Handyman Battersea: from cottages to new builds

Handyman in Battersea: four kinds of home in one district

Battersea is in the London Borough of Wandsworth, and it packs a lot of different housing into one district. Wandsworth Council's appraisals describe Victorian mansion blocks facing Battersea Park, a planned estate of workers' cottages from the 1870s, and tight terraces of shops with flats above around Clapham Junction. Along the river by the old power station, new flats have gone up around the Northern line extension. Our handyman works on all of them.

We are based at Jerdan Place in Fulham and cross the river to work in SW11 and SW8. We do not have an office in Battersea, but it is a short trip for us.

Mansion flats on Prince of Wales Drive

Wandsworth Council's Battersea Park appraisal calls Prince of Wales Drive the finest street in the conservation area. Its mansion blocks were built between 1892 and 1902 as a planned development by the Crown Estate, mostly in linked groups of five storeys. Windows are typically timber sashes with the upper part split into smaller panes, and several blocks have balconies with decorative iron railings.

One detail from the appraisal tells you a lot about daily life here: the lifts in York Mansions were only installed in the 1920s, some years after the blocks went up. In a block without a lift, every flat pack wardrobe, toolbox and tin of paint goes up the stairs. When you ask for a quote, tell us your floor, so our handyman can plan the visit and bring what is needed in as few trips as possible.

Inside these flats the regular jobs are sash repairs, heavy doors that need easing, picture rails and mirrors on tall walls, and shelving in deep alcoves. Repairs to balconies, the building's outside and the shared stairs usually belong to the freeholder or managing agent, so check your lease first.

The Shaftesbury Park Estate and its Article 4 direction

The Shaftesbury Park Estate was built between 1873 and 1877 by the Artisans, Labourers and General Dwellings Company, according to Wandsworth Council's appraisal. The cottages are two storeys and two bays wide, in stock brick with red brick dressings and slate roofs. Original windows are timber sashes, often in pairs on the first floor, and original front doors are timber panelled with glazing at the top.

An Article 4 direction made on 14/2/1990 covers every house on the estate. It means planning permission is needed for replacement windows and front doors, roof changes, paving over front gardens, front walls and fences, and painting the brickwork. The appraisal says windows should only be replaced when they can no longer be repaired, and that a replacement door should match the original design.

This is where careful repair counts. Replacing cords, splicing rotten sash rails, easing and draught stripping panelled doors, and repairing the low stone capped brick front walls all keep a cottage as the estate intended. The appraisal says wooden fences at the front are unacceptable, so if your front boundary needs work, we repair the brick wall rather than put up timber.

Houses in the streets south of the park

Behind the mansion blocks, the Battersea Park appraisal describes houses generally arranged in pairs within terraces, two or three storeys high and some with basements. Lurline Gardens has an 1890s terrace of purpose built flats, two storeys over a basement, and on Warriner Gardens the houses form a terrace on one side and are semi detached on the other.

Our handyman in Battersea deals with the usual wear of a Victorian home spread over several floors: stair treads that creak, doors that catch as frames shift, cracked plaster on the top landing and gullies at the bottom of basement steps that fill with leaves. We can work through a list like that room by room, and point out anything that needs a builder or a roofer rather than patching.

Flats above shops around Clapham Junction

The Clapham Junction appraisal describes St John's Road as purpose built shop houses, most finished by 1896, with offices and homes on the upper floors. Victorian terraced houses fill the side streets. Upper windows were originally timber sashes, though some have been swapped for steel or uPVC.

Flats above shops can have their own quirks. Access might be through a side door and up a narrow stair, and sound can travel between the shop and the flat. Jobs that suit a handyman visit include door locks and closers, sash repairs on front windows, resealing small bathrooms and fitting blinds on windows that face a busy road.

New flats near Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms stations opened on the Northern line on 20/9/2021, and TfL says the extension is supporting more than 20,000 new homes. Newly built flats bring a different list from the period streets: furniture assembly, TV mounting, curtain poles and blinds on floor to ceiling glazing, extra shelving and small adjustments as doors and silicone settle in the first year or two.

Walls in new blocks can be plasterboard partitions, so our handyman uses a detector and fixings rated for the load. Many new buildings have rules on when work can be done and how tools come through the lobby, so share those with us when you ask for a quote.

Specialist work and getting a free quote

We never do gas work ourselves. Any gas work is done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, as the law requires. We will arrange this for you. A new circuit, a new consumer unit (the fuse box) or new points in a room with a bath or shower is done by a registered electrician who can self certify the work. We arrange it. Small like for like swaps, such as a socket face or a light fitting on an existing circuit, are jobs we do. For everything else, send the job through our quote form with your street, the type of home and your floor, and we will come back to you from Fulham with a free quote.

Common questions