Riverside - south of the river, west of the Tower. Putney Boathouses

Riverside - south of the river, west of the Tower.  Putney Boathouses

Post to the north Barn Elms and Fulham Bishops Park
Post to the east Putney High Street and Fulham Riverside
Post to the west Barnes Common


Balmuir Gardens
Putney Lawn Tennis Club. The club was established in 1879 for Lawn Tennis and Archery and originally met near to Putney High Street. It claims to be the second oldest such club in the world. Originally all members were issued with shares.


Barn Elms Park
This is a landscaped path between Horne Way at the river and Lower Richmond Road. It has been laid out like this since at least the 1870s and follows the route of the back entrance to Barnes Manor House. It is lined with plane trees including one of the largest in the country

Burston Road
4 Royal Mail. Delivery and sorting office


Charlwood Road
Hotham Primary school Keepers House
Rail Bridge. Built for the London to Richmond Railway in 1845
22 The Quill. Closed and the site redeveloped with flats. This is the site of the farm and market gardens of the Charlwood family.

Chelverton Road
Putney Bus Garage.  This was originally a horse bus garage built in 1888 for LGOC. It was the last garage to operate a whole fleet of solid tyred buses which were eventually replaced in 1935. It was the first garage to operate RTs starting with RT 1 in 1939. It was rebuilt in 19376 with a new office and canteen block and a new entrance to take bigger buses. It was renamed Putney Garage in 1963. Still in use.
4 Chinese Restaurant in what was Putney and Wimbledon Affiliated Synagogue. This dated from 1956 and was closed, after 1970 and had an Ashkenazi Orthodox ritual. It was an affiliated synagogue of the United Synagogue from 1956.

Clarendon Drive
1 Our Lady of Victories Roman Catholic Primary School. This is in two converted houses plus a modern extension
Eileen Lecky Clinic. This was founded as the Putney Branch of the Mothers' Welcome, but was renamed the Putney Infant Welfare Centre by 1922 and was based Felsham Road. In 1931 they moved here and it was called the Children’s' Health Centre. In the Second World War, the buildings were used as a gas decontamination and first aid post. At the end of the War, the Health Centre re-opened here. It became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and in 1958 the Health Centre was handed over to London County Council and then back to Wandsworth Council in 1965. It was later named in memory of the long standing secretary, Eileen Lecky.
Putney Animal Hospital. This is run by the RSPCA
69a-70a This was the site of the entrance to Putney Velodrome. In 1888 John Davis, a local builder, leased land in west Putney to build the first concrete cycling track in England. It opened in 1891, for national and international competition and for 15 years was venue for cycling races and athletic meetings as well as being used by for school sports days. It also had 12 tennis courts, a bowling green and a quoits pitch. The cycle track ran from what is now 1 Landford Road, into Earldom Road then into Hotham Road. There was also a grandstand. The lease ran out in 1905 and the land was used then for building
Commondale
Putney Labourers’ Cottages. There is a plaque saying that they are “Erected on land belonging to the Pest House Charity AD 1862"
Pest House Charity. Putney's Pest Houses dated from the 17th and were on this site until demolished and replaced with these houses.
Cricketers Pub. This stood on the corner with Lower Richmond Road. It is now called Sadlers House and has been converted to flats. The pub used to stand in an open forecourt now enclosed and some perimeter trees remain.

Dryborough Road
Dryborough Hall and Baths. Designed by Powell & Moya and opened in 1968, Informal buildings of different heights around older trees. Pool, Leisure Centre and Community Centre


Embankment
The Embankment as it is now was built by J. C. Radford, the parish surveyor, in 1887-8. He laid out the slipway and the riverside path. It was laid out as a recreational area related to the Thames and focused on the rowing clubs. Residential development was inserted. It had previously been a strip of foreshore, backed by common pasture and the grounds of large houses. It was used by the local watermen until a towpath was created in the 18th .It has been a location for pubs from the Middle Ages and for commercial boatmen and boat builders from the 17th. From the 1830s it became a focal point for rowing.
Slipway with granite setts running down to the river from the area opposite the Putney Bridge Restaurant.
Stone bollard on the Embankment marked 'UBR' or University Boat Race. This marks the starting point of the race
Cast iron bollards, There are five opposite the slipway from the late 19th painted in Putney blue.
Chas.Newens Marine. This was Ayling's boat builder’s yard. It has two storeys with a first floor balcony, originally timber.  It is a key building in the history of rowing. A plaster advertising panel can still be seen on the side which advertised the E. Ayling and Sons, oar and scull manufacturers and boat builders. Ayling specialised in oars and had invented and developed several specialist varieties.
Cast iron bollards at either end of Spring Passage which e date from the period of slipway construction of the 1890s
Kings College School Boathouse. This is the school in Wimbledon who bought the boathouse in 1993. This includes, on Sundays, the Boathouse Church. The site was previously that of the Leander Boathouse.
HSBC Boat house. This was built 1955
Dulwich College Rowing Club. Encouraged and sponsored since 1991 by Thames Rowing Club, but now independent.
Crabtree Boat Club. The club is for the alumni of Cambridge University Boat Club. The core members are blues and Goldie members
Ranelagh Sailing Club. Modern building around an older core for a club was founded in 1889. It was previously called the Unity Boathouse. There had been sailing activities around Ranelagh Gardens throughout the early 19th which had lapsed. In 1889, eight sailing men met at the Star and Garter hotel, and resolved to form the Ranelagh Sailing Club. They acquired the club house and members of the Ranelagh Yacht Club joined them along with members of the 2nd South Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, which was commanded by the 7th Viscount Ranelagh. The Club has consistently encouraged dinghy sailing mad was early affiliated to the Royal Yachting Association. Members of the Club were closely involved with the development of the Merlin Rocket and National Twelve dinghies and has provided many leading helmsmen.
Westminster School Boat House.  The original building has had new doors and a side extension but is otherwise original. It has the name 'J. H. Clasper' picked out in red brick on the gable end.
Harry Clasper. Harry Clasper came from the north east and began to build boats. Having lost a race to Thames Watermen they designed a new style of boats. His eldest child was Jack who coxed at Henley Cat the age of 13 and moved to London. In 1846 he had a boat yard in Durham and one in Putney by 1868. He perfected a sliding seat and made many other design breakthroughs.
Vesta Rowing Club. This dates from 1890. The building is in brick with decorative arches and banding. The Club was founded in 1870. It is said that at the inaugural meeting it was decided to name the club after the first boat to pass under London Bridge which was steam tug Vesta. The club lost many members during the Great War, but recovered. In 1936 a fire at the clubhouse destroyed many of its records and destroyed 30 boats. During the Second World War the London Fire Brigade requisitioned the clubhouse. After the war, eventually, in 1994 women were allowed to become full members.
London Rowing Club. This was the first of the rowing clubs on this stretch and dated from 1856. The club had been inaugurated at the Craven Hotel in the Strand.  It was based at the Star and Garter until its present boathouse was built in 1871. The boathouse is in brick with tall chimneys but the original ornate balcony has been replaced with a simpler structure. It still has its original iron balustrade on the parapet roof. It was enlarged before 1906. Some original iron bollards in the forecourt of the London Rowing Club that used to mark the former boundary line of the boathouse
Fairfax Mews
This is on the site of the Atlas Building Works. This was the works of a Mr. Aries who died in 1903. The firm undertook some large scale developments.
Felsham Road
This was previously Gardners Road and Worple Road.
22 The Platt Christian Centre. Includes a number of social work and arts activities and organisations.
St. Mary's Church of England School. This was dates from 1819 although the main building here dates from 1867. The school lost some features to Second World War bombing and some contemporary looking railings have been added recently
St.Mary’s Recreation Club. Mainly frequented by river workers’ family
38 Palladium Autocar Works. Moved here from Kensington in 1919. Specialising in the Palladium chassis.  At Putney they made a cycle car powered by an air cooled engine. In 1922 they introduced a light tourer which was one of the first cars fitted with front wheel brakes. The site was taken over by Gordon England, Ltd., in 1925 and they made the Brooklands Model Austin Seven there. The site appears to have continued with manufacturers of motor parts
51 Sivananda Yoga Centre. At the end of the 1960’s the time seemed right to start a Yoga Centre in London and Swami Vishnudevananda trained yoga students who started the first official Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Earls Court. The Centre moved several times and in 1990 moved to Putney. The Centre has further expanded as two neighbouring properties and the gardens of the three properties were joined together and a Peace Garden was created.
53-55 Princeton Court. Built in the 1980s on the site of the earlier Imperial Works. This was the factory of Johnson Baker Co. Who made shop fronts and fittings.

Gwendolen Avenue
Putney Methodist Church. Built 1881. The wall has railings and tall brick piers with gabled caps which were replaced in 1995 following war damage. There is also an old burial ground, set back from the street with stone tablets acting
2 Methodist Church Hall – this is now Lion House School, a private nursery.
26 plaque to Dr Edward Benes 1884-1948 which says ‘President of Czechoslovakia, lived here’.

Hotham Road
Hotham Primary School. Hotham Road School opened in 1909, managed by the London County Council. In 1948 the name was changed to Hotham School, and then, as now, to Hotham Primary School. It is managed by the London Borough of Wandsworth. In 1910 the Putney Evening School was established in the building and was later known as Putney Evening Institute, and Hotham Adult Education Centre. When the Inner London Education Authority was dissolved in 1990, adult education ended here.
Hotham Hall. This was previously known as St.Mary’s Hall and was a venue for concerts and events. It is now housing.

Howards Lane
Atlas Terrace. Housing associated with the Atlas Building Works which stood to the north of their site.


Lacy Road
8 Coat and Badge Pub. Dates from the 1880s. The name relates to the Dogget's Coat and Badge Boat Race.
63 The Jolly Gardeners. Dates from the mid 1870s.

Landford Road
1-5 The finishing line of the Velodrome was here.

Lower Common
All Saints Church The church was built 1873-74 on land donated by Earl Spence, and the foundation stone was laid by Princess Christian of Schleswig Holstein. It was designed by William Morris and Edward Burne Jones in collaboration with George Street and it has the most extensive glazing scheme by Morris and Co. of any London church six are by Morris and the rest by Burne-Jones. The church was subject to an arson attack in 1993 and following this there some major alterations.
Putney Hospital. In 1900 a local resident, Henry Chester left £75,000 to endow a general hospital for the area.  A freehold site was donated by Sir William Lancaster not to be used for anything other than a hospital for the people of Putney.  It had previously been the site of The Elms and West Lodge. Richmond, Chelsea and Wandsworth Division of the British Medical Association objected to the building of a large hospital in Putney arguing that a small cottage hospital would was all that was needed, and that there should be no out-patients and that doctors should be on the management committee. It was eventually agreed to include an Out-Patients Department. The Putney Hospital (Chester Bequest) finally opened in 1912 with 53 beds. Patients with mental illness, incurable conditions, smallpox or other infectious diseases were excluded. During the Great War the Hospital did work for Gifford House in Roehampton.  After 1926 Two wings a new operating theatre was installed and a mortuary chapel was built. In 1934 a Nurses' Home was built. In the Second World War the Hospital joined the Emergency Medical Service In 1940 the chapel was demolished in bombing and in 1944 a flying bomb hit the Nurses' Home. In 1948 the Hospital joined the NHS and by 1953 it had 106 beds. It ceased to be an acute hospital in 1980 and re-opened in 1982 for rehabilitation and convalescent patients.  By 1986 it was a geriatric hospital with some GP beds. It finally closed in 1999. The Hospital buildings most of the equipment remained in situ from the day of closure.  In 2012 Wandsworth Borough Council purchased the site. The Hospital has been demolished and building work began in 2014 on the Putney Oasis Academy, a new primary school, at the southern end of the site. Flats will be built on the northern part.

Lower Richmond Road
Kenilworth Court. This is a large block of flats facing the river built to the designs of R. C. Overton in 1902-4. There is elaborate decoration including the entrance porches with ornate door cases, stained glass fanlights and an ornate 'Kenilworth Court' name panel on each block. The central courtyard originally included tennis courts, and is now a communal lawn. The main entrance to the courtyard has two substantial brick piers (one including a Royal Mail post box) supporting an Art Nouveau name arch with two lanterns.
Star and Garter Mansions. This is another large block of flats designed by W. R. Williams and built in 1899-1900. It is in red brick and stone with a central dome on the roof. There is a great deal of decoration including ironwork brackets, balustrades and architraves, and floral motifs around oval windows. The basement originally incorporated a boat house, coach house, a billiard room, and a bicycle store. Two roof domes at the eastern end of two roof domes at the eastern end of the building were lost to bomb damage in the Second World War and were not replaced.
4 Star and Garter Hotel. This pub is part of the Mansions. It has a ballroom, a basement and a walk in cheese room.
Restaurant development next to the Star and Garter. This was designed by Paskin Kiriakides Sands in 1996-7
Sculpture 'Load'. This was the first Alan Thornhill sculpture located in Putney in the late 1980s. It is part of the Putney Sculpture Trail
Winchester House Club. Winchester House is used by Putney Constitutional Club which dates from 1892.  The oldest part of the building is around 1730 and is one of the oldest buildings in Putney. The house is set in walled grounds and appears secluded despite having an open elevation and a rear garden bordering the Embankment. There is a high brick wall running the remaining grounds which is in several different sections, and indicates the gradual loss of land over the years.
Richmond Mansions. This block of flats was built in 1889
University Mansions, this block of flats once included shops on the ground floor. It was built in 1900 to the designs of Palgrave and Company. There is an ornate entrance with a pediment which carries the date of construction in Art Nouveau lettering.
Granite setts on the pavement between Winchester House and the Duke's Head
Platt Estate.  Flats built by Diamond, Redfem & Partners, 1964-5.
8 Dukes Head Pub. This is a grand corner public house facing one end of the Star and Garter and with three street elevations. It dates from 1899-1900 and has stuccoed facades, tall chimneys and twin-arched entrance, large brass lamps hang above the pavement at ground floor level. Inside is original timber work, and ornate frosted and etched glass. The building originally incorporated boat shed, and there was a skittle alley in the basement, now covered over. The boat shed was used by Putney Town Rowing Club from the 1920s to 1986.
16 Political Cartoon Gallery
93 Half Moon. This is a music pub which has hosted live music every night since 1963. It all began with folk and blues sessions 'Folksville’, later anyone who was anyone in the emerging blues scene played here. There were also residencies and later comedy acts.
Lodge to Barn Elms Park
237 Spencer Pub. Previously called the Spencer Arms

Norroy Road
109 Norroy Hall. Norroy Hall now in use as a nursery

Nursery Close
On the site of a plant nursery

Quill Lane
This may represent an early route from the Upper Richmond Road to Putney Bridge and ferry.

Ravenna Road
Union Church. Built in 1860 by Samuel Morton Peto and originally Congregational. The church declined in the mid 20th and the congregation became part of the United Reformed Church. The building is now Putney Arts Theatre.
Putney Arts Theatre. In 1959 Maurice Copus, a teacher at Southfields School founded an after-school theatre club. A lease was obtained on the Union Church building and performances began in 1968. In the 1970s a studio weans added and in the early 1990s it expanded and was again refurbished. Following a legacy it became possible to buy the freehold.

Ruvigny Gardens
Ruvigny Gardens was developed as a residential street and laid out in 1880 on land previously part of the grounds of Winchester House.  Houses were built 1883-4 by James Childs of Stoke Newington. Ruvigny Mansions designed by Palgrave and Co
Red brick gate piers support an ornate iron gate as part of the boundary treatment of Winchester House. Thus it was probably built in the 1880s when the street was developed
The Garage and workshop in the north-western corner has now been converted into an office.

Spring Passage
There is an expanse of historic stone paving along the length of Spring Passage and three iron bollards at the junction with The Embankment.

Upper Richmond Road
This is the South Circular Road.
165-167 Fox and Hounds. Has also been known as the Fox, and also the Coach and Eight.
169-171 Globe Kinema.  This was operated by Putney Electric Cinema from around 1910. In 1929 it was re-named the Globe Kinema the operated by R.T. Davies. He closed it in 1968 and it was bought the Compton Cinemas Group opening as the CineCenta Cinema in with art house films. It later became a club and shoed uncensored films and membership. It went back to being the CineCenta Cinema in 1971 and closed in 1976 and demolished soon after.
202 Railway Pub. This is now part of the Wetherspoon chain. It was the Railway Hotel build in 1886.  For a while it was known as Drummonds.
289 The Arab Boy, Built in 1849, this pub was left by its builder, Henry Scarth, to Yussef Sirric, the Arab servant he had brought back from Turkey. Originally a Watney pub, it was run by the Magic Pub Co and then Greene King in 1996
Police Station. This is now flats.
Putney Old Burial Ground. This was opened in 1763 on land donated by Rev. Roger Pettiward. It closed to burials in 1854 and it was then maintained by the Putney Burial Board. There are a number of interesting tombs.  A small brick built mortuary remains on the site adjacent to Upper Richmond Road. It was made into a garden and opened to the public in 1886 but the tombstones were not moved. In 2008 Wandsworth Council restored several 18th tombs

Waterman Street
This was previously River Street
32 Bricklayers Pub. This two-storey public house as the only survivor of old River Street. Stone steps to the former doorways can still be seen, and the join between the tiles on the front facade where the wall has been continued. The now single entrance is central in this facade,


Sources
Aim. Web site
Aldous. Village London
Behind Blue Plaques
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Crab Tree Boat Club.  Web site
Dulwich College. Web site
Field. Place names,
Glazier. London Transport Garages
GLC. Thames Guideline
Kings College School. Web site
Knowles. Surrey and the Motor
London Borough of Wandsworth. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Transport. Country walks-3
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Nairn Modern Buildings
Parks and Gardens. Web site
Penguin Surrey
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Putney Tennis Club. Web site
Ranelagh Sailing Club. Web site
Wandsworth History Journal

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