Battersea Park – derrickjknight

A Knight’s Tale (61: Soil And Heating From Battersea)

A period of stability was to follow when, for a little more than a year from early 1973, I shared Giles’s flat in Claverton Street, S.W.1.

This was a rented basement in a Pimlico terrace. The enclosed back yard was a small area of concrete. There was no real sunlight. Nothing grew there. The elderly woman next door, however, enjoyed a wonderful ferny garden in what appeared to be rich soil. One day I asked her how she had soil when we had concrete. “Oh, I’ve got concrete underneath,” she said. “I put the earth on top”. “Where did you get it?”, I responded. “From Battersea Park”. She replied. “How did you get it here?” was my next question. “In my handbag”, was the answer.

This wonderful woman had trekked backwards and forwards – it must have been for years – carting bags of soil trowelled up from this London Park situated on the other side of the River Thames. The journey across Battersea Bridge would have been about a mile and a half each way.

Opposite our flat stands Dolphin Square, ‘a block of private flats with some ground floor business units ….. built between 1935 and 1937. Until the building of Highbury Square, it was the most developed garden square in London built as private housing. At one time, it was home to more than 70 MPs and at least 10 Lords.^[1]

At the time of its construction, its 1,250 upmarket flats were billed by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as the “largest self-contained block of flats in Europe”. To an extent, their design has been a model for later municipal developments.^[2]‘ (Wikipedia )

Across the river from this block stands

Battersea Power Station. (Pinterest)

‘It was one of many power stations built beside the Thames. Essentially, there were two reasons for siting them beside the river. Firstly, they were initially coal-powered and the coal could be transported by sea and then up the Thames for easy delivery. Secondly, the power stations were built beside the river to provide them with a plentiful source of water cooling. Instead of just dissipating the heat from Battersea Power Station into the Thames, from 1950, the hot water from the power station was piped under the Thames to provide hot water and heating for the flats at Dolphin Square. All that came to an end in 1975 when the power station was decommissioned.’ (https://knowyourlondon.wordpress.com/2021/02/24/dolphin-square/)

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Although the wind has lessened, it is still not conducive to clearing up. In addition to the breakages,

this is what windburn can do, for example to the leaves and blooms of a begonia.

We did water all the containers and dead head many roses. Perhaps we will be able to do repair work tomorrow.

This morning I scanned the last few of the 1984 London Transport Photographic Competition colour negatives.

I hope this young woman was not so engrossed in her magazine as to miss her train. Much research has gone into public signage since the 1960s. I believe the station name Battersea Park is in Gill Sans font, considered to be easiest to read on the move.

Somewhat out of sequence, here are two more shots of the budding footballers kicking cans in Tooting High Street. I wonder if the lad still sports an earring?

Now, back to transport. It would seem to be a good idea, when in a bus station, such as Victoria, to ask a bus driver for directions. This isn’t necessarily so. I enjoyed speculating about the conversation that ensued when two young women did just that. Perhaps you would like to join me, and suggest suitable captions to this sequence.

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This flower stall is long gone from the station precinct. Having paused for his photograph,

the young male customer may well have said to the stall-holder: ‘Smile, you are on camera’. Or………?

Is this weary looking traveller attempting to glean information from the bus inspector seeking the relevant information from his breast pocket? What do you think?

This evening we dined on succulent chicken Kiev, creamy mashed potatoes, new potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots and green beans; followed by strawberry tart and cream. Neither of us imbibed.

Earthworks

In her latest post, which I read this morning, my blogging friend, Pauline King, https://paulinekingblog.wordpress.com/ reminded me of my flat-share with my friend Giles in Claverton Street i 1973.

This was a basement flat in a Pimlico terrace. The enclosed back yard was a small area of concrete. There was no real sunlight. Nothing grew there. The elderly woman next door, however, enjoyed a wonderful ferny garden in what appeared to be rich soil. One day I asked her how she had soil when we had concrete. ‘Oh, I’ve got concrete underneath,’ she said. ‘I put the earth on top’. ‘Where did you get it?’, I responded. ‘From Battersea Park’. She replied. ‘How did you get it here?’ was my next question. ‘In my handbag’, was the answer.

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m28!1m12!1m3!1d19876.114030359146!2d-0.16535125429253614!3d51.485429876219065!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m13!3e6!4m5!1s0x487604e24d50a9c7%3A0x94201afdd9475c59!2sClaverton+Street%2C+London!3m2!1d51.4863879!2d-0.137742!4m5!1s0x4876050ebc506039%3A0xfed645816162fe41!2sBattersea+Park%2C+London+SW11+4NJ%2C+United+Kingdom!3m2!1d51.4791075!2d-0.1564981!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1443520349239&w=600&h=450]

This wonderful woman had trekked backwards and forwards – it must have been for years – carting bags of soil trowelled up from this London Park situated on the other side of the River Thames. The times superimposed onto Google’s map probably relate to trains from Waterloo. This heroine walked across Battersea Bridge.

Our own efforts at shifting soil today paled into insignificance when compared with that neighbour’s feat. Nevertheless I can offer those up for consideration.

Jackie continued her work on opening up the Weeping Birch Bed; revealing some hidden plants; resetting others; and infilling soil from the excess on the borders of the back drive.

I dug out the soil from the area worked over yesterday; moved that round to the front of the house; collected several barrow loads of gravel from the pile on the back drive; and spread it over the revealed surface, thus widening the path. The transported earth needs spreading, and the left hand side of the path needs edging with stone. Maybe tomorrow.

On this glorious day the diaphonous wings of small furry bees glinted from many flowers, such as

verbena bonarensis

and cosmos;

and Small White butterflies, fluttered, flashing, everywhere.

When we sat drinking fizzy water we looked across the other side of the bed Jackie is renovating. Can you see the Small White in this photograph? (As always, clicking on the image will enlarge)

Mr Pink’s fish and chips had the honour of providing our dinner this evening. We added gherkins, cornichons, or wallies, and pickled onions. I drank more of the Chianti and Jackie drank more fizzy water.