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Wandsworth boasts being the site of the first iron railway in England, possibly the first in the world. After an Act of Parliament in 1801, builders laid the final lengths of the 9-mile iron track, and the Surrey Iron Railway commenced operations.
Wandsworth's history has been shaped by its position on the Wandle and the Thames and on a major east-west road (probably of Roman origin). The Wandle provided power for mills, which were numerous by 1086.
- Famous Wandsworthians
- It Was The Birthplace of Some Pretty Big Ideas
- It's The Site of The World's Oldest Public Railway...
- And London's Most Boring Bridge
- It Has A Heliport
- It's Name-Checked on Mars
- It Boasts A Michelin-Starred Restaurant
- You Might Recognise The Wandsworth Underpass
- It's Home to London's Largest Prison
- It's Home to London's First Purpose-Built Mosque
If you live in Wandsworth, you're in good company. Hundreds of celebrated personalities have made what is now the borough their home over the years: Thomas Cromwell; David Lloyd George; Kevin Spacey; Keira Knightley; Mark Owen; Sophie Dahl; Sadiq Khan; Frank Bruno; Grace Jones; Marc Bolan; Richard Branson; and Konnie Huq. Wandsworth's literary conn...
The Putney Debatesof 1647 put forward some of the key democratic rights enjoyed by citizens across the world today. During the Civil War, with the Roundheads looking like they were gaining the upper hand, some members of the New Model Army were worried the king would be replaced by yet another autocratic ruler. At a meeting in Putney's St Mary The ...
Wandsworth is home to England's — and possibly the world's — oldest public railway, the Surrey Iron Railway. Running from Wandsworth to Merstham in Surrey, via Croydon — a distance of nearly nine miles — the Surrey Iron Railway opened in 1803. But it wasn't quite a railway as we might think of it today, and it certainly didn't carry passengers. It ...
As a Thames-side borough, Wandsworth has plenty to offer London's pontists, with no fewer than eight bridges crossing the river within its boundaries. There's Grosvenor bridge; Chelsea bridge; Albert bridge; Battersea and Battersea Railway bridges; Wandsworth bridge; Fulham railway bridge; and Putney Bridge. It can also lay claim to what might be t...
We lesser mortals, who tend to travel by tube and bus, might not know that Wandsworth is home to London's only licensed heliport. It's really small, using of a jetty to provide a helipad for take-off and landing, and with onshore 'parking' for just three to four aircraft, depending on their size. It opened in 1959, and for a while was owned by Harr...
Seriously. There's a 28km-diameter crateron Mars named after Tooting, thanks to Wandsworth resident and planetary expert, Pete Mouginis-Mark. According to the International Astronomical Union's rules for planetary nomenclature, craters on Mars less than 60km in diameter should be named after "villages of the world with a population of less than 100...
While London is lucky to have many Michelin-starred restaurants, only a handful are located south of the river. One of just four south London establishments to hold stars at the last count is Wandsworth Common's Chez Bruce. In 2006, Chez Bruce was first named as 'Londoners' Favourite Restaurant' in a Harden's London Restaurant survey: they went on ...
Trying to negotiate Wandsworth's unforgiving Trinity Road on foot can sometimes feel like you're stuck in a parallel south London dystopia. If you use one of the four, bleak, unloved underpasses beneath the Wandsworth Bridge roundabout, and feel an involuntary shiver, it might be because something in your subconscious remembers this is where Alex a...
Built in 1851 as Surrey House of Correction, what is now called Wandsworth Prison is the largest prison in London and one of the largest in Europe. Notable inmates include Charles Bronson, Ronnie Kray, Julian Assange, Pete Doherty and Gary Glitter. Oscar Wilde served the first six months of his sentence here in 1895, before being moved to Reading. ...
In 1926, Southfields in Wandsworth became home to London's first purpose-built mosque. The Fazl-Mosque, or London Mosque was inaugurated on 23 October 1926. The construction of the mosque was financed by donations from the Ahmadi Muslim women in Qadian, India. Since 1984, the mosque has been the international headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Co...
Place: Click on the map for other historical maps of this place. In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Wandsworth like this: Wandsworth, parl. bor. and par., Surrey, on river Wandle, at its influx into the Thames, 5 miles SW. of Waterloo Station, London, by rail - par., 2433 ac., pop. 28,004; bor. (including also ...
Wandsworth takes its name from the River Wandle, which enters the Thames at Wandsworth. Wandsworth appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Wandesorde and Wendelesorde. This means 'enclosure of (a man named) Waendel', whose name is also lent to the River Wandle. [3]
Wandsworth takes its name, unsurprisingly, from the River Wandle, which enters the Thames at Wandsworth. Wandsworth appears in the Domesday book of 1086 as Wandesorde and Wendelesorde. This means 'enclosure of (a man named) Waendel', whose name is also lent to the River Wandle.
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Wandsworth, inner borough of London, England, in the historic county of Surrey. It lies west of Lambeth and stretches for 5 miles (8 km) along the south bank of the River Thames. The borough was established in 1965 by merging the former metropolitan borough of Battersea with approximately.
