This affluent, predominantly residential, neighbourhood is located on the banks of the Thames in the southwestern borough of Wandsworth. Local housing is varied with a little bit of everything, from Victorian cottages to big Edwardian mansions and from period conversion flats to purpose-built mansion flats. The neighbourhood has numerous quaint boutiques, restaurants and pubs, such as riverside Boathouse, a popular destination with a chic terrace and balcony for watching life on the river. There are a number of grocery stores in the area, including Valentina Fine Foods, a specialty Italian goods store, with a deli and restaurant attached. The area is a great choice for families as all of Putney’s state primary schools are rated “good” or better and is a good choice for young professionals as well, with its wealth of outdoor parks and green spaces. It is also centred around East Putney station, which offers convenient transport links throughout London for those who commute.

The neighbourhood and borough of Wandsworth was named after the River Wandle, the Thames’ largest London tributary. Wandsworth was home to England’s, and possibly the world’s, oldest public railway, the Surrey Iron Railway. The Surrey Iron Railway opened in 1803 and ran from Wandsworth to Merstham in Surrey, via Croydon, a distance of nearly nine miles. However, it was not the same sort of railway we think of today, as it was a horse-drawn railway, paid for by tolls, and was used for transporting coal, building materials, lime, manure, corn and seed. The railway only succeeded for a short time, defeated by the London to Croydon canal, and the advent of faster steam trains. It was finally closed on the 31st August 1846.

This neighbourhood area has long been admired and desired. JC Geikie, in his book, The Fascinations of London, described the area as ‘one of the pleasantest of the London suburbs, as well as the most accessible’. On 1st April 1994, British Rail sold the East Putney station to London Underground for the princely sum of £1.

One of the downsides of this neighbourhood is that its only local railway stations operate on the District line or the South Western Railway, both of which have frequent service problems and delays. Depending on where one needs to get to in London, this could be a bit problematic.

The local council has designated a number of existing office blocks around East Putney station as an area for redevelopment and refurbishment. The borough wish to offer new modern office space, new housing, some of which will be affordable, new retail/restaurant space, and an improved public realm. An example of such redevelopment is Thackeray Developments’ ‘The Assembly Rooms’ project, which was completed in 2020, a new office development of 24,500 sq ft in a refurbished Victorian building that was once a cinema. Also in nearby Wandsworth, there are plans to repurpose a now closed Homebase and redevelop the site to a complex of three buildings ranging from 7 to 15 storeys with basement to provide 343 residential units, 597 sq.m. of retail units, 1647 sq.m. of studio space and offices, as well as community uses. The development would also feature playspace, landscaping and public realm improvements (including contribution toward the new entrance to Wandsworth Town Station).