York Road and St Mary's: A Central Battersea New-Build Guide

The St Mary’s ward covers central Battersea, the stretch between the Thames and Clapham Junction built around the York Road and Lombard Road corridor. If Nine Elms is the tall, riverside end of Battersea’s new-build map, this is its mid-market middle: a run of residential towers rising on former industrial and retail-warehouse plots.

It is the part of Battersea that gives you a modern flat within walking distance of one of the country’s busiest rail interchanges, without the pricing of the Power Station schemes. This guide covers the area’s history, what is being built, and who it suits.

The ward is named after St Mary’s Church, Battersea, the Georgian riverside church where William Blake married in 1782.

The name and the history

St Mary’s Church sits on Battersea Church Road, right by the river. The present Grade I listed building was completed in 1777, though there has been worship on the site for far longer. It has a striking cast of associations: the artist J.M.W. Turner is said to have painted studies of the river from the vestry window, the poet and artist William Blake married Catherine Boucher there in 1782, and the American Revolutionary War general Benedict Arnold is buried in the crypt.

The York Road riverside behind it was industrial for most of its history, home to wharves, works, and the well-known Price’s Candle Factory. From the 1980s the Thames Path and new housing began to replace those industries, and the corridor is now a designated regeneration and tall-building zone, which is why so much of Battersea’s newer flat supply is concentrated here.

The new-build developments

The York Road corridor is where central Battersea’s towers are going up, mostly one- and two-bed apartments with a good deal of build-to-rent and shared ownership alongside private sale.

The HiLight at 110 York Road, by Ghelamco, is a tower of 177 apartments built on part of the former Price’s Candle Factory site, with three of the old factory buildings retained. Coda, by Avanton, is a residential-led scheme on the former Homebase island site further along York Road. 55 to 59 Lombard Road, by Greystar, is a build-to-rent scheme of 294 homes across two buildings, with a third of them affordable. Smaller recent towers include Vision Point on Yelverton Road and Helo Tower on York Road.

The current list of schemes tracked here is on the St Mary’s new builds page.

Transport

The pull of this area is connectivity. Clapham Junction, just to the south, is one of the busiest interchanges in Europe, with more than 2,000 trains a day and fast services reaching London Waterloo and Victoria in around ten minutes, plus Southern, South Western Railway, London Overground, and Gatwick connections. Wandsworth Town station is also close.

The Thames Path runs along the river for walking and cycling, and numerous bus routes serve York Road. The London Heliport sits on the riverfront by Lombard Road.

Green space

York Gardens is the main local park, off York Road, and it is being upgraded as part of the wider regeneration nearby. Battersea Park is a short distance east, and the river frontage adds the Thames Path.

Who it suits

St Mary’s suits buyers and renters who want a new-build flat with fast rail links and a central Battersea location, without paying full Nine Elms or Battersea Power Station prices. The high share of build-to-rent and shared ownership also makes it one of the more accessible parts of Battersea to get into. As with any new-build, it is worth running the buyer checklist on the specific scheme before you commit.

Sources

• Wikipedia, St Mary’s Church, Battersea (the church’s history, the Blake marriage, and Benedict Arnold’s burial).
• London Development Sites, The HiLight, 110 York Road (Ghelamco’s 177-home tower on the former Price’s Candle Factory site).
• Greystar, 294 build-to-rent homes in Battersea (the 55 to 59 Lombard Road scheme).
• Wikipedia, Clapham Junction railway station (interchange status and services to Waterloo and Victoria).