making each day extraordinary - pour que chaque jour soit extraordinaire

A history of WIX and its surrounding area

Brief history of Battersea

The original village of Battersea existed as a Thames island settlement as far back as the Anglo Saxon times, when it was known as “Badrices ege” (Badric’s Island). As with many such settlements, it was reclaimed by draining marshland. The settlement also appears in the Domesday Book, by this time known as “Patricey”. The village of Wandsworth grew with the arrival in the 16th century of French Protestant craftsmen - Huguenots - fleeing religious persecution.

Until the 19th century much of the local area was farmland, providing food and produce mainly for the City of London. One of its particular specialisms was growing lavender on and around what was subsequently called Lavender Hill. However, with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, proximity to the Thames meant that Battersea was well-placed to develop many industries which required the use of water in their processes, such as mills, breweries, dying, bleaching and calico printing.

The coming of the railways also radically altered Battersea. Between 1838 and 1860 six railway lines were built across the area, taking trains into and out of Waterloo and Victoria. An interchange station became necessary and was built in 1863 in the centre of Battersea, but named after the fashionable village more than a mile away: “Clapham Junction”. A campaign to rename the station more accurately “Battersea Junction” was started, but was unsuccessful, resulting in continued geographic confusion!

Battersea remained an industrial area until well into the 20th century, assisted by the building of Battersea Power Station between 1929 and 1939, but industrialisation brought with it the associated problems of population explosion, poor housing and pollution. For example, the population of Battersea grew from 3,300 in 1801 to 169,000 in 1910, and dwellings increased from 600 to 25,000 in the same period.

The immediate area around Wix reflected the diverse social character typical of many of Victorian London’s rapidly changing suburbs. This was particularly emphasized by the gentrified villas around Clapham Common, contrasted with the slum dwellings around the factories and wharfs, typically closer to the Thames. As a result, the area around Wix was often seen (as it still is) more as an off-shoot of the more fashionable, neighbouring Clapham, than a part of Battersea, where it actually is.

The name Wix became known in the area in the late 1700s. Charles Wix was a bricklayer who built houses on and around Clapham Common Northside at that time and Wix’s Lane is named after him. Indeed Charles Wix lived on the corner of what is now Wix’s Lane and Clapham Common Northside until he died in 1820. A memorial plaque in St. Mary’s Church Battersea names him as a benefactor of the parish.

Wix’s Lane marks the boundary of the old parishes of Battersea and Clapham, with the School site being on the Battersea side, as evidenced by the historic boundary posts that still stand interspersed along Wix’s Lane and then south across the Common. The lane most probably originated as no more than a footpath along a field. However, as villas started to spring up along Clapham Common North Side around the turn of the 19th century, they were built on dog-legged plots, so that householders could access what is now Wix’s Lane. Leases to these properties included rights of carriage along the lane and stables, coach houses and outbuildings were built along the lane, as well as cottages, inhabited by gardeners and coachmen who worked at the grander villas which faced out over the Common.

1860-1914 then marked a period of intense building development in Battersea and Wandsworth and apart from the large parks and commons which still exist in the area today, all other farmland and open land was built over with industrial buildings, railways and slum housing for workers. The area of south Battersea around Wix, remained largely more genteel, due to the residential terraced housing which was built between Lavender Hill and Clapham Common and remains today. Even the smaller cottage flats which still run along the Battersea side of Wix’s Lane and were built in and around 1905, were typically considered to be rented by the “respectable” working classes.

The opening of Wix School

Most of the streets surrounding Wix on the Battersea side were built at the turn of the twentieth century. Wix’s Lane took on its current layout at this time, when Garfield and Freke Roads were built, both opening on to Wix’s Lane. At the same time, a large plot was taken by the London School Board for a new school, Wix’s Lane School, which was opened on 27th April 1903. Apart from the building of a small wing in 1915, which added two extra classrooms on each floor, making six extra in total, the current structure of the School remains very largely as per the original design.

A 1937 a council inspectors’ report on the School confirms the predominantly genteel local neighbourhood, when it states that: “in the early years it was not uncommon to see twenty or thirty children being led to and from Wix’s Lane School by maidservants”. However, it goes on to say: “now the larger houses are divided into flats, and these, as well as the smaller houses in the neighbourhood, are occupied mainly by clerical workers in the City, by local tradesman and shop keepers, and by artisans and labourers of the better type” “Poverty exists”, it states, “although it is mainly courageously hidden

National Archives indicate that both boys and girls attended Wix’s Lane School between 1903-1931. In 1931 there was then some practical reorganisation, so that the ground floor of the School was retained for the infants and the two upper floors were allotted to a Junior Mixed department. Records also tell us that by 1956 the School was no longer called Wix’s Lane School, but had become Wix County Primary School.

The Arrival of École de Wix and the creation of the bilingual stream

Pupil numbers at Wix waxed and waned somewhat over the next few decades and by the early 1990s, they were worryingly low. It was at this point that the Lycée Charles de Gaulle came to the rescue and started to rent space on the upper floors of the School. Old Wix records show that there was a real desire on the part of both schools to work together for the mutual benefit of the children. However, it was not until 2004 that the two schools started to work together in earnest and, with the support and guidance of Wandsworth Council and the Lycée, Marc Wolstencroft, as the head at Wix and Gerard Martinez, as the Director of École de Wix, started to set in motion the creation of the bilingual stream which, in 2016, celebrates its 10th anniversary. News of this unique educational partnership hit the national and international press and the name of ‘Wix’ reached an audience far wider than Charles Wix could ever have dreamed 200 years ago.

Wix today

However, the collaboration between our two schools is much more than just the creation of the first two-way immersion bilingual stream in London. Today, our three streams - the French stream, run by École de Wix; the English stream, run by Wix Primary School; and the Bilingual stream, shared equally by both schools are testament to the power and positivity which can be gained by openness and a genuine will to learn and gain from different cultural and pedagogical approaches, for the benefit of all. Mrs Kodjovi-Stapp, as the head of Wix Primary School and Mme. Zurbach, as the Directrice of École de Wix continue to share, shape and refine the vision and opportunities which we are so lucky to have on our site. Just as Wix's Lane School served the educational needs of the developing local community of 1903, so today we serve the needs of the changed local community, by embracing both French and English educational requirements. Whatever their mother tongue, whatever their background, the children at Wix learn together, play together and eat together, as they grow into respectful, broad-minded world citizens.

Archival Material

Student Reports

“Dreaming occupies far too much of his time...”

Here are some examples of school reports from the late 1930s, from two brothers who attended Wix School at that time.

Leonard and Albert Dodson (in the front row in caps) do not always seem to have made a great impression on their teachers, as you will see from their reports contained in this pdf file.

Download the report (PDF 0.6Mb)

Report on Wix in 1937

“...it was no uncommon sight to see twenty or thirty children being escorted by maidservants to and from school...”

Recently uncovered - a report by the London County Council on Wix School in April 1937 containing fascinating details of school life just before the second World War.

Download the report (PDF, 0.1Mb)

Report on Wix in 1956

"A flourishing school is now ready for the next stage of its development"

Download the report (PDF, 0.24Mb)

School Records

The official Wix school records from the 1940s and 50s provide a way to trace your parents', grandparents' and possibly great-grandparents' attendance at the school.

How to search the school records

If you know the date your relative entered the school you can look up the record from that year.

WIX Records 1941 to 1954 (PDF, 6.9Mb)

Each pupil's record spans two pages. The order in which the names are listed is not alphabetical and the dates of birth are not in order, so you will have to do a bit of searching if you want to track a particular relative.

Left Page

Column Contents
1 Page index, useful to check when cross-referring to the right-hand page
2 Pupil reference number. A sequential number given to each pupil when first registered
3 Date of birth
4 Name
5 Parent's name
6 Parent's occupation
7 Address

Right Page

Column Contents
1 Page index
2 Date of birth. These records start with children born in 1927, and who came to school in 1941 onwards.
3 Teacher's initials. Rarely filled in.
4 Name of the last school that the pupil attended before coming to Wix.
5 Date of attendance of last school. Rarely filled in.
6 Date they left Wix school
7 Reason for leaving Wix
8 Remarks. General comments usually about where the pupil went to.
9 A date was sometimes added in the margin. This seems to have been associated with the move to the new school.

Photo Archive 1954-1961

You can have a look at our great historical photo archive, which currently spans from 1954 to 1961. Use the links to the various image galleries below.

Did you attend WIX in the past? Do you have any memories, documents or pictures you'd like to share with us? Then we'd love to hear from you. Please contact us on [email protected], and who knows, your materials might feature here on (y)our website.

making each day extraordinary - pour que chaque jour soit extraordinaire

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