Riverside - south of the river and west of the Tower. Kew
Riverside - south of the river and west of the Tower. Kew
Post to the east Riverside Mortlake and Chiswick Dukes Meadows Sports
Post to the north Kew and Strand on the Green
Post to the west Kew Green and Gardens
Atwood Avenue
The Attwood family were local market gardeners
St.Phillip’s and All Saints Church. Built with the timbers of a 16th barn bought from Stonehall Farm, Oxted, in 1929. It was offered to the area by the Hoare and Lambert families because it was felt new churches were needed. It was the first church in England to be built from a barn. The original barn was L-shaped, and used at various times for cattle and to store of hops and other crops. When the timbers were dismantled and moved to Kew in 1929, they were numbered - the numbers remain on the beams. They were then reassembled to create one long nave. The timbers are thought to come from 16th ships and the 16th panelling behind the altar may be even older. The north and south entrances are paved with threshing stones. One of the Hoare family supplied 2-inch bricks of 17th style from the family’s Basingstoke brick works, which matched the timbers. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Southwark in 1929. The Lady Chapel was added in 1933 by Hugh Easton. There is a later development of the west end for community purposes
Bessant Drive
The Bessants were market gardeners based at West Lodge
Kew Retail Park. This is on the site of the Chrysler factory. The American firm Chrysler Motors opened a factory here in the early 1920s. They could beat UK import restrictions by assembling pre-made parts shipped from the USA. They gave their UK cars the names of Surrey towns to make them more palatable to UK buyers, so there was the Chrysler ‘Kew’. They also owned the Dodge truck company, and also made these vehicles at Kew. After the Second World War, truck manufacturing was their main product and the vehicles were called ‘Kew Dodge’. The factory closed in 1967 and production moved to Dunstable.
Blake Mews
Converted industrial units in what was a ‘little cobbled street off Station Approach”
F.C. Blake. This firm of motor engineers moved here from Hammersmith in 1901.They made engines for motor manufacturers but after 1903 made light railway locomotives and marine engines,.
Brick Farm Close
Housing on the site of what was Brick Farm, once known as Brick Stables. This was a large mansion, home to the owners of the Manor, and the surrounding estate was let to market gardeners. It was the home of Sir William Hooker, the botanist and first Director of Kew Gardens. He was there 1841-1852
Brick Stables here was once a famous for the asparagus grown here
Clifford Avenue
Start of Great Chertsey Road built in 1933 when Lower Mortlake Road and Lower Richmond Road were widened to join the new bridges at Twickenham and Chiswick.
Hammersmith Cemetery. The Cemetery dates from the early 20th and was built for Hammersmith burials when the old cemetery on Margravine Road. Thus it is sometimes called Hammersmith New Cemetery. It is originally designed to have two chapels, but the funds ran out and only one was built, a small Gothic brick chapel in the centre with paths radiating from it. There is a brick and timbered lodge inside the gates. The original planting was 'lavish and extraordinarily varied'.
Courtlands Avenue
37 Riverside Primary School. This opened in 2003.
High Park Road
Bridge over the railway to Sandycombe Road built by Southern Railway for residents of the Popham Estate – and looks like a railway bridge.
Kew Gardens Road
14 Loreto House. This was opened as a Catholic chapel in 1898 and eventually replaced by the current church in Leybourne Park
Layton Place
This is built on what were an area of sidings from the rail line and latterly the site of a factory. It is now housing.
Leyborne Park
Built 1905 as part of the Leybourne-Popham Estate.
1 Our Lady of Loreto and St.Winefride. Roman Catholic Church built in 1906 by Scoles & Raymond. The Society of Mary first established a Catholic mission in a temporary chapel which this church replaced. The church was dedicated and consecrated in 1979 by all debts having been cleared.
Parish Hall. Designed by Maguire & Murray, 1978-9 added in 1968.It includes a smaller meeting room and is located next to the church.
Lichfield Road
Named after George Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield.
Lindley Place
Power House, converted to housing.
Melliss Avenue
New road built in the area of the sewage works with posh housing.
Mortlake Road
This was once called Sand Lane. At the junction of what is now Townmead Road were houses and the buildings of brick farm.
Gipsy Corner. This little green was apparently once a camping place for gypsies.
179 This is the remains of West Lodge at one time one of a group of substantial houses here, mainly concerned with market gardening. Early 19th brick house.
159 This is the headquarters and factory of fashion retailer Jigsaw. This is a sizeable factory hidden away down an alleyway between houses. It appears to have once been workshops for exhibition specialists
North Road
North Sheen recreation ground. This dates from around 1904 and was opened in 1909 and extended in 1923. It was originally part of an orchard on the Popham Estate, owned by the Leyborne Pophams. In the Second World War it was used for allotments. Known locally as "The Rec", it has football pitches, a children's paddling pool, two extensive playgrounds, and a large dog-free grassed area. There are also buildings in the southern part, in the square to the south.
Footbridge. Built in 1912, this is south of the station and crosses the rail line. It is an example of a structure built using a pioneering technique devised by the French engineer, Hennebique. It has a narrow deck and very high walls, designed to protect its users' clothing from the smoke of steam trains passing underneath. It also has protrusions on either side of the deck to deflect smoke away from the bridge structure. Built by Southern Railway.
Brown plaque on the footbridge – which describes the bridge above.
North Sheen Cemetery.
North Sheen Cemetery. This was laid out by Fulham Council in 1926 – also known as Fulham New Cemetery. The red brick chapel was designed by Arthur Holden, Fulham Borough Engineer, and opened in 1931. Following war damage stained glass by Antoine Acket was put into the chapel. . There aerie bulbous stone piers around the perimeter said to be in the cinema moderne style of the 1920s Two gaunt mausolea. There is a Roman Catholic section, which has led to the burials of many Poles and Russians. The cemetery includes 110 identified graves of Commonwealth dead from the Great War and the Second World War. There is also a memorial garden to dead in both world wars with conifers and rose beds, seating, and a broken circle of brick piers linked at the top by timber. The main entrance is in Lower Richmond Road in the square to the south.
Riverside walk
Trees – planted to Screen the sewage works from the river
Dock south of the sewage works which brought in dung for the market gardeners,
Sandycombe Road
Once known as Sandy Lane or Blind Lane.
St.Luke’s House Educational Centre. This was a Church of England School. It was Built on site originally intended for St.Luke’s church but built as an iron church while the real church, St. Luke’s, funded by the Poupart family of market gardeners was built elsewhere. The iron church was moved across the road by the diocese and thus building put up as the new St. Luke’s school. This has now moved on and the building is houses nursery schools and community activities,
192 -194 Kew Gardens Hotel. 1890s hotel and pub
121 J. Hickey and Sons. Boiler makers, steam engine works and heavy haulage contractors.
Victoria and St.Johns. This was the Victoria Working Men’s club, visited by many Royals. And in fact it was the Poupart' Iron church moved across the road. It now houses a billiard hall and a martial arts school
South Avenue
2 South Avenue Studios. Industrial site – marked on 1950s maps as a works, to the north of the road and a warehouse to the south. Backing onto the railway.
Shop. Charles Cross, Edward Bevan and Clayton Beadle had a small shop here where they made the first commercially successful rayon and patented it in 1894. This was a safer product than had previously been developed.
Stoke Pottery Works. Present here in 1929. Histories of the Stoke Pottery do not mention a works here but the company had a design called ‘Kew’.
1 Film Cooling Towers. Present in the 1990s and making anti legionella equipment.
2 John Charles Coachbuilders. In the 1930w they were making auto sports bodies here for Citroen, British Salmson and Alvis.
Station Approach
9 Post Office building, now in other use.
Station Avenue
Viscose Spinning Mill. Occupied by the short-lived Viscose Spinning Syndicate 1900-3; since then used for a variety of light industrial purposes. In 1892 Cross, Bevan and Clayton Beadle discovered viscose, or sodium cellulose xanthate, and patented it – This was to be the foundation of the rayon industry. They carried out research here and eventually found how to process viscose: cellulose, in the form of wood pulp, and manufacture spinnable fibres. At first the thought was to use it for filaments in incandescent electric light bulbs but they also suggested a possible use in textiles and the term "artificial silk" was later used. The process was soon after sold to Courtaulds. The site was later used for housing and studio workshop development.
Archer Works, Cowey Engineering Co. 1937 Speedometer manufacturers and experimental engineers. "Cowey" Speedometers and Tachometer.
Utile Motor Manufacturing. This firm made a light car here in 1904.
Station Place
Kew Gardens Station. This opened in 1869. Today it lies between Richmond and Gunnersbury Stations on the District Line and on the Overground (North London Line). The station was built for the London and South West Railway in 1877 as part of the Kensington and Richmond Railway. This line began at South Acton and went on to Richmond but a station between Richmond and Kensington was required to be built by the enabling Act. The Metropolitan District Railway first used it in 1877 for their District Line service between Kensington and Richmond. It is one of the few remaining 19th stations on the North London line. The two storey yellow brick station buildings are protected as part of the Kew Gardens conservation area. The refreshment pavilion is contemporary with the station house and provided for visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens Line.
Tap on the Line. Fuller’s Pub, said to be the only pub on a London Underground station platform. It is also said that it originally a Timber Steaming Hall. Later, it became the Buffet Rooms. It has also been called The Railway and also The Flower and Firkin.
Townmead Road
Refuse and Recycling Centre. This is run by London Borough of Richmond as part of West London Waste Authority
Richmond Gymnastics Association. This is a private club managed by volunteers. It was formed in 1992 as the successor to Staveley Gymnastics Association which dated from 1960.
Mortlake Crematorium. This was built on the site of Pink's Farm, which had belonged to Richard Atwood, whose family were local market gardener. It is adjacent to the cemetery and separated by a tall hedge. It dates from 1936 following the Mortlake Crematorium Act 1936 and the first established in this way. It was designed by Douglas Barton the Hammersmith Borough surveyor and was built in three years. Seen as an Art Deco building, it has been described as “of exceptional quality and character”. In 1982 Colin Gilbert, an designed additional gardens between the crematorium and the River Thames
Victoria Cottages
Cottages for farm workers from the 1830s.
West Hall Road
West Hall. A house of the late 17th – ot may date from 1675. This was the centre of a small hamlet in this area of which it was the ‘big house’.
Sewage works. This works was built by Richmond Main Sewerage Board – which was a a joint board of Richmond, Mortlake and Barnes. It was dominated by the chimney of the power house. When the rural authority ceased to exist in 1892, part of its area was added to the borough of Richmond. The Works opened in 1891, and were reconstructed 1947-1960. The works is still shown on late 1980s maps although clearly it is now closed– and it is also assumed that the gateway at the end of the road was the entrance to the works. There is now posh housing on the site.
West Park Avenue
Built 1925. This follows the line of the driveway into what was West Hall.
West Park Road
Built 1902 on the estates of John Poupart and James Pocock. The Second V2 fell here on 12th September 1944 destroying eight houses.
Sources
Barn church. Web site
Blomfield. Kew Past
Chrysler of the United Kingdom. Web site
District Dave. Web site
Fullers Pubs. Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
Greater London Council. Thames Guidelines
Jackson. London’s Local Railways
Knowles. Surrey and the Motor
London County Council. Sewage works leaflet
London Borough of Richmond. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
National Archive. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Pevsner. Surrey
Richmond Gymnastics Association. Web site
Robbins. North London Railway
Williams. London and South West Railway
Post to the east Riverside Mortlake and Chiswick Dukes Meadows Sports
Post to the north Kew and Strand on the Green
Post to the west Kew Green and Gardens
Atwood Avenue
The Attwood family were local market gardeners
St.Phillip’s and All Saints Church. Built with the timbers of a 16th barn bought from Stonehall Farm, Oxted, in 1929. It was offered to the area by the Hoare and Lambert families because it was felt new churches were needed. It was the first church in England to be built from a barn. The original barn was L-shaped, and used at various times for cattle and to store of hops and other crops. When the timbers were dismantled and moved to Kew in 1929, they were numbered - the numbers remain on the beams. They were then reassembled to create one long nave. The timbers are thought to come from 16th ships and the 16th panelling behind the altar may be even older. The north and south entrances are paved with threshing stones. One of the Hoare family supplied 2-inch bricks of 17th style from the family’s Basingstoke brick works, which matched the timbers. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Southwark in 1929. The Lady Chapel was added in 1933 by Hugh Easton. There is a later development of the west end for community purposes
Bessant Drive
The Bessants were market gardeners based at West Lodge
Kew Retail Park. This is on the site of the Chrysler factory. The American firm Chrysler Motors opened a factory here in the early 1920s. They could beat UK import restrictions by assembling pre-made parts shipped from the USA. They gave their UK cars the names of Surrey towns to make them more palatable to UK buyers, so there was the Chrysler ‘Kew’. They also owned the Dodge truck company, and also made these vehicles at Kew. After the Second World War, truck manufacturing was their main product and the vehicles were called ‘Kew Dodge’. The factory closed in 1967 and production moved to Dunstable.
Blake Mews
Converted industrial units in what was a ‘little cobbled street off Station Approach”
F.C. Blake. This firm of motor engineers moved here from Hammersmith in 1901.They made engines for motor manufacturers but after 1903 made light railway locomotives and marine engines,.
Brick Farm Close
Housing on the site of what was Brick Farm, once known as Brick Stables. This was a large mansion, home to the owners of the Manor, and the surrounding estate was let to market gardeners. It was the home of Sir William Hooker, the botanist and first Director of Kew Gardens. He was there 1841-1852
Brick Stables here was once a famous for the asparagus grown here
Clifford Avenue
Start of Great Chertsey Road built in 1933 when Lower Mortlake Road and Lower Richmond Road were widened to join the new bridges at Twickenham and Chiswick.
Hammersmith Cemetery. The Cemetery dates from the early 20th and was built for Hammersmith burials when the old cemetery on Margravine Road. Thus it is sometimes called Hammersmith New Cemetery. It is originally designed to have two chapels, but the funds ran out and only one was built, a small Gothic brick chapel in the centre with paths radiating from it. There is a brick and timbered lodge inside the gates. The original planting was 'lavish and extraordinarily varied'.
Courtlands Avenue
37 Riverside Primary School. This opened in 2003.
High Park Road
Bridge over the railway to Sandycombe Road built by Southern Railway for residents of the Popham Estate – and looks like a railway bridge.
Kew Gardens Road
14 Loreto House. This was opened as a Catholic chapel in 1898 and eventually replaced by the current church in Leybourne Park
Layton Place
This is built on what were an area of sidings from the rail line and latterly the site of a factory. It is now housing.
Leyborne Park
Built 1905 as part of the Leybourne-Popham Estate.
1 Our Lady of Loreto and St.Winefride. Roman Catholic Church built in 1906 by Scoles & Raymond. The Society of Mary first established a Catholic mission in a temporary chapel which this church replaced. The church was dedicated and consecrated in 1979 by all debts having been cleared.
Parish Hall. Designed by Maguire & Murray, 1978-9 added in 1968.It includes a smaller meeting room and is located next to the church.
Lichfield Road
Named after George Selwyn, Bishop of Lichfield.
Lindley Place
Power House, converted to housing.
Melliss Avenue
New road built in the area of the sewage works with posh housing.
Mortlake Road
This was once called Sand Lane. At the junction of what is now Townmead Road were houses and the buildings of brick farm.
Gipsy Corner. This little green was apparently once a camping place for gypsies.
179 This is the remains of West Lodge at one time one of a group of substantial houses here, mainly concerned with market gardening. Early 19th brick house.
159 This is the headquarters and factory of fashion retailer Jigsaw. This is a sizeable factory hidden away down an alleyway between houses. It appears to have once been workshops for exhibition specialists
North Road
North Sheen recreation ground. This dates from around 1904 and was opened in 1909 and extended in 1923. It was originally part of an orchard on the Popham Estate, owned by the Leyborne Pophams. In the Second World War it was used for allotments. Known locally as "The Rec", it has football pitches, a children's paddling pool, two extensive playgrounds, and a large dog-free grassed area. There are also buildings in the southern part, in the square to the south.
Footbridge. Built in 1912, this is south of the station and crosses the rail line. It is an example of a structure built using a pioneering technique devised by the French engineer, Hennebique. It has a narrow deck and very high walls, designed to protect its users' clothing from the smoke of steam trains passing underneath. It also has protrusions on either side of the deck to deflect smoke away from the bridge structure. Built by Southern Railway.
Brown plaque on the footbridge – which describes the bridge above.
North Sheen Cemetery.
North Sheen Cemetery. This was laid out by Fulham Council in 1926 – also known as Fulham New Cemetery. The red brick chapel was designed by Arthur Holden, Fulham Borough Engineer, and opened in 1931. Following war damage stained glass by Antoine Acket was put into the chapel. . There aerie bulbous stone piers around the perimeter said to be in the cinema moderne style of the 1920s Two gaunt mausolea. There is a Roman Catholic section, which has led to the burials of many Poles and Russians. The cemetery includes 110 identified graves of Commonwealth dead from the Great War and the Second World War. There is also a memorial garden to dead in both world wars with conifers and rose beds, seating, and a broken circle of brick piers linked at the top by timber. The main entrance is in Lower Richmond Road in the square to the south.
Riverside walk
Trees – planted to Screen the sewage works from the river
Dock south of the sewage works which brought in dung for the market gardeners,
Sandycombe Road
Once known as Sandy Lane or Blind Lane.
St.Luke’s House Educational Centre. This was a Church of England School. It was Built on site originally intended for St.Luke’s church but built as an iron church while the real church, St. Luke’s, funded by the Poupart family of market gardeners was built elsewhere. The iron church was moved across the road by the diocese and thus building put up as the new St. Luke’s school. This has now moved on and the building is houses nursery schools and community activities,
192 -194 Kew Gardens Hotel. 1890s hotel and pub
121 J. Hickey and Sons. Boiler makers, steam engine works and heavy haulage contractors.
Victoria and St.Johns. This was the Victoria Working Men’s club, visited by many Royals. And in fact it was the Poupart' Iron church moved across the road. It now houses a billiard hall and a martial arts school
South Avenue
2 South Avenue Studios. Industrial site – marked on 1950s maps as a works, to the north of the road and a warehouse to the south. Backing onto the railway.
Shop. Charles Cross, Edward Bevan and Clayton Beadle had a small shop here where they made the first commercially successful rayon and patented it in 1894. This was a safer product than had previously been developed.
Stoke Pottery Works. Present here in 1929. Histories of the Stoke Pottery do not mention a works here but the company had a design called ‘Kew’.
1 Film Cooling Towers. Present in the 1990s and making anti legionella equipment.
2 John Charles Coachbuilders. In the 1930w they were making auto sports bodies here for Citroen, British Salmson and Alvis.
Station Approach
9 Post Office building, now in other use.
Station Avenue
Viscose Spinning Mill. Occupied by the short-lived Viscose Spinning Syndicate 1900-3; since then used for a variety of light industrial purposes. In 1892 Cross, Bevan and Clayton Beadle discovered viscose, or sodium cellulose xanthate, and patented it – This was to be the foundation of the rayon industry. They carried out research here and eventually found how to process viscose: cellulose, in the form of wood pulp, and manufacture spinnable fibres. At first the thought was to use it for filaments in incandescent electric light bulbs but they also suggested a possible use in textiles and the term "artificial silk" was later used. The process was soon after sold to Courtaulds. The site was later used for housing and studio workshop development.
Archer Works, Cowey Engineering Co. 1937 Speedometer manufacturers and experimental engineers. "Cowey" Speedometers and Tachometer.
Utile Motor Manufacturing. This firm made a light car here in 1904.
Station Place
Kew Gardens Station. This opened in 1869. Today it lies between Richmond and Gunnersbury Stations on the District Line and on the Overground (North London Line). The station was built for the London and South West Railway in 1877 as part of the Kensington and Richmond Railway. This line began at South Acton and went on to Richmond but a station between Richmond and Kensington was required to be built by the enabling Act. The Metropolitan District Railway first used it in 1877 for their District Line service between Kensington and Richmond. It is one of the few remaining 19th stations on the North London line. The two storey yellow brick station buildings are protected as part of the Kew Gardens conservation area. The refreshment pavilion is contemporary with the station house and provided for visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens Line.
Tap on the Line. Fuller’s Pub, said to be the only pub on a London Underground station platform. It is also said that it originally a Timber Steaming Hall. Later, it became the Buffet Rooms. It has also been called The Railway and also The Flower and Firkin.
Townmead Road
Refuse and Recycling Centre. This is run by London Borough of Richmond as part of West London Waste Authority
Richmond Gymnastics Association. This is a private club managed by volunteers. It was formed in 1992 as the successor to Staveley Gymnastics Association which dated from 1960.
Mortlake Crematorium. This was built on the site of Pink's Farm, which had belonged to Richard Atwood, whose family were local market gardener. It is adjacent to the cemetery and separated by a tall hedge. It dates from 1936 following the Mortlake Crematorium Act 1936 and the first established in this way. It was designed by Douglas Barton the Hammersmith Borough surveyor and was built in three years. Seen as an Art Deco building, it has been described as “of exceptional quality and character”. In 1982 Colin Gilbert, an designed additional gardens between the crematorium and the River Thames
Victoria Cottages
Cottages for farm workers from the 1830s.
West Hall Road
West Hall. A house of the late 17th – ot may date from 1675. This was the centre of a small hamlet in this area of which it was the ‘big house’.
Sewage works. This works was built by Richmond Main Sewerage Board – which was a a joint board of Richmond, Mortlake and Barnes. It was dominated by the chimney of the power house. When the rural authority ceased to exist in 1892, part of its area was added to the borough of Richmond. The Works opened in 1891, and were reconstructed 1947-1960. The works is still shown on late 1980s maps although clearly it is now closed– and it is also assumed that the gateway at the end of the road was the entrance to the works. There is now posh housing on the site.
West Park Avenue
Built 1925. This follows the line of the driveway into what was West Hall.
West Park Road
Built 1902 on the estates of John Poupart and James Pocock. The Second V2 fell here on 12th September 1944 destroying eight houses.
Sources
Barn church. Web site
Blomfield. Kew Past
Chrysler of the United Kingdom. Web site
District Dave. Web site
Fullers Pubs. Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
Greater London Council. Thames Guidelines
Jackson. London’s Local Railways
Knowles. Surrey and the Motor
London County Council. Sewage works leaflet
London Borough of Richmond. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
National Archive. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Pevsner. Surrey
Richmond Gymnastics Association. Web site
Robbins. North London Railway
Williams. London and South West Railway
Comments