Wandsworth, London: Battersea Power Station, Putney Embankment, the Alton Estate and the Granada Tooting

The Thames-side strip runs from the four-chimney power station east of Chelsea Bridge west to the old riverside village around St Mary's, with 83 hectares of Victorian park filling the middle. Battersea Power Station stands at Circus Road North, Nine Elms, SW11 8EZ, listed Grade II as NHLE 1357620. The entry was made on 14 October 1980 at Grade II and the grade was raised to II in 2007. It is two power stations in one building: Battersea A was built between 1929 and 1935, Battersea B to its east between 1937 and 1941, and the whole was completed in 1955, to designs by J. Theo Halliday and Giles Gilbert Scott. Battersea A was decommissioned in 1975 and Battersea B shut in 1983, and the shell stood empty until the building reopened to the public in October 2022 as a mixed retail, office and leisure destination. The operator states that the shops inside the Power Station are open from 10am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 12pm to 6pm on Sunday, and describes the chimney lift, Lift 109, as taking visitors 'to the top of the North West chimney'. Cafes, bars and restaurants inside keep their own longer hours.

Battersea Park, SW11 4NJ, is a Grade II registered park and garden, NHLE 1000283, covering 83 hectares (200 acres) of marshland reclaimed from the Thames and former market gardens, and it opened in 1858. Four sets of park entrance gates are separately listed Grade II: north-east NHLE 1225990, north-west NHLE 1065479, south-east NHLE 1065480 and south-west NHLE 1357692. Barbara Hepworth's bronze 'Single Form (Memorial)' stands on the southern side of the boating lake and is listed Grade II, NHLE 1430770, on 19 January 2016; the 24th Division War Memorial is Grade II*, NHLE 1391503, listed 24 August 2005. The London Peace Pagoda, a gift of the Nipponzan-Myohoji order, stands on the riverside walk. No source states the park's opening hours, so none are given here.

Two of the park's attractions keep their own times. The Pump House Gallery is a four-storey Victorian tower built to pump water for the boating lake beside it, listed Grade II as 'PUMP HOUSE TO NORTH OF LAKE AT BATTERSEA PARK', NHLE 1225940, on 14 November 1988; it stands on the north side of the lake, is owned by the London Borough of Wandsworth and is programmed as a free public gallery. No source states its opening hours, so none are given here. Battersea Park Children's Zoo is ticketed and opens daily from 10am to 5.30pm, with last entry at 5pm; the operator gives Chelsea Gate on Queenstown Road as the closest park entry gate to it, places the zoo entrance near the Peace Pagoda by the river, and describes the zoo as celebrating 75 years in 2026.

West of the park the river bends around the old village. St Mary's Church stands on Battersea Church Road, SW11 3NA, on the riverbank, and is listed Grade I as 'Church of St Mary and churchyard wall and gate', NHLE 1357626, on 28 June 1954. It is one of five Grade I entries in the borough. The parish states that a church has stood on the bank of the Thames here since the 8th century; the present brick church dates from the 1770s, and the parish adds that the building is often open for private prayer as well as advertised times of public worship, typically Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday daytime. Old Battersea House on Vicarage Crescent, built about 1699, is listed Grade II*, NHLE 1065500, on the same day as the church.

Clapham Junction is where Southern, South Western Railway and the Overground Mildmay and Windrush lines all call, and the shopping hills above it run north-west to the Wandle and south to 69.43 hectares of common. Battersea Arts Centre works from the former Battersea Town Hall on Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN, listed Grade II* as 'BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE (FORMERLY BATTERSEA TOWN HALL)', NHLE 1184293, on 13 February 1970 and amended 13 April 2010. In March 2015 the Grand Hall was severely damaged by fire during a renovation programme; roughly 70 per cent of the building, including the 200-capacity Council Chamber, survived and stayed open. It runs as a working theatre and events venue and its box office number is 020 7223 2223, and the operator states it is 'just 7 minutes walk from Clapham Junction station'. No source states general daytime opening hours for the building, so none are given here.

The Wandle reaches the Thames at Wandsworth Town, and the brewery yard beside it is now the Ram Quarter. Sambrook's Brewery and Heritage Centre is at 1 Bellwether Lane, SW18 1UR. The Ram (Young's) Brewery complex is listed Grade II*, NHLE 1065461, on 14 July 1955 and amended 20 September 2004; the Stables are separately Grade II, NHLE 1391086, and The Ram Inn Grade II, NHLE 1391087, both entered on 20 September 2004. Young & Co.'s Brewery was founded in 1831, when Charles Young and Anthony Bainbridge bought the Ram; Young's closed the Ram in 2006 and moved brewing out of Wandsworth. Until that closure the yard carried a claim to continuous brewing back to the 1550s, when Humphrey Langridge, 'beer-brewer at Wandsworth', leased the Ram. Sambrook's took the site over and runs a taproom in a converted Victorian brewery space, which the operator says is open seven days a week; the heritage centre and the brewery tours are bookable. No source states weekly hours for either, so none are given here.

Wandsworth Common carries two of the borough's oddest buildings. The Royal Victoria Patriotic Building on John Archer Way, SW18 3SX, is listed Grade II* as 'FORMER ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC SCHOOL', NHLE 1065496, on 3 October 1973 and amended 4 September 1995. It was built in 1859 by public subscription as an asylum for girls orphaned in the Crimean War, to designs by Major Rohde Hawkins, in a Gothic Revival mixing Scottish Baronial with French Chateauesque; it stands in mixed private use as studios, offices, a school and a restaurant, and the exterior is visible from the paths across the common. The Windmill on Windmill Road, SW18 2SY, is a conserved smock mill listed Grade II as 'WINDPUMP CALLED THE WINDMILL', NHLE 1065474, on 7 April 1983 — a windpump rather than a corn mill, standing free on open common land. Three boundary posts are covered by a single Grade II entry, NHLE 1065475, of which two stand beside the windmill and the third by the Spencer Park junction. Wandsworth Common covers 69.43 hectares (171.6 acres) and is maintained by Wandsworth Council, and the Wandsworth Common Conservation Area is one of the borough's 46 designated conservation areas.

Putney runs up from the river along the High Street and west along Roehampton Lane into a village of Georgian villas. St Mary's Church stands at the foot of Putney High Street, SW15 1SN, beside the southern approach to Putney Bridge, listed Grade II* as 'CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN', NHLE 1065519, on 14 July 1955 and amended 30 September 2011. The Putney Debates were held here from 28 October to 8 November 1647, when officers of the New Model Army — Fairfax, Cromwell, Ireton — argued the franchise with the Levellers, and Colonel Thomas Rainsborough's words from those debates are inscribed on a wall of the church: 'For really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he.' The tower is 15th-century and the Bishop West Chapel early 16th-century; most of the body was rebuilt in 1836 to designs by Edward Lapidge. Much of the church was gutted by fire in 1973 and it was not rehallowed until 6 February 1982, in a restoration by Ronald Sims, with an organ by Marcussen & Son. It is a working parish church in the Diocese of Southwark, and no source states its visitor hours, so none are given here.

Putney Embankment, SW15 1LB, is a free public riverside promenade whose boathouses are private clubs, and Putney Pier marks one end of the Championship Course. Putney Bridge stands in two list entries, and the Wandsworth half is entered as 'PUTNEY BRIDGE (THAT PART IN WANDSWORTH)', listed Grade II, NHLE 1357672, on 7 April 1983. The first bridge on the site, Fulham Bridge, opened in 1729 and replaced a ferry. Putney Bridge Underground station is in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham; the nearest stations on the Wandsworth side are Putney, on South Western Railway, 477 m away, and East Putney, on the District line, 660 m. The Putney Embankment Conservation Area is one of the borough's 46 designated conservation areas.

Roehampton House, Roehampton Lane, SW15 5PN, is listed Grade I as 'ROEHAMPTON HOUSE (AT QUEEN MARY'S HOSPITAL)', NHLE 1357694, on 23 October 1978. Thomas Archer built the central block between 1710 and 1712 for the merchant Thomas Cary, and the interiors included a two-storey painted salon with work by Sir James Thornhill; Sir Edwin Lutyens added the north and south wings and altered the house between 1910 and 1913, and Historic England notes that 'the Lutyens parts would in themselves merit Grade II*'. In June 1915 the house became Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, founded to fit artificial limbs to amputees of the First World War, and the first 25 patients moved in that month. It is now converted to apartments; the forecourt, gates and garden front are visible from Roehampton Lane, and there is no interior visit. The entrance gates and lodges with their related walls are separately listed Grade II, NHLE 1357695, and the walled-garden walls and gates Grade II, NHLE 1065483. Two more of the borough's five Grade I entries stand within a kilometre: Parkstead House, NHLE 1357675, a Palladian villa of the 1760s, formerly Bessborough House and then Manresa House and now Whitelands College of the University of Roehampton, at Holybourne Avenue, SW15 4DH; and Mount Clare, NHLE 1184436, built in 1772 by Sir Robert Taylor for George Clive, enlarged in 1780 by Placido Columbani, with grounds landscaped by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, in Minstead Gardens, SW15 4EE. The Roehampton Village Conservation Area is one of the borough's 46 designated conservation areas.

Below the villas the Alton Estate was dropped into their landscape. A London County Council team led by Rosemary Stjernstedt designed it, with Alton East completed in 1958 and Alton West in 1959; the Alton West blocks were placed inside a retained Georgian landscape and were inspired by Le Corbusier's Unité d'habitation, and the estate has over 13,000 residents. Five slab blocks on Highcliffe Drive, SW15 4PT, are each listed Grade II: Binley House NHLE 1246040, Winchfield House NHLE 1246041, Dunbridge House NHLE 1246042, Charcot House NHLE 1246043 and Denmead House NHLE 1246044. The landscape itself is registered at Grade II in two entries, 'Landscaping to Alton West Estate', NHLE 1466474, and 'Landscaping to Alton East Estate', NHLE 1468240. A sculpture, 'THE BULL AT FOOT OF DOWNSHIRE FIELD ALTON ESTATE', is listed Grade II, NHLE 1376742, and stands in the open landscape. Downshire House, Grade II, NHLE 1065522, and Grove House, Grade II, NHLE 1065523, are surviving villas absorbed into the estate's setting on the same slope, and Grove House's grounds are a Grade II registered park and garden, NHLE 1000419. The blocks are private homes and the estate is crossed by public roads and footpaths, so a visit is exterior viewing from the public landscape. The Alton Conservation Area is one of the borough's 46 designated conservation areas, and Roehampton has no station of its own: the nearest is Barnes, on South Western Railway, 1,603 m from Alton West and in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

Tooting High Street and Mitcham Road meet at Tooting Broadway, and the Granada stands on the Mitcham Road corner at number 50, SW17 9NA. It opened as a cinema on 7 September 1931 and carries a Gothic interior by the Russian theatre designer Theodore Komisarjevsky. It is entered on the National Heritage List for England as 'GALA BINGO CLUB', listed Grade I, NHLE 1357668; the entry was first made on 28 June 1972 and amended on 5 October 2000. Ian Nairn wrote of it in 1966: 'miss the Tower of London if you have to, but don't miss this'. In 2015 it was listed as an asset of community value. It is in use as a bingo club, so entry is as a bingo customer rather than as a museum visitor, and no source states its opening hours, so none are given here. Tooting Broadway Underground station, on the Northern line, is about 155 m away and is itself listed Grade II, NHLE 1065478; the Statue of Edward VII on the Broadway outside is listed Grade II, NHLE 1065494.

Two covered markets trade on the High Street. Tooting Market, 21–23 Tooting High Street, SW17 0SN, is an indoor market of food vendors, tailors and fabric sellers, retail units and hair and beauty salons, and it has existed since the early 20th century. It is free to enter. The operator publishes per-trader times such as Mon–Sat 10am–6pm rather than a market-wide schedule, so no market hours are given here; OpenStreetMap records the market as Mo-Th 08:00-18:00, Fr-Sa 08:00-22:30 and Su 09:00-17:00, which is an OpenStreetMap record rather than the operator's. Plaques placed above both entrances in October 2022 read 'A community of all, for all. We are Tooting.' Broadway Market, a second covered market 130 m away at 29 Tooting High Street, SW17 0RJ, trades Mo-Sa 10:00-16:00. Tooting has no National Rail station inside Wandsworth: Tooting rail station, on Thameslink, is in the London Borough of Merton.

Tooting Bec Lido sits on Tooting Bec Common at Tooting Bec Road, SW16 1RU, an unheated outdoor freshwater pool of 100 yd (91.4 m) by 33 yd (30.2 m). The changing cubicles are painted in alternating red, yellow and green doors, and the operator publishes a live water temperature. A condition of its construction was that it be concealed from views across the common behind an earth ramp, which survives. It is owned by the London Borough of Wandsworth and run by Places Leisure, whose page signs off 'Places Leisure, agent for Wandsworth Council'. The operator's published times are Monday to Friday 6.00am to 5.00pm; the pool is seasonal and no weekend hours are published, so none are given here.

The Clapham South deep-level shelter runs beneath Clapham South Underground Station, Balham Hill, SW12 9DU. The station above it is listed Grade II as 'CLAPHAM SOUTH STATION (INCLUDING ABOVE GROUND STATION BUILDING AND SUB SURFACE PLATFORMS AND PASSAGES)', NHLE 1266140, on 16 June 1987. The shelter is one of the wartime deep-level shelters built beneath the Northern line, and it opens on selected dates, by pre-booked guided tour, as part of London Transport Museum's Hidden London programme; no source states its tour dates or prices, so none are given here. The station is on the Morden branch of the Northern line, between Clapham Common and Balham, at the corner of Balham Hill and Nightingale Lane. South of it, the London Sewing Machine Museum is a private collection above the Wimbledon Sewing Machine Company's shop at 292–312 Balham High Road, SW17 7AA. It opens on the first Saturday of the month; OpenStreetMap records the hours as 2pm to 5pm on that day, closed December and January, and the operator publishes no standing hours, so none are given here.

Wandsworth is served by two Underground lines, by two National Rail operators — Southern and South Western Railway — by two London Overground lines at a single station, and by the Uber Boat by Thames Clippers river bus on TfL routes RB1 and RB6. The Northern line runs through the borough twice: Battersea Power Station on the Battersea branch, and Clapham South, Balham, Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway on the Morden branch. The District line serves East Putney and Southfields. The Overground reaches the borough at Clapham Junction, where the Mildmay and Windrush lines call alongside Southern and South Western Railway. Wandsworth has no Elizabeth line station, no DLR station and no tram stop. Four piers take the river bus: Battersea Power Station Pier on RB1 and RB6, and Wandsworth Riverside Quarter, St Mary's Wandsworth and Putney piers on RB6.

For Battersea and Nine Elms, take the Northern line to Battersea Power Station, 231 m from the power station itself, or a river bus to Battersea Power Station Pier, 284 m. Battersea Park, on Southern, is 483 m from the power station and 565 m from the centre of Battersea Park, and Queenstown Road (Battersea), on South Western Railway, is 681 m and 731 m. For St Mary's Battersea, Clapham Junction is the nearest station on the Wandsworth side at 1,428 m; Imperial Wharf, on the Mildmay line and Southern, is 563 m but across the Thames in Hammersmith and Fulham, and Chelsea Harbour Pier, on RB6, is 423 m and also across the river.

For Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Town and the Common, Clapham Junction takes Southern, South Western Railway and the Overground Mildmay and Windrush lines, and buses 35, 37, 39, 49, 77, 170, 219, 295, 319, 337, 344, 345, 639, 670, C3, G1, N19 and N31 call there. Wandsworth Town, on South Western Railway, is 525 m from the Ram Quarter, and Wandsworth Riverside Quarter Pier 814 m. For the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, Wandsworth Common on Southern is 1,057 m and Clapham Junction 1,243 m.

For Putney and Roehampton, take South Western Railway to Putney, 477 m from Putney Bridge, or the District line to East Putney, 660 m; Putney Pier takes RB6 and buses 22, 265, 378 and 485. Roehampton has no station of its own. The nearest is Barnes, on South Western Railway, 1,456 m from Roehampton and in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, with Putney 1,948 m and East Putney 2,226 m; from Alton West, Barnes is 1,603 m. Roehampton is reached by bus, principally the 430, 170, 265 and 493 along Roehampton Lane.

For Balham and Tooting, take the Northern line to Tooting Broadway, 75 m from the Broadway itself and about 155 m from the Granada, or to Balham, which is both an Underground station and a National Rail station with Southern calling there. Tooting Bec, on the Northern line, is 126 m from the London Sewing Machine Museum, which is 887 m from Balham and 1,177 m from Tooting Broadway. Tooting Bec Lido is the exception in this part of the borough: the nearest stations to it are Streatham, on Southern and Thameslink, 861 m away, and Streatham Hill, on Southern, 1,072 m, both in the London Borough of Lambeth, with Tooting Bec Underground 1,496 m and Balham 1,573 m. The nearest National Rail station to Tooting Broadway is Tooting, on Thameslink, 923 m away and in the London Borough of Merton. Distances are straight-line measurements, not walking routes.