Battersea

Latchmere Recreation Ground or Latchmere Park is a public open space with a children's playground in Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

Latchmere Estate is a housing estate in Battersea, Greater London, which was constructed in 1903. It is the first example of a housing estate built with labour directly employed by a local council authority.Between 1832 and the 1880s, Battersea's population increased from 5,500 to 107,000, meaning new housing needed to be constructed. The land used for the estate had previously been allotments for the poor, but with the new need for housing, this was no longer considered a productive use of space.In the 1890s, John Burns, the MP for Battersea, secured acts of parliament allowing for the construction of the estate on the former Latchmere Common. A design competition was held which attracted 58 entries in 1901, and construction began soon after. For the time, the estate contained things like electric lighting and combined ranges which were considered luxuries. Opening the estate, the Mayor declared that, "The dwellings were novel of their kind, containing as they did what had once been regarded as luxuries, such as baths, combined ranges and electric light. Not many working men had such accommodation in which to bring up their families, but the Battersea Borough Council had come to the conclusion that such accommodation was an absolute necessity."The estate was built with 315 dwellings, "28 five-room houses, one four-room house, 70 houses each with two three-room tenements with bath scullery and 73 houses each with two four-room tenements with bath scullery."The English Heritage Survey of London (2013) calls the estate "the most vivid extant reminder of the efforts undertaken in Battersea’s heyday as a progressive municipality to better the life of its working classes". According to Sean Creighton, "The Estate's street names Freedom, Reform Sts, Odger, Joubert, Matthews and Burns all have a special meaning, reflecting the particular liberal, radical and socialist politics of its controlling Progressive Alliance."The estate is now part of Wandsworth Council's Latchmere Estate Conservation Area, which was designated in 1974. A planning strategy for the conservation area was published by the council in 2007.

The Brown Dog affair was a political controversy about vivisection that raged in Britain from 1903 until 1910. It involved the infiltration by Swedish feminists of University of London medical lectures; pitched battles between medical students and the police; police protection for the statue of a dog; a libel trial at the Royal Courts of Justice; and the establishment of a Royal Commission to investigate the use of animals in experiments. The affair became a cause célèbre that divided the country.The controversy was triggered by allegations that, in February 1903, William Bayliss of the Department of Physiology at University College London performed an illegal vivisection, before an audience of 60 medical students, on a brown terrier dog—adequately anaesthetized, according to Bayliss and his team; conscious and struggling, according to the Swedish activists. The procedure was condemned as cruel and unlawful by the National Anti-Vivisection Society. Outraged by the assault on his reputation, Bayliss, whose research on dogs led to the discovery of hormones, sued for libel and won.Anti-vivisectionists commissioned a bronze statue of the dog as a memorial, unveiled on the Latchmere Recreation Ground in Battersea in 1906, but medical students were angered by its provocative plaque—"Men and women of England, how long shall these Things be?"—leading to frequent vandalism of the memorial and the need for a 24-hour police guard against the so-called anti-doggers. On 10 December 1907, hundreds of medical students marched through central London waving effigies of the brown dog on sticks, clashing with suffragettes, trade unionists and 300 police officers, one of a series of battles known as the Brown Dog riots.In March 1910, tired of the controversy, Battersea Council sent four workers accompanied by 120 police officers to remove the statue under cover of darkness, after which it was reportedly melted down by the council's blacksmith, despite a 20,000-strong petition in its favour. A new statue of the brown dog, commissioned by anti-vivisection groups, was erected in Battersea Park in 1985.On 6 September 2021, the 115th anniversary of when the original statue was unveiled, a new campaign was launched by author Paula S. Owen to recast the original statue.

Battersea General Hospital, known locally as the "Antiviv" or the "Old Anti," was a hospital in Battersea, London.

Harris Academy Battersea is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located near Battersea Park in the Battersea area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England.

Electric House was an electricity showroom building built on Lavender Hill, Battersea, London, England, by Battersea Borough Council. The building, opened in 1927, was broadly to a design by Henry Hyams, and was described as combining a 'fin-de-siècle manner' with 'up-to-the-minute Art Deco taste'. It was demolished in 1985.

Battersea Town Hall, originally the New Parochial Offices, Battersea, is a Grade II* listed municipal building in Battersea, south London, designed by Edward Mountford and erected between 1891 and 1893 by the Battersea vestry to provide public halls and office space for its staff. The building served for 72 years as the hub of municipal Battersea until the centre of local government was moved to neighbouring Wandsworth in 1965, after which it transitioned to use as a community and arts centre, latterly known as the Battersea Arts Centre.

Battersea Central Library is a public lending library situated on Lavender Hill in Battersea, south-west London. The library was built by the Battersea Vestry between 1889 and 1890, to a design by Edward Mountford, and remains in use in contemporary times as one of Wandsworth Council's libraries, operated by Greenwich Leisure Ltd. A separate Battersea Reference Library, built in 1924 with a frontage on Altenburg Gardens, is connected to the Central Library, and together the pair are known as Battersea Library.

Battersea was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in the County of London, England. In 1965, the borough was abolished and its area combined with parts of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth to form the London Borough of Wandsworth. The borough was administered from Battersea Town Hall on Lavender Hill. That building is now Battersea Arts Centre.

Battersea Beer Festival was a three-day-long annual beer festival held at the Battersea Arts Centre, Battersea, London, England. The festival offered opportunities to sample over 200 real ales, along with a range of traditional ciders and foreign beers, as well as bottled real ales and foreign bottled beers. The final, and 24th, festival took place from 5–7 February 2014, and was opened by Michael Hardman, one of the four original founders of CAMRA.The event has not been held since 2014. This was initially due to a refurbishment of the venue but following a major fire at the Battersea Arts Centre there have been no subsequent events

The Battersea Arts Centre ("BAC") is a performance space specialising in theatre productions. Located near Clapham Junction railway station in Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, it was formerly Battersea Town Hall. It is a Grade II* listed building. In March 2015, while a major programme of renovation works were underway, the Grand Hall was severely damaged by fire. Approximately 70% of the theatre, including the 200-capacity Council Chamber, the Scratch Bar and the Members Library, was saved from the fire and remains open.

Battersea Library is a Grade II listed building at Altenburg Gardens, Battersea, London, SW11 1JB.Battersea Library was built in 1924, and the architect was Henry Hyams.The reference library is connected to Battersea Central Library.