Batterea’s ‘Palaces in the Night’

Battersea riverside as depicted by the painter Whistler was grimily industrial. Today it is exclusively residential. What made it change?

James Whistler wrote of Battersea's industrial riverside, as depicted in his 'nocturne' paintings: “the tall chimneys become campanile – and the warehouses are palaces in the night". Apartment blocks with balconies offering riverside views have long since replaced the riverside factories. Jon Newman's talk , given as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival, traces the vanishing of industry and its replacement by the new riverside 'palaces'.

Jon Newman is a writer on South London history and an archivist