Living in Battersea / Nine Elms

Battersea is really two neighbourhoods. On the riverside, the restored Battersea Power Station is now a shopping, office and residential complex, surrounded by new towers stretching east through Nine Elms to Vauxhall, with its own station at the end of the Northern line extension. Inland, the older Battersea of Victorian terraces runs south towards Clapham Junction and Northcote Road, a busy street of cafés, shops and restaurants popular with young families.

Battersea Park is the constant between them. It is one of London's best riverside parks, with a boating lake, sports facilities, a children's zoo, sculptures, the Peace Pagoda looking across the Thames towards Chelsea, and wide paths that are full of runners and cyclists every morning. Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, a local institution, is nearby.

The new-build riverside flats come with concierges, gyms, pools and river views, and rents that reflect those amenities; the rental market there is large and professional. The Victorian parts are more varied, with converted flats, family houses, mansion blocks and notable nineteenth-century workers' cottages such as those of the Shaftesbury Park estate, as well as large post-war council estates.

Transport depends on which Battersea you choose. The Northern line from Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms reaches the West End via Kennington in around fifteen minutes; Battersea Park and Queenstown Road stations have trains to Victoria and Waterloo; and Clapham Junction, one of the busiest rail stations in the country, serves the southern half. The riverside can feel corporate and quiet at night, while the streets near Clapham Junction are livelier. Battersea suits both new-build renters who want river and park on the doorstep and families who want period houses near good rail links.