River Brent- Hanwell
River
Brent
The Brent flows southwards
Post to the west Hanwell
Post to the south Hanwell
Post to the north Cuckoo Estate
Boston Road
11-13 has an arch leading to workshops to the rear.
Broadway
The Electric Theatre opened in 1909 operated by Electric Theatres. In 1913, it was re-named Theatre de Luxe, and later Electric Theatre Charming. It closed in 1923. The site became shops and subsequently flats.
Campbell Road
8 blue plaque to painter “when did you last see your father” William Yeames.
Hanwell Station. The station was built on the original line of Brunel’s Great Western Railway opened in 1838, but Hanwell station was not opened until the December of that year. It was to the west of the current station and under one of the viaduct arches – where the road goes under the line. It was in typical Great Western design. In 1888 District line services called here running between Mansion House and Windsor but this ended in 1885. Great Western Railway was the first user of telegraph in 1839 and one of the two first intermediate telegraph stations was set up here.
Hanwell Station. The station now lies between West Ealing and Southall Stations on First Great Western. It was re-built in 1877 in yellow brick with canopies and ironwork. The station was renamed Hanwell and Elthorne in 1896, but became Hanwell again in 1974. An old ‘Hanwell and Elthorne” sign remains on the platform. The Down Main platform was demolished in 1973 – this was the upper stories of a building which ran from ground level in Station Approach. It was demolished following a fire, despite that it had been recently listed. Work has recently been done to renovate the station. Many original features, such as a wooden waiting room have been kept and much of it has been carefully restored to its Great Western Railway condition.
Cherington Road
Heath Lodge. 40 bedroom residential care home for the elderly, built in the 1960’s. This replaced a house of the same name
Grand Electric Cinema. This opened in 1911 and was always an independent cinema. In 1933, it was re-built by F.C. Mitchell. It was re-named Curzon Cinema in 1946 and in 1951, renamed the Tudor Cinema. It closed in 1955. The building was converted into a warehouse and in 1994, the front was demolished leaving the gutted auditorium, and it became a motor repair garage. It was demolished in the early-2000 and flats are now on the site.
Cherington House. This was built in the 1830 with eight bedrooms, a conservatory a coach house and vinery. It was named after a village in Warwickshire which had connections with the original owner. The Hanwell Local Board bought it in 1891 and by 1910 it housed the local fire station and library as well as for many council officers. In 1927 Ealing Council used as a welfare Centre and school clinic and it has continued to house local authority social services departments
The Carnegie Library was designed by T Gibbs Thomas in 1905/6. The foundation stone was laid by the Countess of Jersey, whose family estate included large parts of Hanwell
Church Road
Hanwell Green. This green is thought have existed for several hundred years and it was contained a pond. It has some specimen trees
Hanwell Methodist Church. The Church originated from a Wesleyan Society class set up in 1881. They originally set up a church in Boston Road but in 1897 a committee was investigating a new chapel. The site was bought in 1899 but there was a hold up and the foundation stone was not laid until 1904. With a grant of £250 from Andrew Carnegie the Church asked Bishop and Son to provide an electric pipe organ in 1911. It includes two church halls and an additional room.
St Mellitus with St Mark. As Hanwell grew in the early years of the 20th it was felt an additional church was needed. The parish was formed in 1908 and included St Mark's as a chapel of ease. Arthur Blomfield was commissioned to design a new bigger church and was named for St Mellitus, Bishop of the East Saxons who was thought to have converted the people of Hanwell. Funds were raised from the sale of Holy Trinity Church in Gough Square
14 Candy Filter Co. pumps, filtration equipment, etc. this site is now covered by modern buildings
Hanwell Health Centre. This was built in the 1970s. There is an art work on the front of the building
Hanwell College, kept by the Rev. J. A. Emerton, which educated boys who were to enter the army. It seems to have opened in 1832 and closed in the 1880s. It stood on the corner with Manor Court Road.
122-8 was once called Elm Grove. It became an asylum in the 19th by Susan Wood whose brother in law was the first superintendent of Hanwell Asylum. In 1879 The East India Company took this as the "Royal India Asylum". It closed in 1892. To the side is a stable block and coach house with cupola and clock. This is now all housing.
134 Crossways was originally called St Vincent's Lodge and is the oldest surviving house in the area. It is a 19th house brick house. The garden includes mature trees and a shrubbery
136 was the lodge for The Grove which was itself demolished. It has Gothic windows and chimneys, and was rebuilt the 1980s
Copley Close
Local authority housing built in 1979. A large part of the area is held on a 999 year lease from Network Rail and is built beside a cut and cover slab over the railway line
Drayton Bridge Road
Drayton Manor High School. This used to be Drayton Manor Grammar School which was founded in 1930 as a Middlesex County School serving local children. It became comprehensive in 1975. It was built on the site of Hanwell Park
Park House was previously on the site of Drayton Manor High School. This was a neoclassical 19th house with an estate which covered the whole of the land northwards as far as the Ruislip Road. In the early 1800’s it was owned by Archibald MacDonald, Chief Baron of the Exchequer. It was bought by Benjamin Sharpe in 1848 and was pulled down in the 20th
Factory Yard
The name dates from the 1890s.
John Fownes. Fownes are said to have had a glove factory here since 1795. They were City of London based glove makers who latterly had a large works in Worcester but it is not known if this is the same family.
Vine House
Vine Cottages. Built 1986 but earlier cottages of the same name once stood there.
Golden Manor
This road was developed in the 1880s with large houses
The Great Western Railway passes over the road on brick arches
Greenford Avenue
58-60 Seventh Day Apostolic Church
St Marys Church Hall
Half Acre Lane
This is represents one of the original strips of land belonging to William Hobbayne who set up a charity In 1484 with 24 acres of land to be used for the poor and needy of the parish.
Village cage and stocks which erected in 1788 stood on the eastern corner of the Uxbridge Road junction. They were pulled down in 1844 and the stone used to build the west wall of the Parish Church
Hobbayne School, in 1779 the trustees of the Hobbayne Charity began to pay for the education of a few children, and later started a parish school near the church. In 1807 they increased their grant and provided a site for a new building on the west side of this road on their own land. The school was moved from the charity land in 1855
Almshouses built in 1790 by the Hobbayne charity on the west side of the road which it let to the parish. These were still extant in 1875
Village pump erected in 1815 to supplement water drawn from the town well.
Lower Boston Road
5-11 Boston Place Cottages early 19th
11a thought to be a cart house with stable.
Green - laid out in 1903 on the site of a gravel pit. It is surrounded by cast iron bollards
Nightingale Road
British Ebonite Co. Factory making rubber-type compound from before the 1930s. Since replaced with housing.
Splintex Safety Glass Ltd., Newtex Works. The firm dated from 1928 and made laminated plate and sheet safety glass. The company is still in business elsewhere. This site now replaced by housing.
Park Road
Boundary Stone is in a garden in Park Road. The stone was salvaged by residents and used to be at the end of the lane.
Shakespeare Road
At the end of the eastern section against the wooden fence bordering Drayton Bridge Road. It is said that there is a sign on an iron post is: BOUNDARY 1899 GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY CO
Springfield Road
Site of the town well
St.Ann’s School. In 1902, just before its functions were transferred to the county council, the local school board opened St. Ann’s which took children from the northern part of the parish. It is now a special school for students with severe learning difficulties
Station Approach
The railway is now inaccessible from this original approach road. The upside building, and the original station entrance, was demolished in the 1970s. However some portions of its wall appear to exist behind security fencing.
Station Road
Conolly Dell. This park in a shallow depression was opened in 1912 and has four ponds, the Conolly Monument, rockery garden and park railings. Only the plinth of the meme oral still exists and the winged figure surmounting it has gone. The park was has good tree cover including eucalyptus, conifers, and ponds with a thriving colony of smooth newts. It still has its original railings and gates. Dr John Conolly was the physician of Hanwell Asylum 1839-44 and is credited with having introduced innovative techniques of humane treatment and non-restraint to asylums. The park was part of the grounds of his house, The Lawn and where he later ran a private asylum. It is now part of Brent River Park and much work has been done to improve and restore it.
Uxbridge Road
40 Hanwell Conservative Club
48 RSPCA
50 St Mary's Convent, this is used by The Sisters of St Joseph of Peace. In 1869 Baroness Weld funded a convalescent home for poor Roman Catholic women designed by E. W.Pugin.
52 Our Lady and St Joseph Roman Catholic Church. The parish arise grew from Irish labourers working on the Great Western Railway and it officially opened in 1853. In the 1860's a church was built, designed by Edward Pugin but by the 1960's the church was too small. It was replaced in 1967 by a new concrete building, in the post-war style. It has a sculpture of the Holy Family above the main doors.
Parish Centre, which includes a Social Club and a hall
90-94 Lidl. On the site of Hanwell Bus Garage. Built as an overhead electric tram depot and opened in 1901 by London United Tramways. It was a trolleybus depot in 1936. Now closed and demolished.
Picture Palace. Originally built as the Coronation Hall, it became the Coronation Hall Picture Palace in 1912, operated by Edward Davison. It had closed by 1918. In 2008 the site was, Hanwells, a motor dealers specializing in Rolls Royce & Bentley cars. It may have stood in the land which forms an open space in front Lidl’s
97 Lavin’s Irish Bar. Pub.
110 Kings Head ‘Built 1930’ is written right across the front. This was rebuilt in 1930 by brewers Mann, Crossman & Paulin. The front has doors which lead to separate rooms inside - two rooms, one behind the other and in between a small private bar. The public bar has what is now a games room behind it. In the middle of the servery is a publican’s private office. The toilets at the back retain their original tiling. A staircase leads to an upstairs function room and there is what was originally an off-sales shop - the exterior green faïence tiles extend across what is now the next door premises. It was probably the first inn to be established in Hanwell on the Oxford Road as and was first called the "Spencer Arms “after Edward Spencer, who was Lord of the Manor in the Civil War. In the 18th the Manor Courts were held here
161 Duke of York. This was an important staging point for coaches between Oxford and London. It dates from the 18th and had since been rebuilt
168-174, a plain terrace of cottages dated 1844
169 the former Police Station
221 The Viaduct. This was once called The Coach and Horses and was originally built in the early 18th. It provided overnight accommodation and part of an old stable block remain. The Manor Courts were held here in the late 18th
Boundary stones lie on the Kensington cemetery eastern side denoting the Hanwell Ealing border
Kensington Cemetery. This cemetery was open in 1855 by St. Mary Abbotts parish in Kensington, to take the pressure off burial grounds which were almost full. It was built on land known as East Field which included a small brook which rises from a spring in nearby Milton Road and is culverted under the cemetery. It is owned by the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is in the 19th park style with curving paths. Trees include yew, pine and oak with tall cedars round the edges. The entrance from Uxbridge Road has a tall stone arch with heavy iron gates and a lodge and a path leads to an avenue of evergreen yew, holly and box, the chapel is near s the centre and is now disused. It is in Kentish rag stone by Thomas Allom. Another chapel was demolished in 1972. There are the remains of an arcade which ran between the two. There is a Great War memorial in the shape of a tall white stone cross and a ground with war graves. It closed for burials in 1924.
Brent Bridge. This takes the Uxbridge Road over the Brent. It was also known as the Middle Ford. This was first noted in 1396 because of the need for repairs. It was repaired in the 16th in stone. There were tolls from the 15th and in 1714 it was turnpiked. In 1762 the turnpike trustees re-built and widened it again and from 1815 it was a Middlesex County Bridge. In 1906 it was widened again and re-faced with stone. It is now Stone with cement-filled cast iron balusters. There are steps on the west side and on the south side, three arches of brick remain but with 19th stonework. Two outer arches remain from a six-arch mediaeval bridge on the south side
38 Hanwell Cemetery. This was originally the 'City of Westminster Cemetery' and was set up by the St. George's Hanover Square Burial Board because of the condition of the burial grounds in the central area with cold collation and half pint of sherry per guest after the Metropolitan Interment Act of 1850. In 1853 Robert Jerrard was appointed as architect bad the cemetery was consecrated in 1854. The Chapels and Offices are of stone in a 19th Gothic style. The Chapel has a hammer beam roof. Lodge is the biggest in London, There is a British Legion memorial in the centre and a number of war graves. There is also a civilian memorial to the 200 dead of the Second World War, near the centre of the cemetery. This includes the grave of popular singer, Al Bowlly. The cemetery has subsequently been extended. It is still managed by the City of Westminster's Parks Service
Clock tower. This was erected for King George VI's coronation in 1937 and is art deco in style
Westminster Road
Benjamin Court sheltered housing by Ealing Architect's Department, built in 1983, around a courtyard with a walnut tree.
Assyrian Church. In 1860 a new building was opened here which was a Baptist and Congregational Union church. In 1952 the church severed its Congregational connexion and became purely Baptist belonging to the Baptist Union. In 1959 it used with a Boston Road churches united as the South Hanwell Baptist Church, and the church in the Westminster Road was given up, it is now St. Mary’s Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. This church originated in the 16TH in what is now Iraq
School - A schoolroom was built beside the Union church in 1870 and a British day school was started in 1871I. There was a good deal of rivalry between the boys of it and the National Schools and this continued until both were taken over by the school board. It was closed in 1902, though the buildings were used to house temporary council schools until the Great War
York Avenue
York Mansions. This was the home of the Violin Workshops of WE Hill & Sons. The buildings were built 1887-8 and 1904-6 and closed in the 1970s. Hill’s specialised in string instruments and bows. It was founded by in New Bond Street in 1887 built on a long family history of violin making. A "Hill's" Certificate of Authenticity was considered definitive worldwide throughout the firm's history. Many fine craftsmen worked for the firm. and they employed England’s best bow makers. The buildings are now flats but the design of plaques on doorways, etc, seem to echo the shapes of violins.
St Joseph's Catholic Primary School. This was started in 1901 by Sisters of St. Joseph, It was recognized by the Board of Education in 1904 and moved to new buildings in York Avenue in 1908
Sources
British History. Hanwell. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
CAMRA. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Field. London Place Names
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Hanwell Methodist. Web site
Kieve. The Electric Telegraph
Kingston Zodiac
London Borough of Ealing. Web site.
London Encyclopaedia
London Footprints. Web site
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Railway Record
Middlesex Churches,
Middlesex County council. History of Middlesex
Our Lady and St Joseph. Web site.
Pevsner and Cherry, London North West,
Stevenson. Middlesex
St. Mellitus. Web site
Thames Basin Archaeological Group report
Walford. Village London.
Welcome to Hanwell. Web site
The Brent flows southwards
Post to the west Hanwell
Post to the south Hanwell
Post to the north Cuckoo Estate
Boston Road
11-13 has an arch leading to workshops to the rear.
Broadway
The Electric Theatre opened in 1909 operated by Electric Theatres. In 1913, it was re-named Theatre de Luxe, and later Electric Theatre Charming. It closed in 1923. The site became shops and subsequently flats.
Campbell Road
8 blue plaque to painter “when did you last see your father” William Yeames.
Hanwell Station. The station was built on the original line of Brunel’s Great Western Railway opened in 1838, but Hanwell station was not opened until the December of that year. It was to the west of the current station and under one of the viaduct arches – where the road goes under the line. It was in typical Great Western design. In 1888 District line services called here running between Mansion House and Windsor but this ended in 1885. Great Western Railway was the first user of telegraph in 1839 and one of the two first intermediate telegraph stations was set up here.
Hanwell Station. The station now lies between West Ealing and Southall Stations on First Great Western. It was re-built in 1877 in yellow brick with canopies and ironwork. The station was renamed Hanwell and Elthorne in 1896, but became Hanwell again in 1974. An old ‘Hanwell and Elthorne” sign remains on the platform. The Down Main platform was demolished in 1973 – this was the upper stories of a building which ran from ground level in Station Approach. It was demolished following a fire, despite that it had been recently listed. Work has recently been done to renovate the station. Many original features, such as a wooden waiting room have been kept and much of it has been carefully restored to its Great Western Railway condition.
Cherington Road
Heath Lodge. 40 bedroom residential care home for the elderly, built in the 1960’s. This replaced a house of the same name
Grand Electric Cinema. This opened in 1911 and was always an independent cinema. In 1933, it was re-built by F.C. Mitchell. It was re-named Curzon Cinema in 1946 and in 1951, renamed the Tudor Cinema. It closed in 1955. The building was converted into a warehouse and in 1994, the front was demolished leaving the gutted auditorium, and it became a motor repair garage. It was demolished in the early-2000 and flats are now on the site.
Cherington House. This was built in the 1830 with eight bedrooms, a conservatory a coach house and vinery. It was named after a village in Warwickshire which had connections with the original owner. The Hanwell Local Board bought it in 1891 and by 1910 it housed the local fire station and library as well as for many council officers. In 1927 Ealing Council used as a welfare Centre and school clinic and it has continued to house local authority social services departments
The Carnegie Library was designed by T Gibbs Thomas in 1905/6. The foundation stone was laid by the Countess of Jersey, whose family estate included large parts of Hanwell
Church Road
Hanwell Green. This green is thought have existed for several hundred years and it was contained a pond. It has some specimen trees
Hanwell Methodist Church. The Church originated from a Wesleyan Society class set up in 1881. They originally set up a church in Boston Road but in 1897 a committee was investigating a new chapel. The site was bought in 1899 but there was a hold up and the foundation stone was not laid until 1904. With a grant of £250 from Andrew Carnegie the Church asked Bishop and Son to provide an electric pipe organ in 1911. It includes two church halls and an additional room.
St Mellitus with St Mark. As Hanwell grew in the early years of the 20th it was felt an additional church was needed. The parish was formed in 1908 and included St Mark's as a chapel of ease. Arthur Blomfield was commissioned to design a new bigger church and was named for St Mellitus, Bishop of the East Saxons who was thought to have converted the people of Hanwell. Funds were raised from the sale of Holy Trinity Church in Gough Square
14 Candy Filter Co. pumps, filtration equipment, etc. this site is now covered by modern buildings
Hanwell Health Centre. This was built in the 1970s. There is an art work on the front of the building
Hanwell College, kept by the Rev. J. A. Emerton, which educated boys who were to enter the army. It seems to have opened in 1832 and closed in the 1880s. It stood on the corner with Manor Court Road.
122-8 was once called Elm Grove. It became an asylum in the 19th by Susan Wood whose brother in law was the first superintendent of Hanwell Asylum. In 1879 The East India Company took this as the "Royal India Asylum". It closed in 1892. To the side is a stable block and coach house with cupola and clock. This is now all housing.
134 Crossways was originally called St Vincent's Lodge and is the oldest surviving house in the area. It is a 19th house brick house. The garden includes mature trees and a shrubbery
136 was the lodge for The Grove which was itself demolished. It has Gothic windows and chimneys, and was rebuilt the 1980s
Copley Close
Local authority housing built in 1979. A large part of the area is held on a 999 year lease from Network Rail and is built beside a cut and cover slab over the railway line
Drayton Bridge Road
Drayton Manor High School. This used to be Drayton Manor Grammar School which was founded in 1930 as a Middlesex County School serving local children. It became comprehensive in 1975. It was built on the site of Hanwell Park
Park House was previously on the site of Drayton Manor High School. This was a neoclassical 19th house with an estate which covered the whole of the land northwards as far as the Ruislip Road. In the early 1800’s it was owned by Archibald MacDonald, Chief Baron of the Exchequer. It was bought by Benjamin Sharpe in 1848 and was pulled down in the 20th
Factory Yard
The name dates from the 1890s.
John Fownes. Fownes are said to have had a glove factory here since 1795. They were City of London based glove makers who latterly had a large works in Worcester but it is not known if this is the same family.
Vine House
Vine Cottages. Built 1986 but earlier cottages of the same name once stood there.
Golden Manor
This road was developed in the 1880s with large houses
The Great Western Railway passes over the road on brick arches
Greenford Avenue
58-60 Seventh Day Apostolic Church
St Marys Church Hall
Half Acre Lane
This is represents one of the original strips of land belonging to William Hobbayne who set up a charity In 1484 with 24 acres of land to be used for the poor and needy of the parish.
Village cage and stocks which erected in 1788 stood on the eastern corner of the Uxbridge Road junction. They were pulled down in 1844 and the stone used to build the west wall of the Parish Church
Hobbayne School, in 1779 the trustees of the Hobbayne Charity began to pay for the education of a few children, and later started a parish school near the church. In 1807 they increased their grant and provided a site for a new building on the west side of this road on their own land. The school was moved from the charity land in 1855
Almshouses built in 1790 by the Hobbayne charity on the west side of the road which it let to the parish. These were still extant in 1875
Village pump erected in 1815 to supplement water drawn from the town well.
Lower Boston Road
5-11 Boston Place Cottages early 19th
11a thought to be a cart house with stable.
Green - laid out in 1903 on the site of a gravel pit. It is surrounded by cast iron bollards
Nightingale Road
British Ebonite Co. Factory making rubber-type compound from before the 1930s. Since replaced with housing.
Splintex Safety Glass Ltd., Newtex Works. The firm dated from 1928 and made laminated plate and sheet safety glass. The company is still in business elsewhere. This site now replaced by housing.
Park Road
Boundary Stone is in a garden in Park Road. The stone was salvaged by residents and used to be at the end of the lane.
Shakespeare Road
At the end of the eastern section against the wooden fence bordering Drayton Bridge Road. It is said that there is a sign on an iron post is: BOUNDARY 1899 GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY CO
Springfield Road
Site of the town well
St.Ann’s School. In 1902, just before its functions were transferred to the county council, the local school board opened St. Ann’s which took children from the northern part of the parish. It is now a special school for students with severe learning difficulties
Station Approach
The railway is now inaccessible from this original approach road. The upside building, and the original station entrance, was demolished in the 1970s. However some portions of its wall appear to exist behind security fencing.
Station Road
Conolly Dell. This park in a shallow depression was opened in 1912 and has four ponds, the Conolly Monument, rockery garden and park railings. Only the plinth of the meme oral still exists and the winged figure surmounting it has gone. The park was has good tree cover including eucalyptus, conifers, and ponds with a thriving colony of smooth newts. It still has its original railings and gates. Dr John Conolly was the physician of Hanwell Asylum 1839-44 and is credited with having introduced innovative techniques of humane treatment and non-restraint to asylums. The park was part of the grounds of his house, The Lawn and where he later ran a private asylum. It is now part of Brent River Park and much work has been done to improve and restore it.
Uxbridge Road
40 Hanwell Conservative Club
48 RSPCA
50 St Mary's Convent, this is used by The Sisters of St Joseph of Peace. In 1869 Baroness Weld funded a convalescent home for poor Roman Catholic women designed by E. W.Pugin.
52 Our Lady and St Joseph Roman Catholic Church. The parish arise grew from Irish labourers working on the Great Western Railway and it officially opened in 1853. In the 1860's a church was built, designed by Edward Pugin but by the 1960's the church was too small. It was replaced in 1967 by a new concrete building, in the post-war style. It has a sculpture of the Holy Family above the main doors.
Parish Centre, which includes a Social Club and a hall
90-94 Lidl. On the site of Hanwell Bus Garage. Built as an overhead electric tram depot and opened in 1901 by London United Tramways. It was a trolleybus depot in 1936. Now closed and demolished.
Picture Palace. Originally built as the Coronation Hall, it became the Coronation Hall Picture Palace in 1912, operated by Edward Davison. It had closed by 1918. In 2008 the site was, Hanwells, a motor dealers specializing in Rolls Royce & Bentley cars. It may have stood in the land which forms an open space in front Lidl’s
97 Lavin’s Irish Bar. Pub.
110 Kings Head ‘Built 1930’ is written right across the front. This was rebuilt in 1930 by brewers Mann, Crossman & Paulin. The front has doors which lead to separate rooms inside - two rooms, one behind the other and in between a small private bar. The public bar has what is now a games room behind it. In the middle of the servery is a publican’s private office. The toilets at the back retain their original tiling. A staircase leads to an upstairs function room and there is what was originally an off-sales shop - the exterior green faïence tiles extend across what is now the next door premises. It was probably the first inn to be established in Hanwell on the Oxford Road as and was first called the "Spencer Arms “after Edward Spencer, who was Lord of the Manor in the Civil War. In the 18th the Manor Courts were held here
161 Duke of York. This was an important staging point for coaches between Oxford and London. It dates from the 18th and had since been rebuilt
168-174, a plain terrace of cottages dated 1844
169 the former Police Station
221 The Viaduct. This was once called The Coach and Horses and was originally built in the early 18th. It provided overnight accommodation and part of an old stable block remain. The Manor Courts were held here in the late 18th
Boundary stones lie on the Kensington cemetery eastern side denoting the Hanwell Ealing border
Kensington Cemetery. This cemetery was open in 1855 by St. Mary Abbotts parish in Kensington, to take the pressure off burial grounds which were almost full. It was built on land known as East Field which included a small brook which rises from a spring in nearby Milton Road and is culverted under the cemetery. It is owned by the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is in the 19th park style with curving paths. Trees include yew, pine and oak with tall cedars round the edges. The entrance from Uxbridge Road has a tall stone arch with heavy iron gates and a lodge and a path leads to an avenue of evergreen yew, holly and box, the chapel is near s the centre and is now disused. It is in Kentish rag stone by Thomas Allom. Another chapel was demolished in 1972. There are the remains of an arcade which ran between the two. There is a Great War memorial in the shape of a tall white stone cross and a ground with war graves. It closed for burials in 1924.
Brent Bridge. This takes the Uxbridge Road over the Brent. It was also known as the Middle Ford. This was first noted in 1396 because of the need for repairs. It was repaired in the 16th in stone. There were tolls from the 15th and in 1714 it was turnpiked. In 1762 the turnpike trustees re-built and widened it again and from 1815 it was a Middlesex County Bridge. In 1906 it was widened again and re-faced with stone. It is now Stone with cement-filled cast iron balusters. There are steps on the west side and on the south side, three arches of brick remain but with 19th stonework. Two outer arches remain from a six-arch mediaeval bridge on the south side
38 Hanwell Cemetery. This was originally the 'City of Westminster Cemetery' and was set up by the St. George's Hanover Square Burial Board because of the condition of the burial grounds in the central area with cold collation and half pint of sherry per guest after the Metropolitan Interment Act of 1850. In 1853 Robert Jerrard was appointed as architect bad the cemetery was consecrated in 1854. The Chapels and Offices are of stone in a 19th Gothic style. The Chapel has a hammer beam roof. Lodge is the biggest in London, There is a British Legion memorial in the centre and a number of war graves. There is also a civilian memorial to the 200 dead of the Second World War, near the centre of the cemetery. This includes the grave of popular singer, Al Bowlly. The cemetery has subsequently been extended. It is still managed by the City of Westminster's Parks Service
Clock tower. This was erected for King George VI's coronation in 1937 and is art deco in style
Westminster Road
Benjamin Court sheltered housing by Ealing Architect's Department, built in 1983, around a courtyard with a walnut tree.
Assyrian Church. In 1860 a new building was opened here which was a Baptist and Congregational Union church. In 1952 the church severed its Congregational connexion and became purely Baptist belonging to the Baptist Union. In 1959 it used with a Boston Road churches united as the South Hanwell Baptist Church, and the church in the Westminster Road was given up, it is now St. Mary’s Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. This church originated in the 16TH in what is now Iraq
School - A schoolroom was built beside the Union church in 1870 and a British day school was started in 1871I. There was a good deal of rivalry between the boys of it and the National Schools and this continued until both were taken over by the school board. It was closed in 1902, though the buildings were used to house temporary council schools until the Great War
York Avenue
York Mansions. This was the home of the Violin Workshops of WE Hill & Sons. The buildings were built 1887-8 and 1904-6 and closed in the 1970s. Hill’s specialised in string instruments and bows. It was founded by in New Bond Street in 1887 built on a long family history of violin making. A "Hill's" Certificate of Authenticity was considered definitive worldwide throughout the firm's history. Many fine craftsmen worked for the firm. and they employed England’s best bow makers. The buildings are now flats but the design of plaques on doorways, etc, seem to echo the shapes of violins.
St Joseph's Catholic Primary School. This was started in 1901 by Sisters of St. Joseph, It was recognized by the Board of Education in 1904 and moved to new buildings in York Avenue in 1908
Sources
British History. Hanwell. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
CAMRA. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Field. London Place Names
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Hanwell Methodist. Web site
Kieve. The Electric Telegraph
Kingston Zodiac
London Borough of Ealing. Web site.
London Encyclopaedia
London Footprints. Web site
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Railway Record
Middlesex Churches,
Middlesex County council. History of Middlesex
Our Lady and St Joseph. Web site.
Pevsner and Cherry, London North West,
Stevenson. Middlesex
St. Mellitus. Web site
Thames Basin Archaeological Group report
Walford. Village London.
Welcome to Hanwell. Web site
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