London and Southampton Railway — Blog 1

When does a connection become a barrier? A river, transporting goods from hinterland to the sea, is a serious barrier to people and goods who wish to cross from one side to another. Great for ferry operators of course and, eventually, great for civil engineers, when bridge technology caught up. Interesting that Thames passenger craft, with the exceptionof the Woolwich Ferry, now tend to go up and down stream rather than from one side to the other. We can be an adaptable lot.

Roads are another classic: as technology changes, so a cart track adequately connecting two market towns can develop into a roaring dual carriageway, blighting its environment and dividing communities as surely as a river. Again, good for civil engineers, good for online shopping and deliveries, but ghastly if you live close by, and dodgy if your best mate and local shop are on the other side.

Terroir regulars will know that we recently visited an area of major urban regeneration, centred on Vauxhall, Nine Elms, and Battersea, on the south bank of the River Thames. Connections – mostly railways and bridges - have been major factors in the rise and fall of this former marshland.

Drainage seems to have been the first major technology to transform the Nine Elms area, followed by the economic impact of proximity to a major city, willing and able to buy the fresh fruit and veg grown in the developing market gardens. But, as in much of Britain, it was all change when the railways arrived.

An ambitious London and Southampton Railway, soon to become the London and South Western Railway, picked Battersea/Nine Elms as its location for the first ever London railway terminal. The neo classical station building was opened in 1838. Any modern commuter will shake their heads in wonderment at the choice of location, as anyone wanting to go to central London (and presumably that was everyone, unless your destination was the declining Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens) would need to complete their journey by road, or ferry from Vauxhall to London Bridge. The road journey via the London Bridge crossing would be about 3 miles; it would be even longer, and more expensive, via the local Regent (toll) Bridge.

In these conditions, it is not surprisingly, that things changed rapidly. Ten years later the station closed and moved to Waterloo and the Nine Elms site was developed into a massive goods depot, carriage/wagon works, and a locomotive depot. By the mid 1850’s other companies were interested in the area. The London Brighton and South Coast Railway soon joined the melee and other industry followed, as noted in the ‘Big House on the Prairie blog’. With technological changes, late 20th century decline was inevitable; by 1974, New Covent Garden was relocated to the area, but it was not until the 20-teens that serious regeneration plans were formulated.

Left: Ordnance Survey of 1913/14 'Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland' https://maps.nls.uk/index.html

Right: Google Maps © 2021

A significant objective of the regeneration project was to improve the links between the Nine Elms Opportunity Area and Central London, and to ‘create central London’s new urban district’. But, despite the demolition of the railway yards and all related industrial works, it was essential to retain the actual railway line, which must have become a bit of a thorn in the side of the regeneration project. Running right through the development area, the elevated line created a substantial barrier between Nine Elms to the south east and the American Embassy/Battersea Power Station area to the north and west. You can see the line running through the two images above.

Enter Arch 42. In railway times, Arch 42 was a stables, and later used by carriage fitters. Subsequently, the arch was taken over by a fruit and veg seller and then a mechanic. But the need to provide a strategic pedestrian access between Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station has now given Arch 42 a completely new role. You can now walk into it – and out again on the other side. The London Borough of Wandsworth are working hard on giving it some razzamatazz - it is as yet a work in progress - and there is a fascinating video on the development of this new, must see, railway arch at https://nineelmslondon.com/features/arch42/

So, please, join Terroir on a walk through London’s ‘new urban district’. We will walk from the newly opened Nine Elms Underground station, via the newly opened Arch 42, to the newly opened Battersea Power Station Underground station (see last week’s blog for our views on station naming). This is high rise land, so beware of a crick in the neck as we peer upwards at the unfinished townscape. Much of the green space has yet to be created so wear comfortabe shoes as there are currently limited opportunities to sit in the sun and relax. But there is the occasional cafe for a quick refuelling stop, although don’t expect economy prices.

Below: everybody wants to stress the area’s new connectivity.

Here is the new Nine Elms station. Next door was the site of the Vauxhall Motor Works, now a Sainsbury’s supermarket.

You may think you are moving from the old to the new, high rise zone, but low rise fruit and veg have been around the area since the 1960s. Note a last outpost of old fashioned housing, the rainbow zebra, fruity hoardings, the railway arches, the facade of one of the market buildings, market vehicles in the shadow of the new tower blocks and the railway line barrier, with the brave new world of apartment living beyond.

Moving on and, look, we are in Arch 42, looking back whence we came. Turn round and you will get a glimpse of where we are going.

Obviously, there is a way to go yet with finishing Arch 42 on the Nine Elms side. But on the Battersea side, a small landscape has been created to integrate the Arch into the existing urban environment. Obviously its very new, but we think the bug hotel is a great detail. Sadly, access has been only half thought through. Terroir photographer is standing (left) on the ramped entrance, but someone forgot the steps for those who don’t need a ramp. The ideal position would have been next to the sign post, particularly for the athletic types who approach from that end. Already, the desire line is being beaten through the planting (right) by those who opt to enter the arch by the shortest route - round the railing, through the planting bed, and finishing with a quick leap down from the retaining wall. We are not being over critical; we were only there five minutes and watched it happen.

We are now in Embassy land, a three dimensional landscape with serious, residential cliff faces all around us. We expected to see ravens and pergrine falcons at every turn. We were disappointed, but cheered by some minor attempts at using colour and detailing. We do not include the embassy in this critique, of course, but that can be found in the ‘Big House on the Prairie’ blog of two weeks ago.

As we turn westward, away from the embassy area and towards Battersea, we enter a zone of somewhat older building and a more mature townscape, full of cafes, residents and curious sculpture.

Here the streets and apartments have room for vegetation, some enhancing ground floor spaces and public realm, some more private but reaching vertiginous heights (centre and right).

Some is more traditional, ornamenting a private, ground floor, ‘off street’ patio (left), another climbs public steps in more a modern, airy design, while a third appears to be suffering from being placed in an apparent wind tunnel (right)!

The final landmark on our walk to Battersea Power Station station is the larger portion of New Covent Garden market, brightly coloured, large, unashamedly wholesale and commercial, but about to be dwarfed by more high rise accommodation.