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Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of
Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...
. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in
Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...
. It is bordered by
Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...
to the north,
Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
to the east,
Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...
to the west, and
Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...
to the south, with which it forms part of the north bank of the River Thames. The area is one of west London's main commercial and employment centres, and has for some decades been a major centre of London's Polish community. It is a major transport hub for west London, with two London Underground stations and a bus station at Hammersmith Broadway.


Toponymy

Hammersmith may mean "(Place with) a hammer smithy or forge", although, in 1839, Thomas Faulkner proposed that the name derived from two 'Saxon' words: the initial ''Ham'' from ham and the remainder from
hythe Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to: Places Australia * Hythe, Tasmania Canada *Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada England * T ...
, alluding to Hammersmith's riverside location. In 1922, Gover proposed that the prefix was a personal name, Heahmaer or Hæmar, and stating that the suffix must be Anglo-Saxon from -myðe, meaning the junction of two rivers, as
Hammersmith Creek Hammersmith Creek was an outflow river of the Stamford Brook, and used to run through what is now King Street, into the Thames at the present-day site of Furnivall Gardens in Hammersmith. Until the early 19th century the creek was navigable o ...
merged with the Thames here. The earliest spelling is Hamersmyth in 1294, with alternative spellings of Hameresmithe in 1312, Hamyrsmyth in 1535, and Hammersmith 1675.


History

The district was a chapelry of the ancient parish of
Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...
, but became a fully independent parish in 1631. In the early 1660s, Hammersmith's first parish church, which later became St Paul's, was built by Sir Nicholas Crispe who ran the brickworks in Hammersmith. It contained a monument to Crispe as well as a bronze bust of King Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur. In 1696 Sir Samuel Morland was buried there. The church was completely rebuilt in 1883, but the monument and bust were transferred to the new church. In 1745, two Scots, James Lee and Lewis Kennedy, established the
Vineyard Nursery A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
, over six acres devoted to landscaping plants. During the next hundred and fifty years the nursery introduced many new plants to England, including fuchsia and the standard rose tree. 1804 saw the trial of Francis Smith for the murder of Thomas Millwood in Beaver Lane, Hammersmith. Called the Hammersmith Ghost murder case, it set a unique standard in English legal history. In 1868, Hammersmith was the name of a parish, and of a suburban district, within the hundred of Ossulstone, in the county of Middlesex. Major industrial sites included the
Osram Osram Licht AG is a German company that makes electric lights, headquartered in Munich and Premstätten (Austria). Osram positions itself as a high-tech photonics company that is increasingly focusing on sensor technology, visualization and tre ...
lamp factory at Brook Green, the
J. Lyons J. Lyons & Co. was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly, London in 1894, a ...
factory (which at one time employed 30,000 people). During both World Wars,
Waring & Gillow Waring & Gillow (also written as Waring and Gillow) was a noted firm of English furniture manufacturers and antique dealers formed in 1897 by the merger of Gillows of Lancaster and London and Waring of Liverpool. Background Gillow & Co. The firm ...
's furniture factory, in Cambridge Grove, became the site of aircraft manufacture. Hammersmith Borough Council had provided the borough with electricity since the early twentieth century from
Hammersmith power station Hammersmith power station supplied electricity to the London Borough of Hammersmith from 1897 to 1965. It was owned and operated by the Vestry / Borough of Hammersmith until the nationalisation of the British electricity supply industry in 1948. ...
. Upon
nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
of the electricity industry in 1948 ownership passed to the
British Electricity Authority The British Electricity Authority (BEA) was established as the central British electricity authority in 1948 under the nationalisation of Great Britain's electricity supply industry enacted by the Electricity Act 1947. The BEA was responsible for ...
and later to the Central Electricity Generating Board. Electricity connections to the national grid rendered the 20 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station redundant. It closed in 1965; in its final year of operation it delivered 5,462
MWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...
of electricity to the borough.


Economy

Hammersmith is located at the confluence of one of the arterial routes out of central London (the A4) with several local feeder roads and a bridge over the Thames. The focal point of the district is the commercial centre (the Broadway Centre) located at this confluence, which houses a shopping centre, bus station, an Underground station and an office complex. Stretching about westwards from this centre is King Street, Hammersmith's main shopping street. Named after John King, Bishop of London, it contains a second shopping centre (
Livat Hammersmith Livat Hammersmith is a retail, residential and office complex located off King Street in Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Along with the other Livat Centres, it is operated by the Ingka Centres division of INGKA H ...
), many small shops, the
town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, the Lyric Theatre, a cinema, the Polish community centre and two hotels. King Street is supplemented by other shops along Shepherds Bush Road to the north, Fulham Palace Road to the south and Hammersmith Road to the east. Hammersmith's office activity takes place mainly to the eastern side of its centre, along Hammersmith Road and in the
Ark Ark or ARK may refer to: Biblical narratives and religion Hebrew word ''teva'' * Noah's Ark, a massive vessel said to have been built to save the world's animals from a flood * Ark of bulrushes, the boat of the infant Moses Hebrew ''aron'' * ...
, an office complex to the south of the flyover which traverses the area. Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road is a large multi-disciplinary NHS hospital with accident & emergency and teaching departments run by the Imperial College School of Medicine.


Architecture

"The Ark" office building, designed by British architect Ralph Erskine and completed in 1992, has some resemblance to the hull of a sailing ship. Hammersmith Bridge Road Surgery was designed by Guy Greenfield.
22 St Peter's Square 22 St Peter's Square, in Hammersmith, London, is a grade II listed building with a former laundry that has been converted to an architects' studio and office building. The property is situated in the western corner of St Peter's Square, that was ...
, the former Royal Chiswick Laundry and
Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
HQ, has been converted to architects' studios and offices by
Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands is a practice of architects, urban designers and masterplanners established in 1986 and practising out of London. History Alex Lifschutz and Ian Davidson met working on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters ...
. It has
Hammersmith SocietyConservation award
plaque (2009) and has been included in tours in Architecture Week. Several of Hammersmith's pubs are listed buildings, including the ''
Black Lion Black Lion, Black Lions, or Blacklions may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Black Lion, Hammersmith, a London pub * Black Lion, Kilburn, a London pub * Black Lion Records, a British jazz record company * Black Lions Films, associated wit ...
'', '' The Dove'', '' The George'', ''
The Hop Poles The Hop Poles is a Grade II listed public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeare ...
'', the '' Hope and Anchor'', the '' Salutation Inn'' and ''
The Swan A swan is a bird of the genus ''Cygnus'' (true swans) or ''Coscoroba'' (coscoroba swans). Swan, swans, or The Swan may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Film and television * ''The Swan'' (1925 film), a 1925 silent film * ''The Swa ...
'', as are Hammersmith's two parish churches, St Paul's (the town's original church, rebuilt in the 1890s) and St Peter's, built in the 1820s.


Culture and entertainment

Riverside Studios is a cinema, performance space, bar and cafe. Originally film studios, Riverside Studios were used by the BBC from 1954 to 1975 for television productions. The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is just off King Street.
Hammersmith Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Ham ...
concert hall and theatre (formerly the Carling Hammersmith Apollo, the Hammersmith Odeon, and before that the Gaumont Cinema) is just south of the gyratory. The former Hammersmith Palais nightclub has been demolished and the site reused as student accommodation. The
Polish Social and Cultural Association The Polish Social and Cultural Association ( pl, Polski Ośrodek Społeczno-Kulturalny; POSK) is a Polish cultural centre in west London, England. It was funded by public subscription and founded in 1967, on the initiative of Polish engineer R ...
is on King Street. It contains a theatre, an art gallery and several restaurants. Its library has one of the largest collections of Polish-language books outside Poland. '' The Dove'' is a riverside pub with what the ''
Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' listed as the smallest bar room in the world, in 2016 surviving as a small space on the right of the bar. the pub was frequented by Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene; James Thomson lodged and likely wrote '' Rule Britannia'' here. The narrow alley in which it stands is the only remnant of the riverside village of Hammersmith, the bulk of which was demolished in the 1930s.
Furnivall Gardens Furnival Gardens (also spelt Furnivall Gardens) is a park in Hammersmith alongside the river Thames. It was once the location of the mouth of Hammersmith Creek, which had an active fishing trade until about 200 years ago. The creek was filled in ...
, which lies to the east, covers the site of
Hammersmith Creek Hammersmith Creek was an outflow river of the Stamford Brook, and used to run through what is now King Street, into the Thames at the present-day site of Furnivall Gardens in Hammersmith. Until the early 19th century the creek was navigable o ...
and the High Bridge. Leisure activity also takes place along Hammersmith's pedestrianised riverside, home to the pubs of Lower Mall, rowing clubs and the riverside park of Furnival Gardens. Hammersmith has a municipal park,
Ravenscourt Park Ravenscourt Park or RCP is an public park and garden located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England. It is one of the Borough's flagship parks, having won a Green Flag Award. Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park tube stations ar ...
, to the west of the centre. Its facilities include tennis courts, a basketball court, a bowling lawn, a paddling pool, and playgrounds. Hammersmith is the historical home of the
West London Penguin Swimming and Water Polo Club The West London Penguin Swimming and Water Polo Club, also known as the West London Penguins, is a British water polo and masters swimming club with history dating back to 1916. It was formed in 1976 as the Hammersmith Penguin Swimming Club by ...
, formerly known as the ''Hammersmith Penguin Swimming Club''. Hammersmith Chess Club has been active in the borough since it was formed in 1962. It was initially based in
Westcott Lodge Westcott Lodge is a Grade II listed house in Lower Mall, Hammersmith, London. It was originally St Paul's Vicarage, and built in 1746, with some later remodelling, and restoration after damage during World War II. In 1962, it was the first ho ...
, later moving to St Paul's Church, then to Blythe House and now Lytton Hall, near West Kensington tube station.


Transport

The area is on the main A4 trunk road heading west from central London towards the
M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...
and
Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
. The A4, a busy commuter route, passes over the area's main road junction, Hammersmith Gyratory System, on a long viaduct, the Hammersmith Flyover. Hammersmith Bridge closed in August 2020 to pedestrians, cyclists and road traffic, severing the link with
Barnes Barnes may refer to: People * Barnes (name), a family name and a given name (includes lists of people with that name) Places United Kingdom *Barnes, London, England **Barnes railway station ** Barnes Bridge railway station ** Barnes Railway Bri ...
in the southwest. Its cast iron pedestals that hold the suspension system in place had become unsafe. The centre of Hammersmith is served by two London Underground stations named Hammersmith:
one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
is served by the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines and
the other In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other identify the other human being, in their differences from the Self, as being a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; he ...
is served by the
Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...
and District lines. The latter station is part of a larger office, retail and transport development, locally known as "The Broadway Centre". Hammersmith Broadway stretches from the junction of Queen Caroline Street and King Street in the west to the junction of Hammersmith Road and Butterwick in the east. It forms the north side of the gyratory system also known as Hammersmith Roundabout. The Broadway Shopping Centre includes a major bus station. The length of King Street places the westernmost shops and offices closest to Ravenscourt Park Underground station on the District line, one stop west of Hammersmith itself.


Hammersmith Bridge

The first Hammersmith Bridge was designed by
William Tierney Clark William Tierney Clark Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, FRAS (23 August 1783 – 22 September 1852) was an English civil engineer particularly associated with the design and construction of bridges. ...
and opened in 1827 and was the first
suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
crossing the River Thames. It was redesigned by
Joseph Bazalgette Sir Joseph William Bazalgette CB (; 28 March 181915 March 1891) was a 19th-century English civil engineer. As chief engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works, his major achievement was the creation (in response to the Great Stink of 1 ...
, and reopened in 1887. In August 2020, it closed to pedestrians, cyclists and road traffic as the cast iron pedestals that hold the suspension system in place became unsafe. Work began to improve the structural integrity of the bridge in 2022.


In literature and music

Hammersmith features in Charles Dickens' ''
Great Expectations ''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...
'' as the home of the Pocket family. Pip resides with the Pockets in their house by the river and goes boating on the river. William Morris's utopian novel '' News from Nowhere'' (1890) describes a journey up the river from Hammersmith towards Oxford. In 1930, Gustav Holst composed ''Hammersmith'', a work for military band (later rewritten for orchestra), reflecting his impressions of the area, having lived across the river in
Barnes Barnes may refer to: People * Barnes (name), a family name and a given name (includes lists of people with that name) Places United Kingdom *Barnes, London, England **Barnes railway station ** Barnes Bridge railway station ** Barnes Railway Bri ...
for nearly forty years. It begins with a haunting musical depiction of the River Thames flowing underneath Hammersmith Bridge. Holst taught music at St Paul's Girls' School and composed many of his most famous works there, including his ''
The Planets ''The Planets'', Op. 32, is a seven- movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917. In the last movement the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus. Each movement of the suite is name ...
'' suite. A music room in the school is named after him. Holst dedicates ''Hammersmith'': ''To the Author of " The Water Gypsies."''


Notable people


17th century

*
John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
(1608–1674), poet
Lewalski, Barbara K. Barbara Josephine Lewalski (; February 22, 1931 – March 2, 2018)Roberts, Sam (March 29, 2018).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-03-30. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer 1931 births 2018 deaths American academics o ...
''The Life of John Milton''. Oxford: Blackwells, 2003.
* William Sheridan (c. 1635 – 3 October 1711), Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh


18th century


19th century


1900–1945


1946–2000


See also

*
List of districts in Hammersmith and Fulham This is a list of districts in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the me ...


References


External links


London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham

Hammersmith's local community web site



Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney
by Geraldine Edith Mitton and John Cunningham Geikie, 1903, from Project Gutenberg
HammersmithLondon Business Improvement District (BID)
{{Authority control Business improvement districts in London Districts of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Districts of London on the River Thames History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Major centres of London Places formerly in Middlesex Polish-British culture