From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1999:

LONDON––Wedged between the massive brick
Battersea coal-burning powerhouse and the dilapidated
Battersea train station, dating to circa 1855, the Dogs’ Home
Battersea had literally Dickensian origins.
To present Londoners, the powerhouse and the
neighborhood are metaphors for each other, and for failed great
expectations. Begun in 1929 and first fired up in 1937, but not
completed until 1955, the art deco powerhouse ran at full
capacity for just 18 years before it was shut as a health hazard
on Halloween 1983. Politicians and developers have sought
ever since to find a purpose for the building.
The neighborhood was originally characterized,
however, by the now empty Battersea Pumping Station, built
in 1830 to feed the first London water mains. Now near the
heart of the city, it was then believed to be far enough out to
provide clean water from the Thames.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1999:

MERSEYSIDE, U.K.–– Learning
at the mid-October International Companion
Animal Welfare Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria
that ANIMAL PEOPLE would have a day in
London between flights a few days later,
NCDL field director Marc Weston reached for
his cellular telephone and quickly arranged to
fly us from London to Manchester and back
during the layover to show off the NCDL’s
new $1.6 million Merseyside shelter, the 13th
in a nationwide network.
NCDL chief executive Clarissa
Baldwin has urged such alacrity toward the
media throughout her 13-year tenure, building
on her experience as public relations officer
for 12 years before that. She has also understood,
as a former reporter, the value of
putting substance behind the hype.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1999:

A “small party of gentlemen”
brought together by Lady Gertrude Stock
during the first-ever Crufts dog show in
1891 incorporated the National Canine
Defence League to protect dogs from
“torture and ill-usage of every kind.”
Honoring heroic dogs helped
raise regard for the species. An early
honoree was Bob, who carried water to
British troops under fire throughout the
Boer War, 1899-1902. He filled bottles
strapped to his body by dashing into a
stream and lying down. He would then
return to the front.

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