Wandsworth

Bygone Wandsworth, Earlsfield and Southfields are brought to life in this fascinating collection of old photographs. They depict an age before the domination of the motor car, when children still played in the street and the shopkeepers piled their goods up on the pavements. The horse-drawn trams which arrived in 1882 linked an area which had only known around twenty years' development with London, so encouraging the further development with surburban housing, and by the turn of the century the open fields had disappeared beneath bricks and mortar. But for all the changes that have taken place, the streets retain a familiar aurua which throws the passage of the years into sharp relief. Local historian Patrick Loobey links the present-day borough with its intriguing past in a manner which will delight and surprise modern residents.