Turnham Green

This is the 53rd station I have visited on the District Line. This line is coloured green on the tube map and serves more stations (60) than any other Underground line. It starts at Upminster in the east and terminates at Ealing Broadway in the west. At Earl's Court it splits into a number of branches. One runs to Wimbledon in SW London another short branch to Kensington  (Olympia). The main route continues west from Earl's Court to Turnham Green which is where I am today. From here the line divides again into two western branches, to Richmond and Ealing Broadway.

Turnham Green opened in January 1869 and is served by the District and the Piccadilly lines although the Piccadilly line only stops here at the beginning and end of the day.

Beneath the railway bridge outside the station is the very impressive Timeline made up of 16 enormous maps of the area dating from 1592 to today.  The images are of the same loop of the River Thames and are on both sides of the road. A huge party was held in 2018 when The Timeline was officially  unveiled.

A local group named 'Abundance London' decided to try and improve the 'ugly eyesore' that was the road under the railway bridge. It was funded by local residents, businesses and two councils.

Across the road from the station is Turnham Green. It was here in 1642 that Parliamentarians, led by Oliver Cromwell and Royalists confronted one another in one of the first battles of the English Civil War. War broke out in August 1642 when there was a struggle between King Charles I and his Westminster Parliament over who should control the army needed to crush the Irish insurrection. Strained relations between the King and Parliament, over the constitution, taxation and control of the army came to a head when the King tried to arrest five Members of Parliament. Parliament began recruiting soldiers in July and by August the Civil War in England had begun. Everyone thought it would be over quickly, but between 1642 and 1646, about a quarter of Englishmen became soldiers and one in twenty-five of the population died.

Parliamentarians and Royalists confronted one another at Brentford and Turnham Green. On 13th November 1642, 24,000 parliamentarians had formed up on the open land here facing a royalist army half that size. The numbers involved made this the third largest battle on British soil. 

 As a result of these battles early in the Civil War, King Charles I was prevented from capturing London and ending the war. The struggle went on until 1646 but the royalists were never able to attack London again. Charles I was executed in 1649. The monarchy was restored in 1660 when the son of Charles I returned to England and took to the throne as Charles II.

Facing the Green and attached to the wall of the railway viaduct is another piece of artwork. It is called 'Stay at home' and is the work of students from Chiswick School. During lockdown, schools in England remained open to allow students of vulnerable or key worker families to attend.

'The mural is an expression of the students' fear and frustration about the 'stay at home' policy brought in by the government and health advisors.... The houses. all stacked on top of each other are slightly different, suggesting the students' experience of the housing they live in, mostly faceless estates or multiple occupancy buildings. At the window of each of the houses is the silhouette of a single figure quietly looking out at us...'

Abundance London

I crossed back over the road to the station and turned right onto Bath Road. On the left hand side is the church of St Michael and All Angels. It is a beautiful Arts and Crafts church designed by the Victorian architect Norman Shaw as the centrepiece of the Bedford Park conservation area. It does not have the look of a conventional church with its white balcony and windows protruding from the roof.

It is just as striking from the inside.

This is the entrance to the parish hall at the side of the church which was added a few years later.

Across the road from the church is the Tabard Inn, also designed by Norman Shaw.  Distinctive tiled gables overhang the road. The upper floor of the pub is a small theatre and when built it also included the Bedford Park Stores.

The church, the Tabard Inn and stores were built at the convergence of the three main roads to be at the centre of the Bedford Park development and the centre of the community.

I had to visit this area twice. On my first visit I didn't venture in to the Bedford Park estate as walking round residential streets doesn't usually throw up anything of interest to the reader. However, once home I read a little more about Bedford Park and couldn't understand how one estate could have 356 Grade II listed buildings. I realised then I would have to return and investigate further. Bedford Park was planned as a self contained community to include the necessary community buildings - church, inn, shops and school. Jonathan Carr (1845-1915) came up with the idea of using land around his father-in-law's home of Bedford House, which was situated close to the recently opened Turnham Green station. Carr bought up land from Bedford House as well as neighbouring houses and decided to preserve the trees growing in their grounds. His idea was to promote a healthy place to live within easy commuting distance of the City of London. He was inspired by the aesthetic movement of the 1870s and wanted to create the ideal place for the artistically minded middle classes. 

The white fencing contrasts well with the locally sourced red brick.

Some had the Dutch/Flemish style of curved gables.

Carr was inspired by William Morris who once said '.... suppose people lived in little communities among gardens and fields, so that they could be in the country in five minutes.' A number of the houses were built with artist's studios and an early survey of just 168 residents found that 40 were artists, 16 were architects or engineers and nine were musicians or actors. So from the beginning the suburb attracted a particular type of resident.

After some of the finest houses were demolished, the Bedford Park Society was founded in 1963 with Sir John Betjeman, an English poet and writer as its first patron, to protect the area. In 1967 356 houses were listed Grade II, protecting their historic features internally and externally for future generations.

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I was so glad that I returned to the area as walking around this quiet estate was a real joy. It is dominated by large mature trees and greenery making it unlike other estates I have encountered on my walks. The houses are individually designed yet have a conformity enhanced by the use of red brick and white windows and woodwork. I was also staggered by the number of Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar and Porsche cars that lived in the driveways.

This is the school with a beautiful Victorian post box outside.

On my second visit to the area, Covid rules had changed and I was allowed to sit outside a cafe and have something to eat. It is more than a year since I have been able to do this whilst on my Underground walks so the sandwich and cup of tea became a quiet celebration for me. I chose the Post Room for this momentous occasion. As the name suggests this used to be the Post Office.

Not all was perfect as unfortunately I had the camera on the wrong setting, hence the wishy washy look of the photos! 

Inside the Post Room which is a small shop as well as a cafe.

I left the station and Bedford Park via Turnham Green Terrace which took me onto Chiswick High Road.

The first thing I noticed was this statue of Hogarth unveiled in October 2001. William Hogarth (1697-1764) was a great British painter and engraver and is probably one of this area's most famous residents. By all accounts the statue was a very welcome addition to the High Street. Hogarth used his art work to draw attention to the issues he cared about - poverty, political corruption, drunkenness and cruelty to animals. Hogarth owned several pug dogs. hence. a statue of a dog at his side was included despite the extra expense.

Not far from the statue is this pub, the Pack Horse and Talbot. From 1689 to 1811 it was just called 'The Pack Horse'. A trader's token (used instead of coins) dating to 1669 has been found which had the words 'Ye Pack Hors in Turnam Greene' written on it. The name is apparently derived from the talbot, a type of dog used in heraldry as a companion/guardian of the packhorse driver. The pub was rebuilt in the 1920s.

Originally opened as a hall for music and dancing the Cinema Royal on Chiswick High Road opened as a cinema in May 1912. It's popular name was The Cave due to its narrow opening and a flashing stalagmite outside. It closed as a cinema in 1933 and other than being utilised for parachute storage during WW2 it remained closed for the next twenty years. It reopened in the 1950s selling Victorian furniture. In the 70s it almost became a supermarket but  instead was bought by two local antique dealers to become a well known antiques emporium known as The Old Cinema.

On the other side of the High Street is this building which used to be the Chiswick tram depot that opened in 1883/4. At that time the trams were horse drawn and the building had stables for 170 horses. It was taken over by London United Tramways Company in 1884 and then by London County Council in 1922. It was rebuilt for electrification of trams in 1899 and that is the building we can see today.  The building continued as a tram depot until 1935. After that trams were withdrawn and trolley buses took over. By 1966 it was used as a garage for the airport coaches that London transport ran for British European Airways that later became British Airways. It became a bus garage in 1980, closed in 1996 and then reopened in 1999. It is now operated by London United RATP, a bus company offering services under contract to Transport for London. The building is now known as Stamford Brook Bus Garage

Next to the bus garage on Chiswick High Road is the Power House that was originally part of an enormous power station built in 1901 to power the first stretch of tramway in West London. It is now home to the  Metropolis studios, an independently run recording complex..  The building had been empty for nearly seventy years before the enormous structure was discovered by the Metropolis group. Inside it had a main hallway measuring 50m long, 20m wide and 25m high. It meant that the new studios project could be fitted inside the structure of the existing building.  It took three years to design the studios which were opened in 1989. Many musical legends have used these studios including The Rolling Stones, Queen, Elton John, Justin  Bieber and Lady Gaga. 

I could not go beyond the gates and photograph this splendid building. All I could get was this tantalising glimpse from the driveway.

This used to be the police station but as with many of the  High Street police stations, it is now a pub and restaurant.

Another large pub on Chiswick High Road is the George IV. This has been licensed premises since at least 1771 and was rebuilt in 1931. It had changed its name from the Boston Arms in the 1820s. It would have been a coaching stage in the beginning on this main route in and out of London. It is known that it was here that you could buy tickets for stage coaches and from 1838 there was an omnibus service to the City from the pub. It was refurbished again in 2002 when a storeroom was converted into a function room where live comedy shows and jazz nights are held. 

There are a number of large and impressive buildings on this road. This is the old Chiswick fire station, built in 1891. This building is now a restaurant. A new station was built elsewhere in 1965.

I left Chiswick High Road down one of the many residential roads which link the High Road with the Great West Road as I wanted to find Chiswick House and gardens.

The house and gardens were created between 1725 and 1738 by William Kent, an architect and designer and the Earl of Burlington. 

They experimented with a natural style of gardening that was to spread world wide. Influenced by their travels on the Grand Tour they rejected  the showy style fashionable in England for the simpler, symmetrical design based on the classical architectural of Italy.

They wanted to create a more natural looking landscape and so began the English Landscape Movement which went on to influence gardens from Blenheim Palace to New York's Central Park.

Kent believed that surroundings should be inspired by nature and complement architecture. He often created streams or lakes connected to nature.

The Earl of Burlington designed the house in 1775. It is one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in England. (Palladianism is characterised by classical forms, symmetry and strict proportions. It was developed by the 16th century venetian architect Andrea Palladio.)

When the Earl of Burlington died in 1753, the estate was passed onto the Dukes of Devonshire by marriage. From the 1860s onwards, the Devonshires let the house and gradually moved its historic contents to their main residence at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. The house was rented by Edward Prince of Wales and hosted his mother Queen Victoria and other members of the royal family as well as guests from around the world. I would have liked to look around the house but due to Covid restrictions it wasn't open to the public. Between the years 1892 to 1928 the Chiswick House became a mental institution. In 1929 the estate was sold to Middlesex County Council when the gardens and house were opened to the public. Major restoration work in 2010 with money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has helped to return the villa and the gardens to their original design and layout.

This very different building in the grounds is a cafe designed by Caruso St John and won the RIBA London building of the year in 2011.

I left Chiswick House and gardens to make my way back to the station. I walked down Hogarth Lane. The name is very deceptive. Once surrounded by open fields the lane is now a dual carriageway and the only way to cross is via a subway. So it is a great surprise to come across Hogarth House built in the early 18th century. This 300 year old house originally had three storeys each with two rooms and a central staircase. James Downes, a baker inherited the orchard from his mother in 1713 and built the house in one corner. 

In the 18th century the house was used as a second home by people from Central London like the artist, William Hogarth. Members of his family used the house from 1749 until 1808. As Victorian Chiswick ( see previous post of Stamford Brook for more information on Old Chiswick) became built up, the house went out of fashion and it was let to many different tenants.

In 1900, the house was put up for sale for redevelopment. A preservation campaign by artists and writers could not raise the purchase price but Lieutenant-Colonel Shipway of Grove House in Chiswick bought and restored it, opening it to visitors from 1904. The house survived serious war time damage in 1940 and a fire in 2009. A refurbishment was completed in 2011.

Had it not been for Covid restrictions I would have liked to have had a look round Hogarth's House. That not being possible I made my way back to the station after a tiring but interesting day.

Stamford Brook

Here I am at the 52nd station on the District Line. The line through Stamford Brook  was opened in January 1869 by the London and South Western Railway on a new branch line to Richmond. The station didn't open here until 1912. In the 1930s the London Electric Railway, forerunner of the London Underground began the reconstruction of the tracks to enable the Piccadilly Line to be extended from Hammersmith to Hounslow. From 1932 services on the Piccadilly Line ran through Stamford Brook but didn't stop. Currently the station only services the District Line.

I like this style of semi enclosed seating on the platforms, giving the passenger protection from the weather.

Stamford Brook was the first  tube station to have an automatic ticket barrier installed in 1964. There are still a few stations that surprisingly do not have these barriers and passengers can just walk through.  There is CCTV everywhere and it is an offence to travel without a valid ticket.

The station takes its name from Stamford Brook a tributary of the River Thames that is now predominantly underground.

The station exits onto Goldhawk Road. here you can see the viaduct carrying the railway above the streets of Stamford Brook. I turned left out of the station to look for a memorial to Lucien Pissarro.

About a five minute walk from the station is Stamford Brook Common which was enclosed as a recreation ground in around 1890. Prior to that it was common land.

 

In the 16th century a few cottages were built around Stamford Brook Common. By the 18th century it had grown in importance and Stamford Brook became the location for larger country houses including Stamford Brook House. When this house was built the common was an extension of Turnham Green Common . However by the 19th century the land between the two commons began to be developed.

 

On the other side of Stamford Brook Common is this house where Lucien Pissarro lived. The French born son of  the artist, Camille Pissarro, Lucien,  had moved to England in 1890 where he married an English girl. In 1897 Lucien suffered two strokes and Camille came to stay here with his son for a couple of months.  Whilst here he completed seven paintings of Stamford Brook. It is said that Camille painted them from a flat roof at the back of this house on Bath Road. Camille did not return to London again and died in 1903.

  

Lucien made a slow recovery always walking with a limp and his left hand paralysed. In 1902 Lucien and his family moved to this cottage, 'The Brook' on Stamford Brook Road where they remained for the rest of their lives. Dating back to1760, it was one of four country houses that overlooked Stamford Brook. 

I made my way back to the station along Goldhawk Road past the Oakbrook Lodge. This elaborate neo gothic house was built in the 19th century as a residence for Samuel Brandon and his family. It became a nurses' home in 1930 and then an administration block for Queen Charlotte's maternity hospital. The hospital moved in 2000 and this Grade II listed building has since been converted into apartments.

I returned back along Goldhawk Road and crossed over the High Street to follow this lane called British Grove

This interesting looking Victorian building was once the Royal Chiswick Laundry Western Dying and Cleaning Works which closed in 1968. It was constructed in 1899 with two long buildings. Part of the building is now home to the British Grove Studios, a large recording studio complex built for Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame. The studios were set up by David Stewart who sadly died last year from the Coronavirus.

 

Continuing down British Grove you come to a row of Victorian cottages.

Most of them still had boot scrapers outside. Perfect for cleaning the mud off your boots before entering the house.

It wasn't long before I came to the Great West Road and a subway. I didn't realise there were so many subways under this road. After travelling to and from work along here in the 70s, I never once wondered how people crossed the road!

Walking down Black Lion Lane you come to a pub of the same name which dates from the late 18th century. The pub is one of only two in the London area still to have a skittles alley. Skittles is the game of bowling at pins and used to be very popular in pubs. The pub is also said to be haunted by a bricklayer named Thomas Millwood who died in the pub. His death, in 1803, was a most unfortunate one as returning from work covered in white dust he was mistaken for a ghost by a local man, Francis Smith, and shot. Mr Smith had been trying to rid the area of the 'Hammersmith Ghost' which had been terrorising  local people.

At the end of the lane is the River Thames. On one of the walls was this old parking notice. Forty shillings in old money was two pounds. The equivalent in today's money would have been £32. Cheaper than a parking fine today which in London is usually between £80-£130.

 I turned right off Black Lion Lane onto Hammersmith Terrace, a row of 1750s Georgian houses. They all face onto the river which does not have pedestrian access along here. There are a few blue plaques on the houses relating to a variety of notable figures who lived here.

This name caught my eye as Edward Johnston worked with Charles Holden (an architect who designed many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s) and Frank Pick (managing director of London Underground in the 1920s who helped evolve the bar and circle logo known as the 'roundel') on the new underground concept. Johnston, a master calligrapher was commissioned by Pick to design a unique London Underground font which is used on all posters and signage. The Johnston font has been the corporate font since its introduction in 1916, making its use one of the world's longest lasting examples of corporate branding. It was the copyrighted property of Transport for London Transport until 2015.

I continued along Hammersmith Terrace onto Chiswick Mall where the houses are separated from their gardens by the street. With its multi million pound houses the mall is one of the most expensive addresses in the area. The current appearance of Chiswick Mall with private gardens between the road and the river has remained the same since the 1880s. when the gardens were created. It was during that decade that the borders of the tidal Thames in London were embanked for the installation of mains water and sewage. 

Having walked past the houses on Hammersmith Terrace I now have a view of the Thames again. In front of me I can see the small 3 acre island in the river known as Chiswick Eyot (pronounced as eight). The tide is out at the moment and gives me the perfect opportunity to walk out to this uninhabited island. At one time willows were grown here and harvested to use in basket weaving. It was declared as a nature reserve in 1993.

As I walked across the channel to the island I was grateful to see that I would have plenty of time before the incoming tide would fill this channel. With a flow of five miles an hour and a tidal range of seven metres (23 feet), the power of the Thames should not be taken lightly.

There was plenty of muddy paths on the island and I didn't really have appropriate footwear so it really was just a fleeting look at the island.

Looking back towards Chiswick Mall

This is the view of the Thames from the other side of the island.

In the past Chiswick was an industrial area with a dock for loading and unloading barges carrying cargo for the breweries, fitting out warships and other industries. Since the late 19th century this part of the river has been mainly residential and has had residential houseboats moored here since WW2. Originally they were created as affordable homes for returning servicemen. 

Returning to Chiswick Mall I had a good view of Fuller's Griffin Brewery. Beer has  been brewed on this site for 350 years. The original brewery was founded in 1701 in the gardens of Bedford House on Chiswick Mall.

This is Said house, built in the 18th century but enlarged in the 1930s when the curved glass window was created along with the niche and urn. It is probably more well known for being rented out to the BBC in 2005 for use of the contestants taking part in the first series of 'The Apprentice'.

This is Bedford House and below is Eynham House. The houses were built as one house in the middle of the 17th century by the Russell family who later became the Dukes of Bedford. It is thought the house was split into two during the 18th century.

 

On the other side of the road are the private gardens leading down to the river.

This is Walpole House, one of the finest on the Mall. Parts of it date back to the 16th and 17th centuries. It is named after one of its former residents, Thomas Walpole (1727-1803), an MP and nephew of Sir Horace Walpole, England's first prime minister. Walpole and his family lived here from 1799 until his death. In 1817 the house was used as a school for young gentlemen and one of its students was William Makepeace Thackery, author of Vanity Fair. It is thought that Thackery used Walpole House as the setting for Miss Pinkerton's Seminary for Young Ladies.

 I  left Chiswick Mall behind and went onto Church street to the church of St Nicholas. The current building dates from the 1880s but the tower is from the 15th century. There has been a place of Christian worship on this site for over a thousand years. St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and fishermen and was a common name for a place of worship near water.  Churches that have a history going back hundreds of years are a great source of information for historians. Here in the archives they have complete registers of baptisms, marriages and burials from 1678 to the present day. 

There are 30 listed graves in the churchyard including the artist J.M.Whistler, actor David Garrick, Frederick Hitch,VC in the Zulu war and the artist William Hogarth

William Hogarth (1697-1764) was an artist  known for his life-like portraits and his 'Modern Moral Subjects'. His most famous works were The Rake's Progress and Marriage-a-la-mode.  His satirical works feature the seedy and debauched side of urban society. He also published prints of his work but the images were pirated by other print sellers, so he campaigned for a copyright law which was passed in 1735. Hogarth was also concerned about the welfare of children and was governor of London's Foundling hospital. 

 

This house next to the church has its origins in a 16th century cottage which has been extended and built up over the centuries. The wrought iron gate with its scroll patterns contains the letters T, E and M referring to Thomas and Elizabeth  Mawson, parents of Thomas who was baptised in the church in 1684.

This half timbered building, known as the Old Burlington is probably the oldest building on Church Street ( other than St Nicholas's tower) dating from at least the sixteenth century. By the 1730s it had become a pub called the Burlington Arms. Outside the pub was a cupboard where they reportedly locked up drunks until they sobered up.

Towering above the other buildings in Church Street is the Lamb's Brewery brick tower. It isn't that clear about the origins of the brewery but it is thought that the Sich family began brewing beer in a brewhouse at the back of Bedford House, Chiswick Mall in the late 17th century. In 1819 the Lamb brewery was founded on this site by Sich and Co Ltd. Beer was produced here until 1920.  

The pink building at the front of the photo was The Lamb Tap. This pub was established in 1732 and was the brewery tap for Sich's brewery. It closed in 1909 and is now a residential property. ( A brewery tap is the nearest outlet for a brewery's beer.)

This small alley off Church Street has houses dating as far back as the 1700s.  Some of them were tied to Lamb's Brewery and lived in by some of the workers.

Around the corner is the last pub still trading in what was Chiswick Village.

Old Chiswick was the village that grew up around the church. The residents of the village would have been fishermen and farmers. The barley grown in Chiswick was said to be 'exceptionally fine' and was used for malting and brewing. It was also an important ferry point as there were no bridges over the Thames between London Bridge and Kingston Bridge throughout the Middle Ages. Although I am familiar with many parts of London I had no idea that Old Chiswick existed. I have walked the 187 miles of the Thames Path but that was on the South side of the river so this section has been new to me. There was just one more surprise for me before returning to the tube station. As I am reading this information about the pub, the noise of traffic behind me is deafening as I am now back on the Great Western Road next to the Hogarth roundabout where two of the major roads taking traffic into and out of central London meet. I walked just a few metres on and came to Chiswick Square. I had no idea that there were any houses facing one of the busiest traffic interchanges in London.

Here was possibly the smallest square in London. A paved square overlooked by houses of 1680 on two sides with Boston House facing outwards.

 I read that the large house had been  named after the Earl of Grantham, also Lord Boston but it's not clear whether he actually lived there. It was extended in the middle of the 18th century and in the early 19th century it was a school for girls. In 1889 it became St Veronica's retreat, a home for drunken women. In the 20th century the house was divided into apartments and part of the gardens sold for development. 

Looking out from the square you can see the flyover and the roundabout. I must have rode across there hundreds of times and never realised this square was here.

I returned to the station via the subway fascinated about what I had seen today and keen to find out more about this area. I will be back to see a little more of  old Chiswick when I visit the next station.