Riverside west of the Tower, south bank. Richmond Hill

Riverside west of the Tower, south bank. Richmond Hill

Post to the west Richmond Central and Riverside and Twickenham Park
Post to the south Star and Garter

Cambrian Road
This was land owned by the parish who obtained a Chancery order in 1845 to allow them to build for ‘best rents’.
Cambrian Road Gate. A gate into Richmond Park was provided here during the First World War to serve the South African War Hospital in the park. When that closed it became a permanent pedestrian entrance.


Cardigan Road
Cavendish Court. Modern Movement flats built in 1953 by Eric Lyons, 1953-4.


Church Road
Meadows Hall. Council day centre
St.Matthias Church.  Built 1857-8 by George Gilbert Scott. It has a tower with 195 ft spire. The choir vestry is 1884 by Oldred Scott and the All Saints Chapel of 1915 by Cecil Hare. There was another conversion in 1975 by Hutchison, Locke & Monk.

Denbigh Gardens
This is one of the 50 most expensive streets in London.

Friar Stiles Road
Friars’ Stile was at the top of the hill, near the site of the current St. Matthias Church.  It is said to be the route of the walks of the friars from the Carthusian religious house, based in what is now the Old Deer Park
18a Maria Grey nursery school
Methodist Chapel. Built at the end of the Wesleyan College site in 1850. It was destroyed in Second World War bombing.
The Vineyard School. This moved to the site of the bombed Methodist Chapel in the 1980s – the coat of arms for the Wesleyan College is still displayed on the school gates. . This was the original main entrance for the College but the area had been used as a vegetable plot in the Second World War. The Vineyard School had begun as a British School for boys in The Vineyard. Eventually a new school was built at the top of Richmond Hill. Land was acquired from the college. The school opened in 1977 for infants and in 1984 the junior school. In 1992 the two schools together became the Vineyard Primary School.
46 The Marlborough. This is now a Young’s pub. It began as the Rose Inn, and was a tea garden in the 1820s and then by 1840 was a hotel called Rose Cottage.  The garden was then a feature with a bowling green. By the 1870s it was renamed the Marlborough and the licence in this name dates from 1878.


Grosvenor Avenue
Graveyard wall. 18th and listed – the green area is the Vineyard Passage Burial Ground.


Grosvenor Road
42 Vineyard Organic Day Nursery. This dates from 2011.

Grove Road
Cambrian Community Centre this opened in 1989, and is part of the old Richmond Infirmary site. It was built by, and is owned by, the Richmond Parish Lands Charity. It is in the ground floor area of Caplan Court
Richmond Union Workhouse. This opened in Grove Road in 1787. A plaque on the building said it was 'Erected by the Munificence of His Majesty George the III for the use of the poor of Richmond and Kew'. It included an infirmary and a section for the mentally ill. An institution for ‘mentally ill and disorderly persons’ was part of it. Later there were vagrant wards, a chapel and a stone yard. In 1902 a new infirmary was added, designed by E.J.Partridge and later a nurses home. In the Great War it became the Richmond Military Hospital and after merged with the South African Hospital in Richmond Park. In 1929 it was taken over by the London County Council and renamed the Richmond Institution. It joined the National Health Service in 1948 and was renamed Grove Road Hospital which specialised in geriatric care. It closed in 1974. It was then used as student accommodation for Kingston Polytechnic, and then taken over by London and Quadrant to be converted to housing. This consists of public housing - Kingsmead opened in 1987. There is also a posh gated part called King George Square

Halford Road
Halford House. This house dates at the earliest from 1710 and it was later owned by John Halford who was a brewer involved with the Mortlake Brewery. It was also known as Vineyard House. In the 1880s it became the Richmond School of Art and Music and this was housed in an extension. This closed in 1939 and the house was used by the WVS for Civil Defence. In   1954 The Christian Fellowship in Richmond bought the house a later added an adjacent market garden. The Christian Fellowship was founded in 1951 by a group of religious young people gathered. They bought the house in 1954. The house had previously been the Richmond School of Music
British Red Cross Hall. This stood next to Halford House and was bought by the Fellowship in 2002.

Kings Road
68 Kings House School, private, fees paying.
92 Kings Road Nursery, in modernised purpose built nursery building.

King George Square
Gated development for posh people on the site of the old workhouse.
Entrance lodge to the workhouse. This is mow beside shut gates of the private housing in King George Square.
Workhouse building – the main workhouse building beneath e central cupola and clock. It says ‘erected by the munificence of His Majesty King George III for the use of the poor of Richmond and Kew”. This is now now behind the gates and part of the housing area of the posh King George Square development.


Kingsmead
Kingsmead. This is the part of the old workhouse site which is now public housing and facilities.
Fitzherbert House was built as sheltered accommodation which, until 2009, was managed by the London and Quadrant Housing Trust. It is now run by Richmond Council.

Lancaster Cottages
Built on the site of the kitchen garden of Ellerker House

Lancaster Park
Built on the site of the gardens of Lancaster House.
Lancaster House. Dates from the 1830s.

Lower Grove Road
Richmond and East Sheen Cemeteries. This square contains only that part of the cemetery nearest to Grove Road. The rest is in the square to the east.  On the 1894 map this area consists mainly of a reservation ground with only non-conformist chapel being on this part of the site.
Grove Gardens Chapel. Non conformist chapel for the cemetery which now stands outside the gates. It was sold in 1992 and was restored. The architect is unknown. It is now a nursery school.
St. Elizabeth Catholic Primary School

Marchmont Road
Vineyard School. In 1961 a new building for infants was built here, and the infants moved there in 1961. Unfortunately the construction was not suitable and children were quickly moved out

Mount Ararat Road
This was once a winding lane called Worple Way
Mount Ararat. This was an 18th house which stood on the corner with the Vineyard.
Tudor conduit collecting chamber. This was excavated into this area in 1909

Paradise Road
9-11 3-4 Hogarth House. This was the home of Hogarth Press 1915-24. It is an early 18th house once divided into two, and half called Suffield House. Virginia Woolfe and her husband moved there at a time when she was very ill. Printing was a hobby for them and it provided a diversion for Virginia. They bought a hand press in 1917 for £19 and taught themselves how to use it. It was set up in the dining room of Hogarth House.  They then published their first text, a book with one story written by Leonard and the other written by Virginia.  Between 1917 and 1946 the Hogarth Press published 527 titles, although soon they were using a commercial printer. One early publication was ‘The Waste Land’.
21 Vestry House. A vestry house was built in 1790 at the Paradise Road end of the new burial ground. A new magistrate’s court was built alongside it in 1896. The vestry house is now offices which included the owners, The Richmond Parish Lands Charity.

Peldon Court
High rise council flats built on a site where 49 houses were destroyed in Second World War bombing.


Petersham Road
55-59 The Paragon. This was once a longer terrace but some houses were demolished for road widening plans in 1938.  They are on parish owned land endowed to the church in 1375. The housing here was developed between 1720 and 1730 by or for the owner of Richmond Wells. At the end was a small malt house which was usually let to residents of the adjacent house which included local brewers.
Bingham House Hotel. The site is said to be that of a pub called the Blue Anchor extant in 1724. This had its own landing stage and handled some passengers going to Richmond Wells. When the Wells closed the pub was demolished and replaced by this house. It consists of two 18th houses named after Ann Bingham daughter of the second Lord Lucan, who joined the two together in 1821. It became a hotel in 1922.
Riverdale Gardens. This is Richmond “pocket gardens”. Riverdale House was here from 1830. In 1927 it was the home of Miss Messum of Messum's Boatyard which was adjacent. The house was demolished in the 1920s and this garden was laid out in 2008-9.
Brewery and malt house belonging to William Lewis from 1726. Lewis’ brewery was destroyed by flooding in the 1780s and the site was bought by the Earl of Leicester
Tile kilns. These were closed by the order of the King in 1766 and the site sold in 1767 to the Duke of Montagu
77 -79 Blade House. These are flats, designed by Paul Brookes Architects over existing boathouses.  The boathouses were part of Messum's Boatyard dating from the 1870s.
81-83 Richmond Canoe Club. This is in The Lansdowne Boathouse and was established in 1944.  They have produced several international competitors.
87 Three Pigeons. This pub dated to 1715 and was used by the local brick workers when it stood on the other side of the road. It was moved to the riverside land in 1870 for the Duke of Bucceugh and ahad a slipway and landing stage. The pub became a curry house in the 1980s but was burnt out in 1995.  It is now housing designed in 2007 by Paul Brookes Architects.

Poppy Factory
The Poppy Factory – this is a complicated site involving the area between Petersham Road and Richmond Hill.
The Poppy Factory. In 1922 the Disabled Society, a charity established in 1920 by Major George Howson MC and Major Jack Cohen received a grant from the British Legion to employ disabled ex soldiers to make remembrance poppies.  They set up in a former collar factory on the Old Kent Road and were soon employing 50 disabled veterans. They made a million poppies within two months. They moved here from the Old Kent Road in 1925 and initially took over premises vacated by Watney’s Brewery in 1925. 
The most northerly part of the factory site – the old brewery buildings are in the square to the north. The area south and east of that is in this square. The area also involves Cardigan House.
The site was, in the 15th part of land used for the manufacture of bricks. Petersham Road itself dates from around that time and was called ‘The Causeway’ passing along the riverbank and likely to be flooded.
Richmond Wells – in the mid 17th some of the site was leased to Thomas Warner who wanted to exploit a spring on the site which might have medicinal properties. This was developed as a spa on the northern part of the site adjacent to Richmond Hill. Most of the buildings of Richmond Well were bought and shut in 1763.  This site is now part of Terrace Gardens
Lansdowne House. This is the area mainly in the square to the north. It included however stabling and ‘The Mews House’ adjacent to the Petersham Road and was later known as the Lansdowne House estate. Lansdowne House itself was on Richmond Hill built for Collins the brewer.   In 1780 the stables were replaced by houses called Lansdowne Place and Mews House was taken over by a Brewery – which included the old workhouse called Rump Hall.  The Poppy Factory Company took over the building in 1925 (described in the square to the north). This site is now part of Terrace Gardens.
Cardigan House. This was built to the north of Richmond Wells in 1771. It was designed by William Eves and the building supervised by Robert Mylne for Robert Sayer and let to the Duke of Clarence. It was later the home of the Commander of the Light Brigade It was bought by the Poppy Factory in 1925, and was used for the Cardigan Club in 1928. Later it was renamed the Remembrance Club and the upper floors converted into flats. In 1970 it was demolished. It was sold to the British Legion who built Bromwich House and Howson Terrace on the site with 16 flats for old people and 66 flats. Some of this site is now part of Terrace Gardens.
Robins Court. This block of flats built in the early 1970s is owned by the Poppy Factory and replaced some of the early manufacturing area. Originally the ground floor was a social club and a concert hall, but was later converted to staff flats.
45-71 Richmond Hill. The Poppy Factory purchased this site on which they builf flats. 
Cellon Ltd. This chemical company was on some of the Watney’s owned buildings adjacent to the Petersham Road. They made cellulose lacquers and synthetic finishes and were eventually taken over by Courtaulds. The poppy factory bought this and built their art deco factory there which opened in 1932.
Art Deco ‘Poppy Factory’ building. A new entrance and offices were built here in the 1970s. The access road was changed to allow for car parking and a new showroom was opened.

Queens Road
Queen's Road was being described as a 'carriageway' by 1768. It was called Black Horse Lane in the early 19th after the pub of that name at the Sheen Road junction. It was also known as Muddy Lane and ran through what was a large area of common land.   It was called Queen's Road by 1845 and named after Queen Victoria
Pesthouse Common. This narrow strip along the road is part of what was extensive common land in this area, its name relating to a plague hospital demolished in 1787. Mature lime and horse chestnut trees border the site and it is sown as a perennial meadow
Queen's Road Estate. This was developed from 1971 by London and Quadrant Housing Ltd on land owned by Richmond Parish Lands Charity. The Charity Trustees wanted housing for lower and middle income families to the same standard as private housing schemes. There was also to be a school, a community centre and housing for the elderly.  The focus was to be the land and buildings released by the closure of the hospital. The winning architects were Darbourne and Darke and work started in 1978. Phase 1 stands out for the quality of the architecture. Phase 2 is said to be an architecturally less inventive arrangement.  Phase 3 was developed by separate developers and architects.

Richmond Hill
Richmond Hill. This is shown on maps from 1876 and in 1650 there is reference to Richmond Hill Common.
48 Old Vicarage House. This is another private fee paying school. This time for girls. The house was built for John Houblon, the first Governor of the Bank of England as Ellerker House. It was Gothicised in 1808 by Mrs. Ellerker.  Used as a school since the 1880s but had been Ellerker House, home of the Houblon family. In 1881 it became another private fee paying school called Ellerker College, a boarding school. In the early 20th the Old Vicarage School moved here from Chiswick as a ‘prep' school but before the Second World War it had become a  girls only school,
Howson Terrace – Poppy Factory housing on the site of Cardigan House. Lansdowne House was also in the same area and now covered by the Poppy Factory estate.
Richmond Hill Court.  Built 1928 and designed by Bertram Carter
90-112 Stuart Court. This was the site of Downe Terrace which was built on the site of Bishop Duppa's almshouses. These stood opposite the corner of Friars Style Lane. Built in the 1660s for ten unmarried women. Hey were demolished in the 1860
Downe House. Build 1771 for Charles Pearce 130
Roebuck Pub This dates from around 1720 but may be older, Haunted and also mysterious caches of money found.
Fountain with an iron cage or arbour, by T. E. Collcutt, 1891.

Sheen Road
37 Union Street. Courtyard with offices and light industry. Has had a variety of firms – adhesives, aircraft parts since the 1930s
Telephone exchange. This is in Spring Terrace and dates from the late 1930s. It had RIChmond numbers until the late 1960s and now is 0208-332, 940 and 948 numbers.
Christian Science Church. This was built from 1939 by architects W. Braxton Sinclair and Barton. It is in red brick and dour
36 Marshgate House. Built in 1699 by a London merchant, John Knapp. It was restored in 1979 by N. G. Sherwen. It was the residence here of a wealthy merchant like Knapp which led to the development of Richmond as a prosperous town.  His crest remains on the gate to the property.
Terrace Gardens
The Terrace Gardens. In the middle ages this was common land called Hill Common. From about 1630 tile kilns were installed along Petersham Road and clay was dug on the common. The tile kilns were closed down in 1767. Between 1765 and 1771 the land was bought for George Brudenell, Earl of Cardigan and Duke of Montagu to extend the pleasure grounds of his riverside house. In 1863 Lansdowne House was incorporated into these gardens. In 1886 the family sold the Richmond properties to the Vestry of Richmond. And tfhey were laid out as Terrace Gardens.  At the opening there was a central tea room, a cast-iron fountain on the Upper Terrace to the west, and a two-storey conservatory with tropical plants built in the north-east corner. A plinth was used for a bandstand on a mound, but this is now the side of the Coade stone figure of Father Thames by John Bacon, 1775, which is thought to have been in the Duke of Montagu's pleasure grounds.  In 1902 a scarlet oak was planted by the daughter of a former Mayor of Richmond to mark the Coronation of Edward VII. The 1928 toilet block at the top of the hill now serves as a gardeners' shed. The conservatory was replaced by a smaller, one-storey building, itself replaced in 2007 by a Victorian-style one.  The fountain was replaced in 1952 by a pond with a sculpture of Aphrodite in Portland stone by Allan Howes. Behind it is a granite drinking fountain from 1887. In 1962 Terrace Gardens were extended north with a Woodland Garden on an area once part of the Cardigan House estate, and the site of Richmond Wells. This includes an Icehouse allegedly built in 1790 in the grounds of Cardigan House. It is behind the summer house, with a doorway faced with oyster shells and flints. In 2006 a new summer house was built.  Near the icehouse is a carved Fishmarker Stone on a stone plinth. This was once used as a fare stage on the Thames giving the distance to Westminster Bridge. In 2008/9 LB Richmond undertook a major refurbishment of the Gardens, Bio-diversity features have been introduced, including stag beetle loggeries, dead-hedges, leaf litter sculpture, bat and bird boxes and bee homes. The sun-dial from Richmond Green has been moved to the rose garden. In 2011 6 ornamental apple trees was planted a memorial to the 145 Polish Air Force pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain

The Vineyard
12 Vineyard Life Church. The building was designed by John Davies in 1831 but was rebuilt in 1851 after a fire. It was a congregational church.  Harold Wilson attended the church while he was Prime Minister, and Tony Blair held weekly discos there. The current church using the building dates from 2013 and is a merger between Richmond Borough Church and The Vineyard Church,
Community Centre. The Vineyard Project had been in the crypt of the Congregational Church since 1979. MIND set up a day centre to help local people in distress. In 2011 Mind said they could no longer afford to keep the Project open and it is now run by a charity called the Vineyard Community Centre. It includes which the Richmond Food Bank, The Vineyard charity Shop and the Basement Door for young people.
14 St Elizabeth. The church dates from the 1790s but the present building dates from 1824 and was the gift of Elizabeth Doughty. It was designed by Thomas Hardwick but the chancel presbytery and tower were rebuilt in 1903. St Elizabeth was a 14th queen of Portugal. It claims to be oldest still standing Catholic Church in the diocese of Southwark. There is a Plaque to a hanged Franciscan
16 Clarence House. This dates from around 1696. It was built for Nathaniel Rawlins, a London merchant. William IV lived here as the Duke of Clarence in the 1780s. 1792 -1799 it was a Catholic school – which had Bernado O’Higgins as a pupil and there is a blue plaque to him outside the property. The house was a warehouse for Fortnum and Mason 1941 to 1947. It later became a private house owned by Brian Blessed, in the late 1960s.
Bishop Duppa Almshouses. Founded 1661 – but many other additions since.  Bishop Duppa was bishop of Chichester and later Winchester but lived for many years in Richmond. They were for 10 unmarried women over 50 years of age and were first built on Richmond Hill.  These were built in 1860 by Thomas little and consist of Five houses on either side of a central archway leading to garden at back. Most of left side is modern following Second World War bomb damageT.  The classical garden entrance with original tablet may come from the old almshouses of 1661and there is an original archway in the garden.
Queen Elizabeth's Almshouses.  These were founded by Sir George Wright to house 8 poor aged women and were known originally as the ‘Lower almshouses’ the name ‘Queen Elizabeth’s’ being later. They were originally built in Petersham Road. These are 20th housing.
40 British School. This building is in austere grey brick and dates from 1867. It grew out of a school opened in the Vineyard Chapel. As the school grew this school was built. Lack of space led to the school moving into new buildings after the Second World War. It is now sheltered housing
42 Dukes Head. Pub which dates from the 1870s.
Michel's Almshouses. These are Almshouses for 10 single or married men founded by Humphrey Michel, who lived on Richmond Green. .He died in 1696 and the building was finished by his nephew, John. The current buildings are 19th replacements and there is another range of 1858

Vineyard Passage
 The Vineyard Passage Burial Ground was opened in 1791. It finally closed for burials in 1874. Landscaped in 1984.


Worple Way
14 White Horse. Fullers pub licensed from the 1890s
Houblon's Almshouses. These were founded in 1757 by Rebecca and Susanna Houblon, who gave the site and the land which is now Houblon Road.  They lived at Ellerker House from a Hugonaut family and thus originally inmates had to be protestant. The oldest almshouses were built in 1757, originally to house nine poor women and A further two almshouses were built in 1857. They are now managed by The Richmond Charities


Sources
Behind the Blue Plaques
Blue Plaque Guide
Cambrian  Centre. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Cloake. Cottages and Common Fields of Richmond and Kew
Cloake. Richmond Past
Dunbar. Prospect of Richmond
English Heritage. Web site
Grace’s Guide. Web site
London Borough of Richmond. Web site
London Open House. Web site
London Transport. Country walks
London Encyclopaedia
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Parker. North Surrey
Penguin. Surrey
Pevsner and Cherry South London,
Pevsner. Surrey
Poppy Factory. Web site
Vineyard. Web site
Vineyard School. Web site
Workhouses. Web site