The Bridge.—The bridge, whence the place derives its name, we are informed by Strype, was a stone bridge, and most probably the one he described was the same as remained to our own time. When, or by whom, first erected, is not recorded; but it is not improbable that the saintly king who first gave the monks possessions here, to render such more available, would throw a bridge across the stream. For by this road even then was the only way to the metropolis from the west, and the stream was both broad and rapid. It was situated between the last house of Knightsbridge-terrace (Mr. Jeffrey’s), and the French Embassy, and a part of it yet exists under the road; a portion of it was removed for the Albert-gate improvements. In the churchwardens’ accounts of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, are the following entries regarding it:—
| 1630. | Item, received of John Fennell and Ralph Atkinson, collectors of the escheat, for repair of Brentford Bridge and Knightsbridge | £23 | 6s. | 4d. |
| 1631. | Item, paid towards the repaire of Brentford Bridge, and of Knights-bridge, and for charge of the sute to defend ourselves from the same, and other expences touching the same, as by the particulars appeareth | £24 | 7s. | 10d. |
The Westbourn.—The Westbourn, for such was the ancient name of the rivulet which ran through Knightsbridge, was one of the numerous streams which flowed from the range of Hampstead and Highgate to the Thames. Its name is derived from its being most westerly of those streams in or by the metropolis. Rising at West End, Hampstead, and running towards Bayswater, it passed through it, behind St. James’s Church; here it crossed the Uxbridge-road, and entering Kensington-gardens, passed through them and Hyde-park, where its silver thread ran along the centre of the Serpentine, into which it entered, and by the addition of several ponds, it was widened in 1731. Leaving the park, it crossed the Great Western-road at Albert-gate, thence it passed in an oblique line behind the east side of William-street and Lowndes-square, behind Lowndes-street and Chesham-street, and bending to the right, passed under Grosvenor-bridge, where it divided and emptied itself into old Father Thames by two mouths. The eastern course was stopped up when the Grosvenor Canal was formed, but the mouth may still be distinctly traced at the back of Westmoreland-street. The western mouth is the entrance to the Ranelagh sewer, to which the stream has for many years degenerated. By an under current, formed in 1834, its course was diverted at Bayswater, to prevent drainage passing into the Serpentine; and when the Five Fields were intended to be built on, a new sewer, for which Smeaton had previously made surveys, was constructed. The whole of its course is now covered in, although part of it was open so late as 1854.
The Westbourn was occasionally a source of annoyance to the inhabitants of Knightsbridge. After heavy rains it overflowed; on September 1st, 1768, it did so, and caused great damage, almost undermining some of the neighbouring houses; and in January, 1809, it overflowed again, and covered the neighbouring fields so deeply, that they bore the appearance of a lake, and passengers were for several days rowed from Chelsea to Westminster by Thames boatmen.
The Olden Time.—It would appear from the warning of the chronicler, “not to walk too late without good guard,” that our locality bore formerly rather a bad name. And I fear I must admit that it did so, though, perhaps, not more dangerous than any other of the chief highways to the metropolis. The Great Western Road ran through the hamlet, which bore a good proportion of inns, the proprietors of which would appear to have rather connived at the iniquities practised, and thus rendered the action of the law more difficult.
In 1380, Richard II., by his letters patent, dated March 2nd, granted to John Croucher, of Knightsbridge, towards the repairing of the king’s highway from London to Brentford, customs of the several vendible commodities therein mentioned (those of ecclesiastical men, and their proper goods bought for their use, excepted), to be taken at Knightsbridge and elsewhere, as he shall think expedient, for three years next ensuing. In 1382 this was renewed, and in 1386 was granted to John Croucher and Lawrence Newport. [24] But, notwithstanding this early care of the road, it does not appear to have been always followed up, for Wyatt’s men entered London, in 1554, by this road; its state materially aided in their discomfiture, and so great was the delay occasioned that the Queen’s party were able to make every preparation; and when ultimately they reached London their jaded appearance gained them the name of “draggletails.” It would appear from the extracts quoted from the St. Margaret’s accounts that the law was applied to the parish for its neglect in this respect, and in 1724 a petition was presented to the House of Commons, praying for an Act to remedy the evil. Twelve years later, when the Court had resided at Kensington for nearly fifty years, we find Lord Hervey writing to his mother that, “the road between this place (Kensington) and London is grown so infamously bad, that we live here in the same solitude as we should do if cast on a rock in the middle of the ocean, and all the Londoners tell us there is between them and us a great impassable gulf of mud. There are two roads through the park, but the new one is so convex, and the old one so concave, that by this extreme of faults they agree in the common one of being, like the high road, impassable.” [25]
Mud and dust did not, however, form the greatest unpleasantnesses of the road. In the Kensington register of burials there is an entry telling of its terrible condition:—
25th November, 1687. Thomas Ridge, of Portsmouth, who was killed by thieves, almost at Knightsbridge.
And Lady Cowper, in her diary quoted by Lord Campbell, [26] writes, in October, 1715, “I was at Kensington, where I intended to stay as long as the camp was in Hyde-park, the roads being so secure by it, that we might come from London at any time of the night without danger, which I did very often.”