one of the most interesting associations of the whole district, just
before the North End Road makes a decided bend. Here are two houses,
formerly one, called the Grange, in which the novelist Samuel Richardson
passed the greater part of his life. This pompous, vain little man, who
never to the end of his life abated one whit of his savage envy of his
successful contemporaries, was endowed with the genius of originality
which prompted him to write as no one had ever thought of writing
before. He remained here until 1755, when he moved to Parsons Green. He
had begun life as one of the nine children of a man of small means, and
was apprenticed to a printer. This work he carried on long after the
necessity for it had ceased, for he was above all things punctual,
methodical, neat, and entirely the opposite in character to that usually
ascribed to genius. To a man of his type it seems almost sinful to give
up routine work in order to depend on the work of imagination. He had a
house at Salisbury Court near his business premises, and the Grange at
North End was his country residence. Here he composed "Sir Charles
Grandison" and "Clarissa," writing for the most part in a grotto in the
garden, where the admiring circle of women who adored him, and whose
effusive flattery he ever received with pleasure, paid court to him. He
was twice married, and while at North End was living with his second
wife and their four daughters. Thus he was surrounded by womenkind, who
forgave him all faults on account of his appreciation of
sentimentality.
The house is distinctly picturesque. The southern half is of red brick,
and is surrounded by a high wall, in which is a gateway with tall
red-brick piers surmounted by stone balls. Over the wall hangs an
acacia-tree, and on the front of the house is an old sundial--altogether
a house one could well associate with an imaginative novelist. It was
the residence of the late Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart. The other part
of the house has been painted a light stone colour. Even as early as
1813 the Grange had been divided into two houses.
St. Mary's Church, facing the Hammersmith Road, is in Fulham. It was
built by a Mr. Richard Hunt, to whose memory there is a tablet on the
wall, and was opened as a chapel of ease in 1814. Some fine carving on
the north side of the chancel and the oak panelling of the gallery were
brought from Lady Mary Coke's old mansion at Chiswick.
In 1860 the site of Edith Road was, according to Crofton Croker, to be
let on building lease. In it, Croker says, "once stood the house of
Cipriani." But there is some doubt as to the exact site of Cipriani's
house, which is also claimed for Great Church Lane, Hammersmith (see p.
7). Cipriani lived in England from 1755 to 1785, and his works were
largely engraved by Bartolozzi, who also had a house at North End.
Further south, to the east of Queen's Club grounds, are a maze of new
streets, in one of which, Castletown Road, is a large and fine
Congregational chapel and hall. The chapel has a square tower rising to
a considerable height, and the roof is supported by flying buttresses.
This is an offshoot of the Allen Street Congregational Chapel, whose
trustees still have the control and help to support it financially. The
foundation-stone was the last laid by the late Earl of Shaftesbury,
November 22, 1882.
The well-known Earl's Court Exhibition has an entrance in the North End
Road. It occupies the area between this on the one side, and Eardley
Crescent and Philbeach Gardens on the other, and is the largest
exhibition open in London. It belongs partly to Kensington and partly to
Fulham, for the boundary line is close to the railway.
St. Andrew's Church, at the corner of Greyhound and Vereker Roads, was
built in 1873. It has a spire, and differs little from the accepted
model.
The entrance to Queen's Club grounds is in the Comeragh Road. On the
right of the gate is a grand-stand, from which a fine view of the eleven
or twelve acres of ground can be obtained. Along the west side run the
principal buildings, including secretary's offices, grand-stands,
tennis and fives courts, etc. The covered lawn-tennis courts are laid
with great care and expense, the floors being of American maple, screwed
and fitted over a patent wooden floor to insure absolute accuracy. The
ladies' lawn-tennis championship is played off here. The great public
event of the year is the Oxford and Cambridge sports, which in interest
rank after the boat-race and cricket-match.
Close to Queen's Club is the Hammersmith cemetery, an extensive piece of
ground of some twenty acres. There is a broad gravel walk down the
centre, and two small chapels, round which the graves are thickly
clustered, spreading gradually westward as space is required. The first
burial took place in 1869. The principal entrance is in the Margravine
Road. The significance of this unexpected name in such a position is
explained by the fact that the Margravine of Brandenburg-Anspach had a
house near the river in this part for many years. It is described in
detail below.
Just across the road is the Fulham and Hammersmith Union Workhouse and
Infirmary, facing Fulham Palace Road. Between the workhouse and the
river is a stretch of land used by market-gardeners. It was by the
riverside that Brandenburg House, built by Sir Nicholas Crispe in the
beginning of Charles I.'s reign, was situated. General Fairfax
quartered himself here in 1647 during the Civil War, and his troops
afterwards plundered the house; but at the close of the war Sir Nicholas
returned and restored his property to its former state. After his death
in 1666 it descended to his nephew, who sold it seventeen years later to
Prince Rupert, who gave it to Margaret Hughes. It passed through the
possession of various owners. One of these, George Dodington, afterwards
Lord Melcombe, repaired and modernized it, altering the name to La
Trappe. In 1792 it became the property of the Margrave of
Brandenburg-Anspach and Bayreuth, and at his death the Margravine,
formerly Lady Craven, continued to live there. Faulkner gives a minute
account of the house and a long inventory of all the pictures in it
while it was the residence of this lady. She built a theatre near the
waterside, and herself took part in the performances. Bills of the plays
in which her name appears are still extant. One of them is preserved in
the Hammersmith Free Library. Though Brandenburg House was situated in
Fulham, it is often described and spoken of as in Hammersmith. This is
perhaps owing to its connection with Sir Nicholas Crispe, who was a
great benefactor to the latter parish, and perhaps because the house
existed when Hammersmith and Fulham were still one parish. Lysons says
that during the interregnum it was proposed to make the hamlet of
Hammersmith parochial, and add to it Sir Nicholas Crispe's house and a
part of North End, but, as stated, the separation of the parishes did
not take place until 1834.
On May 3, 1820, Queen Caroline, wife of George IV., came to live at
Brandenburg House, and on the fifteenth of that month was presented with
a congratulatory address by the inhabitants of Hammersmith. On the
abandonment of the Bill of "Pains and Penalties" by the House of Lords
she received a second address. She had been petitioned by people of all
classes and conditions during the progress of the Bill, the
demonstration of the watermen and lightermen of the Thames on October 8
having been especially noticeable. The Queen had stood on the balcony of
her residence and bowed her acknowledgments to the enthusiastic crowd.
The Queen died in 1821, and the King caused the house to be destroyed
shortly afterwards, it is said, in jealousy of her popularity.
In a villa near Brandenburg House lived Mrs. Billington, the famous
singer, who died at Venice in 1818. At her death Sir John Sibbald, a
Civil Servant of the East India Company, and at one time Ambassador to
the Court of Hyder Ali Khan, bought the house. It was tenanted later by
the novelist Captain Marryat, R.N. Southward there is a large extent of
ground devoted to market-gardens, for which Fulham has long been famous.
This is broken only by a few houses about Crabtree Alley and Crabtree
Lane. Close to the latter is St. Clement's Church, of yellow brick,
consecrated in 1886. The reredos painting is in the early Florentine
style, and represents the Resurrection. There are several stained-glass
windows and a handsome wrought-iron chancel-screen. The font and its
cover were originally at St. Matthew's, Friday Street. Opposite to the
church is a public recreation-ground, and south of it the Fulham
cemetery, not so large, but more thickly planted with shrubs than that
of Hammersmith, already noted.
St. James's Diocesan Home for Penitents is on the river side of the
Fulham Palace Road. It was originally established in 1856, though it was
not then in Hammersmith. Funds failed, and the institution would have
come to an untimely end but for the intervention of the then Bishop of
London, who made the Home diocesan; the present building was erected in
1871. The total number of inmates at present is 76. These are employed
at laundry and needle work, etc. The penitents are divided into three
classes, and are employed according to their position. Very nearly
opposite to the Home are the Fulham Waste Land and Lygon Almshouses. The
buildings form two sides of a square, the sides being respectively for
married and single pensioners. The latter may be of either sex. The
married couples have two rooms and a small scullery, and receive 8s. a
week. The single persons have one room, with 5s. per week. The houses
are neatly built of brick with slate roofs and high chimneys. In the
centre there is a room used as a chapel. There are altogether fourteen
inmates. On a stone let into the wall nearest the road is the
inscription: "The Fulham Waste Land and Lygon Almshouses, founded 1833
and rebuilt 1886. This stone was laid by Frederick, Lord Bishop of
London, April 21, 1886."
The origin of the double name was in this wise: The vestry of the parish
of Fulham and Hammersmith in 1810 had a fund of money derived from the
enclosure of certain waste lands belonging to the parish. By 1833 this
fund had so much increased that it was resolved to build almshousess,
which were accordingly erected on a piece of land in the Dawes Road. In
the beginning of the eighties Lady Lygon bought a piece of land in the
Fulham Palace Road for the purpose of founding almshouses on it. This
project was never carried out, and the ground was eventually given to
the Waste Land Trustees, who built the present almshouses on it in 1886.
The part of Fulham to the east of the Fulham Palace Road is very
dreary; long, dull streets, lined by small houses and varied by small
chapels and big Board schools, constitute an area at the best highly
respectable, and at the worst squalid. It is useless to enumerate all
the churches and chapels that have sprung up here, particularly as there
are none of any architectural or historical interest. They have been
built from time to time to meet the rapid increase of population in a
growing district that will doubtless soon spread over the market-gardens
that now reach the river. The principal churches are St. Augustine's, in
Lillie Road, of red brick with freestone dressings; and St. Peter's, in
Reporton Road, which contains a pulpit that might make more ancient
churches proud, for it is of carved oak, and is supposed to be the work
of Grinling Gibbons. It came from St. Matthew's, Friday Street. The
Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Rylston Road is Roman Catholic,
and was designed by Pugin, who also designed the altars and reredos of
the minor chapels in it.
Lillie Road is so named after Sir John Lillie, who was a director of the
East India Company and lived at Fulham. To Normand House in Normand Road
there is some interest attached. The name is supposed to be a corruption
of "No-man." Bowack alludes to it thus: "There is also a handsome
ancient seat in Fulham Field called No-Man's-Land House, now belonging
to ---- Wild, Esq. The piece of ground which it stands on was known as
No-Man's-Land." The date 1664 is worked into the iron scroll-work of a
gateway. The house has been considerably added to from time to time, but
the wide, low passage with its pretty archways and panelling, which is
seen on entrance, is distinctly one of the oldest parts. Two staircases,
one of which is carved with the Tudor roses, are very picturesque. Many
of the rooms are panelled. Crofton Croker gives the date incorrectly as
1661. He adds: "It is said to have been used as a hospital for persons
recovering from the Great Plague in 1665." Sir E. Bulwer Lytton resided
here at one time. Later on it was used as a lunatic asylum, and was so
when Thorne wrote his "Environs" in 1876. It is now the Community of the
Sisters of St. Katherine for the work of assisting and rescuing young
women convicted of a first offence or discharged for dishonesty without
conviction, but otherwise of good moral character. The girls are
employed in house and laundry work, which is taken in from outside, and
the proceeds go to the funds. After two years' training they are placed
in service. This institution has a branch at Hammersmith, and a small
one at Walham. It belongs to the Church of England. In Lillie Road, to
the east of North End Road, is the Mount Carmel Hermitage. This convent
is a red-brick building with a small chapel attached, erected in 1880 by
some French Sisters who had come to London in 1865, and settled at
Fulham in 1867 in a house near the site of the present convent. There
are eleven nuns, of whom three are lay Sisters. They are devoted to the
contemplative life. Just opposite is a large brewery, established 1867.
At the east end of Eustace Road is a small brick Wesleyan chapel, hidden
away in a corner, which deserves a word of mention, as it is a German
chapel and the services are in that language.
The Fulham Congregational Church in Dawes Road is a large building of
red brick with stone facings, opened on April 5, 1887. There is a
lecture-room beneath, besides library, class-rooms, and infant
Sunday-school.
We have now arrived at Walham Green, once a small village standing in
the fields. It has been variously spelt. In a map of 1686 by Lea it is
"Wollam," and in 1706 "Wallam"; in a 1720 map (Seale) it is "Wallom,"
and in Rocque of 1754 "Wallam" again. Before 1686 it was Wandon and
Wansdon, according to Crofton Croker, and Lysons derives it from Wendon,
either because the traveller had to wend his way through it to Fulham,
or because the drainage from higher grounds "wandered" through it to the
river. The Church of St. John is situated at Walham Green. It has a
high square tower with corner pinnacles, and is partly covered with ivy.
It is built of stone, and the total cost was about £9,680. It was
consecrated on August 14, 1828, and restored in 1892-93. The schools in
connection with it, built in 1894, stand in the Dawes Road opposite.
Passing eastward on the Fulham Road, we come to the Walham Green Station
of the District Railway. Just opposite is the Town Hall, a square
building of brick with stone frontage, ornamentally decorated with
carving. It was built in 1891. Further on, on the opposite side, is the
Wesleyan Chapel at Walham Green, opened in April, 1892. The buildings
are of brick, with stone dressings. In the Moore Park Road, which
branches off the Fulham Road near the boundary, stands St. James's
Church, an ugly brick building with no spire or tower, which was
consecrated on June 28, 1867, and the apse was built out at the east end
about a dozen years later. There is a row of stained-glass windows low
down across the west end. Going back to Walham Green proper, we find a
double row of almshouses, shut off from the Vanston Place Road by iron
gates. These are the almshouses of the Butchers' Charitable Institution,
which was founded on October 16, 1828. The almshouses themselves were
begun at Walham Green in 1840. The object is described in the report as
"for affording relief to decayed or distressed master butchers, master
pork-butchers, cattle and meat commission salesmen, their widows and
orphans."
In Fulham Road, westward, John Rocque lived. His maps of London and
environs are still used by all topographers, and are full of accurate
detail. In the map published in 1741-45 his name is printed across the
road at this spot. On the south side of the road formerly stood
Ravensworth House, pulled down in 1877. The site of it is now occupied
by the Swan Brewery. The grounds of Ravensworth House stretched out as
far as the present railway, where there was a large pond. When Thorne
wrote his "Environs" in 1876, the house was still standing, and he
describes it as of "but moderate proportions, but more capacious than it
looks." The Queen and Prince Consort were entertained here by Lord
Ravensworth in 1840. Faulkner refers to Ravensworth House as "Mr. Ord's
house and garden," and mentions the Glastonbury thorn which flowered on
Christmas Day, and the moss-rose which, being "laid" year after year, at
length covered a space in diameter 47 feet. The Swan Brewery, owned by
Messrs. Stansfeld, was founded on the same site in 1765. It passed
through several hands, and eventually, in 1880, Messrs. Stansfeld
acquired possession and proceeded to erect new premises. Bolingbroke
House was a little further on. Tradition says it was the residence of
Lord Bolingbroke, who was visited here by Pope. It was eventually
divided into two houses--Dungannon House and Albany Lodge--and these
were demolished only in 1893. Dungannon House was also known as Acacia
Cottage, and in it lived the first publisher of Cowper's works--a Mr.
Joseph Johnson--until 1809.
We are now at Purser's Cross, and after a digression southward shall
presently return. East End House, pulled down in 1885, stood at the
corner where Delvino Road now joins the Green. It was the residence for
some time of Mrs. Fitzherbert, morganatic wife of George, Prince of
Wales, afterwards George IV. It was built by Sir Francis Child, Lord
Mayor of London in 1699, and was a plain white house. Admiral Sir
Charles Wager and Dr. Ekins, Dean of Carlisle, lived here at different
times. The gardens stretched over much of the land now built upon at the
back, and contained a magnificent cedar-tree, which had to be blown up
by dynamite when the house was pulled down. Sir Thomas Bodley, founder
of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, lived at Parson's Green from 1605 to
1609 (Lysons).
At the back of a network of small streets to the east lies Eelbrook
Common. In Faulkner's map, 1813, it is marked Hell-brook, though in the
printed matter he uses both titles. It has been suggested that the
title may have originally been Hill-brook, as there was a curious rise
in the ground just to the west; but, on the other hand, eels may have
been common in the pond above referred to. Faulkner gives a notice
relative to it embodied in an order relating to Wormholt Wood, presented
at a court held for the Manor of Fulham on May 9, 1603, which runs as
follows: "That no person or persons shall put in any horse or other
cattle into Hell-brook until the last day of April every year
henceforth: nor shall not at any time after the 11th of May put in nor
take out any of their said cattles, any other way but the old and
accustomed way upon pain to forfeit to the lord for every such offence
£01.00.00." In 1656 Colonel Edmund Harvey, who had bought the manor
confiscated under the Commonwealth, agreed to pay fifty shillings yearly
to the poor for taking in the common called Hell-brook. Through part of
the land included in Eelbrook Common runs the District Railway between
Walham Green and Parsons Green stations.
We now return to the junction of Parson's Green Lane and Fulham Road,
called Purser's Cross, which has been variously written Persicross,
Percycross. The stone bearing inscription "Purser's Cross, 7th of August
1738," is built into the wall of the corner house, now a grocer's shop.
It was originally in the house on the same site occupied for a time by
Madame Grisi. The stone itself is very small, about 8 by 6 inches, and,
being high up, is rather difficult to see. The story goes that the place
was so called in memory of a highwayman, who, being overtaken at the
cross-roads, shot himself after flinging his purse into the crowd, and
was buried here with a stake driven through his body. Purser's Cross is
mentioned in the parish books in 1602.
Arundel Gardens were built over the site of Arundel House, demolished in
1898.
The origin of the name Arundel House is not known. It seems probable
that the house was originally a Tudor structure, as some unmistakable
Tudor mullions were found built up in an old wall; yet the greater part
of it dated from the Stuart period. A large ornamental cistern which
stood in the scullery bore date 1703. The back view of the house, with
its irregular dark-brick buildings and additions, here and there covered
with creepers, was very picturesque. Tradition says that Henry Hallam,
the historian, lived here about 1819.
Close at hand stands the Fulham Free Public Library. It came into
existence in 1886, when an old building, standing a few feet back from
the main Fulham Road, was adapted for offices, lending and reference
rooms, and a new reading-room of magnificent dimensions--70 by 30 feet,
and 22 feet in height--was added at a cost of £6,000. This was opened by
the then Bishop of London, October 20, 1888.
Further westward, at the entrance of Chesilton Place, stands Munster
Park Wesleyan Chapel, with a square tower surmounted by four high
pinnacles. It was opened in 1882.
At the west entrance of the Munster Road stood Munster House, demolished
in 1895. Faulkner spells it Mustow or Munster, and in John Rocque's
Survey of 1741-45 it is "Muster." Lysons says: "Mustow (commonly called
Munster) House on the north side of the road to London between Fulham
and Purses Cross was during the greater part of the last century the
property of the Powells, from whom it came to Sir John Williams of
Pengethly, Monmouthshire, Baronet. It is now the property of Arthur
Annesley Powell, Esq., and is occupied as a school." Faulkner mentions
the tradition of its having been a hunting-seat of King Charles II.
Croker says it is supposed to owe its name to Melesina Schulenberg,
created by George II. Duchess of Munster. For some time before it was
pulled down it was used as a lunatic asylum.