Battersea Parish Church - Old Swan Wharf from Cremorne Gardens & Battersea/Wandsworth Clove Hitch Quay/Plantation Wharf from William Morris Quay, Fulham

Two pencil drawings by Stephen Chaplin depicting the south bank (1) at Battersea from the Montevetro Building to Old Swan Wharf and (2) at the border of Battersea/Wandsworth Town from Battersea Heliport to Plantation Wharf. Both dated 27 September 2000.

This object consists of two pencil drawings by Stephen Chaplin commissioned specifically for the Wandsworth Museum and both dated 27 September 2000. As the artist notes, the news headlines at that time included Tony Blair's speech to the Labour Party conference and Slobodan Milošević's imminent removal as President of Serbia and Montenegro. The drawings are part of a series depicting the south bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Wandsworth as seen from locations on the north bank.

The first drawing was made at Cremorne Gardens in Chelsea. It shows the Thameside at Battersea beginning on the left with the Montevetro Building, a newly constructed high-end, 20-storey residential development in a glass triangular shape. This was built on the site of the former Rank Hovis McDougall flour mills, which were demolished in 1997. In the centre is St Mary's Church, Battersea, referred to by the artist as Battersea Parish Church. This is a Grade I listed building constructed in 1777 on the site of a previous church built around 800 AD. On the right are the buildings of Old Swan Wharf, a private, gated riverside residential development on the site of the Victorian Old Swan pub.

The second drawing was made from William Morris Quay, Fulham. It shows the Thameside at the border of Battersea/Wandsworth Town from London Heliport to Plantation Wharf. Historically this border was marked by the Falconbrook river which has sources in Streatham Hill and Tooting Common and which joins the Thames at a point near the centre of this drawing. The river was culverted in the 1860s, causing the artist to have difficulty identifying the confluence, although he noted signs of caisons that could mark the spot. On the left is London Heliport, which was then owned by Westland and called Battersea Heliport. This is followed by two chimneys of Battersea Power Station, which was then derelict and awaiting redevelopment. On the right are the buildings of Plantation Wharf, a residential and commercial development built in the late 1980s/early 1990s on the site of a former sugar refinery. Its buildings are named after commodities linked to the transatlantic slave trade, such as Cotton Row and Molasses, which is now controversial.