Living in Wandsworth: area guide to homes, schools and transport links

Commute by river bus from your cool new Thames-side flat in a town with two lovely commons. 
Daniel Lynch
Anthea Masey21 June 2019

Families come to live in Wandsworth in south-west London for the abundance of attractive Victorian and Edwardian homes, the river, the open green spaces of Wandsworth and Clapham Commons and an almost unparalleled choice of schools, both state and private.

Dempster Road off East Hill is a typical Wandsworth street of Victorian terrace houses and was where the Brockman family lived in the BBC TV sitcom Outnumbered.

The semi-improvised show starring Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner was a huge hit, running for five series between 2007 and 2014 with a Christmas special in 2016.

It depicted hapless parents hilariously outnumbered by their three children —although it left most Londoners wondering how the husband, a comprehensive school history teacher, could afford such a house.

Over the last 20 years Wandsworth’s industrial riverside has been almost entirely swept away with thousands of modern riverside flats going up in its place, the largest development being Battersea Reach where developer St George has built 1,350 new homes between the Thames, York Road and Wandsworth Bridge Road.

The last piece in the de-industrialisation jigsaw is The Ram Quarter, the redevelopment by Chinese developer Greenland of the former Young’s brewery site in the town centre. With the first phase now built, a section of the Wandle river has been opened up for the first time.

The Wandle runs from Croydon and Carshalton in the south to the Thames at Wandsworth and is the reason the town was once a hive of industrial activity. In 1805 the river was described as the “hardest worked river for its size in the world”.

An urban sewer, it was poisoned by bleach and chemicals from the many dye works and mills along its banks. Now the Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust is restoring the river to its former glory as a chalk stream where fish can once again flourish.

Estate agent Robin Chatwin, of Savills, lives in Wandsworth and has been selling homes there for 31 years. He says people had to be persuaded to move to Wandsworth at one time but now it is a desirable destination in its own right with a strong local market.

Modern riverside and town centre flats, Victorian and Edwardian semis, detached and terrace houses are all in the mix in Wandsworth
Daniel Lynch

Savills data shows nearly half of recent sales were made to people already living in the borough.

Wandsworth is five-and-a-half miles south-west of central London with the Thames and Fulham to the north; Battersea and Clapham to the east; Earlsfield, Balham and Tooting to the south and Putney to the west.

The property scene

Modern riverside and town centre flats, Victorian and Edwardian semis, detached and terrace houses are all in the mix in Wandsworth.

The best homes are in Spencer Park, where detached houses back on to a four-acre communal garden, and in the “Toast Rack”, a ladder of streets backing on to Wandsworth Common. A six-bedroom house in the Toast Rack is for sale at £3.75 million.

Elsynge Road off the A3 is green and leafy. Gothic and classical semis with very big gardens here include a four-bedroom house on at £2.2million.

Young families like the three- and four-bedroom terrace houses in The Tonsleys between Old York Road and East Hill.

Three for sale now range from £1.32 million to £1.45million. Wandsworth house prices range from £425,000 for a two-bedroom Sixties house in the centre to £6.35 million for a nine-bedroom, 5,800sqft house in Westover Road.

Flats range from £325,000 for a two-bedroom home in a council-owned tower block to £5million for a three-bedroom penthouse at Battersea Reach.

New-build homes

The Ram Quarter (theramquarter.com) on the former Young’s brewery site in Wandsworth town centre has 663 flats. There will be shops, cafés restaurants and a Backyard Cinema, plus a Wandle riverside walk.

On sale in three-storey Langridge House are one-bedroom flats from £526,000 and two-bedroom flats from £805,000. Two-bedroom flats in other blocks start at £733,000. Call Savills and JLL on 020 3751 3190.

Battersea Reach between the river, York Road and Wandsworth Bridge Road, with 330 yards of riverfront and 1,350 new homes, is nearly complete. Flats in Discovery House in York Road are priced £955,000 to £975,000. Call 020 7978 4141.

Riverside Quarter off Putney Bridge Road is a 550-home scheme selling off-plan to move into early next year. One-bedroom flats start at £635,000 with two-bedroom flats at £795,000. Call Savills on 020 3430 6920.

Nearby Osiers Point in Osiers Road has 85 flats including 19 lower-cost. Two-bedroom flats start at £529,950 and three-bedroom flats at £699,950. Call 020 3319 5994.

Wandsworth Exchange by housing association L&Q has 172 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, including 21 for shared ownership, in three blocks of six to nine storeys and a 26-storey tower between the High Street and Garratt Lane, with a ground-floor library, shops and cafés. Call 0333 0033 670.

Bronze, a 20-storey block with 77 flats in Buckhold Road overlooking King George’s Park, will be ready next March, with one-bedroom flats at £445,000, two-bedroom flats at £616,000 and three-bedroom flats at £999,500. Call Strawberry Star and JLL (020 7857 5111).

Jessica House by Galliard Homes is a 70-flat office conversion topped with new-build off Wandsworth High Street. Ready this month are studios from £325,000 and two-bedroom flats at £555,000. Call 020 7620 1500.

First-time buyers and shared ownership

Housing association Peabody is selling 25 per cent shares in 50 flats at Battersea Reach, with studios from £83,125, one-bedroom flats from £118,125 and two-bedroom flats from £138,125. Call 020 7021 4842.

L&Q has a two-bedroom shared-ownership flat at Wandsworth Exchange priced £161,187 for a 25 per cent share. Call 0333 0033 670. Help to Buy is available at Osiers Point and Jessica House (as before).

Rental homes

There are three times as many flats for rent as there are houses. New homes are still attracting buy-to-let investors, with The Ram Quarter popular. Houses rent from £1,475 a month for a two-bedroom Victorian cottage off Putney Bridge Road to £11,223 a month for a six-bedroom house in the Toast Rack.

Flats rent from £1,213 a month for a one-bedroom period conversion in Trinity Road to £8,667 a month at Battersea Reach. A three-bedroom duplex in Dray House at The Ram Quarter is £3,600 a month.

Staying power

Robin Chatwin of Savills says Wandsworth now has a strong local market with many families trading up and down.

Postcode

SW18, the Wandsworth postcode, includes Eastfields and Southfields. On its southern edge, including the streets south of Bellevue Road, it strays in to the SW17 Tooting postcode and the area between Wandsworth and Clapham Commons is in the SW11 Battersea postcode.

Best roads

Spencer Park. Robin Chatwin also rates Lyford Road which has detached houses with large gardens and overlooks a small green section of Wandsworth Common. One of the houses, White Cottage, is the work of the famous Arts & Crafts architect CFA Voysey.

Up and coming

Robin Chatwin says one of the biggest changes he has seen in over 30 years of selling homes in Wandsworth is how fashion has switched away from a slavish addiction to Victorian architecture to embrace homes built later on the Magdalen Estate between Magdalen Road and Burntwood Lane, where there is now an appreciation of the spacious ground-floor living spaces. A four-bedroom house in Frewin Road is currently on sale for £1.9 million.

Chatwin suggests the best value now in Wandsworth is found in “right-to-buy” flats in small, well-managed council or housing association blocks.

Transport

The big news in Wandsworth is the arrival of a longer pier at Wandsworth Riverside in the Riverside Quarter development, which allows Thames Clippers to provide a regular hourly service.

Commuters can make the journey by boat to Chelsea Harbour in 12 minutes, to Embankment in 39 minutes, to London Bridge in 45 minutes and Canary Wharf in just under an hour.

Wandsworth has two train stations: Wandsworth Town with services to Waterloo taking 15 minutes and Wandsworth Common with trains to Victoria taking 12 minutes.

Council

Wandsworth council is Conservative controlled. Band D council tax for 2019/2020 is £764.09.

Wandsworth Town station is in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,404. Wandsworth Common station is in Zone 3 and an annual travelcard costs £1,648.

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants

Debenhams in the Southside shopping centre is set to close later this year, but there are high hopes that some interesting chains and independent shops will get a chance to establish a new town centre retail hub in The Ram Quarter.

The Southside centre has a large Waitrose and branches of Decathlon, Oliver Bonas, Paperchase, Waterstones, Uniqlo, Topshop, Next, Gap, H&M, TK Maxx and Primark.

It also has chain restaurants Wagamama, Rossopomodoro, Gourmet Burger, Nando’s and Five Guys among others. There is also a large branch of Sainsbury’s in Garratt Lane.

The more interesting shops, cafés and restaurants are found in nearby smaller shopping streets.

St John’s Hill has Ben’s Canteen, specialising in brunch, cocktails and steak; Pizza Brixton for Neapolitan pizza; Hetu, a vegan zero-waste store and café selling food in bulk, and Forbes & Lomax, the specialist lightswitch maker. In Old York Road, The Tonsleys’ shopping street, there is Cleavers, a butcher; a branch of Pizza Express; Konnigans all-day restaurant; Brew, a small chain of brunch and all-day restaurants; Anthology, a women’s boutique; Bayley & Sage, part of a small chain of delicatessens; Chit Chaat Chai for Indian street food; and the popular Alma pub. In Wandsworth High Street WG Child & Sons is a traditional tailor which has been in business since 1890, and The Doo Wop Chocolate Café serves cakes, desserts and chocolates. Along Bellevue Road, shops, cafés and restaurants overlooking Wandsworth Common include the Michelin-star Chez Bruce, Wandsworth’s best restaurant; and Toast Rack Bakery, a sourdough bakery and café.

TV chef Éric Lanlard’s Cake Boy patisserie and cookery school is at the bottom of Kingfisher House in Battersea Reach.

Open space

Wandsworth has lovely Wandsworth and Clapham Commons, along with King George’s Park in Buckhold Road and Wandsworth Park in Putney Bridge Road. King George’s Park is the town centre park with the River Wandle flowing through it, plus a children’s playground, an adventure playground, sports pitches, tennis courts and a bowling green.

Wandsworth Park is a listed Edwardian park with a riverside avenue of plane trees, ornamental shrubberies, a children’s playground, sports pitches, a café and putting green.

Leisure and the arts

There is a Cineworld multiplex cinema in the Southside shopping centre and a new cinema in The Ram Quarter is due to open soon.

The Magdalene Players, the local amateur dramatic society, performs in the church hall at St Mary Magdalene in Trinity Road.

The nearest council-owned swimming pools are at Latchmere Leisure Centre in Burns Road in Battersea and Balham Leisure Centre in Elmfield Road

Schools

Primary school

Wandsworth’s state primary schools, with one exception, are all rated “good” or better by Ofsted.

Those rated “outstanding” are: St Michael’s CofE in Granville Road; Brandlehow in Brandlehow Road; Sheringdale in Standen Road; Belleville in Belleville Road and Honeywell Infants and Juniors in Honeywell Road.

Belleville Wix primary in Wix’s Lane in Clapham shares its site with École de Wix, a French primary school, part of the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle de Londres.

It offers an English stream, a French stream and a bilingual stream. The school has not been inspected by Ofsted since it became an academy after it was sent into “special measures”.

Comprehensive

The “outstanding” comprehensive schools are: Ashcroft Technology (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in West Hill; La Retraite RC (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Atkins Road and Chestnut Grove in Chestnut Grove, both in Balham; and Harris Academy Battersea (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Battersea Park Road.

Southfields Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Merton Road; Saint Cecilia’s CofE (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Sutherland Grove and Ark Bolingbroke (co-ed, ages 11 to 18), a new Free School in Wakehurst Road, are judged to be “good”.

Higher education

St Francis Xavier RC (co-ed, ages 16 to 18) in Clapham South, a sixth form college which runs popular adult evening classes, is rated “good”.

Private

The private primary and preparatory schools are: The Roche School (co-ed, ages two to 11) in Frogmore; Wandsworth Preparatory (co-ed, ages four to 11) in Allfarthing Lane; Hurlingham (co-ed, ages two to 11) in Putney Bridge Road; Thomas’s Battersea (co-ed, ages four to 13) in Battersea High Street, where Prince George is a pupil; Northcote Lodge (boys, ages seven to 13) in Bolingbroke Grove; Eaton House the Manor (co-ed, ages two to 13) and Parkgate (co-ed, ages two to 11) both in Clapham Common North Side; Oliver House RC (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Nightingale Lane and Thomas’s Clapham (co-ed, ages four to 13) in Broomwood Road, both in Clapham South; Newton Preparatory (co-ed, ages three to 13) in Battersea Park Road in Battersea; London Steiner (co-ed, ages three to 14) in Weir Road in Balham; Broomwood Hall (co-ed, ages four to 13) in Nightingale Lane in Clapham South; The White House (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Thornton Road in Balham, and Hornsby House (co-ed, ages four to 11) in Hearnville Road in Balham.

Emanuel (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Battersea Rise and Putney High (girls, ages four to 18) in Putney Hill are the local private secondary schools.

The Laurels RC (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Atkins Road in Balham is moving to Chelsea Embankment in September next year.

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