Educating Wandsworth Announced As This Year's Heritage Festival Theme 

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As local Heritage service releases events programme

Garratt Lane Schools in the 1910s. Picture: Wandsworth Heritage Service

April 25, 2023

The annual celebration of local history, the Wandsworth Heritage Festival, has revealed a focus on education in the borough’s past and present for this year’s event.

Wandsworth Heritage Service, which is based at 265 Lavender Hill, has already amassed a huge variety of talks, tours, walks, exhibition and craft sessions from 20 May until 11 June at various locations across the borough. The following are just some of the events being lined up.

Particular highlights specific to education include…

Poetry Workshop: Women In and Out of Education
Organised by London Undercurrents. Join poets Hilaire and Joolz Sparkes. No previous experience of writing poetry is necessary. Suitable for adults. 

• Saturday 20 May, 11.30am 

• Free 

• Battersea Library, 265 Lavender Hill, SW11 1JB 

• Booking required – contact heritage@gll.org

Talk: Educating Wandsworth – the Birth of Inclusion? 

Organised by the Battersea Society. Jeanne Rathbone tells the story of Linden Lodge School for the Blind, while Sue Demont talks about the Workers’ Educational Association. 

• Thursday 25 May, 6.30pm for 7pm 

• Free, light refreshments on sale 

• St Mary’s Church, Battersea Church Road, SW11 3NA 

• Booking required – contact events@batterseasociety.org.uk

Tour: A Historical Walking Tour of 

Emanuel School and its Grounds 

Organised by the school. Taking participants back to the days 

when Emanuel was a boarding school and 

orphanage.  

• Saturday 27 May, 10am 

• Free 

• Emanuel School, Battersea Rise, SW11 1HS 

• Booking encouraged – contact 

tony.jones@emanuel.org.uk


Franciscan School Puppetry Group in 1953. Picture: Wandsworth Heritage Service

Talk: An Uneducated Lady? Marjory Allen and the Adventure Playground Movement 

Organised by the Friends of Wandsworth Common. 

Sue Demont explores the life and times of Lady Allen of Hurtwood (1897-1976) and the Adventure Playground movement.  

• Wednesday 31 May, 6.30pm for 7pm 

• Free, light refreshments on sale 

• Naturescope, Wandsworth Common (off Dorlcote Road), SW18 3RT 

• Booking required – contact history@wandsworthcommon.org

Talk and exhibition: Cherishing Froebelian Heritage in Early Childhood Research and Practice 

Organised by the University of Roehampton. 

Discussing young children’s rights, development and opportunities in society. 

• Thursday 8 June, 5.30pm 

• Free 

• The Portrait Room, Grove House, Froebel College, University of Roehampton, SW15 5PJ 

• Book via Eventbrite

Reaching beyond the theme of education, the Wandsworth Heritage Festival also delves further into local history with the following…

Tour: Ram Brewery Heritage Centre 

Organised by Sambrook’s Brewery. Brewer John Hatch will lead the tour. Price includes tutored tastings. 

• Thursday 1 June, 7pm 

• £15 

• Sambrook’s Heritage Centre, 42 Ram Street, SW18 1UR 

• Booking required – contact john@sambrooksbrewery.co.uk

Open Weekend: Wandsworth Prison Museum 

The prison’s history in over 450 photos and objects. Stories of staff, prisoners, escapes, and hangings.  

• Saturday 27 May and Sunday 28 May, 10am-1pm, 2pm-5pm 

• Free 

• Wandsworth Prison Museum, North Gate Car Park, Heathfield Road, SW18 3HR 

• Booking not required – email wandsworthprisonmuseum@justice.gov.uk for further information

Drop in: History on Tap 

Organised by the Spread Eagle pub. On display will be photographs from the pub’s collections sent by previous landlords and regulars. 

• Tuesday 30 May, 6pm-9pm 

• Free 

• Spread Eagle Wandsworth Public House, 69 Wandsworth High Street, SW18 2PT 

• No booking required


Children with sheep on Wandsworth Common. Picture: Wandsworth Heritage Service

Talk: Apprentices, Children and Labour in the Wandle Mills 

Organised by the Wandle Industrial Museum. 

From child labour to young apprentices, this talk explores child employment in the mills, as well as the practice of fathers working alongside their children. 

• Monday 29 May, 6.30pm 

• Free 

• Earlsfield Library, 276 Magdalen Road, SW18 3NY 

• Booking advised – contact heritage@gll.org

Walk: The Lost Museums of Wandsworth 

Organised by the Wandsworth Museum Action Group 

Visit the sites linked to Wandsworth Museum and hear about the rise and fall of the borough’s lost museums  

• Friday 26 May, 2pm 

• Free 

• Meet outside Putney Library, 5-7 Disraeli Road, SW15 2DR 

• Booking not required

Talk and Tour: Stories from the Post-Mortem Casebooks of St George’s Hospital
Organised by St George’s 

Archivist Dr Juulia Ahvensalmi and Curator of the Museum of Human Diseases Dr Carol Shiels delve into another set of fascinating historical cases  

• Wednesday 24 May, 12pm 

• Free 

• Curve Lecture Theatre, St George’s, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, SW17 0RE 

• Book via Eventbrite



Roehampton Children’s Library in the early 1960s. Picture: Wandsworth Heritage Service


Walk: Down the Junction 

Organised by the Battersea Society 

Local historian Jeanne Rathbone leads a walk looking at sites and survivors of some of our most iconic buildings. 

• Sunday 21st May, 2pm 

• Free 

• Meet at the entrance of Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN 

• Booking required

And there is also a line-up of events especially for the kids…

Children’s craft: Wandsworth Dragons 

Organised by Wandsworth Libraries & Heritage Service 

Make a fire-breathing dragon based on Wandsworth’s heraldic crest. 

• Wednesday 31 May, 11am 

• Free 

• Balham Library, 16 Ramsden Road, SW12 8QY 

• No booking required

Children’s Story time: Journey through Time with Vlad the Flea! 

Organised by Wandsworth Libraries & Heritage Service and Reading Riddle 

Children’s author Kate Cunningham and her tiny creation Vlad take participants on a journey to London during the Great Fire and beyond. 

• Monday 29 May, 4pm 

• Free 

• Battersea Library, 265 Lavender Hill, SW11 1JB 

• No booking required

Children’s craft: Battersea Doves 

Organised by Wandsworth Libraries & Heritage Service 

Make a hanging peace dove based on Battersea’s heraldic crest. 

• Tuesday 30 May, 4pm 

• Free 

• Battersea Library, 265 Lavender Hill, SW11 1JB 

• No booking required

Based at Battersea Library on Lavender Hill, Wandsworth Heritage Service is the archives and local history repository for the borough. Its archive collection includes records of the London Borough of Wandsworth as well as its predecessor bodies, the Metropolitan Boroughs of Battersea and Wandsworth. The depository includes personal papers, family papers, school records, club and charity records, business records, and political records, and residents can access its online catalogue.

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