Metropolitan Borough of Battersea
Ancient parish
As an ancient parish, Battersea was part of the hundred of Brixton and county of Surrey. It included the exclave of Penge.
Parish in the Metropolis
In 1855, under the Metropolis Management Act 1855, the civil responsibilities of the parish were passed to the Metropolitan Board of Works. The two parts of the parish were assigned to different districts by the act establishing the MBW: Battersea was included in the area of the Wandsworth District Board of Works and the hamlet of Penge in that of Lewisham District Board of Works. Penge became a civil parish in its own right in 1866.
On 25 March 1888, a separate vestry was formed as a local authority for The parish of Saint Mary Battersea excluding Penge.[2] In 1889, the Local Government Act 1888 reconstituted the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works as the County of London, and Battersea was transferred from Surrey to the new county.
The population of the parish in 1896 was 165,115 and it had adopted the Public Libraries Act 1850 immediately upon obtaining local independence in 1888, with its own vestry. For electoral purposes, the parish was divided into four wards and had 120 elected vestrymen. Metropolitan borough
In 1900, the London Government Act 1899 divided the County of London into twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs, and the vestries and district boards were dissolved. The parish became the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea, with the borough council replacing the civil vestry.
The Metropolitan Borough included within its bounds Battersea, Battersea Park, Clapham Junction and parts of Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common.
Ecclesiastical parish
The ancient parish, dedicated to St Mary, was in the Diocese of Winchester until 1877, then the Diocese of Rochester until 1905, and then finally in the Diocese of Southwark. From 1851, as the population of Battersea increased, a number of new parishes were formed:
- St George, Nine Elms in 1853
- Christ Church, Battersea Park in 1861
- St John, York Road Battersea in 1863
- St Philip, Queen's Road, Battersea in 1870
- Church of the Ascension, Lavender Hill in 1871
- St Saviour, Battersea Park Road in 1872
- St Peter, Plough Road, Battersea in 1876
- St Mark, Battersea Rise in 1883
- All Saints, Queen's Road, Battersea Park in 1884
- St Michael, Wandsworth Common in 1884
- St Andrew, Stockdale Road, Battersea in 1886
- St Stephen, Battersea Bridge Road in 1887
- St Barnabas, Clapham Common in 1895
- St Luke, Ramsden Road, Battersea in 1901
- St Bartholomew, Wickersley Road, Battersea in 1906
A number of new parishes were also formed within the detached part of Battersea parish, the hamlet of Penge:
- St John the Evangelist, Penge in 1851
- St Paul, Penge in 1869
- Holy Trinity, Anerley Road, Penge in 1873
- Christ Church, Penge in 1886
Wards
From 1900 to 1949 the borough was divided into nine wards, returning either three, six or nine councillors:
Bolingbroke (6 councillors) Broomwood (6) Church (6) Latchmere (6) Nine Elms (9) Park (6) St John (3) Shaftesbury (6) Winstanley (6)
