Wandsworth Historical Society

The Society's Achievements

Formative years

The Wandsworth Historical Society was founded in September 1953, born out of a fear that, if action wasn't quickly taken, historic buildings would be indiscriminately pulled down, and old records and photos irretrievably lost. The Society immediately set about its task, arranging talks by big-name speakers, and even travelling to Althorp Park in Northamptonshire, where many valuable documents relating to Earl Spencer, the Lord of the Manor of Wandsworth, were stored at the time.

One of the Society's greatest achievements in its first two decades was the completion of a ground-breaking Street Survey of the whole of Wandsworth. Major changes had taken place to the Borough's boundaries in 1965, when a new authority was created incorporating Wandsworth Town, Putney, Tooting and Battersea, and in the years between 1968 and 1971, triggered partly by the demolitions that were removing vast areas of nineteenth-century Battersea, information about the houses, other buildings and even street furniture in some 1370 roads was recorded right across the district.

Three significant past members:

Don Pollock (1911-1979), a mainstay of the WHS for a quarter of a century through his talks, heritage walks, and highly readable articles.
Photo © Humphry Greenwood.

Patrick Loobey (1947-2005), who attracted a whole new audience of local history enthusiasts with his popular books of vintage photographs.
Photo © Neil Robson.

Nick Fuentes (1934-2010), a major player in London's archaeology, who also revolutionised our understanding of the archaeology of the Borough.
Photo © Mr Meredith.

Successes in local archaeology

See our archaeology page for a summary and a link to a more detailed history.

Supporting research

From its earliest days the Society has encouraged its members to undertake historical research and has published their findings. Starting with short articles on the Shakespearean actor, William Pole, and the French writer, Voltaire, many of their accounts have appeared in the WHS's three serial publications: its Newsletter since 1955; its journal, the Wandsworth Historian, since 1971; and, in the case of longer studies, its 'Wandsworth Papers' series since 1973. This last collection now runs to nearly thirty titles, many of which have drawn praise from reviewers.

Promoting heritage within the community

From as early as 1954 the Society has reached out to a wider public through organised exhibitions and open days at festivals, libraries, and shopping centres. It has rescued many important items from the past for future generations, one notable example being its purchase in 2002 of a Georgian clock made in Putney for the Wandsworth Museum Collections. Five years later in 2007 it provided the funding for the Wandsworth Libraries & Heritage Service to preserve on microfilm its fragile World War One files of the 'Tooting & Balham Gazette'.

And more recently, in 2023/24, it made a grant to the Wandsworth Heritage Service which enabled it to have two Edwardian volumes of drainage plans for the Tooting area professionally conserved, complete with bespoke protective packaging. In the words of the Borough's archivist, drainage plans are 'a vital resource for architectural and house historians'.

The Society eagerly lobbied for the establishment of a museum in Wandsworth as far back as 1958, providing enthusiastic support for it when eventually it was created in 1986, and energetically campaigning against its closure in 2007.

Today, stronger than ever, the Wandsworth Historical Society still strives to promote a keen interest in the history and archaeology of the Borough of Wandsworth through its monthly talks and its publication of top-quality research via its regular journal, the 'Wandsworth Historian'.

A 1917 drapers' advertisement from the 'Tooting & Balham Gazette', part of an archive safely preserved by means of a grant from the WHS.
Photo © Wandsworth Libraries & Heritage Service.

The 1903 drainage plans for the 'Tooting Tavern' on Merton Road, Tooting, newly rebound as a result of a grant from the WHS.
Photo © Neil Robson.