The Victorian novelist who put his mentally unstable wife into a nursing home on Albert Bridge Road, how a gruesome murder in 1840s Putney led to the creation of Scotland Yard, and the towering local-history masterpiece by the 1920s Battersea schoolmaster, J. G. Taylor, which is still viewed with awe today. These are the main themes in the Spring 2013 issue of the Wandsworth Historian (ISSN 1751-9225), the journal that brings you the latest research into Wandsworth’s past.

Shorter items include an amusing account of a novel set in Putney in 1860 and written by Thackeray, a commentary on an 1830 newspaper article about the totally unsuccessful Surrey Iron Railway that nevertheless envisages a brighter future with remarkable accuracy, and a description of the shampooing salon set up in Wandsworth in the 1880s by the Continental émigré, Joseph Wagner.

The Wandsworth Historian is published by the Wandsworth Historical Society, and copies are available price £3.00 plus £1.50 for postage and packing from Neil Robson, 119 Heythorp Street, London SW18 5BT or by emailing ngrobson@tiscali.co.uk.

Cheques payable to ‘Wandsworth Historical Society’, please.


April 11, 2013