Wandsworth, Surrey

Historical Description

Wandsworth, a parliamentary borough and an ancient parish and suburb of the metropolis in Surrey. It now consists of two parts, Wandsworth proper and New Wandsworth, a thickly-populated district lying between Wandsworth Common and Clapham Junction. It stands on the river Wandle at its influx to the Thames, about 6 miles SW of St Paul's, and on the L. & S.W.R., on which it has a station, and there are also stations on the L.B. & S.C.R., and on the L.C. & D. and Midland railways joint lines. It is an ancient place and is mentioned in Domesday book. It became a seat of several important manufactures introduced by French refugees and by Dutchmen, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the French refugees rented and enlarged a chapel in the High Street in which service was performed in French for upwards of a century. It is now a busy industrial centre, the creek at the mouth of the Wandle forming a dock for lighters and small vessels, while on its sides there are wharves for coal and general stores. Higher up the stream there are extensive paper mills, and there are also some large distilleries, corn mills, match factories, starch factories, artificial manure works, metal works, &c. Wandsworth contains many handsome houses, a court-house, a town-hall, a technical institute opened in 1895, a lunatic asylum, and the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum. On Wandsworth Common stand two important buildings, namely, H.M. prison and the Westminster Emanuel School. The prison, erected in 1851, is a large building of brick fitted with the latest appliances. The ecclesiastical statistics of Wandsworth are given in the article London. The population of the parliamentary borough is 113,244. Wandsworth sends two members to the London county council.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5