Historic Book

Extract from “Lambourne-Yiewsley” by James Thorne

Published in 1876

Pages 663-666

WANDSWORTH , SURREY , on the river Wandle at its confluence with the Thames, 5 m . from Westminster Bridge , on the road to Kingston.

The L. and S.-W. , and the L. , C. , and D. Rlys . have stations at Wandsworth.

Pop . of the par . 19,783 ; but this includes the vicarage of St. Anne’s Hill , 10,116 , and the eccl . dist . of St. Mary , Summer’s Town , 1435 , and 1853 in St. John’s , Union Road , Battersea .

The name, Dom . Wandelesorde and Wandesore , in early records Wandlesworth, is plainly derived from its situation: it is the worth, or village (i.e. enclosed place), on the river Wandle .

From the increase of London , Wandsworth has become virtually a suburb . It is a busy place , has extensive manufactures and a large trade , and is continuously increasing in population .

On the Wandle , the entrance from South Street , are the Royal Paper Mills of Mr. M’Murray , a very large establishment ; and there are extensive corn mills , distilleries ( Messrs . Watney’s ) , breweries , maltings , dye – works , chemical works , colour factories , cloth printing and bolting mills , match factories , artificial manure works , and so forth ; and the creek at the mouth of the Wandle forms a dock for lighters , with coal wharfs and stores .

By the Thames the ways are narrow and dirty , but away from the river are broader streets lined with good shops ; outside is a vast number of genteel dwellings , and about the Common , and on Cast and West Hills , are many good houses .

The Common has suffered greatly from encroachments and defacements ; but it remains a common still , wide , open , and pleasant; connected, on the one hand, with Putney Heath , on the other with Clapham Common , and running back to Tooting and Streatham Commons .

Aubrey relates that before his time there had been established at Wandsworth a manufacture of “brass plates for kettles, skellets, frying-pans, etc., by Dutchmen, who keep it a mystery.” The houses in which the mystery was carried on were long known as the Frying-pan Houses .

Dye works were in operation here at least as early . Towards the close of the 17th cent . , many of the French Protestants who sought refuge in England upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes , settled in Wandsworth , and engaged in silk dyeing , hat making , etc.

For their worship they rented and enlarged the old Presbyterian chapel in the High Street , and in it service was performed in French for over a century .

Gradually the French element became absorbed in the surrounding population , but Wandsworth was long famous for hat making .

At the parting of the roads to Clapham and Vauxhall is a small burial – ground – the Huguenots’ Cemetery – where many old gravestones of Frenchmen remain , some almost illegible .

From the many English names on the later gravestones it appears to have been used as the ordinary burial-ground for that end of the parish when the Huguenot population began to die out.

A very different French refugee made Wandsworth for some time his abode. On Voltaire’s release from his second imprisonment in the Bastille , he was ordered to leave France , and he came to England . For two years , 1726-7 , he lived at Wandsworth , the guest of Sir Everard Fawkener , to whom he dedicated ‘ Zaïre . ‘ He was in bad health , but he occupied himself in studying English books , and picked up a sufficient acquaintance with the language to write in it tolerably for the rest of his life .

Wandsworth Bridge . – In 1873 was completed a new iron lattice girder bridge of five spans, connecting York Road , Wandsworth , with King’s Road, Fulham .

Wandsworth has five churches. 

The old church ( All Saints ) , in the High Street , near the bridge over the Wandle , is a plain square brick fabric , erected in 1780 , except the tower at the W. end , which was built in 1630 , but recased in 1841 , and raised by the addition of a belfry storey for the reception of a peal of 8 bells , cast by Mears of Whitechapel .

The interior is not more beautiful than the outside , but contains a few interesting monts . from the older ch . 

On the E. wall , S. of the chancel , mural mont . of Alderman Henry Smith , died 1627 , with his effigy , in gown and ruff , kneeling at a desk , under an entablature borne on Ionic columns . Beneath is a tablet with an insc . setting forth his numerous benefactions . 

Ald . Smith was a native of Wandsworth , of humble lineage ; acquired what was for the time a large fortune by business in the City ; married , but was left a widower without children , and in 1620 , being then 72 years of age , made over his estates , both real and personal , to trustees for charitable purposes , reserving to himself an annuity from them of £ 500 a year for his main tenance . His benefactions embraced every town and almost every parish in Surrey , the object being not merely to afford ” reliefe of the poore , ” but the ” setting them a – worke . ” Smith gave primarily and chiefly to his native county , but his charity was not limited to it . Among other bequests he left £ 1000 to purchase lands , in order to provide a fund for ” redeeming poor captives and prisoners from the Turkish tyranie ; ” £ 10,000 to ” buy impropriations for godly preachers ; ” £ 150 to found a fellowship at Cambridge for his own kindred , etc. The statement on the insc.- ” here lyeth , ” repeated in a Latin insc . on a gravestone below , is inaccurate : there is no trace of interment under the grave – stone ; that and the mont . were removed from the older ch . , and Smith’s burial – place is unknown .

By Smith’s is another mural mont . , with small kneeling effigy of Susanna Powell , d . 1630 , benefactress to this parish , widow of John Powell , servant to Queen Elizabeth, and daughter of Thomas Hayward, yeoman of the guard to Henry VIII., Edward VI . , and the queens Mary and Elizabeth .

N. of chancel , mont . to Sir Thomas Brodrick , died 1641 , and wife, Katherine, d. 1678, with their busts in marble .

Sir Alan Brodrick , Surveyor – General of Ireland , d . 1680 ; Alan Brodrick , 1st Viscount Middleton , d . 1747 ; George Brodrick , 2nd Viscount Middleton , d . 1765 , and other members of the family were also buried here . Their house was at Garrett . 

The register records the burial, April 1635, of “Sarah, daughter of Praise Barbone,” supposed to be the ” Praise – God Barebone , ” the Puritan leather-seller of Fleet Street , who gave his name to Cromwell’s first or ” little ” Parliament .

Griffith Clerke, vicar of Wandsworth , his chaplain , his servant , and Friar Ware , were hanged and quartered, at St. Thomas Waterings ( by the Old Kent Road, then the usual place of execution for this part of Surrey), on the 8th of July ,1539 , for denying the royal supremacy.

St. Anne’s Church , St. Anne’s Hill , made a district ch . in 1847 , was erected in 1822-24 from the designs of Sir Robert Smirke , R.A. It is a Grecian temple , 100 ft by 70 , with a hexastyle Ionic portico and pediment at the W. end .

The body of the ch . is of brick with stone dressings , the portico and pediment are of stone . From the roof rises a circular tower in two stages , with engaged columns , and crowned with a cupola and cross : a ch . worth noting as a characteristic example of a past phase of fashion in ecclesiastical architecture .

St. Mary, Summer’s Town, Garrett, was made an eccl. dist . ch . in 1845. The ch. is very poor E.E. , and consists of nave , S. aisle , and bell turret . St. Paul’s , on St. John’s Hill, a chapel – of – ease , belongs as much to Battersea as to Wandsworth.

It is a good Gothic building of stone , with tower and spire , and apsidal chancel .

Holy Trinity , by Wimbledon Park , another chapel-of-ease, is a substantial stone structure ; Gothic , and cruciform ; erected in 1860 , and enlarged in 1870.

There are many dissenting places of worship , one for Friends , and one for Roman Catholics . It should be noted that the first Presbyterian Church in England was founded at Wandsworth in 1572 : their principles of church government and rules of worship were set forth in a publication called The Orders of Wandsworth.’

The secular buildings include a County Court , Police Court , offices of the District Board of Works , banks , large schools , mechanics ‘ institutes , etc. , but none of any architectural interest .

Wandsworth has many almhouses and charitable institutions , and the open country outside has been chosen as the site for several large establishments unconnected with the locality. 

On the Common , near the Clapham Station , is the Royal Patriotic Asylum , founded and endowed from the surplus funds of the Crimean Patriotic Fund of 1854 , for the nurture and education of orphan children of soldiers , sailors , and marines. 

The first stone of the asylum for girls was laid by the Queen , July 11 , 1857. The building , intended for the accommodation of 300 children , was designed by Mr. Rhode Hawkins , as a free imitation – with some important deviations and the omission of the ornamental details – of Heriot’s Hospital , Edinburgh . 

At a short distance is a correspondent asylum for boys; but the establishments are quite distinct. 

The large quaint – looking red brick Gothic building , with great central clock – tower , and overhanging watch towers at the angles , seen above the railway cutting , is the Freemasons ‘ Female Orphan Asylum , erected , 1852 , from the designs of Mr. Philip Hardwick . 

In Spanish Road , Wandsworth Common , is the Friendless Boys ‘ Home , a valuable refuge for boys from 10 to 16 years of age , “who have lost character , or are in danger of losing it.” It is said that of the lads who pass through the school about 75 per cent are reclaimed . About 200 are now in training . 

At East Hill is St. Peter’s Hospital, the Almshouse of the Fishmongers’ Company, a spacious , solid , and comfortable looking range of buildings , occupying 3 sides of a quadrangle , with a chapel in the centre , erected 1849-51.

The Royal Hospital for Incurables , West Hill , is noticed under PUTNEY .

On the Common will also be observed two enormous piles of buildings , the Surrey Lunatic Asylum and the County Prison.

The former , erected in 1840 , from the designs of Mr. Wm . Moseley , is a late Tudor structure , consisting of centre and advanced wings , 535 ft . long , and provides accommodation for 950 inmates.

The Surrey House of Correction , an equally huge group of brick and stone buildings , erected in 1851 , makes provision for 1000 convicted criminals , with all appliances for labour , instruction , and sickness .

The Union Workhouse , East Hill , is another vast brick pile , affording accommodation for 850 paupers , with a large infirmary attached.