Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for FULHAM

FULHAM, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Kensington district, Middlesex. The village stands on the Thames, opposite Putney, 6½ miles SW of St. Paul's, London; is on a railway from the Hammersmith and City line to the N shore of the Thames, formed in 1865-9 on a capital of £266, 600; and has a post office‡ under London SW. It was known to the Saxons as Fullenham; and was occupied by the Danes in 879, and by the parliamentarian forces in 1642 and 1647. It comprises several streets, several ranges of neat modern houses, and some detached villas. Its streets are rather irregularly built; but many of its houses are elegant, and are chiefly inhabited by genteel families connected with the metropolis. A wooden bridge over the Thames at it, 789 feet long and 24 feet wide, was designed by Cheselden, and erected at a cost of £23, 075.—The parish includes Parsons-Green, Walham-Green, and North End; and, prior to 1834, also included Hammersmith. Acres, 1,834; of which 150 are water. Real property, £62, 370. Pop. in 1851, 11, 886; in 1861, 15, 539. Houses, 2, 481. The property is much subdivided. The manor was given, so early as 691, to the bishops of London; and has, ever since, continued in their possession. A palace of the bishops was here, on low ground, adjacent to the Thames, a little west of the village, from some time long before the Conquest; but seems to have been repeatedly reconstructed. The present palace was begun by Bishop Fitzjames in the time of Henry VII.; consists principally of parts of more recent date; has been altered, renovated, extended, and beautified by successive bishops ., presents an imposing appearance, though built of brick; comprises two courts, with chapel and library; and contains an interesting series of portraits of the bishops. The grounds connected with it are very fine; possess charming close scenes, both in themselves and in their combinations with the river; and have long been celebrated for containing rare plants. Lisle's Place, in the parish, belonged to the De Lisles and the Warwicks. Munster House, now a lunatic asylum, belonged to the Powells, and was a hunting-seat of Charles II. Stourton House, now taken down, belonged to the Stourtons; passed to the Sharps; and was the death-place of Granville Sharp. Colehill House was the residence of Kent, the landscape-gardener. Claybrook House belonged to the Claybrooks. A house at Parsons Green, now destroyed, was inhabited by Samuel Richardson, and was a resort of his admirers. Another house, also destroyed, was inhabited by the Earl of Peterborough, and was frequented by Locke, Swift, and other distinguished literati. Lord Bacon likewise was a resident; so was Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the Bodleian library; and so were many other distinguished literary men, connected with the metropolis, from Florio to Theodore Hook. Much of the land in the parish is disposed in market-gardens and nursery-grounds, for the supply of vegetables and plants to the London market. A considerable fishery of barbel, eel, roach, dace, and flounders, in the Thames, is carried on. Four private lunatic asylums, a modern brick workhouse, the conveyance pipes of the Chelsea water-works company, and a manufactory of coarse earthenware are in the parish. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London. Value, £835.* Patron, the Bishop of London. The church is ancient; has a tower of the 14th century, partly rebuilt in 1845; and contains monuments to Bishops Lowth, Gibson, Sherlock, Compton, Henchman, Porteous, and other bishops, -also monuments to Lady Legh, Dr. Barrow, Secretary Smith, the physician Butts, the physician Cadogan, Lady Clarke, Lord Mordaunt, the biographer Fiddes, and others. The chapelries of Walham Green, Moor Park, and North End are separate. There are two Wesleyan chapels, and a Roman Catholic church; the latter a handsome stone edifice, with a tower, erected in 1850. There are also a national school, and other public schools. A charity by Bishop King, who was for some time vicar, yields £122; one by Bishop Porteous, £23; one by Powell, £51; one for the new alms-houses, £82; and others, £347.—The sub-district is conterminate with the parish. The Fulham poor-law union is conjoined with the Paddington and Kensington unions to form Kensington district; and it comprises the parishes of Fulham and Hammersmith. Pop. in 1851, 29, 646; in 1861, 40, 058.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Fulham Vest/AP/CP       Fulham SubD       Fulham RegD/PLU       Middlesex AncC
Place names: FULHAM     |     FULLENHAM
Place: Fulham

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