Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney

by G. E. Mitton; John Cunningham Geikie

The preparatory school, called Colet Court, stands opposite on the northern side of the road. It was founded in 1881, and owns two and a half acres of land. On the same side Kensington Co-operative Stores covers the site of White Cottage, for some time the residence of Charles Keene.

Next to the Red Cow public-house lived Dr. Burney, D.D., LL.D., learned father of a celebrated daughter, who became afterwards Madame D'Arblay. He kept a school here for seven years from 1786. There are other old houses in the vicinity, but to none of them is there attached any special interest. The Convent of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth is in a large brick building on the south side of the road. This was built in 1857 for the convent purposes. It is the mother-house of the Nazareth nuns, so that the numbers continually vary, many passing through for their noviciate. The nuns collect alms for the aged poor and children, and many of the poor are thus sustained. Besides this, there are a number of imbecile or paralytic children who live permanently in the convent. The charity is not confined to Roman Catholics.

The Latymer Foundation School is a plain brick building standing a little back from the highroad. It bears the Latymer arms, and a cross in stone over the doorway, as well as the date of the foundation. The Latymer charity was established in 1824 by the will of Edward Latymer. He left several pieces of land in the hands of trustees, who were to apply the rents to the following uses:

"To elect and choose eight poor boys inhabiting Hammersmith within the age of twelve and above the age of seven, and provide for every boy a doublet and a pair of breeches of frieze or leather, one shirt, one pair of stockings, and a pair of shoes on the 1st of November; and also to provide yearly, against Ascension Day, a doublet and a pair of breeches of coarse canvas lined, and deliver the same unto the said boys, and also a shirt, one pair of stockings, and a pair of shoes; and that on the left sleeve of every poor boy's doublet a cross of red cloth or baize should be fastened and worn; and that the feofees should cause the boys to be put to some petty school to learn to read English till they attain thirteen, and to instruct them in some part of God's true religion. The allowance of clothing to cease at thirteen. And that the feofees shall also elect six poor aged men of honest conversation inhabiting Hammersmith, and provide for every one of them coats or cassocks of frieze or cloth, and deliver the same upon the 1st of November in every year, a cross of red cloth or baize to be fastened on the left sleeve; and that yearly, on Ascension Day, the feofees should pay to each man ten shillings in money."

To this charity were added various sums from benefactors from time to time, and the number of recipients was increased gradually, until in 1855 there were 100 boys and 45 almsmen. At that date the men's clothing consisted of a body coat, breeches, waistcoat, hat, pair of boots, stockings, and shirt one year, and the next, great-coat, breeches, pair of boots, stockings, shirt, and hat. The boys received coat, waistcoat, and trousers, cap, pair of stockings, shirt, pair of bands, pair of boots. Also on November 1, cap, pair of stockings, shirt, pair of bands, and pair of boots. At present part of the money is given in alms, and the rest is devoted to the Lower Latymer School and the Upper Latymer School, built 1894, situated in King Street West.

At the back of the Latymer Foundation, in Great Church Lane, is the Female Philanthropic Society. The object is for the reformation of young women convicted for a first offence or addicted to petty pilfering.

Opposite is a recreation-ground and St. Paul's parochial room, a small temporary iron building. In King's Mews, Great Church Lane, Cipriani, the historical painter and engraver, lived at one time. He died here in 1785. The entrance to Bradmore House, the oldest house in Hammersmith, is in the lane. The grounds stretch out a long way eastward, and one or two old cedars are still growing here. The eastern portion of the house has a fine front with fluted pilasters, with Ionic capitals running up to a stone parapet surmounted by urns. The windows are circular-headed, and those over the central doorway belong to a great room, 30 feet by 20, and 20 in height. The house, though much altered, is in its origin part of a very old building named Butterwick House, built by Edmund, third Baron Sheffield and Earl of Mulgrave, about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. The name was taken from a village in Lincolnshire where the Sheffield family had long lived. This Earl of Mulgrave was grandfather of John, Duke of Buckingham. He died in 1646, and is buried in the church. The estate probably passed from the Sheffield family soon after his death, for in 1653 the manor-house or farm of Butterwick, called the Great House, "passed to Margaret Clapham, wife of Christopher Clapham and widow of Robert Moyle, and her son Walter Moyle after her." In 1677 it was conveyed by Walter Moyle for the use of Anne Cleeve and her heirs. She aliened it to Mr. Ferne in 1700. The house was greatly modernized by Mr. Ferne, Receiver-General of the Customs, who added some rooms to the north-east, "much admired," says Lysons, "for their architectural beauty."

He intended this part of the house for Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, but she never inhabited it. One of Mr. Ferne's daughters married a Mr. Turner, who in 1736 sold the house to Elijah Impey, father of Sir Elijah Impey, Chief Justice of Bengal. He divided the modern part built by Mr. Ferne from the older building, and called it Bradmore House, and under this name it was used as a school for more than a century. It was again divided into two parts, and the western portion, which fronts the church, is of dark brick with red-brick facings, which glow through the overhanging creepers.

The older part was sold by the Impey family in 1821, and fifteen years later was pulled down. Some small houses, which still stand on the south side, with irregular tiled roofs and walls covered with heavy green ivy, were built on the site. St. Paul's Church, the foundation-stone of which was laid July, 1882, by the late Duke of Albany, is opposite. The square pinnacled tower rises to a considerable height. The original structure was much more ancient. Bowack says: "The limits of this chapel was divided from Fulham before the year 1622, as appears in a benefaction to the poor of Fulham."

The chapel of ease to the parish of Fulham was founded in 1628, and opened in 1631. The whole cost was about £2,000, of which Sir Nicholas Crispe gave £700. This church was the last consecrated by Archbishop Laud. The old monumental tablets have been carefully preserved, and hang on the walls of the present building. The most important object in the church is a bronze bust of Charles I. on a pedestal 8 or 9 feet high, of black and white marble. Beneath the bust is the inscription: