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Hammersmith

Hammersmith photos (18 available)

Old photo of Hammersmith

Hammersmith maps (2 available)

Old map of Hammersmith

Hammersmith books (13 available)

Hammersmith memories

Memories of War - The Forgotten Casualties (1) - by Patricia Bolter

Hammersmith, Lower Mall from the Barnes Bank c1960

I am entering these memories on behalf of my mother in law - Patricia Ross (nee Bolter)

Running to meet Dad, just a young man, in uniform for the first time coming home to show us in pride. Providing for the family had been difficult, even tried sweeping snow. I have listened to "The Little Boy That Santa Clause Forgot" could only cry "I don't want my Dad to go away" but what does a 4 year old really understand. We had watched Dad and Uncles dig a shelter in our yard and played getting into it quickly, it was dark and damp. Mum fell down the steps but we were "SAFE . Save ...read more here
Contributed by Jane Ross

The Howard family at Hammersmith and Barnes

Hammersmith, Lower Mall from the Barnes Bank c1960

My Great-Great-Grandad, William Howard, lived in the early 1800’s - a time of great rural depression - and so he left his Devon home to look for work in London with the result that several generations of my family lived in the Hammersmith area. The story is that he walked all the way. No doubt the stage coach fare was beyond the means of an unemployed labourer. He found work constructing railways which at this time were spreading rapidly all over the country. He may have found lodgings in North London, perhaps in Camden with either his brother or his cousin George Howard. Later he moved to the Hammersmith area and he married in his early twenties. He had (at least) ...read more here
Contributed by John Howard Norfolk

London memories

Memories of War - The Forgotten Casualties (1) - by Patricia Bolter

Hammersmith, Lower Mall from the Barnes Bank c1960

I am entering these memories on behalf of my mother in law - Patricia Ross (nee Bolter)

Running to meet Dad, just a young man, in uniform for the first time coming home to show us in pride. Providing for the family had been difficult, even tried sweeping snow. I have listened to "The Little Boy That Santa Clause Forgot" could only cry "I don't want my Dad to go away" but what does a 4 year old really understand. We had watched Dad and Uncles dig a shelter in our yard and played getting into it quickly, it was dark and damp. Mum fell down the steps but we were "SAFE . Save ...read more here
A memory of Hammersmith contributed by Jane Ross

The Howard family at Hammersmith and Barnes

Hammersmith, Lower Mall from the Barnes Bank c1960

My Great-Great-Grandad, William Howard, lived in the early 1800’s - a time of great rural depression - and so he left his Devon home to look for work in London with the result that several generations of my family lived in the Hammersmith area. The story is that he walked all the way. No doubt the stage coach fare was beyond the means of an unemployed labourer. He found work constructing railways which at this time were spreading rapidly all over the country. He may have found lodgings in North London, perhaps in Camden with either his brother or his cousin George Howard. Later he moved to the Hammersmith area and he married in his early twenties. He had (at least) ...read more here
A memory of Hammersmith contributed by John Howard Norfolk

Extracts From Hammersmith & London books

Hammersmith, the Dove Pier c1960

The photographer looks west from Hammersmith Bridge along Lower Mall, a good jumble of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century building, including the well-known Doves pub. Beyond the pier is Upper Mall where William Morris lived from 1878 to 1896, naming his Georgian terrace house, number 26, Kelmscott House after his country house in Oxfordshire.
An extract from from"Down the Thames Photographic Memories".

Hammersmith, the Bridge c1960

We meet Bazalgette later at the Embankment in central London; seen here from the Barnes bank towpath, his suspension bridge has a 420-foot main span, and the towers are finished with French-style pavilion roofs, all in sheet iron. Beyond the left tower are the tower blocks of the Queen Caroline Estate, and to the right the BBC’s Riverside Studios.
An extract from from"Down the Thames Photographic Memories".

Hammersmith, the Bridge c1960

The Thames is now flowing into London proper, and we reach Hammersmith, with its monumentally-scaled iron bridge. This replaced William Tierney Clark’s suspension bridge of 1827, a smaller version of which survives across the Thames at Marlow. The current one, now painted a tasteful green with architectural ornament picked out in gold, is by Sir Joseph Bazalgette and is dated 1887.
An extract from from"Down the Thames Photographic Memories".

The Earl of Cornwall built stew (fish) ponds on the western boundary of his estate, and fish was an important part of the medieval diet. Fish weirs were used to trap fish in rivers, and were an important and often hotly disputed resource up to the 18th century. They were supposed to be licensed, but illegal weirs flourished and were a hazard to river traffic. There was at least one weir in the river by Isleworth with stakes at its upper end, and this gave its name to the modern Railshead Road where the Crane joins the Thames. In the Middle Ages the settlement at Twickenham was a cluster of houses in streets around St Mary’s Church and in narrow alleys nearby leading down to the river. Church Street was the principal way through Twickenham for travellers until the end of the 19th century when the present York Street was built. The name of Burgate was used for the area near the church in 1486. Although the nave of the present St Mary’s dates from 1713, when it was rebuilt after it collapsed, the ragstone church tower is medieval and may have formed part of an earlier fortification on the site.
An extract from from"Twickenham - A History & Celebration".

Twickenham, the River 1899

The local population in the Middle Ages made a living from agriculture, fishing, boat-building, and ferrying traffic up and down the river. There was even a local vineyard, which produced ‘two tuns and one pipe’ in 1297. This seems to have been planted with cherry-trees later. There is little detailed evidence on the number of people living at Twickenham during the Middle Ages but the manor of Isleworth, including Twickenham, seems to have expanded slowly during this period. In the 14th century there are accounts of crops of oats, wheat, and barley being grown locally, and local livestock included cows and sheep. The rolls also list a ploughman, a shepherd, a cowman, and a dairymaid in this period. By 1547 the people of Isleworth were said to number 400, and the figure relating to Twickenham apart from the rest of Isleworth Manor is estimated at 210. The River Thames has been an important means of transport since before the Romans arrived in England. As there was no bridge across the Thames from Twickenham on the Middlesex bank over to the Surrey bank until the 18th century, residents who wanted to cross to the opposite bank of the river did so by ferry. The first evidence of a ferry at Twickenham occurs in 1443.
An extract from from"Twickenham - A History & Celebration".