Battersea

Battersea is a place in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is an inner-city district located 3 miles (4.8 km) south west of Charing Cross.

Geography

Battersea is an area of London lying on the south bank of the River Thames. Vaguely triangular in shape, its northern boundary is the Thames, as it runs first north-east, and then east, before turning north again to pass Westminster. Its north eastern corner is one mile (1.6 km) due south of the Palace of Westminster; the north western corner is demarcated by Wandsworth Bridge and Battersea tapers south to a point roughly three miles (5 km) from the north eastern corner and two miles (3 km) from the north west.

Related Topics:
River Thames - Westminster - Palace of Westminster - Wandsworth Bridge

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Places of note

Within the bounds of modern Battersea are (from east to west):

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• Battersea Power Station an impressive, now disused, edifice designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, built between 1929 and 1939 (featured, with flying pig, on the sleeve art of Pink Floyd's album 'Animals'). Currently being renovated into a mass entertainments and commercial complex, with dedicated transport links. It is planned that the renovations will be completed in 2008. There is however scepticism locally that the plans will ever materialise, and there is opposition to them.
• Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, formerly Battersea Dogs Home and prior to that the Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs, established in Holloway in 1860 and moved to Battersea in 1871.
• New Covent Garden Market, a major fruit and vegetable wholesale market, resited from Covent Garden in 1974.
• Battersea Park, an 83 hectare green space laid out by Sir James Pennethorne between 1846 and 1864 and opened in 1858, and home to a zoo and the London Peace Pagoda.
• The London Heliport, London's busiest heliport, sited on the Thames a half mile due north of Clapham Junction station.
• Clapham Junction, the contemporary transport and shopping centre of Battersea, with the busiest railway station in the United Kingdom.