Prince of Wales Drive is a street in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

, in the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

borough of

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...

. It is situated on the southern perimeter of

Battersea Park Battersea Park is a 200-acre (83-hectare) green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858. The park occupies marshland reclai ...

Overview

Prince of Wales Mansions Prince of Wales Drive, London 1

The southern side of Prince of Wales Drive is lined with late-Victorian

mansion block An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...

s and villas. From Battersea Bridge Road, east to Queenstown Road, the building order is as follows: #Connaught Mansions #Park Mansions (started November 1894) #Norfolk Mansions (started October 1894) #Cyril Mansions (started April 1894) #Overstrand Mansions (started January 1893) #Carlton Lodge Villa (started 1884) #Primrose Mansions (started November 1894) #

York Mansions York Mansions is one of the seven Victorian architecture, Victorian blocks of Apartment, flats on Prince of Wales Drive, London, between Albert Bridge Road and Queenstown Road, in Battersea, in the London borough of Wandsworth. The four-storey bui ...

(started 1897) #Prince of Wales Mansions #All Saints Court

History

In 1846, the Commission for Improving the Metropolis acquired 320 acres of Battersea Fields, of which 198 acres became

, and the remainder was to be let on building leases—the area now covered by Prince of Wales Drive, which was previously known as Prince of Wales Road, was part of Battersea Fields. The road was named after the then Prince of Wales, who would become King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

in 1901; the roads on the east and west sides of the park were named after his mother and father respectively. The original idea was for

to be surrounded by middle-class villas, as seen in other contemporary parks in Britain. Land was allocated for building, but nothing was built for about 30 years. One villa, Carlton Lodge, was built in 1884. In the 1890s

Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea (30 August 1843 – 27 November 1907) was a British Liberal politician and patron of art. Background and education Flower was the third of 18 children (the second of 12 sons) of Philip William Flower, of Furze D ...

, began to acquire vacant land on the south side of Prince of Wales Drive from the Commissioners for Development. His first

to be developed along Prince of Wales Drive was Overstrand Mansions, which was begun on 11 January 1893. In 1894, most of the other mansion blocks were begun by Cyril Flower: Cyril Mansions was started on 26 April; Norfolk Mansions was started on 27 October; and both Sidestrand Mansions (now Park Mansions) and Primrose Mansions were started in November. These blocks were under construction, by different builders, at much of the same time, and are of an architecture style inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement. The leases for these buildings were taken up with enthusiasm when built. The names of these five mansion blocks were selected by Cyril Flower, and his wife Constance. Sidestrand Mansions (now Park Mansions), Norfolk Mansions and Overstrand Mansions were named after "

Poppyland Overstrand is a village (population 1,030) on the north coast of Norfolk in England, two miles east of Cromer. It was once a modest fishing station, with all or part of the fishing station being known as Beck Hythe. In the latter part of the 19t ...

", which was popularised by

Clement Scott Clement William Scott (6 October 1841 – 25 June 1904) was an influential English theatre critic for ''The Daily Telegraph'' and other journals, and a playwright, lyricist, translator and travel writer, in the final decades of the 19th century ...

, the theatre critic for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''. "

" was a fashionable holiday destination during this time, and the names would have appealed to the first residents of Prince of Wales Drive. Cyril Mansions was named by Cyril Flower after himself, and Primrose Mansions was named after Constance's Rothschild cousin, Hannah, who was married to Archibald Primrose,

Earl of Rosebery Earl of Rosebery is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1703 for Archibald Primrose, 1st Viscount of Rosebery, with remainder to his issue male and female successively. Its name comes from Roseberry Topping, a hill near Archibald's wif ...

(Rosebery Villa abuts Primrose Mansions on Alexandra Road).

and Prince of Wales Mansions were constructed a few years later, and were built on the reclaimed land from

The Albert Palace The Albert Palace was a large building located in Battersea, in the borough of Wandsworth, London. It faced, and formed a backdrop to the lake in Battersea Park, and was a re-erection of an iron and glass structure, like The Crystal Palace of 1 ...

. The composer and musician

Donald Swann Donald Ibrahim Swann (30 September 1923 – 23 March 1994) was a British composer, musician, singer and entertainer. He was one half of Flanders and Swann, writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders. Life Donald Swann was born in ...

lived for a while in Prince of Wales Drive, then Albert Bridge Road where a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

has been placed.

Events

In 1906, 69 Primrose Mansions was in the possession of Mrs Edith Karno, the estranged wife of comedy impresario Fred Karno. From here, with a number of Music Hall friends, she helped to run the first office of the Ladies Music Hall Guild—founded in September 1906 with Marie Lloyd as its President. Edith Karno was its first treasurer.''The Era Newspaper'', 20.10.1906 On Wednesday, 13 July 1910, Frederick Anderson and Elizabeth Earle heard two gunshots ring out from the neighboring garden flat, number 17 Prince of Wales Drive Mansions. Frederick, who was visiting Elizabeth, went to investigate, saw a body, and called the police. He recognised the body to be his father upon arrival of the police. Frederick's father,

Thomas Weldon Atherston Thomas Weldon Anderson (1862 – 16 July 1910), known professionally as Thomas Weldon Atherstone, was an English music hall star and victim of an unsolved murder. His body was found in a backyard, at the base of a staircase leading up to the fl ...

, was an actor who went under the stage name of Weldon Atherston. Thomas had previously had an affair with Elizabeth Earle in 1899; she had been a young struggling actress when she had the affair. After the affair was over, Thomas' son, Frederick, and Elizabeth became friends. The murder remains a mystery, and it is not known why Thomas Anderson was in the adjoining garden flat to Elizabeth Earle. Some surmise that he was spying on his son and ex-girlfriend.

References

*Stibbons, Peter and Cleveland, David Cleveland (2nd ed, 1985). ''Strands of Norfolk History'', Poppyland Publishing. *Metcalf, Priscilla (1978). "The Park Town Estate and the Battersea Triangle", ''London Topographical Society Publication'', (No 121). *Loobey, Patrick (First published 1994; reprinted with corrections 2000). ''Images of England: Battersea and Clapham'', Tempus Publishing Limited. *The Rothschild Archive - Melaine Aspey, Archivist *"Old Ordnance Survey Maps - Battersea and Clapham" (1870, 1894, 1913), Alan Godfrey Maps (1999, 1998, 1999). *Ensing, Rita J. ''The Albert Palace, Battersea''. *www.wandsworth.gov.uk/.../battersea_park_ca_appraisal_and_management_ strategy_draft. *De Loriol, Peter (January 2009). "The Final Curtain", ''South West Magazine''. *''

At the Drop of Another Hat ''At the Drop of Another Hat'' is a musical revue by Flanders and Swann, similar in format to its long-running predecessor, ''At the Drop of a Hat'' (1956). In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano. Th ...

'', by Flanders and Swann {{Coord, 51.4758, -0.1555, type:landmark_region:GB-WND, display=title Streets in the London Borough of Wandsworth Battersea