Clapham

Coordinates: 51°28′N 0°08′W / 51.46°N 0.14°W / 51.46; -0.14

Clapham (/ˈklæp.əm/) is a district of south-west London within the London Borough of Wandsworth and also London Borough of Lambeth

History

Early history

The present day Clapham High Street is an ancient "diversion" of the Roman military road Stane Street, which ran from London to Chichester. This followed the line of Clapham Road and then onward along the line of Abbeville Road. The ancient status of that military road is recorded on a Roman stone now placed by the entrance of Clapham Library in the Old Town, which was discovered during building operations at Clapham Common South Side in 1912. Erected by Vitus Ticinius Ascanius according to its inscription, it is estimated to date from the 1st century.

According to the history of the Clapham family maintained by the College of Heralds, in 965 King Edgar of England gave a grant of land at Clapham to Jonas, son of the Duke of Lorraine, and Jonas was thenceforth known as Jonas "de [of] Clapham". The family remained in possession of the land until Jonas's great-great grandson Arthur sided against William the Conqueror during the Norman invasion of 1066 and, losing the land, fled to the north (where the Clapham family remained thereafter, primarily in Yorkshire).

Clapham Junction railway station

Clapham Junction railway station (/ˈklæpəm/) is a major railway station and transport hub near St John's Hill in the south-west of Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Although it is in Battersea, the area around the station is commonly identified as Clapham Junction, which is situated north of the neighbouring district of Clapham.

Routes from London's south and south-west termini, London Victoria and London Waterloo funnel through the station, making it one of the busiest in Europe by number of trains using it, between 100 and 180 per hour save for the five hours after midnight. The station is also the busiest UK station for interchanges between services.

History

Before the railway came, the area was rural and specialised in growing lavender; the street Lavender Hill is east of the station. The coach road from London to Guildford ran slightly south of the future station site, past The Falcon public house at the crossroads in the valley between St. John's Hill and Lavender Hill.

Clapham North tube station

Clapham North is an Underground station in Clapham, London. It is on the Northern line between Clapham Common and Stockwell. The station is located in Travelcard Zone 2, at the northern end of Clapham High Street, and a short walk away from Clapham High Street railway station. Although there is no direct interchange link interchange between the two it is counted as an Out of Station Interchange on Oyster, so journeys involving a change between the two are charged as through journeys and not two separate journeys.

History

The station opened as Clapham Road on 3 June 1900 as part of an extension of the City & South London Railway to Clapham Common one stop to the south. The station, designed by TP Figgis, is one of two remaining stations that has an island platform in the station tunnel, serving both the northbound and southbound lines; the other is Clapham Common. The original station building was replaced in the mid-1920s when the line was modernised and the original building was remodelled by Charles Holden. The ticket hall was rebuilt after the installation of escalators and Figgis's station facade was replaced with biscuit-cream faience slabs and black coping tiles to the parapet walls. In turn the station has recently had its façade reclad. The station's name was changed to Clapham North on 13 September 1926 after the line was extended to Morden that year.

Better Place

Better Place was a venture-backed international company that developed and sold battery-charging and battery-switching services for electric cars. It was formally based in Palo Alto, California, but the bulk of its planning and operations were steered from Israel, where both its founder Shai Agassi and its chief investors resided.

The company opened its first functional charging station the first week of December 2008 at Cinema City in Pi-Glilot near Tel Aviv, Israel The first customer deliveries of Renault Fluence Z.E. electric cars enabled with battery switching technology began in Israel in the second quarter of 2012, and at peak in mid September 2012, there were 21 operational battery-swap stations open to the public in Israel.

Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel in May 2013. The company's financial difficulties were caused by mismanagement, wasteful efforts to establish toeholds and run pilots in too many countries, the high investment required to develop the charging and swapping infrastructure, and a market penetration far lower than originally predicted by Shai Agassi. Less than 1,000 Fluence Z.E. cars were deployed in Israel and around 400 units in Denmark, after spending about US$850 million in private capital. After two failed post-bankruptcy acquisition attempts, the bankruptcy receivers sold off the remaining assets in November 2013 to Grngy for only $450,000.