to business people here for a couple of years.
Her landlords range from international investors to families who have moved out of London but have held on to their home as an investment, and also to investors who have bought for eventual occupation by children or grandchildren.
Staying power
Sophie Poland of estate agent John D Wood & Co says she has clients who have bought in Battersea three or four times.
Postcode
SW11 is the Battersea postcode.
Best roads
The mansion flats in Prince of Wales Drive overlooking Battersea Park; the large family houses in Albert Bridge Road, also overlooking Battersea Park, and Bolingbroke Grove, where the houses overlook Wandsworth Common.
Up and coming
Sophie Poland suggests the Park Town conservation area, which straddles Queenstown Road. The simple three-storey flat-fronted Victorian houses and purpose-built Victorian flats here are set to benefit from the opening of the new Tube station.
Another popular budget choice is “right-to-buy” flats on the Ethelburga Estate close to Battersea Park.
Travel
Travel to Battersea is about to get a lot better. Next month a new Thames Clipper service starts from a newly constructed pier at Battersea Power Station and from 2020 there will be a new Underground station, an extension from Kennington of the Northern line.
For now, commuters rely on trains from Clapham Junction, Queenstown Road and Battersea Park. All stations are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,296.
Council
Wandsworth council is Conservative controlled. Band D council tax for 2017/18 is £694.
Lifestyle
Shops and restaurants
The area between Clapham and Wandsworth Commons with Northcote Road running through the middle is a bustling Nappy Valley with plenty of independent cafés, bars and restaurants.
Battersea Square is a quiet spot with tables spilling out on to the pavement at many of the cafés, which include chef Gordon Ramsay’s London House; Queenswood and a branch of Gail’s Bakery.
Close to the Royal College of Art campus in Battersea Bridge Road, there is a branch of PizzaExpress and also Bunga, which mixes pizza and karaoke; Robert Young Antiques, specialising in folk art and country furniture, and Augustine Kitchen, a French restaurant.
Off Battersea Bridge Road, Parkgate Road has The Butcher & Grill, a butcher, deli and restaurant, and Nutbourne, a farm-to-table brasserie run by three brothers who farm in Sussex and who have opened two other restaurants — Shed in Notting Hill and Rabbit in Chelsea.
A branch of the delicatessen, Bayley & Sage opens soon. There is a Saturday farmers’ market off Parkgate Road at Ransome’s Dock.
Cake Boy patisserie, owned by TV chef Eric Lanlard, is in the Battersea Reach development and there is a branch of modern Danish furniture and interior accessories chain BoConcept in York Road at the entrance to the development.
Further along York Road, northern-based furniture chain Barker & Stonehouse has a large shop in the former Price’s candle factory. In Battersea High Street, Bariloche is an Argentinian grill and bar, and Manna Dew is a gluten-free cake shop.
Battersea Park Road has a lovely garden centre, the Battersea Flower Station, along the side of a railway line; health food shop Apples & Bees, and Chesney’s, which specialises in mantlepieces and wood-burning stoves has two large showrooms.
Boqueria is a popular tapas restaurant on the corner of Queenstown Road and Battersea Park Road.
Open space
Battersea Park is one of London’s best loved parks. Covering 200 riverside acres it has the famous London Peace Pagoda, looked after by a single Tibetan monk, a restored Festival of Britain garden and fountains, a children’s zoo, boating lake, bandstand, tennis courts, running track, football and hockey pitches as well as a café and Pump House Gallery, a contemporary visual arts space in a restored Victorian tower. Also in the park, a business called Go Ape runs a challenging high rope and zip wire course.
Leisure and the arts
The innovative Battersea Arts Centre in Lavender Hill is the local artistic jewel. It suffered a devastating fire in 2015 which destroyed the grand hall but left the rest of the building intact, where BAC continues to stage ground-breaking work in theatre, as well as hosting comedians, talks and children’s events.
Theatre503, above The Latchmere pub in Battersea Park Road is a fringe theatre that supports new writing.Latchmere Leisure Centre in Burns Road is the local council-owned swimming pool.
Schools
Primary School
All the state primary schools are rated at least “good” by the Ofsted education watchdog; Chesterton in Dagnall Street is rated “outstanding”.
Comprehensive
The state comprehensive schools are the fast-improving Harris Academy Battersea (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Battersea Park Road, and St John Bosco College (RC, co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Parkham Street, which is rated “good”.
Private
Four-year-old Prince George has been enrolled at Thomas’s Battersea private day school in Battersea High Street and will start next month. The other local private preparatory school is Newton Prep (co-ed, ages three to 13) in Battersea Park Road.
There are also two private French bilingual schools: L’École de Battersea (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Trott Street and L’École du Parc (co-ed, ages one to six) in Garfield Road. Thames Christian College (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in Wye Street is a private non-denominational Christian school.