As part of Wandsworth’s bid for London Borough of Culture 2025 Geoff Simmons is inviting you on a guided tour of Wandsworth Town centre, to uncover the secrets and remarkable history of our neighbourhood.
The two-hour tour meets at Wandsworth Town Library (9 Courthouse Way, SW18 4QG) at 2pm on Saturday 17 February.
Click here to book your free ticket.
About the event
Where the Wandle meets the Thames, Wandsworth – ‘The Brighter Borough’ – is a place where gargantuan tower blocks jostle alongside rusting remains of the area’s remarkable industrial legacy – all making for a fascinating ramble! Mantle-makers, costermongers and those who trooped into the gasworks everyday may have gone but their legacy lives on, and the streets that shaped Sadiq Khan, Frank Bruno and Nigella Lawson resonate with history.
This is the community that over 300 years ago gave sanctuary to the Huguenots and later provided a home for so many migrants and refugees. Nomadic people made baskets from the osiers and grazed their horses on riverside pastures. This was the starting point for the world’s first iron railway, the home of one of Britain’s longest-established brewing sites, the bread-basket of London, an industrial furnace that forged the guns and cannonballs at Trafalgar and Waterloo, a place that equipped Spitfires for the Battle of Britain.
Unravel these and so much more when you come Walking in a Wandsworth Wonderland!
A Wandsworth resident for over 30 years, Geoff Simmons runs a community history project in south west London called Summerstown182 alongside his job as a graphic designer. This involves Guided Walks and Talks, working with schools and putting up plaques. Over the last ten years a trail of these have emerged along the Wandle Valley, shining a light on some of the lesser-known history in this area. They range from the youngest soldier to serve this country in the First World War to a ground-breaking plaque acknowledging Romany Gypsy and Traveller heritage in Wandsworth. ‘Planet Tooting’ is an ongoing initiative championing the outstanding migrant contribution to our neighbourhood which resulted in a blue plaque on Tooting Market. Last year we commemorated the Corruganza Boxmakers, 44 trailblazing young women whose victorious strike action was a marker in the struggle for women’s rights in the workplace. Have a look on Geoff’s blog for more details or follow him on Instagram or Twitter.