Hammersmith, Fulham And Putney Part 1

Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney.

by Geraldine Edith Mitton and John Cunningham Geikie.

PREFATORY NOTE

A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should preserve her history, her historical and literary a.s.sociations, 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 a.s.sociations.

The difficulty of finding a general t.i.tle for the series was very great, for the t.i.tle 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 a.s.sociations, 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 a.s.sociations that it did so. These links between past and present in themselves largely const.i.tute 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 ca.n.a.l, 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 b.u.t.terwick, 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 ma.s.s 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 Th.o.r.n.ycroft, 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 120 annually, and that are now valued at over 20,000. 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, c.u.mberland, 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 pa.s.sing 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 coa.r.s.e 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 G.o.d'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 ca.s.socks 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 b.u.t.terwick 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 pa.s.sed from the Sheffield family soon after his death, for in 1653 the manor-house or farm of b.u.t.terwick, called the Great House, "pa.s.sed 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 2,000, of which Sir Nicholas Crispe gave 700. 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 23,000. 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 100 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 52 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 b.u.t.terwick, 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 50 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 pa.s.sage, 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 8,000 in Consols was left by the founder. There are ten inmates, who may be of either s.e.x, 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 pa.s.sage 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.