What's On In Wandsworth Libraries
June Events and Activities
The Wandsworth Heritage Festival runs from 29th May to 13th June. View and download the programme of events at https://www.better.org.uk/library/london/wandsworth/news/wandsworth-heritage-festival-2021
Booking is required for most events. All events listed are free to book, unless otherwise stated.
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Tuesday 1 June
7.30pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival: Council Housing in London before and after the Totterdown Fields Estate
Organised by the Tooting History Group
John Boughton, author of Municipal Dreams, assesses the significance of the Totterdown Fields Estate in Tooting in the development of council housing in London.
Book at https://tootinghistory.org.uk/category/events
Wednesday 2
During opening hours, Putney Library 020 8780 3085
Art Space: Putney then and Now
An exhibition of work by members of the Royal Photographic Society. Runs until June 21.
6.30pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: Growth of a Victorian Suburb
Organised by the Clapham Society
Timothy Walker will lead his popular walk tracing the development of housing ‘Twixt the Commons’ by a series of speculative builders as the older houses were demolished.
Booking required – contact tehwalker@uwclub.net
Thursday 3
11am, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: The Wandle’s Industrial Heritage
Organised by the Wandle Industrial Museum
Local historian John Sheridan leads this walk from Earlsfield station to the mouth of the River Wandle, with illustrations and descriptions of former mills and industrial activities along the route.
Booking required – contact john.sheridan08@gmail.com
11am, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Workshop: Virtual Locomotion
Organised by the Black Heroes Foundation
A weekly digital community event taking place in your living room! Every Thursday at 11:00 am we go online to learn about our heroes, sing, dance and have fun. Providing a safe virtual space to meet and share stories, and support each other.
Booking required – https://blackheroesfoundation.org/virtual-locomotion
3-4.14pm, SPINE FESTIVAL. Empathy Explorers: with Artists in Residence Linden K McMahon and Victoria Fifield
Art workshop open to children aged 5 to 7 years:
Now booking, https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/empathy-explorers-with-artists-linden-k-mcmahon-and-victoria-fifield-tickets-154381229413
7pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Talk: London Undercurrents – celebrating women’s history south and north of the river
Organised by London Undercurrents
Battersea poet Hilaire and Islington poet Joolz Sparkes read from their poetry collection London Undercurrents, and discuss the inspirational women behind their closely researched work, including Charlotte Despard, apprentice laundresses, lady cyclists in Battersea Park, and their north London sisters.
Booking required – contact events@batterseasociety.org.uk
Friday 4
6pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: Lady Bountiful’s Upper Tooting Tour
Organised by Geoff Simmons, Summerstown182
This tour features the remarkable history and stories of some of the people associated with the area near Holy Trinity Church and Springfield Hospital, once the estate of wealthy Tooting benefactress Eliza Jane Bell, known as 'Lady Bountiful'
FREE, but donations for Summerstown182 welcome
Booking required – contact rgbsimmons182@gmail.com
In the event of cancellation, there will be an alternative self-guided option available.
6pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Talk: Four 18th Century Houses and their occupants
Organised by the Battersea Society
Local historian Jeanne Rathbone takes you back in time to Elm House, Lavender Sweep House, The Shrubbery, and Gilmore House to meet Jeanie Nassau Senior, Britain’s first civil servant; Tom Taylor, playwright; Laura Barker, composer; Marie Spartali, Pre-Raphaelite artist; and Deaconess Isabella Gilmore.
Booking required – contact events@batterseasociety.org.uk
6pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Performance: Black Heroes Soul Food Café
Organised by the Black Heroes Foundation The Black Heroes Soul Food Café provides a creative space for inclusive artistic expression celebrating Black Heroes and exploring the historical and contemporary presence of Black Britons in the community. Join us for an evening of music, dance, and drama.
Booking required – https://blackheroesfoundation.org/the-cafe
Saturday 5
2.30pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: The People of Wardley Street
Organised by Geoff Simmons, Summerstown182
The gypsy/traveller community has a long-established and enduring history in Wandsworth, nowhere more so than Wardley Street and Lydden Road. Families here worked with horses for generations; as flower-sellers, costermongers and market traders. This walk tells their story.
FREE, but donations for Summerstown182 welcome
Booking required – contact rgbsimmons182@gmail.com
In the event of cancellation, there will be an alternative self-guided option available.
Sunday 6
2.30pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: A Stroll through Furzedown looking at the houses and their famous or infamous former residents.
Organised by the Streatham Society
A tour of the Furzedown area looking at the houses or locations where the famous and infamous lived.
Booking required via Eventbrite https://eventbrite.co.uk/o/streatham-society-31488784265
Monday 7
6.30pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Tour and talk: The Power of Home – a 1950s estate in 21st century lockdown
Organised by the Friends of Wandsworth Common
Photographer and curator Sharon O’Neill leads a virtual tour of the Fitzhugh Estate on Wandsworth Common and tells the story of how one architect’s vision of the ‘modern world’ is realised today through the homes and lives of the current residents.
Booking required – contact sharon@sharononeill.co.uk
Tuesday 8
6.30pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: Mostly Medical
Organised by the Clapham Society
Gillian Robinson will lead this walk charting Nightingale Lane’s medical history. Learn about the Nightingales Home, Queen Elizabeth House, Audiology House, and the former South London Hospital for Women.
Booking required – contact thenightingales95@gmail.com
Wednesday 9
6pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Talk: In Mrs Ganley’s Footsteps
A virtual walk through Battersea taking in sites associated with Caroline Ganley CBE, whose life of public service began under Queen Victoria, and lasted until the Swinging ‘60s. Find out how this extraordinary woman came to be known as ‘London’s Greatest Housewife’!
Booking required – contact warcomeshome@mailwise.co.uk
Thursday 10
1pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Tour and talk: A Home on the Hill – a virtual tour of the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability
Take a 45-minute virtual tour of the buildings, interiors and grounds of the former Royal Hospital for Incurables and find out what life was like for its former Victorian residents
Booking required – https://rhn.org.uk/events
4-5.15pm, SPINE FESTIVAL. Intro to Comic Drawing With Cartoonist Ben Poultney: Empathy Day event
Arts workshop open to children aged 8 to 12 years:
Now booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/intro-to-comic-drawing-with-cartoonist-ben-poultney-tickets-153960587261
7pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Talk: Battersea’s ‘palaces in the night’
Organised by Jon Newman
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 have long replaced industry, and Jon's talk traces the history of these new riverside 'palaces'.
Booking required via Eventbrite – https://eventbrite.co.uk/e/battereas-palaces-in-the-night-tickets-142520531747
8pm, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Talk: Transforming Springfield Hospital
Organised by the Wandsworth Society
Emma Hill, Community Engagement Officer at Springfield Hospital, talks about the redevelopment of Springfield Hospital as well as the hospital’s new Integrated Programme for better quality mental health treatment.
Booking required – contact events@wandsworthsociety.org
Friday 11
11am, Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: Home to Many: Wild Flowers in Battersea Rise Cemetery
Organised by the South London Botanical Institute
Alongside some of Battersea’s former residents, Battersea Rise Cemetery is also home to many wonderful wild flowers. This walk offers the chance to learn more about them.
Booking required – see https://slbi.org.uk or contact info@slbi.org.uk
Sunday 13
2pm Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: Tooting Magical Musical History Tour
Organised by Geoff Simmons, Summerstown182
No Glastonbury this year but what a line-up in Tooting! Marc Bolan, Sadie Crawford, M.I.A., Mud, The Beatles, Bob Marley, Girlschool, Harry Lauder, Mad Professor, The Strawbs... This walk covers key locations associated with this area's musical heritage.
FREE, but donations for Summerstown182 welcome
Booking required – contact rgbsimmons182@gmail.com .
In the event of cancellation, there will be an alternative self-guided option available.
2pm Wandsworth Heritage Festival Walk: Battersea Park and Prince of Wales Drive
Organised by Friends of Battersea Park
A walk looking at homes and housing in and around Battersea Park.
£5 donation welcome
Booking required – contact fhradcliffe@gmail.com
Thursday 17
8pm, Women’s Stories Retold
Authors Elodie Harper (The Wolf Den) and Jennifer Saint (Ariadne) discuss their novels and the forgotten voices of the past. A free online event, book at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/womens-stories-retold-author-event-with-elodie-harper-and-jennifer-saint-tickets-156230909857 Presented by Wandsworth Town Library.
Saturday 19
Closing Date for Words of Wandsworth Submissions
Wandworth-based artists, writers, and poets are asked to submit creative pieces for a new anthology celebrating the people and places of the borough. We’re looking for short stories, poems, photographs, illustrations, or any piece of visual art suitable for print. Your piece simple needs to contain some reference to Wandsworth.
One submission per person from Wandsworth residents only; stories max 3000 words. Poems max 20 lines. Please submit in a Word document. Contact wordsofwandsworth@gmail.com for more information.
Monday 21
2pm, Get It Loud In Libraries
Online premiere of Get It Loud In Libraries’ behind-the-scenes documentary of their rock’n’roll misadventures in libraries from the last 16 years. Part of Make Music Day 2021. Watch the film online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI3082cr46JnU8z8ydDvy7w or https://www.facebook.com/wandsworthlibrarians
Friday 25
During opening hours, Putney Library 020 8780 3085
Art Space: Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival
We are showing works by two artists. Earlsfield based artist Abigail Lipski and Balham based artist Juliet Hall. Runs until July 11.