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Audiobook edition · 10 h 59 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to a riverside village when London grows around it?
In All About Battersea, Henry S. Simmonds follows a district on the south bank of the Thames as it becomes a busy part of London. The story begins with the place itself: a bend in the river, low ground, and water that supports fishing, travel and trade.
Fields and market gardens give way to streets, while factories, wharves and railways help shape a crowded town. Simmonds brings the scale close to home. This is a history of land, work and neighbours, asking how a community keeps its character as the city around it grows.
What you’ll discover
- A river shapes life See how the Thames gives Battersea water, food, routes for travel and opportunities for trade.
- Gardens before the streets Picture fertile ground supplying London with vegetables and herbs before houses cover the fields.
- Work changes the district Follow the shift towards factories, wharves and railways as Battersea becomes a busy place of work.
- Room to breathe Discover the place Battersea Park holds in a crowded district, with space to walk, play and meet.
- History close to home Find a sense of place through the connections between land, water, work and ordinary lives.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love London neighbourhoods, Victorian industry, railways, churches and old bridges, or local history full of odd stories and real names.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Orchards give way to industry
- The railway brings work and loss
- Street lighting depends on hot labour
- The village has deeper roots
- Bolingbroke brings politics to Battersea
- Riverside invention carries a smoky cost
- Bridges and parkland open shared ground
- Mutual help shapes the parish
- Change brings both gain and loss
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All About Battersea
by Henry S. Simmonds · 1882
A raven summons ferrymen, a sturgeon is shot, and Battersea changes from orchards to gasworks.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Imagine a raven perched beside the Thames, calling for a ferryman until an annoyed boatman hurls a pewter pot at its head. That is Battersea in the 1800s, a place of orchards, tea gardens and tidal ditches that is fast turning into a district of chimneys, rails and gasholders.
All About Battersea at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 15 min5 h fast, 7 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 89,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1882by Henry S. Simmonds
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Nine Elms changes from orchards to industry
The book opens in Nine Elms Lane, which Simmonds says takes its name from nine elm trees that stood before a small mansion. Forty years before he writes, Londoners walking here felt they had reached the countryside. There were hedgerows, market gardens, orchards and fields of corn, and at high tide the district partly flooded.
He paints the old scenes with affection. Orchards let visitors eat as much fruit as they liked for sixpence, provided they carried none away. Children caught sticklebacks in the ditches with their caps. A royal sturgeon caught in the mill wheel shrugged off small shot until a tradesman fetched a bullet.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1882
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Simmonds, Henry S. All About Battersea. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/all-about-battersea.
Simmonds, H. S. (2026). All about Battersea. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/all-about-battersea (Original work published 1882)
Simmonds, Henry S. All About Battersea. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/all-about-battersea.
@book{simmonds2026all,
author = {Simmonds, Henry S.},
title = {All About Battersea},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/all-about-battersea},
note = {First published 1882}
}
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What is All About Battersea about?
It is a local history of Battersea in south London, written around 1880. It covers Nine Elms, railways, the gas works, factories, the manor, the parish church, bridges, Battersea Park, chapels, schools, charities and the cemetery.
Who was Lord Bolingbroke and why is he in the book?
Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, was a statesman and writer under Queen Anne who lived at the family mansion in Battersea. Simmonds gives him a full chapter, with his exile, his friends Pope and Swift, and the judgments of Johnson and Goldsmith.
When was All About Battersea written and is it factual?
Simmonds wrote it around 1880 from parish records, older histories and local memory. Its facts, dates, costs and names come from sources he cites, and its anecdotes are told as local tradition.
The author
Henry S. Simmonds
Local historian
Henry S. Simmonds wrote this book around 1880 as a parish man of Battersea, a churchgoing writer with strong ties to the local missions and chapels. His own pages record the loss of his young son Teddie and his daughter Hannah in the parish cemetery. The book is dedicated to Canon John Erskine Clarke, the vicar.
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