Battersea: The Sinkhole of Surrey
During the Victorian Era,
Battersea had gained the reputation as being “the sinkhole of Surrey” due to
its widespread poverty and slum-like conditions. Many of the poor in Battersea
were subject to irregular income from the building trades. For a family to
scrape by in the winter they would have to apply thrift spending during the
summer. This was often complicated by the reliance on alcohol which was used as a
means of escape from the depression of living in such widespread poverty. The
irregular income caused many of Battersea’s poor to frequently be on the move.
On average a family lived in one place for less than two years before moving no
more than a few streets away. After hopping from neighbourhood to neighbourhood
the family would eventually return to where they were once exiled from, moving
in only a few doors away from their former address.
Ford’s Folly and the slum of Little Hell
In Keith
Bailey’s report Orville Road, Battersea: a Victorian Slum — a case study of Charles
Booth’s Survey he claims that “the worse elements have for the most part
taken refuge in blocks of houses isolated by blank walls or railway
embankments, or untraversed by any thoroughfare”. This statement holds true for
an area of the city originally known as Ford’s Folly. Construction began in the
late 1820’s as a response to the increased industry along that section of the River Thames. Over the next twenty years, houses and additional roads continued to be
packed into the alcove between Battersea Bridge Road and Battersea Church Street. With each addition the area found itself becoming increasingly more overcrowded
and cut-off from the newer terraces and riverside industries. As a result, Ford’s
Folly fell into a state of disrepair - eventually becoming a slum. To reflect
the horrific living conditions, locals renamed the area Little Hell. It was
comprised of Europa Place, Little Europa Place, Cottage Place, Ford’s Place,
and Ford’s Folly (the court off Little Europa Place).
During 1857,
Wandsworth’s medical officer of health reported that “there is nothing
remarkable in the sanitary condition of the houses in which deaths have taken
place from the zymotic diseases during the quarter, except in Ford’s Folly
which is in a very unwholesome and unhealthy state”. Several newspaper articles during this year described a prolonged drainage issue which were likely a contributing factor for the outbreaks of disease. The east end of Bolingbroke Rd (by Ford's Folly) was said to have "defective surface drainage" and the Board of Works deemed that it was necessary for the owner to cleanse the sewers and repair the drains. This was to serve as a temporary measure until a new set of stoneware pipes could be installed to replace the defective drainage system.
Almost a decade later in 1866, the Wandsworth Board of Works once again was requesting that improvements be made to Ford's Folly. This time, they claimed that the roads were in a "very unsatisfactory state" and requested that the neighbouring factories shoulder the cost of repairing the roads. The board also requested that additional street lamps be placed in the area.
Many reports describe the inhabitants
of Ford’s Folly in an equally bleak light. In his book All About Battersea
Henry Simmonds describes the residents of Little Hell as “Persons in the habit
of receiving stolen property […] who made no pretence of respectability”. This claim is supported by Charles Booth's poverty survey which was performed in 1899. He noted that the area was "poor and rather rough, especially the court (Ford Folly)" and also claimed that it was inhabited by "costers and low class labourers".
In
Keith Bailey’s thesis The Metamorphosis of Battersea: 1800-1914 A Building
History, he claims that: “In 1871, only seven of the 108 children living
there had gone to school, four in the family of the only teetotaler. The logbooks
of Bolingbroke Road School recorded continuous problems with health, truancy,
crime and bad language”. Following the introduction of police during 1859, and
later the board school, the area began to see a slight improvement. However,
Bailey claims that the Bolingbroke Rd. School continued to have “problems […] with
their accounts of ill-health, absenteeism, bad language and violence”.
Slum Clearances
Many
industries developed around the slum, further fueling its overcrowding and
poverty. From the 1850’s to the 1880’s, the waterfront became home to numerous
crucible factories. In approximately 1856, the nearby Garden Wharf became the
home from crucible trading.
After
decades of widespread poverty, violence, and slum-like conditions the city
finally decided in 1910 to begin the demolition of Little Hell.
Related Articles:
Angel Meadows
How to Read Poor Law Records
Researching Addresses that no Longer Exist
Case Study: How to Locate Extinct Addresses
Revision Date: May 14 2023
Originally Posted: Dec 2 2020
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