Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney
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Geraldine Edith Mitton >> Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney
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6 THE FASCINATION
OF LONDON
HAMMERSMITH
FULHAM AND PUTNEY
_IN THIS SERIES._
Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net each.
THE STRAND DISTRICT.
By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
WESTMINSTER.
By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT.
CHELSEA.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT.
KENSINGTON.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT.
HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY.
By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
HAMMERSMITH, FULHAM, AND PUTNEY.
By G. E. MITTON and J. C. GEIKIE.
MAYFAIR, BELGRAVIA, AND PIMLICO.
_In the press._
[Illustration: FULHAM PALACE.]
The Fascination of London
HAMMERSMITH,
FULHAM
AND PUTNEY
BY
G. E. MITTON
AND
J. C. GEIKIE
EDITED BY
SIR WALTER BESANT
LONDON
ADAM & CHARLES BLACK
1903
PREFATORY NOTE
A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should
preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her
mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that
Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the
past--this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he
died.
As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anything
else I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted
before. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I
find something fresh in it every day."
Sir Walter's idea was that two of the volumes of his survey should
contain a regular and systematic perambulation of London by different
persons, so that the history of each parish should be complete in
itself. This was a very original feature in the great scheme, and one in
which he took the keenest interest. Enough has been done of this
section to warrant its issue in the form originally intended, but in the
meantime it is proposed to select some of the most interesting of the
districts and publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to
the local inhabitant and the student of London, because much of the
interest and the history of London lie in these street associations.
The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great,
for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undying
charm of London--that is to say, the continuity of her past history with
the present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, her
history is written for those who can read it, and the object of the
series is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain.
The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man who
loved London and planned the great scheme. The work "fascinated" him,
and it was because of these associations that it did so. These links
between past and present in themselves largely constitute The
Fascination of London.
G. E. M.
HAMMERSMITH
The parish of Hammersmith is mentioned in Doomsday Book under the name
of Hermoderwode, and in ancient deeds of the Exchequer as Hermoderworth.
It is called Hamersmith in the Court Rolls of the beginning of Henry
VII.'s reign. This is evidently more correct than the present spelling
of the name, which is undoubtedly derived from _Ham_, meaning in Saxon a
town or dwelling, and _Hythe_ or _Hyde_, a haven or harbour,
"therefore," says Faulkner, "Ham-hythe, a town with a harbour or creek."
Hammersmith is bounded on the south by Fulham and the river, on the west
by Chiswick and Acton, and on the east by Kensington. Until 1834 it was
incorporated with the parish of Fulham, and on Ascension Day of that
year the first ceremony of "beating the bounds" took place. The West
London Railway runs in the bed of an ancient stream which rose north of
Wormwood Scrubs and ended at Chelsea Creek, and this brook was crossed
by a bridge at the place where the railway-bridge now stands on the
Hammersmith Road. The stream was evidently the determining factor in the
old parish boundary line between Kensington and Hammersmith, but
Hammersmith borough includes this, ending at Norland and St. Ann's
Roads. On the south side it marches with Fulham--that is to say,
westward along the Hammersmith Road as far as St. Paul's School, where
it dips southward to include the school, and thence to the river. From
here it proceeds midway in the river to a point almost opposite the end
of Chiswick Ait, then northward up British Grove as far as Ravenscourt
Gardens; almost due north to within a few yards of the Stamford Brook
Road; it follows the trend of that road to the North and South Western
Junction Railway. It crosses the railway three times before going
northward until it is on a level with Jeddo Road. It then turns
eastward, cuts across the north of Jeddo Road to Wilton Road West.
Northward it runs to the Uxbridge Road, follows this eastward for a few
yards, and strikes again northward up Old Oak Road and Old Oak Common
Road until it reaches Wormwood Scrubs public and military ground. It
then trends north-eastward, curves back to meet the Midland and
South-Western Line as it crosses the canal, and follows Old Oak Common
Road until on a level with Willesden Junction Station, from thence
eastward to the Harrow Road. It follows the Harrow Road until it meets
the western Kensington boundary running between the Roman Catholic and
Protestant cemeteries at Kensal Town. It goes through Brewster Gardens
and Latimer Road until it meets the line first indicated.
HISTORY.
With Fulham, Hammersmith shared in the incursion of the Danes in 879,
and it is especially mentioned in the Chronicle of Roger de Hoveden that
they wintered in the island of Hame, which Faulkner thinks is the ait or
island near Chiswick, which, he says, must have considerably decreased
in size during the nine centuries that have elapsed. In 1647 Cromwell
removed his quarters from Isleworth to Hammersmith, and "when he was at
Sir Nicholas Crispe's house, the headquarters were near the church." The
general officers were quartered at Butterwick, now Bradmore House, then
the property of the Earl of Mulgrave.
PERAMBULATION.--The first thing noticeable after crossing the boundary
from Kensington is St. Paul's School. It stands on the south side of the
road, an imposing mass of fiery red brick in an ornamental style. The
present building was erected in 1884 by Alfred Waterhouse, and a statue
to the memory of Dean Colet, the founder, standing within the grounds
was unveiled in 1902. It was designed by W. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A. The
frontage of the building measures 350 feet, and the grounds, including
the site, cover six acres. Dr. John Colet, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's,
founded his school in 1509 in St. Paul's Churchyard, but it is not known
how far he incorporated with it the then existing choir-school. The
number of his pupils was 153, in accordance with the number of fishes in
the miraculous draught, and the foundation scholars are limited to the
same number at the present day. The old school stood on the east side of
St. Paul's Churchyard, and suffered so much in the Great Fire that it
had to be completely rebuilt. When, in the nineteenth century, the site
had become very valuable, the school was removed to Hammersmith, and its
original site is now covered by business premises. Dean Colet endowed
the foundation by leaving to it lands that were estimated by Stow to be
worth L120 annually, and that are now valued at over L20,000. The school
is governed under a scheme framed by the Charity Commissioners in 1900,
and part of the income is diverted to maintain the new girls' school in
Brook Green.
Lily, the grammarian, was the first headmaster, and the roll of the
pupils includes many great names--the antiquaries Leland, Camden, and
Strype; John Milton, prince of poets; Halley, the astronomer; Samuel
Pepys; Sir Philip Francis, supposed author of the "Letters of Junius";
the famous Duke of Marlborough; among Bishops, Cumberland, Fisher,
Ollivant and Lee; among statesmen, Charles, Duke of Manchester, Spencer
Compton (Earl of Wilmington), Prime Minister; and Lord Chancellor Truro;
also Sir Frederick Pollock, Lord Hannen, Sir Frederick Halliday, and
Benjamin Jowett.
The preparatory school, called Colet Court, stands opposite on the
northern side of the road. It was founded in 1881, and owns two and a
half acres of land. On the same side Kensington Co-operative Stores
covers the site of White Cottage, for some time the residence of Charles
Keene.
Next to the Red Cow public-house lived Dr. Burney, D.D., LL.D., learned
father of a celebrated daughter, who became afterwards Madame D'Arblay.
He kept a school here for seven years from 1786. There are other old
houses in the vicinity, but to none of them is there attached any
special interest. The Convent of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth is in a
large brick building on the south side of the road. This was built in
1857 for the convent purposes. It is the mother-house of the Nazareth
nuns, so that the numbers continually vary, many passing through for
their noviciate. The nuns collect alms for the aged poor and children,
and many of the poor are thus sustained. Besides this, there are a
number of imbecile or paralytic children who live permanently in the
convent. The charity is not confined to Roman Catholics.
The Latymer Foundation School is a plain brick building standing a
little back from the highroad. It bears the Latymer arms, and a cross in
stone over the doorway, as well as the date of the foundation. The
Latymer charity was established in 1824 by the will of Edward Latymer.
He left several pieces of land in the hands of trustees, who were to
apply the rents to the following uses:
"To elect and choose eight poor boys inhabiting Hammersmith within
the age of twelve and above the age of seven, and provide for every
boy a doublet and a pair of breeches of frieze or leather, one
shirt, one pair of stockings, and a pair of shoes on the 1st of
November; and also to provide yearly, against Ascension Day, a
doublet and a pair of breeches of coarse canvas lined, and deliver
the same unto the said boys, and also a shirt, one pair of stockings,
and a pair of shoes; and that on the left sleeve of every poor boy's
doublet a cross of red cloth or baize should be fastened and worn;
and that the feofees should cause the boys to be put to some petty
school to learn to read English till they attain thirteen, and to
instruct them in some part of God's true religion. The allowance of
clothing to cease at thirteen. And that the feofees shall also elect
six poor aged men of honest conversation inhabiting Hammersmith, and
provide for every one of them coats or cassocks of frieze or cloth,
and deliver the same upon the 1st of November in every year, a cross
of red cloth or baize to be fastened on the left sleeve; and that
yearly, on Ascension Day, the feofees should pay to each man ten
shillings in money."
To this charity were added various sums from benefactors from time to
time, and the number of recipients was increased gradually, until in
1855 there were 100 boys and 45 almsmen. At that date the men's clothing
consisted of a body coat, breeches, waistcoat, hat, pair of boots,
stockings, and shirt one year, and the next, great-coat, breeches, pair
of boots, stockings, shirt, and hat. The boys received coat, waistcoat,
and trousers, cap, pair of stockings, shirt, pair of bands, pair of
boots. Also on November 1, cap, pair of stockings, shirt, pair of bands,
and pair of boots. At present part of the money is given in alms, and
the rest is devoted to the Lower Latymer School and the Upper Latymer
School, built 1894, situated in King Street West.
At the back of the Latymer Foundation, in Great Church Lane, is the
Female Philanthropic Society. The object is for the reformation of young
women convicted for a first offence or addicted to petty pilfering.
Opposite is a recreation-ground and St. Paul's parochial room, a small
temporary iron building. In King's Mews, Great Church Lane, Cipriani,
the historical painter and engraver, lived at one time. He died here in
1785. The entrance to Bradmore House, the oldest house in Hammersmith,
is in the lane. The grounds stretch out a long way eastward, and one or
two old cedars are still growing here. The eastern portion of the house
has a fine front with fluted pilasters, with Ionic capitals running up
to a stone parapet surmounted by urns. The windows are circular-headed,
and those over the central doorway belong to a great room, 30 feet by
20, and 20 in height. The house, though much altered, is in its origin
part of a very old building named Butterwick House, built by Edmund,
third Baron Sheffield and Earl of Mulgrave, about the latter end of
Queen Elizabeth's reign. The name was taken from a village in
Lincolnshire where the Sheffield family had long lived. This Earl of
Mulgrave was grandfather of John, Duke of Buckingham. He died in 1646,
and is buried in the church. The estate probably passed from the
Sheffield family soon after his death, for in 1653 the manor-house or
farm of Butterwick, called the Great House, "passed to Margaret Clapham,
wife of Christopher Clapham and widow of Robert Moyle, and her son
Walter Moyle after her." In 1677 it was conveyed by Walter Moyle for the
use of Anne Cleeve and her heirs. She aliened it to Mr. Ferne in 1700.
The house was greatly modernized by Mr. Ferne, Receiver-General of the
Customs, who added some rooms to the north-east, "much admired," says
Lysons, "for their architectural beauty."
He intended this part of the house for Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, but
she never inhabited it. One of Mr. Ferne's daughters married a Mr.
Turner, who in 1736 sold the house to Elijah Impey, father of Sir Elijah
Impey, Chief Justice of Bengal. He divided the modern part built by Mr.
Ferne from the older building, and called it Bradmore House, and under
this name it was used as a school for more than a century. It was again
divided into two parts, and the western portion, which fronts the
church, is of dark brick with red-brick facings, which glow through the
overhanging creepers.
The older part was sold by the Impey family in 1821, and fifteen years
later was pulled down. Some small houses, which still stand on the south
side, with irregular tiled roofs and walls covered with heavy green ivy,
were built on the site. St. Paul's Church, the foundation-stone of which
was laid July, 1882, by the late Duke of Albany, is opposite. The square
pinnacled tower rises to a considerable height. The original structure
was much more ancient. Bowack says: "The limits of this chapel was
divided from Fulham before the year 1622, as appears in a benefaction to
the poor of Fulham."
The chapel of ease to the parish of Fulham was founded in 1628, and
opened in 1631. The whole cost was about L2,000, of which Sir Nicholas
Crispe gave L700. This church was the last consecrated by Archbishop
Laud. The old monumental tablets have been carefully preserved, and hang
on the walls of the present building. The most important object in the
church is a bronze bust of Charles I. on a pedestal 8 or 9 feet high, of
black and white marble. Beneath the bust is the inscription:
"This effigies was erected by special appointment of Sir Nicholas
Crispe, knight and Baronet, as a grateful commemoration of that glorious
Martyr Kinge Charles I. of blessed Memory."
Below, on a pedestal of black marble, is an urn containing the heart of
the loyal subject, and on the pedestal beneath is written:
"Within this Urne is entombed the heart of Sir Nicholas Crispe, knight
and Baronet, a Loyall sharer in yhe sufferings of his Late and Present
Majesty. Hee first setled the Trade of Gould from Guyny, and there built
the Castle of Cormantine. Died 25 Feb. 1665 aged 67 years."
Sir Nicholas Crispe's name is closely identified with Hammersmith. He
was born in 1598, the son of a London merchant, and, though inheriting a
considerable fortune, he was bred up to business. He was subsequently
knighted by King Charles I., and made one of the farmers of the King's
Customs. During the whole of the Civil War he never faltered from his
allegiance, but raised money and carried supplies to the King
constantly. He had built Brandenburg House (p. 39), on which he is said
to have spent L23,000. This was confiscated by Cromwell and used by his
troops during the rebellion, but at the Restoration Sir Nicholas was
reinstated and rewarded by a baronetcy. His body was not buried at
Hammersmith, but in the church of St. Mildred in Bread Street with his
ancestors. There is a portrait of him given in Lysons' "Environs of
London." He is "said to have been the inventor of the art of making
bricks as now practised" (Lysons). He left L100 for the poor of
Hammersmith, to be distributed as his trustees and executors should
think fit. This amount, being expended in land and buildings, has
enormously increased in value, and at the present day brings in a yearly
income of L52 15s. 5d., which is spent on blankets for the poor
inhabitants of the parish. The only other monuments worthy of notice in
the church are those of Edmund, Lord Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave and
Baron of Butterwick, who died 1646; one of the Impey monuments, which
hangs over the north door, which contains no less than nine names, and
another on the wall close by, to the memory of Sir Elijah Impey and his
wife, who are both buried in the family vault beneath the church. These
are plain white marble slabs surmounted by coats of arms.
There is a monument to W. Tierney Clarke, C.E., F.R.S., who designed the
suspension-bridge at Hammersmith and executed many other great
engineering designs; also a monument to Sophia Charlotte, widow of Lord
Robert Fitzgerald, son of James, Duke of Leinster.
These are all on the north wall, and are very much alike.
On the south aisle hangs a plain, unpretentious little slab of marble to
the memory of Thomas Worlidge, artist and engraver, who died 1766. His
London house was in Great Queen Street, and in it he had been preceded
by Kneller and Reynolds, but in his last years he spent much time at his
"country house" at Hammersmith. Not far off is the name of Arthur
Murphy, barrister and dramatic writer, died 1805. Above the south door
is a monument of Sir Edward Nevill, Justice of the Common Pleas, died
1705. In the baptistery at the west end stands a beautiful font cut from
a block of white veined marble. In the churchyard rows of the old
tombstones, which were displaced when the new church was built, stand
against the walls of the adjacent school. Adjoining the churchyard on
the south there once stood Lucy House, for many generations the home of
the Lucys, descendants of the justice who prosecuted Shakespeare for
deer-stealing.
In the churchyard stand the schools, formerly the Latymer and Charity
Schools, now merely St. Paul's National Schools. The school was
originally built in 1756 at the joint expense of the feofees of Mr.
Latymer and trustees of the Female Charity School, and was restored and
added to in 1814. The Charity School was founded in 1712 by Thomas
Gouge, who left L50 for the purpose, which has since been increased by
other benefactions.
On the south side of the church are two picturesque old cottages, which
would seem to be contemporary with the old church itself. Near the north
end of the Fulham Palace Road, which here branches off from Queen
Street, is the Roman Catholic Convent of the Good Shepherd. The walls
enclose nine acres of ground, part of which forms a good-sized garden at
the back. The nucleus of the nunnery was a private house called
Beauchamp House. The convent is a refuge for penitents, of whom some 230
are received. These girls contribute to their own support by laundry and
needle work.
Chancellor Road is so called through having been made through the
grounds of an old house of that name. In St. James Street there is a
small mission church, called St. Mark's, attended by the clergy of St.
Paul's. In Queen Street, which runs from the church down to the river,
there are one or two red-tiled houses, but toward the river end it is
squalid and miserable. Bowack says that in his time (1705) two rows of
buildings ran from the chapel riverwards, and another along the river
westward to Chiswick. One of the first two is undoubtedly Queen Street.
The last is the Lower Mall, in which there are several old houses,
including the Vicarage, but there is no special history attached to any
of them. In 1684 a celebrated engineer, Sir Samuel Morland, came to live
in the Lower Mall. Evelyn records a visit to him as follows:
"_25th October, 1695._
"The Abp and myselfe went to Hammersmith, to visite Sir Sam Morland,
who was entirely blind, a very mortifying sight. He showed us his
invention of writing, which was very ingenious; also his wooden
Kalendar, which instructed him all by feeling, and other pretty and
useful inventions of mills, pumps, etc."
Sir Samuel was the inventor of the speaking-trumpet, and also greatly
improved the capstan and other instruments. He owed his baronetcy to
King Charles II., and was one of the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber and
Master of Mechanics. He died in 1696, and was buried at Hammersmith.
There are here also large lead-mills. Behind the Lower Mall is a narrow
passage, called Ashen Place; here is a row of neat brick cottages,
erected in 1868. These were founded in 1865, and are known as William
Smith's Almshouses. Besides the building, an endowment of L8,000 in
Consols was left by the founder. There are ten inmates, who may be of
either sex, and who receive 7s. a week each.
Waterloo Street was formerly Plough and Harrow Lane. Faulkner mentions a
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel here, built in 1809, which probably gave its
name to Chapel Street hard by.
Near the west end of the Lower Mall is the Friends' Meeting House, a
small brick building which, though new, inherits an old tradition; for
there is said to have been a meeting-house here from the beginning of
the seventeenth century, and one of the meetings was disturbed and
broken up by Cromwell's soldiers. At the back is a small burial-ground,
in which the earliest stone bears date 1795.
The Lower is divided from the Upper Mall by a muddy creek. This creek
can now be traced inland only so far as King Street, but old maps show
it to have risen at West Acton. An old wooden bridge, erected by Bishop
Sherlock in 1751, crosses it; this is made entirely of oak, and was
repaired in 1837 by Bishop Blomfield. Near the creek the houses are poor
and mean, inhabited by river-men, etc., and the place is called Little
Wapping. There is a little passage between creek and river, and in it
is a low door marked "The Seasons." It was here that Thompson wrote his
great poem, in a room overlooking the water, in the upper part of the
Doves public-house, which was then a coffee-tavern. The poem was so
little appreciated by the booksellers, who then combined the functions
of publishers with their own trade, that it was with difficulty he
persuaded one of them to give him three guineas for it.
Opposite is Sussex Lodge, once the residence of the Duke of Sussex, who
came to the riverside for change of air. It was afterwards inhabited by
Captain Marryat, the novelist. Sir Godfrey Kneller lived for a time in
the Upper Mall; and Bowack tells us that "Queen Katherine, when
Queen-Dowager, kept her palace in the summer time" by the river. This
was Catherine of Braganza, consort of Charles II. She came here after
his death, and remained until 1692. She took great interest in
gardening, and the elms by the riverside are supposed to have been of
her planting. Her banqueting-hall survived until within the last thirty
years. It was a building with handsome recesses on the front filled by
figures cast in lead. In the reign of Queen Anne the celebrated
physician Dr. Radcliffe lived in the same house. He had the project of
founding a hospital, and began to build, but never carried his intention
into effect. He bequeathed the greater part of his property and his
library to the University of Oxford, and was the founder of the famous
Radcliffe Library there. Bishop Lloyd of Norwich was a near neighbour at
Hammersmith. He died in the Upper Mall in 1710, and left many valuable
books to St. John's College, Cambridge.
In Kelmscott House, No. 26, lived William Morris, R.A., whose influence
on the artistic development of printing and in many other directions is
well known. On a small outer building of the house is a tablet stating
that in this house Sir Francis Ronald, F.R.S., made the first electric
telegraph, eight miles long, in 1816. Turner, R.A., lived in the Upper
Mall, 1808-14, after which he moved to Sandycombe Lodge, Twickenham.
After Riverscourt Road there is a hoarding, behind which was Queen
Catherine of Braganza's mansion already referred to. Mickephor Alphery,
a member of the Russian Imperial Family, took Holy Orders in England in
1618, and lived at Hammersmith. Weltje Street was named after a
favourite cook of George IV.'s, who had a house on its site. He is
buried in the churchyard. Linden House is old, but has no history.
Beavor Lodge, which gives its name to Beavor Lane, was formerly owned by
Sir Thomas Beavor. In it now lives Sir W. B. Richmond, K.C.B., R.A. Old
Ship Lane takes its name from a picturesque old tavern, the Old Ship,
the doorway of which is still standing. Hammersmith Terrace runs from
Black Lion Lane to Chiswick Hall. In it are many old houses remaining.
In No. 13 lived P. J. de Loutherbourgh, an artist and member of the
Royal Academy. He died here in 1812. Arthur Murphy, whose monument in
the church has been mentioned, lived at No. 17. He wrote lives of
Fielding, Johnson, and Garrick, besides numerous essays and plays, and
was well known to his own contemporaries. Mrs. Mountain, the celebrated
singer, also had a house in the terrace.
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