Stokes Family, 26 Currie Street, Battersea

I didn't know Currie Street personally, but my grandmother was born at no.24 in 1874 and the family lived in Woodgate Street and eventually Ponton Road. Looking at the london A -Z it's obvious how much the area has changed over the years. My great grandfather worked on the wharf among other things inc the gasworks. The air must have been very bad as well as working conditions and it is not surprising that he died at 53 of heart disease. I assume things were improved by 1958 even if it was classified as a slum area. I hope you have managed to make contact with some old neighbours.
Sylvia Stalder

Sylvia, my family came from Currie St. Mum born in 1922. Grandad worked on wharfs loading and unloading cement. One family member says that there were five of them and grandad passed on the chance of setting up a company that later became Blue Circle Cement. Aaaarrgh! A little triangle of streets edged by railway, gasworks and river. Pretty toxic. Using wandsworth historical maps, if you superimpose 1931 map on to modern map you'll find they lived on site of new US Embassy. Now surrounded by zillion pound apartments. In the future if you say my ancestors came from Nine Elms, people will think youre from brass. How wrong they'd be. Steve