The Winstanley and York Road Estate comprises two large estates of predominantly public housing apartments in Battersea, London, adjacent to Clapham Junction railway station, although some have since passed into private ownership.
Due to their proximity to one another, the Winstanley and York Road estates have historically been grouped together and share facilities, including York Gardens and transport links at Clapham Junction. According to official data, there are a total of 1,419 homes on the estates, with approximately 5,200 residents. The locality has had various well-known residents over the years, including: John Burns, Alan Johnson and Levi Roots. The estates are the founding location of the So Solid Crew, a UK garage group that had mainstream success and did much to popularise succeeding genres of UK "urban" music. Work has begun for a planned regeneration scheme (subject to a final review from the Mayor of London), taking place on a timeline of December 2018 until 2030.
Background
Middle Ages to the Victorian Era Although the place-name "Patricesy" is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, the relatively large settlement of 70 households referred to a parish further north from the estates. This seems to have been almost exactly on the banks of the Thames, closer to the Westbridge Estate and probably around Battersea Church Road and St Mary's Church. The area was still sparsely populated and largely consisted of farmland, with the exception of the Falconbrook, a stream that then flowed overground along what is now Falcon Road. The name of "York" Road possibly derives from a late medieval moated house on the site, built by the Bishop of Durham in 1474 and later given to the Archbishop of York.
The stream became known as the Falcon in the 17th century, named after the birds displayed on the crest of the St John baronets, latterly the Viscount Bolingbrokes, who owned the "whole... area north of St John’s Hill" between 1627 and 1763". The area was acquired by the 1st Earl Spencer of the Earl Spencers in 1763, before the area of the modern estates was sold by the 3rd Earl between 1835 and 1836, primarily for the creation of the London and Southampton Railway and eventually Clapham Junction railway station.
Pre-War Development and Pioneering British Black Politics
Although most prominently associated with the development of the nearby Latchmere Estate in 1903, John Burns was born here in 1858 and grew up at 80 Grant Road with his family, thereafter becoming a Progressive member of the first London County Council for Battersea in 1889 and campaigning vigorously around the area. Whilst the opening of Clapham Junction railway station in 1863 would eventually have a dramatic effect on the area, by the end of the 1860s only small areas of housing on Edward (Wye) Street and Grant Road had been completed. Canon Erskine Clark, upon arrival on Plough Road in 1874, attributed the "proximity to the great railway centre "Clapham Junction" as the main reason for "its recent building boom" and rapid development.
This particular area of "North Battersea" has a long-standing association with poverty and vice. This was documented in the Charles Booth poverty map in 1902, where the main streets of the estate around Darien and Winstanley Roads are coloured black and dark blue to signify "criminal" and "very poor" inhabitants. The Latchmere ward that the Estates area is within was particularly notable for the election of John Archer in 1906, one of the earliest Black British politicians (along with Allan Glaisyer Minns and Henry Sylvester Williams).
Inter-War Development and Pioneering British Indian Politics The wider constituency's radical reputation was cemented in 1924, when Shapurji Saklatvala was elected to be one of the first-ever British Indian MPs as a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain for the former Battersea North.Klugmann, History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1, p. 356. The entire area had been "earmarked" for redevelopment as early as the 1930s, but only one block (Darien House on Darien Road) was built before WWII in 1934. The Winstanley Road School was also demolished in 1938 as part of the redevelopment, although this was the last action completed before the beginning of the War.
During and Post WWII Development and Politics Again, like many London dockland areas (Ransome's Dock and Cringle Dock are nearby), it was heavily damaged by bombing during The Blitz. The original population of the Winstanley Estate and York Road Estates were largely re-housed from the run-down Victorian terraces that previously stood in the area between 1956 and 1972, some of which can still be seen in films such as Up the Junction in 1965. Much of the motivation to embark on a program of slum clearance for the construction of council estates stemmed from the personal childhood experiences of Battersea Borough's Housing Committee in these run-down homes, including the chairman Sidney Sporle, often with unsafe multiple occupation, shared outdoor toilets, no running water or central heating.
Modern Location
As previously stated, Clapham Junction, which is supposedly the busiest railway-station in London, the UK and Europe in terms of daily rail traffic, is situated directly to the south of the estates. The stream "Falconbrook" or "Battersea Creek" still runs underground along Falcon Road, marking one of the boundaries of the estates. The estates are relatively close to several other local landmarks, including: Battersea Bridge, Battersea Park, the former Battersea Power Station and the new U.S. Embassy. Formerly the Livingstone Estate, an extension of the wider Winstanley Estate, the housing around Sullivan Close on the south-east corner of the estates now forms a private, gated development known as the Falcons Estate. On the nearest eastern boundary of the estates is the Kambala Estate, centred around Kambala Road, which is also a council estate and is in many ways contiguous with the larger Winstanley and York Road Estates, with the three estates sharing many facilities and demographic similarities.
At the North-eastern edge is the Badric Court Estate around Yelverton Road, blocks of council housing that are almost identical to those found on the Winstanley and York Road Estates, but which have access to slightly different facilities compared to the Kambala Estate due to their location. There are then a succession of office blocks and shops running counter-clockwise along York Road, variously featuring: a Halfords Store, Volkswagen Store and a Barker and Stonehouse premises. Communal facilities can be located at York Gardens and York Gardens Library and to the western edge of the estate is the so-called "Wilberforce" or Wynter Street estate around Maysoule Road, a mixture of slightly lower rise blocks very similar to the design of the Kambala Estate and slightly higher-rise blocks also very similar to the design of Badric Court or York Road.
Construction Early Construction and Layout In 1955, the Victorian terraces within the district were formally cleared for "redevelopment". Jackson House and Kiloh Court in Meyrick Road and Farrant House in Darien Road were henceforth all built in 1956 to the specifications of the first architectural firm to work on the estate: Pite, Son & Fairweather. Arthur Newton House along Lavender Road, Baker House on Darien Road and Ganley Court beside Newcomen Road were also completed by these architects between 1959 and 1961. The system-built blocks of the Winstanley Estate around Winstanley Road began construction in 1963 and had finished by approximately 1966. The York Road Estate around Wye Street and the Livingstone Estate around Sullivan Close subsequently started construction in 1967 and were both completed by 1972. All of the developments after 1963 were constructed using the Plattenbau design, in contrast to a mixture with the earlier developments before 1963.
Later Phase and Controversy The legacy of Sidney Sporle, the then-leader of Wandsworth Council and one-time mayor of Battersea was tarnished when he was convicted and sentenced for corruption in 1971. He had played a pivotal role in advocating for the redevelopment of the area (and Sporle Court on the Winstanley Estate is still named after him), but was exposed to have used corrupt and possibly unsafe methods in the construction of the nearby Doddington and Rollo Estate. After his imprisonment, there was a substantial campaign in the South London Press and backed by the subsequent Wandsworth Council housing chairman Alderman Dennis Mallam, and the then-chairman of the Winstanley Estate Tenant's Association Ernest Randell, to change the name of the block from Sporle Court, which ultimately appeared to be unsuccessful. In the aftermath of Sid Sporle's conviction, the new council decided to abolish the five-year residency rule before being permitted to apply for council housing, a change that apparently allowed more "black people" of the Windrush Generation and other freshly arrived immigrants to obtain council housing and avoid exploitative landlords.
Culture
Music – So Solid Crew and Melodians Steel Orchestra UK The Winstanley Estate is well known within London for being the base of So Solid Crew, who achieved a number 1 with their single "21 seconds", a number 3 with "They Don't Know" and popularised UK Garage and other genres of urban music. The estate now has a well-known musical tradition and many current rappers, producers and drill artists hail from the estates. Michael Fuller also described being taken aback by the impressive musical band (the Melodians Steel Orchestra UK) that hailed from the estate in the late 1990s, which he described as having a positive social impact on the estate and tried to encourage by directing municipal funding towards them. He drew attention to the band's international success under his patronage, including performing at the Royal Albert Hall 15 years in a row, winning the Royal Anniversary Challenge Award in 1992 and perhaps echoing the success of their later and slightly better-known counterparts. Sound Minds, a musical charity that attempts to alleviate mental health problems, also operates on the Estates at York Road.
Food – Levi Roots Links The Winstanley estate is the location of Levi Root's first London restaurant, Papine Jerk Centre, where it served a local school (Thames Christian College) between 2007 and 2013 before closing. Historian Dan Jones referenced this by saying that "middle-class people entering the Winstanley looking for Levi Roots' famous jerk restaurant" was equivalent to "a few kids on stolen 50cc bikes venturing out [of Winstanley]" or "as a form of cultural exchange" where "fair's fair" in the London Evening Standard in 2017. The north of the Winstanley and York Road Estates (mainly York Road) also has a much lower than average rate of supermarkets and convenience stores per 1000 population (0.61) but a higher than average rate of takeaways (3.05 per 1000).
Religion There are numerous places of worship, including two churches on the estates and a mosque next to them on Falcon Road. Within the ward as a whole, 59.6% of residents are "Christians", 25.9% have "No Religion", 11.2% are Muslims and there are also much smaller (below 1.5%) minorities of "Hindu", "Buddhist" and "Other Religious" followers.
Sports and Arts