When record offices and libraries are closed, as they were during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, much research can still be done online. Here is a list of sources of actual records (not including catalogues of records). All of those below are free unless the opposite is indicated. In several cases, as indicated below, you need a Wandsworth Libraries card to access them.
The main commercial sites - Ancestry and FindMyPast - cover more material than that listed here. The National Archives is promising to make available free during the lockdown digitised collections that currently have to be paid for, so keep an eye on its website. Note that some documents can be purchased on DVD from S&N Genealogy (notably transcripts of the Putney and Wandsworth parish registers and Tooting Beck manor court rolls), with the advantage over the originals that individual names can be searched for electronically.
Births, Marriages and Deaths
Free BMD: civil registration records 1837-1992 (not yet complete):
Family Search (formerly the International Genealogical Index; not always reliable)
https://www.familysearch.org/en/
Ancestry is digitising London parish registers, though the extent of coverage is unknown (subscription required).
Censuses
Available on Ancestry and FindMyPast (subscription required). The latter also has the 1939 household survey.
Directories
http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/cdm/map/collection/p16445coll4
Films
Pathe News (including much local material):
Reelstreets (identifies and shows locations used in films):
Maps
Ordnance Survey large-scale maps from the 1860s onwards (some are also available elsewhere as Godfrey Maps reprints):
Layers of London: still under development, but includes the 1633 Allfarthing manor map, Rocque's map of the area ten miles around London c.1745, Booth's poverty maps 1889 and 1898-99, Inland Revenue maps c.1910, bomb damage maps, MOLA archaeological maps and Historic Environment Record maps.
https://www.layersoflondon.org/
Booth's poverty map 1898-99, together with Booth's notebooks:
Newspapers
The Times Digital Archive 1785-2013 (Wandsworth Libraries card needed):
https://www.better.org.uk/wandsworth-e-resources
Wandsworth & Battersea District Times 1870-91, Putney & Wandsworth Borough News 1885-93 (except 1891), Putney & South-Western Chronicle 1884 (subscription required):
FindMyPast also has an extensive newspaper collection (subscription required).
Photos and artworks
Wandsworth Heritage Service:
https://boroughphotos.org/wandsworth/
Wandsworth Museum Collection artworks:
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/view_as/grid/search/keyword:wandsworth/page/1
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/view_as/grid/search/keyword:battersea/page/1
London Metropolitan Archives - Collage:
https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/
Historic England (formerly the National Monuments Record):
https://historicengland.org.uk/sitesearch
British Museum:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection
Wills
Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills 1384-1858 (this takes you to the index, from which copies can be ordered and then downloaded for £3.50 each):
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/wills-1384-1858/
Wills 1858-1996 (this takes you to the index, from which copies can be ordered and then downloaded for £1.50 each):
https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
FindMyPast is said to have summaries of Surrey wills 1470-1856 (subscription required).
General reference
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Reference Online, Who was Who, and others (Wandsworth Libraries card needed):
https://www.better.org.uk/wandsworth-e-resources
Other
Records of The National Archives online, including many war-time records and family history sources:
Survey of London: Battersea, volumes 1 and 2 (the draft text):
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/research/survey-london/battersea
Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913:
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
DJG
2 April 2020