South London . ls were conducted on the BatterseaFields, and there were certain historical associations in con-nection with these dreary flats. Here, for instance, the Dukeof Wellington fought his duel with Lord Winchilsea. Otherimportant people were also connected either with the Fieldsor the Village of Battersea, but at the time I knew not any-thing about them. The Battersea of my boyhood is goneabsolutely : no trace of it remains, except the Church. TheGrosvenor Railway Bridge passes over the site of the famousRed House ; the most beautiful of all our Parks covers theSubscription Shooting G
South London . ls were conducted on the BatterseaFields, and there were certain historical associations in con-nection with these dreary flats. Here, for instance, the Dukeof Wellington fought his duel with Lord Winchilsea. Otherimportant people were also connected either with the Fieldsor the Village of Battersea, but at the time I knew not any-thing about them. The Battersea of my boyhood is goneabsolutely : no trace of it remains, except the Church. TheGrosvenor Railway Bridge passes over the site of the famousRed House ; the most beautiful of all our Parks covers theSubscription Shooting Grounds, together with most of theflat and dreary fields ; and houses by the thousand, withstreets mean and monotonous, stand where formerly the SOUTH LONDON OF TO-DAY 505 pigeons flew wildly, hoping to escape those who waitedoutside the grounds as they had escaped those who potted atthem from within. Let us turn to another part of the map and inquire intoRotherhithe. It is curious that at one end we get Rother-. HOLY TRINITY, XOTHERHITHE hithe, the Place of Cattle ; and at the other Lambeth orLambhythe, if it be the Place of Lambs and not the Placeof Mud. In 1834 the Commercial Docks are already there,but without prejudice to the ancient and venerable docks ofthe preceding century. Acorn Dock and Lavender Dock. Asingle street runs along the Embankment, which it hides and 3o6 SOUTH LONDON covers: at the back of this street there is a succession ofsmall lanes and courts running back with tiny houses—twoor four rooms to each—on either side, and ending generallyin gardens of greenery—leaves and palings. You may stillsee, in 1898, if you are lucky, the bows and bowsprit of a shipin one of the old docks, sticking across the street, causing amomentary confusion in the mind between land and water ;there are riverside taverns which look as if at a touch theywould yield and slide into the mud below. In 1834 thisstreet with these little lanes was the whole of —or
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbesantwa, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1912
