LOCAL HISTORY

‘Blythe spirit’

It was once a rural hamlet and it was also known as Pope’s Corner courtesy of its Catholic connections. Andrew Duncan chronicles Brook Green’s fascinating history.

When local historian Thomas Faulkner visited Brook Green in the early 19th century he described it as ‘a pleasant village with some good houses’. In reality it was hardly a village, more an outlying hamlet of Hammersmith

Brook Green takes its name from a stream that ran along the south side of the green. After leaving Brook Green, it flowed under the Hammersmith Road by means of a brick culvert and then on into the Thames; not so long ago, a local newspaper reported that the stream was still flowing and could be glimpsed in the basement wells of some office buildings.

For a long time, however, Brook Green’s popular name was Pope’s Corner, a reference to the extraordinary number of Roman Catholic institutions found in the area. As early as 1669 – covertly because Catholicism was proscribed at the time – Frances Bedingfield opened the Catholic English Ladies School in an imposing house in Hammersmith Road close to the ‘country’ residence of the Portuguese ambassador; later, other local properties, such as Blythe House, were also taken over by various Catholic institutions and schools. Then, in the mid-19th century, by which time Catholicism had been legitimised, Holy Trinity church and a number of almshouses were built on the south side of the green. Today Brook Green’s Catholic tradition continues, most notably in the shape of the Sacred Heart school, which is the lineal successor of the 17th-century Ladies School.

When local historian Thomas Faulkner visited Brook Green in the early 19th century he described it as ‘a pleasant village with some good houses’. In reality it was hardly a village, more an outlying hamlet of Hammersmith. The most comfortable residences were located on the south side of the green; west of what is now Luxembourg Gardens were Bute House and Eagle House and east of Rowan Road was The Grange, where the celebrated actor Sir Henry Irving lived in the 1880s. Near The Grange were the local almshouses (founded in 1629) and also the village pub, the Queen’s Head, which is still a focal point of Brook Green life.

On the green’s north side were two houses that still survive: No 101 at the west end and Oxford House at the east end. The latter belonged to the Wells family, who were farmers and market gardeners, from at least the early 19th century until 1952. Further north still was Blythe House, which was connected to the green by a drive that is now Augustine Road. Blythe House stood on Blythe Lane, an ancient winding thoroughfare connecting Shepherd’s Bush Road and Hammersmith Road. East of Blythe Lane’s junction with Hammersmith Road was the famous Vineyard Nursery, which opened in 1745, where fuschias were first cultivated on a large scale in England. North of Blythe Lane the land – then of course completely undeveloped – was wet and marshy. When large quantities of brick earth were dug out from the late 18th century onwards, shallow lakes formed, big enough to appear on maps and remembered today in the name Lakeside Road.

Thomas Faulkner caught Brook Green just before it became overwhelmed by 19th century ‘progress’. Already industry had arrived in the form of McCulloch’s bleaching grounds and laundry, which featured an 80’ chimney that dominated the area from the 1820s onwards. Today the laundry site is still recognisable in Blythe and Berghem Mews and the neighbouring garage. Building development started around the laundry in the 1860s; in 1869 the London and South Western Railway built a loop line from what is now Kensington Olympia station, round the north of Brook Green to Hammersmith. This explains the obvious curve on the map formed by Sulgrave Road, Minford Gardens and Sinclair Road. A few years later, Olympia replaced the Vineyard Nursery and Lyons took over the Cadby Hall piano factory for their flourishing catering business – this has only relatively recently been redeveloped as Windsor Way.

On the green itself, the old almshouses and Sir Henry Irving’s grand home gave way in the early 20th century to St Paul’s Girls’ School (at the same time the transformation of rural Brook Green into suburban West Kensington Park, as it was then called, was completed). While the more bucolic-sounding Brook Green has now re-established itself as the area’s proper name, the hedges, fields and lanes of former years have undoubtedly gone for good.

Article courtesy of WestSide Magazine

Photographs courtesy of Hammersmith and Fulham Local History Collection