LOCAL AREA

Wandsworth is the largest of the inner London boroughs. It occupies an area of more than thirteen square miles and has a growing population - currently some 260,000 residents.

The Borough is a collection of many different communities, each with its own distinct character. It enjoys a wide ethnic diversity with more than one in five people belonging to a racial minority group.

It is a popular residential area with many different types of housing - from the leafy suburbs of Putney to the inner city housing estates of north Battersea.

Wandsworth residents pay the lowest council tax bills in the country and enjoy some of the best services.  

Old Time Wandsworth

The old parish of Wandsworth covered a large area, which not only included the original village but the areas that were to become Earlsfield, Southfields and Summerstown. As late as 1864 Wandsworth was described as a quaint and old-fashioned village, straggling along the London-Kingston Road, with country lanes and byways spreading out across the fields and along the banks of the River Wandle and the Thames. Although there had always been some industries by the Thames and old mills along the Wandle, up to the middle of the 19th century Wandsworth consisted mainly of farmland, market gardens, parkland of the grand estates and the open heathland of Wimbledon and Wandsworth Commons. Over a period of some thirty years it all changed. The railways had already cut two swathes across the fields and more industries arrived. This in turn led to more houses, shops and schools, until much of the open land had disappeared. Wandsworth Common too suffered, with areas being cut up by the railway or used for institutional buildings. We can only scratch the surface here of 1000 years of Wandsworth's history, but to find out more a visit to the Wandsworth Museum is a must.