Hammersmith
Coordinates: 51°29′34″N 0°13′22″W / 51.4928°N 0.2229°W
Hammersmith is a district in west London, located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is bordered by Shepherds Bush to the north, Kensington to the east, Chiswick to the west, and Fulham to the south, with which it forms part of the north bank of the River Thames. It is linked by Hammersmith Bridge to Barnes in the southwest. The area is one of west London's key commercial and employment centres, and has for some decades been a major centre of London's Polish community.[1][2] It is a major transport hub for west London, with two London Underground stations and a bus station at Hammersmith Broadway.
History
In the early 1660s, Hammersmith's first parish church, which later became St Paul’s, was built by Sir Nicholas Crispe who ran the brickworks in Hammersmith.[3] It contained a monument to Crispe as well as a bronze bust of King Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur.[4] In 1696 Sir Samuel Morland was buried there. The church was completely rebuilt in 1883, but the monument and bust were transferred to the new church.
The Hammersmith Suspension Bridge, designed by William Tierney Clark, was built across the Thames in 1827, and rebuilt in 1893.[3][5] In 1984–1985 the bridge received structural support, and between 1997 and 2000 the bridge underwent major strengthening work.[6]
In 1745, two Scots, James Lee and Lewis Kennedy, established the Vineyard Nursery, over six acres devoted to landscaping plants. During the next hundred and fifty years the nursery introduced many new plants to England, including fuchsia and the standard rose tree.[7][8]
Major industrial sites included the Osram lamp factory at Brook Green, the J. Lyons factory (which at one time employed 30,000 people). During both World Wars, Waring & Gillow's furniture factory, in Cambridge Grove, became the site of aircraft manufacture.[9]
Economy
Hammersmith is located at the confluence of a key arterial route out of central London (the A4) with several local feeder roads and a bridge over the Thames. The focal point of the district is the commercial centre (the Broadway Centre) located at this confluence, which houses a shopping centre, bus station, an Underground station and an office complex.
Stretching about 750m westwards from this centre is King Street, Hammersmith's main shopping street. Named after John King, Bishop of London,[10] it contains a second shopping centre (Kings Mall), many small shops, the Town Hall, the Lyric Theatre, a cinema, the Polish community centre and two hotels. King Street is supplemented by other shops along Shepherds Bush Road to the north, Fulham Palace Road to the south and Hammersmith Road to the east. Hammersmith's office activity takes place mainly to the eastern side of its centre, along Hammersmith Road and in the Ark, an office complex to the south of the flyover which traverses the area.
Two NHS hospitals provide jobs in Hammersmith - Charing Cross Hospital to the south of the centre on Fulham Palace Road and Hammersmith Hospital in the north. Charing Cross Hospital is a large multi-disciplinary hospital with accident & emergency and teaching departments run by the Imperial College School of Medicine.
Architecture
Architecturally, Hammersmith is notable for
- "The Ark" office building designed by British architect Ralph Erskine and was completed in April 1992[11] as the name suggests it has the appearance of a large ship.
- "Hammersmith Bridge Road Surgery" Doctor's office[12]
- "22 St Peter's Square" the former Royal Chiswick Laundry and Island Records HQ converted to architects studios and offices by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. It has a Hammersmith Society Conservation award plaque (2009)[13] and has been included in tours in Architecture Week.[14]
- Several of Hammersmith's pubs are listed buildings, including the Black Lion, The Dove, The George, The Hop Poles, the Hope and Anchor, the Salutation Inn and The Swan.
- Also listed are Hammersmith's two parish churches, St Paul (the town's original church, rebuilt in the 1890s) and St Peter, built in the 1820s.
Culture and entertainment
- Riverside Studios (closed until 2018) is a cinema, performance space, bar and cafe. Riverside Studios was formerly BBC studios used for TV productions.
- Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
- Hammersmith Apollo concert hall and theatre (formerly the Carling Hammersmith Apollo, the Hammersmith Odeon, and before that the Gaumont Cinema).
- Hammersmith Palais nightclub, which was demolished and the site reused as student accommodation
- POSK, the Polish cultural centre, is on King Street. It contains a theatre, an art gallery and several restaurants. Its library has one of the largest collections of Polish-language books outside Poland.[15][16]
- The Dove is a riverside pub with, reputedly, the smallest bar in the world, frequented by Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene. The narrow alley in which it stands is the only remnant of the riverside village of Hammersmith, the bulk of which was demolished in the 1930s. Furnivall Gardens, which lies to the east, covers the site of Hammersmith Creek and the High Bridge. The site of the creek can be ascertained by a mound near the Great West Road.
American broadcasters NBC and ABC both have their London news bureau in Hammersmith.
Leisure and social activities
In addition to the cinema and pubs of King Street, leisure activity also takes place along Hammersmith's pedestrianised riverside, home to a number of pubs, rowing clubs and the riverside park of Furnival Gardens. Hammersmith has a municipal park, Ravenscourt Park, to the west of the centre. Its facilities include tennis courts, a basketball court, a bowling lawn, a paddling pool and playgrounds.[17] The whole area is covered by the same W6 postcode as Hammersmith town centre.
Hammersmith is the historical home of the West London Penguin Swimming and Water Polo Club, formerly known as the Hammersmith Penguin Swimming Club.
"Round Table London Hammersmith 48" is a community service and networking club for men aged 18 to 45. Regular meetings are held at the London Corinthian Sailing Club on the banks of the river Thames.
The "Polish Social and Cultural Centre" (known as POSK)[18] is based in Hammersmith, with facilities including a library, a theatre, restaurants and cafes, and houses many other Polish organisations.
Transport
The area is on the main A4 trunk road heading west from central London towards the M4 motorway and Heathrow Airport. The A4, a busy commuter route, passes over the area's main road junction, Hammersmith Gyratory System, on a long viaduct, the Hammersmith Flyover. Hammersmith Bridge, the first suspension bridge over the River Thames, carries traffic to and from Barnes and southwest London.
The centre of Hammersmith is served by two London Underground stations named Hammersmith: one is served by the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines and the other is served by the Piccadilly and District lines. The latter tube station is part of a larger office, retail and transport development, locally known as "The Broadway Centre". Hammersmith Broadway, itself, stretches from the junction of Queen Caroline Street and King Street in the west to the junction of Hammersmith Road and Butterwick in the east. It forms the north side of the gyratory system also known as Hammersmith Roundabout. The Broadway Shopping Centre includes a large modern bus station, which is open 24 hours a day and served by a large number of buses, night buses, airport transfer buses and some long distance coaches. The length of King Street places the westernmost shops and offices closest to Ravenscourt Park tube station on the District line, one stop west of Hammersmith itself.
In literature and music
Hammersmith features in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations as the home of the Pocket family. Pip resides with the Pockets in their house by the river and goes boating on the river.[19]
William Morris's utopian novel News from Nowhere (1890) describes a journey up the river from Hammersmith towards Oxford;[20] it is of growing interest to contemporary ecological and socialist political movements.
In 1930, Gustav Holst composed Hammersmith, a work for military band (later rewritten for orchestra), reflecting his impressions of the area, having lived across the river in Barnes for nearly forty years.[21] It begins with a haunting musical depiction of the River Thames flowing underneath Hammersmith Bridge. Holst taught music at St Paul's Girls' School and composed many of his most famous works there, including his The Planets suite. A music room in the school is named after him.[22]
Notable people
17th century
- John Milton (1608–1674), poet[23]
- William Sheridan (c. 1635 – 3 October 1711), Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh[24]
18th century
- William Belsham (1752–1827), political writer and historian[24]
- Charles Burney (1757–1817), schoolmaster[24]
- Caroline of Brunswick (1768–1821), princess and Queen Consort of George IV[25]
- William Crathern (born 1793), composer[26]
- Lewis Kennedy (c. 1721–1782), nurseryman[27]
- James Lee (1715–1795), nurseryman[28][27]
19th century
- T. J. Cobden Sanderson (1840–1922), artist and bookbinder[29]
- William Tierney Clark (1783–1852), civil engineer, designer of first Hammersmith bridge[30]
- Gustav Holst (1874–1934), composer, taught music at St Paul's Girls' School[22]
- Leigh Hunt (1784–1859), critic, essayist, poet, and writer[24]
- Edward Johnston (1872–1944), scholar, credited with the revival of calligraphy[31]
- William Morris (1834–1896), artist, writer, socialist and activist[31]
- Francis Ronalds (1788–1873), inventor, built the first working telegraph at Hammersmith Mall[32]
- Frederic George Stephens (1827–1907), art critic[31]
- Emery Walker (1851–1933), engraver and printer[31]
- George Wimpey (1855–1913), stonemason[33]
20th century
- Lily Allen (born 1985), pop singer[34]
- Bill Bailey (born 1964), comedian[35]
- Sacha Baron Cohen (born 1971), comedian and actor[36]
- Marcus Bent (born 1978), footballer[37]
- Joe Calzaghe (born 1972), boxer[38]
- Sebastian Coe (born 1956), athlete and politician[39]
- Marie Colvin (1956–2012), journalist[40]
- Benedict Cumberbatch (born 1976), actor[41]
- James DeGale (born 1986), boxer[42]
- Cara Delevingne (born 1992), model and actor[43]
- George Devine (1910–1966), director[44]
- Mary Fedden (1915–2012), artist[45]
- Ralph Fiennes (born 1962), actor[35]
- Emilia Fox (born 1974), actress[46]
- Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), X-ray crystallographer[47][48]
- George Groves (born 1988), boxer[49]
- Hugh Grant (born 1960), actor[50]
- Tom Hardy (born 1977), actor[51]
- Miranda Hart (born 1972), actress[52]
- A. P. Herbert (1890–1971), humorist[53]
- Jocelyn Herbert (1917–2003), stage designer[54]
- Sophie Hunter (born 1978), theatre and opera director[55]
- James May (born 1963), television presenter[56]
- Rik Mayall (1958–2014), comedian[34]
- Helen Mirren (born 1945), actress[57]
- Maurice Murphy (1935–2010) – principal trumpet, London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) (1977–2007)[58]
- Gary Numan (born 1958), musician [59]
- Scott Overall (born 1983), Olympic marathon runner[60]
- Stuart Pearce (born 1962), footballer[61]
- Rosamund Pike (born 1979), actress[62]
- Stephen Poliakoff (born 1952), playwright[63]
- Eric Ravilious (1903–1942), artist[64][65]
- Tony Richardson (1928–1991), theatre and film director[66]
- Alan Rickman (1946–2016), actor[67]
- Vidal Sassoon (1928–2012), hairdresser[68]
- Labi Siffre (born 1945), musician[69]
- Estelle Swaray (born 1980), musician[70]
- Julian Trevelyan (1910–1988), artist[71]
- Evelyn Whitaker (died 1929), children's writer[72]
- Alan Wilder (born 1959), musician from Depeche Mode[73]
The poet John Milton lived in Hammersmith.
The Arts and Crafts designer William Morris lived on Hammersmith Mall.
The composer Gustav Holst taught at St Paul's Girls School.
The Hammersmith artist Eric Ravilious made this woodcut in 1925.
The X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin went to St Paul's Girls' School.
The actor Hugh Grant went to Latymer Upper School.
See also
References
- ↑ "UnToldLondon". UnToldLondon. 19 January 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ↑ Kirby, Terry (11 February 2006). "750,000 and rising: how Polish workers have built a home in Britain". The Independent. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
- 1 2 Staff (1902). "Hammersmith". Royal Thames Guide. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company. pp. 9–11, page 11. OCLC 47982768.
- ↑ The bust is a 1665 bronze copy of the marble bust made by LeSueur in 1631. "Image of bronze bust of Charles I, Hammersmith"., "Search Hammersmith Historical Sculptures: Charles I by Le Sueur".
- ↑ "Bombs, bearings and barges - a brief history of Hammersmith Bridge". London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council. 18 September 2012. Archived from the original on 2 March 2013.
- ↑ "Hammersmith Bridge super sewer threat". London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council. 18 September 2012. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012.
- ↑ "History of Olympia". London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council. 20 August 2010. Archived from the original on 11 September 2010.
- ↑ Willson, Eleanor Joan (1961). James Lee and the Vineyard Nursery, Hammersmith. London: Hammersmith Local History Group.
- ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3366165/London-furniture-factory-Waring-Gillow-built-planes-WWI-WWII.html
- ↑ "HUC History". Hammersmith United Charities. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
- ↑ "Savills UK | 404". Savills.com. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ↑ "Hammersmith Bridge Road Surgery London by Guy Greenfield". Galinsky.com. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ↑ Dan Hodges. "Best and worst of Hammersmith and Fulham buildings named".
- ↑ "architectureweek.org.uk". architectureweek.org.uk. 24 June 2007. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ↑ Website of the Standing Conference of Polish Museums, Archives and Libraries
- ↑ Benedict Le Vay, Eccentric London
- ↑ "Time Out, "London's best local parks," 29 August 2008". Timeout.com. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ↑ "posk.org". posk.org. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ↑ Calvert, Laurie. "A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations" (PDF). Penguin Books. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ "Creating a utopian future: William Morris's News from Nowhere". The British Library. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ "The Music of Gustav Holst (1930) Hammersmith Op. 52". GustavHolst.info. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- 1 2 Warrack, John (January 2011). "Holst, Gustav Theodore". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 4 April 2013. (subscription required)
- ↑ Lewalski, Barbara K. The Life of John Milton. Oxford: Blackwells, 2003.
- 1 2 3 4 "Hammersmith | British History Online". British-history.ac.uk. 1 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "Queen Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV". Historic–uk.com. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Carl Czerny (2011). Voluntaries for organ. A–R Editions. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-89579-709-4. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- 1 2 "Botanists: the Gardeners and the Nurserymen". Quakers in the World. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Ray Desmond (25 February 1994). Dictionary Of British And Irish Botantists And Horticulturalists Including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. CRC Press. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-85066-843-8. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "One man's obsession with rediscovering a lost typeface". BBC News. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "William Tierney Clark". London Remembers.
- 1 2 3 4 "The House & Interiors | Emery Walker and 7 Hammersmith Terrace". Emerywalker.org.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Ronalds, B.F. (2016). Sir Francis Ronalds: Father of the Electric Telegraph. London: Imperial College Press. ISBN 978-1-78326-917-4.
- ↑ Adrian Room (1992). Corporate eponymy: a biographical dictionary of the persons behind the names of major American, British, European, and Asian businesses. McFarland. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-89950-679-1. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- 1 2 Culbertson, Alix (20 January 2015). "Hammersmith's Lily Allen and Rik Mayall most explicit UK singers". Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- 1 2 "Living with the stars". Telegraph. 8 September 2007. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Irvine, Chris (9 December 2010). "The career of Sacha Baron Cohen". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Swales, Andy. "Marcus Bent handed 12–month suspended prison sentence | Football News". Sky Sports. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Levy, Glen (6 February 2009). "Joe Calzaghe – TIME". Content.time.com. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "Lord Coe: timeline of an Olympic champion and sports administrator". Telegraph. 19 August 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Brenner, Marie. "Marie Colvin's Private War". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Phoebe Luckhurst (15 December 2014). "English charmers: the similarities between Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne | London Life | Lifestyle". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Anderson, David (14 May 2015). "James DeGale backing himself to 'make history' in Andre Dirrell world title fight". The Daily Mirror. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ "Person Details for Cara Jocelyn Delevingne, "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008"". FamilySearch.org.
- ↑ John Osborne (30 October 2014). Damn You England: Collected Prose. Faber & Faber. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-571-31836-0. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Phillippa Bennett (2010). William Morris in the Twenty–first Century. Peter Lang. p. 30. ISBN 978-3-0343-0106-0. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "Emilia Fox: A long line of theatrical Emila used to be a childminder in her spare time before taking up acting ancestors...". TheGenealogist. 20 September 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
- ↑ Berger, Doreen (3 December 2014). "A Biography of The Dark Lady Of Notting Hill". United Synagogue Women. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
- ↑ Sayre, A. (1975). Rosalind Franklin and DNA. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-07493-5.
- ↑ Flanagan, Aaron (30 January 2016). "What channel is George Groves vs Andrea Di Luisa on?". The Daily Mirror. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ Pukas, Anna (1 February 2014). "Why does Hugh Grant refuse to grow up?". The Daily Express. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ Grainger, Lisa (2013-04-18). "Tom Hardy's Travelling Life". Telegraph. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
- ↑ "Miranda Hart on how her Falklands hero dad's ship was bombed". The Daily Mirror. 26 January 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ Andrew Duncan (2008). Walking London: Thirty Original Walks in and Around London. New Holland Publishers. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-84773-054-1. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Timothy O'Brien. "Obituary: Jocelyn Herbert | Global". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ O'Neill, Lorena. "Meet Sophie Hunter, Benedict Cumberbatch's Impressive Fiancee". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ↑ "Transmission – BBC Top Gear Video: behind-the-scenes at the first of the new series «". Transmission.blogs.topgear.com. 23 January 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
- ↑ Curtis, Nick (19 November 2013). "Helen Mirren: When Peter Morgan sent me The Audience script I emailed him 'you bastard'". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
- ↑ Barry Millington. "Maurice Murphy obituary | Music". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "Gary Numan documentary to get SXSW world premiere".
- ↑ "London 2012 Meet Team GB Scott Overall". The Times. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ "Stuart Pearce". England Football Online. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ Cavendish, Lucy (18 March 2009). "Rosamund Pike interview". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
- ↑ "Hammersmith's Local Community Web Site". Hammersmithtoday.co.uk. 51.490405 –0.232193. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "Eric Ravilious blue plaque in London". Blue Plaque Places. Blue Plaque Places. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Ronalds, B.F. (2016). Sir Francis Ronalds: Father of the Electric Telegraph. Imperial College Press. ISBN 978-1-78326-917-4.
- ↑ John Osborne (30 October 2014). Damn You England: Collected Prose. Faber & Faber. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-571-31836-0. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "Ealing–born actor Alan Rickman". GetWestLondon. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ 6:08PM BST 10 May 2012 (10 May 2012). "Vidal Sassoon". Telegraph. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ http://bandonthewall.org/artists/labi–siffre/
- ↑ Raphael, Amy (20 January 2012). "Hammersmith homegirl Estelle back for more global glory". Evening Standard. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ Mervyn Cooke; Philip Reed (8 July 1993). Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd. Cambridge University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-521-38750-7. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "Biography: Evelyn Whitaker, 1844–1929". Evelynwhitakerlibrary.org. 18 July 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ Larkin, Colin (27 May 2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p. 2006. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
External links
 |
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Hammersmith. |
Media related to Hammersmith at Wikimedia Commons
- London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham
- Hammersmith's local community web site
- Description of Hammersmith in 1868
- Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney, by Geraldine Edith Mitton and John Cunningham Geikie, 1903, from Project Gutenberg
- NHS Hammersmith and Fulham
- HammersmithLondon Business Improvement District (BID)
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Acton | Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith | Notting Hill, North Kensington | |
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Kensington | ||
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| Chiswick (part of) | Barnes | Fulham |
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