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Twickenham

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Twickenham is a suburb in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, south west London.

It is best known as the home of Twickenham Stadium — the headquarters of the Rugby Football Union. Over the years the stadium has encouraged the growth of the disproportionately large number of public houses and restaurants in the area. Twickenham is also notable for its arts heritage and is the home of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall. Historical variants of the name include Tuiccanham and Twittenham. It is also home to Harlequins, a rugby union and league club who play at The Stoop.

[edit] Geography

Twickenham from the air showing Twickenham stadium, The Stoop and the college
Twickenham from the air showing Twickenham stadium, The Stoop and the college

The town is bordered on the south-eastern side by the River Thames and Eel Pie Island — which is connected to the Twickenham embankment by a narrow footbridge erected in 1957, prior to which access was by means of a hand-operated ferry that was hauled across using a chain on the riverbed. The land adjacent to the river, from Strawberry Hill in the south to Marble Hill Park in the north, is occupied by a mixture of luxury dwellings, formal gardens, public houses and a newly built park and leisure facility.

In the south, in Strawberry Hill, lies St Mary's University College, Twickenham (the oldest Catholic college in the UK), historically specialising in sports studies, teacher training, religious studies and the humanities Drama studies and English literature. Strawberry Hill was originally a small cottage in two or three acres (8,000 or 12,000 m²) of land by the River Thames. Horace Walpole, a son of the politician Robert Walpole, rented the cottage in 1747 and subsequently bought it and turned it into one of the incunabula of the Gothic revival. The college shares part of its campus with Walpole's Strawberry Hill. On adjacent land were the villa and garden of the poet Alexander Pope. A road just north of the campus is named Pope's Grove, and a local landmark next to the main road is the Pope's Grotto, a public house where Pope's landmark informal garden used to be. Near this hostelry lie St Catherine's school for girls and St James's school for boys, formerly a convent, in a building on the site of Pope's white stucco villa and the location of Pope's original — surviving — grotto.

There are a large number of fine houses in the area, many of them Victorian. Radnor Gardens lies opposite the Pope's Grotto.

Twickenham proper begins in the vicinity of the Pope's Grotto, with a large and expensive residential area of (mostly) period houses to the west, and a number of exclusive properties to the east, on or near the river. Further to the north and west lies the district of Whitton, an area of Twickenham, once of allotments and farm land, but now of 1930s housing.

The fashionable district of St Margarets lies immediately to the east of central Twickenham, across the river from Richmond, and is popular for its attractive tree-lined residential roads and an eclectic range of shops and cafés. Much of St Margarets next to the River Thames was formerly Twickenham Park, the estate of Sir Francis Bacon, the 16th century philosopher and Lord Chancellor. St Margarets is also the home of Twickenham Studios, one of London's most important film studios. The London suburb of Isleworth lies to the north of Twickenham and St Margarets.

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-Norman

Excavations have shown settlements in the area dating from the Early Neolithic, possibly Mesolithic periods. Occupation seems to have continued through the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Roman occupation. The area was first mentioned in a charter of 13 June 704 AD (as 'Tuican hom' and 'Tuiccanham') to cede the area to Waldhere, Bishop of London, 'for the salvation of our souls.'[1] The charter is signed with 12 crosses. The signatories included Swaefred of Essex, Cenred of Mercia and Earl Paeogthath.

[edit] Norman

In Norman times Twickenham was part of the Manor of Isleworth - itself part of the Hundred of Hounslow (mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086).[2] The manor had belonged to Ælfgār, Earl of Mercia in the time of Edward the Confessor, but was granted to Walter de Saint-Valery (Waleric) by William I of England after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.

The area was farmed for the next several hundred years, while the river provided opportunities for fishing, boatbuilding and trade. Suggestions that Twickenham ever possessed a fortification (later the tower of St Mary's parish church) are completely erroneous.

[edit] 17th century

Bubonic Plague spread to the town in 1605. 67 deaths were recorded. It appears that Twickenham had a Pest House (short for "pestilence") in the 17th century, although the location is not known.

There was also a Watch House in the middle of the town, with stocks, a pillory and a whipping post — its owner charged to "ward within and about this Parish and to keep all Beggars and Vagabonds that shall lye abide or lurk about the Towne and to give correction to such...".

In 1633 construction began on York House. It was occupied by Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester in 1656 and later by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. It is now occupied by the borough council.

1659 saw the first mention of the Twickenham Ferry, although ferrymen had already been operating in the area for many generations. Sometime before 1743 a 'pirate' ferry appears to have been started by Twickenham inhabitants. There is speculation that it operated to serve 'The Folly' — a floating hostelry of some kind. Several residents wrote to the Lord Mayor of the City of London:

"...Complaining that there is lately fixed near the Shore of Twickenham on the River Thames a Vessell made like a Barge and called the Folly wherein divers loose and disorderly persons are frequently entertained who have behaved in a very indecent Manner and do frequently afront divers persons of Fashion and Distinction who often in an Evening Walk near that place, and desired so great a Nuisance might be removed,...".

The Plague struck again in 1665; 24 deaths were recorded.

[edit] 18th century

Alexander Pope's house
Alexander Pope's house

Gunpowder manufacture on an industrial scale started in the area in the 18th century, on a site between Twickenham and Whitton on the banks of the River Crane. There were frequent explosions and loss of life. On 11 March 1758 one of two explosions was felt in Reading, Berkshire, and in April 1774 another explosion terrified people at church in Isleworth.

In 1772 three mills blew up, shattering glass and buildings in the neighbourhood. Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford wrote complaining to his friend and relative Henry Seymour Conway, then Lieutenant General of the Ordnance, that all the decorative painted glass had been blown out of his windows at Strawberry Hill.

The powder mills remained in operation until 1927 when they were closed. Much of the site is now occupied by Crane Park, in which the old Shot Tower, mill sluices and blast embankments can still be seen. Much of the area along the river next to the Shot Tower is now a nature reserve.

[edit] Later

The 1818 Enclosure Award led to the development of 182 acres of land to the west of the town centre largely between the present day Staines and Hampton Roads, new roads - Workhouse Road, Middle Road, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Common Roads (now First-Fifth Cross Roads respectively) - being laid out [3]. During the 18th century and 19th century a number of fine houses were built and Twickenham became a popular place of residence for people of 'Fashion and Distinction' (see Residents section below). Further development was stimulated by the opening of Twickenham station in 1848.

In 1894 Twickenham Urban District Council was formed. In 1902 the council bought Radnor House as the home of the leglislature. The council bought and occupied York House in 1924. (Radnor House was destroyed by a Luftwaffe bomb during the Blitz of 1940).

Electricity was introduced to Twickenham in 1902[4] and the first trams arrived the following year.

In 1926 Twickenham was constituted as a municipal borough. Eleven years later the urban district Councils of Teddington, Hampton & Hampton Wick merged with Twickenham. In 1965 the former area of the boroughs of Twickenham, Richmond and Barnes were combined to form the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames; the council offices and chamber are still located in Twickenham at York House and in the adjacent civic centre.

The Member of Parliament for Twickenham has been Liberal Democrat Dr Vincent Cable since his first election in 1997. Twickenham (UK Parliament constituency) includes St Margaret's, Whitton, Heathfield, Teddington, Hampton, Fulwell, Hampton Hill and Hampton Wick.

[edit] Education

Main article: List of schools in Richmond upon Thames

[edit] Famous Local Residents

[edit] Local geography

[edit] Nearest places

[edit] Nearest tube stations

[edit] Nearest railway stations

[edit] References

  1. ^ First written mention of 'Tuican hom'[1]
  2. ^ Twickenham in the Domesday Book [2]
  3. ^ Twickenham in 1818: The year of the Enclosure, T.H.R.Cashmore, Borough of Twickenham Local History Society Paper 38, 1977
  4. ^ Borough of Twickenham Local History Society Paper 37: The Coming of Electricity to Twickenham, A.C.B.Urwin 1977

[edit] External links

This text was last fetched from this Wikipedia page (where you can edit it) on
8 Jul 2008, 10:07am under the terms of the GFDL.

Annotations

  • N Captain Mayonnaise on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 12:02pm

    Twickenham, on the bank of the Thames to the west of London, is the home of the English Rugby Football Union. The magnificent stadium plays host to rugby matches as well as pop concerts. Twickenham was also home to Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744).

  • N Eric Walla on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 05:38pm

    So are you suggesting Sam is off to a rugby match?

  • N anglophilus on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 07:22pm

    Twickenham was the site of several large homes owned by the literati and nobility — as this (http://www.richmond.gov.uk/depts/chiefexec/policy/tourism/twickhist.htm) web site says, “Twickenham was the 18th century equivalent of Beverley Hills.”

    In particular see this history of York House from the Bourough of Richmond and Thames: (http://www.richmond.gov.uk/depts/opps/eal/leisure/libraries/history/notes/13.htm) which mentions the connection to Pepys.

  • N hazel-mary on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 07:25pm

    Twickenham’s setting by the Thames was much admired by Renaissance gardeners and many famous houses were built there. Pope settled there because of its riverside setting and because at 12 miles from London it was on the edge of the 10 mile radius from the city inside which Catholics (Pope was a Catholic) were not allowed to live.There is a ferry still from Marble Hill Park on the Twickenham bank to Ham House on the Surrey side of the river. Ham House was built in the early seventeenth century house by the Earl of Dysart, a Royalist and former whipping boy of Charles I. It was a hotbed of Royalist politics during most of the seventeenth century. His heiress Elizabeth Murray married Sir Lionel Tollemache of Suffolk in 1648 and the two were leading lights in the Society of the Sealed Knot. Elizabeth was also rumoured to be on intimate terms with Cromwell during the Protectorate. After the Restoration Charles II made Elizabeth the title of Countess of Dysart in her own right and in 1672 she married for the second time to the former Scottish covenanter turned Royalist, John Maitland who in 1673 was made Duke of Lauderdale and later became a member of the CABAL government.

  • N Andrew Hamilton on Wed 29 Oct 2003, 08:12pm

    A rather bare tunnel under Cross Deep Road in Twickenham is known as Pope’s Grotto. It runs between St. Catherine’s School(where I have a granddaughter) and the boy’s St. James’s on the Thames side — both Catholic schools, appropriately. The schools are located on Cross Deep just upstream from (of course) Grotto Rd.

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References in the diary

1660
Jan: 16, 17
Oct: 28
1661
Apr: 7