Getting on stream

As recently as 10 years ago Londoners could not see or enjoy the river front between Wandsworth and Battersea bridges. That stretch of the Thames was a wasteland of derelict industrial sites hidden behind high walls. Now the area is lined with new developments of apartments, shops and offices and for the first time in 130 years, we can walk almost the whole way from Wandsworth to Battersea along the river without going near the busy York Road.

Developers are coming under increasing pressure to open up London's riverside to the public. In his recently launched London Plan, Mayor Ken Livingstone has told developers that gated developments that shut off the river from everyone but residents won't be tolerated.

Wandsworth council, which has a strict policy of requiring developers to provide riverside access in return for permission to build, predicts that over the next five years, 7.5km of the borough's 8km river front between Putney and Battersea will be publicly accessible. Hopes are high that work will at last begin at Gargoyle Wharf, the former Guinness site by Wandsworth Bridge, with the 13-acre site just acquired by Berkeley Homes.

The land has planning permission for 658 flats, a hotel, police station, doctor's surgery, open space and, most importantly, a riverside walk.

Even when this is in place, however, it will still not be possible to walk from Wandsworth to Battersea by the river without being diverted onto roundabouts and dual carriageways - through no fault of developers. Major obstacles include aggregates processing sites, timberyards, car showrooms and Battersea Heliport, all of which fill the stretch between the new development at the former Price's Candle Factory and the dramatic glass triangle of the Montevetro development.

Residents of Price's Court, at the Candle Factory, who want to walk to Battersea and across the bridge to Chelsea, have to negotiate stretches of traffic-ridden road before they can get to the river. Future residents of the 78 loft apartments in the Candlemakers development in the converted Candle Factory building fronting the main road, launched by developer Wimpey this month, will face the same barriers. Flats here will sell for between £275,000 and £1 million.

"The Candle Factory is one of the last developments because it's the least desirable location," says Justin Branch of Bushells' Battersea office.

But will this stop people buying properties by the river? Not on past performance, say local agents. Such is the pull of this part of the river that people will pay the same price to live in the Candle Factory as in Riverside West, the St George development across the road from Wandsworth Town station and the trendy shops of Old York Road.

This is because they think Battersea is more central and they want to be in SW11 rather than Wandsworth's SW18, says Alistair Salt. Chesterton has recently sold two properties in Price's Court. Both had two bedrooms and sold for £265,000. Flats with river views sell for around £350,000.

Bushells has achieved similar prices in the development. "People don't seem that concerned about the main road," says Branch. He says that most of the properties are bought by investors and City workers, who don't put proximity to shops high up their list of priorities.