Why did so many bankers choose Clapham for their home in the eighteenth century? How did their villas get replaced by rows of terraced housing? Why does the street grid take its present form and who used to live in the houses? Why did lowly South Battersea emerge as the upmarket Twixt the Commons? Timothy Walker, a long standing resident, answers all these questions and more using contemporary commentary from Pepys and Defoe to the present day Financial Times.