Acton Green is a residential neighbourhood in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...

and the London Borough of Ealing, in West London, England. It is named for the nearby Acton Green common. It was once home to many small laundries and was accordingly known as "Soapsuds Island".

History

The public parkland of Acton Green common adjoins Chiswick Back Common; before they were divided by the railway embankment for the

District A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

and

Piccadilly line The Piccadilly line is a Deep level underground, deep-level London Underground line running between the west and the north of London. It has two western branches which split at Acton Town tube station, Acton Town and serves 53 stations. The li ...

s, both were part of the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

battlefield of the Battle of Turnham Green. South Acton, especially the Acton Green district, was once famous for its laundries, and was known as "Soapsuds island". There were some 60 laundries in 1873, rising to over 170 in 1890, most of the washing being done by hand. The 1901 census recorded as laundry workers 568 men and 2,448 women. The number of laundries fell to 50 in 1956, by then all automated: still the largest concentration of such businesses in Britain at that time. The business supported light industries that produced laundry requisites, including baskets, laundry hampers, mangles, washing machines, tubs, and wringers. Facing the east of the common is St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park; it and The Tabard Inn facing it across Bath Road, were built in 1880. This is based on The 1894

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

map shows Acton Green bounded to the west by railway lines, and to the east by the boundary of Bedford Park; at that time, both the west of Bedford Park and the east of Acton Green consisted of

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

s. File:Acton Green to St Michael's by Frederick Hamilton Jackson.jpg, Painting, looking east, of Acton Green common to St Michael's and All Angels and The Tabard Inn by Frederick Hamilton Jackson, 1882. The Victorian era Bedford Park development is on the left, the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

railway embankment on the right.

Housing

Most of the housing of Acton Green is to the northwest of the common; to its east is the Bedford Park area, developed speculatively as a place for artists at the same time as St Michael's and The Tabard. There were formerly numerous small shops in the centre of Acton Green on Cunnington Street and Kingswood Road. These included confectioners, fish and chip shops, grocers, and off-licences. The area also held a variety of schools, now all closed. File:Corner house on Church Path, Acton Green.jpg, A corner house with end pediment and swag,
Church Path File:Providence Villa, Cunnington Street, Acton Green.jpg, Providence Villa,
Cunnington Street File:A former corner shop, Antrobus Road - Cunnington Street, Acton Green.jpg, A former corner shop,
Antrobus Road File:The Gothic House, Rothschild Road, Acton Green.jpg, The Gothic House,
Rothschild Road File:The Mosaic House, Fairlawn Grove, Acton Green.jpg, The Mosaic House,
Fairlawn Grove File:Red brick terraced houses, South Parade, Acton Green.jpg, Red brick terraced houses,
South Parade File:Decorative Swag, South Parade, Acton Green.jpg, Decorative swag,
South Parade

St Alban's Church

On the north side of the common, facing South Parade, is the red-brick with stone facings

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

Victorian era St Alban's Church, Acton Green by Edward Monson Jr; it was opened in 1888. It is described as the focus of the Acton Green Conservation area; the church building is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. The nearby

vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or Minister (Christianity), ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of n ...

uses the same red brick and stone window surrounds and mullions. File:St Alban's, Acton Green from the East.jpg, St Alban's Church, opened 1888 File:Old Vicarage, South Parade, Acton Green.jpg, Old Vicarage, South Parade, sharing architectural idioms with its church

West side of the common

Facing the west of the common are the mansion flats of the locally listed four-storey red brick Fairlawn Court, built around 1900. Just to its north are the loft apartments of Chiswick Green Studios, a "modish conversion" of a group of industrial buildings. The buildings from 1930 and 1950 had been the military electronics components factory of Evershed & Vignoles. They were converted to form apartments, including new penthouses through the addition of a curved roof; a third building retained only the original frame and was made into cheaper "loft style" apartments. File:Fairlawn Court, Acton Lane, Acton Green.jpg, Detail of Fairlawn Court, Acton Lane File:Chiswick Green Studios, Acton Green.jpg, Chiswick Green Studios, formerly an Evershed & Vignoles factory

Public houses

Duke of Sussex

Nearby, facing the north of the common is the 1898 Duke of Sussex public house; it replaced an earlier beerhouse founded by 1842. The current "elaborately decorated" building was designed by the pub architects Shoebridge & Rising, and is Grade II listed. It has two storeys, with dormer windows for the attic and cellars below. The main front faces east on to Beaconsfield Road, with three bays, two of them with dormers, separated by a small half-round

Diocletian window Diocletian windows, also called thermal windows, are large semicircular windows characteristic of the enormous public baths (''thermae'') of Ancient Rome. They have been revived on a limited basis by some neo-classical architecture, classical rev ...

, and the third an extension to house the kitchens and staircase. The walls are covered in white

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

, with the first storey hung with flat red tiles. The first storey and attic windows below the dormers are "Ipswich oriels" under ornamental cornices. The ground floor bar area has big arched windows, and an elaborate corner doorway; the doorway to the north is adorned with ornamental ironwork. Parts of the original interior partitioning survive, providing "an unusually rich, turn-of-the-century pub interior". File:Duke of Sussex Corner View.jpg, Exterior File:Duke of Sussex ornamental ironwork.jpg, Ornamental ironwork

Other

On the corner of Bollo Lane, which marks the western edge of the area, and Montgomery Road is the Bollo, a

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves food of high quality, with a nearly equal emphasis on eating and drinking. The term was coined in the 1990s in the United Kingdom. History The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coi ...

. It opened soon after 1900 as 'The Railway Hotel', complete with a painting of a railway locomotive on the outside wall. It then became in turn 'The Railway Tavern', 'The Orange Kipper' (1988), 'The Bollo House', and finally the Bollo. On the corner of Evershed Walk and Acton Lane is The Swan, opened in 1871 by the Phoenix Brewery of Latimer Road in what had been a beerhouse owned by James Brown. Its exterior featured in a 1980s television

situation comedy A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

. It is described by Harden's guide as a "lovely panelled pub" with attractive garden, serving good food. File:The Bollo pub, Bollo Lane.jpg, The Bollo, Bollo Lane File:The Swan, Acton Lane, Chiswick.jpg, The Swan, Acton Lane

Transport

Chiswick Park tube station on the

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road tube station (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines), Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One br ...

, opened in 1879 as 'Acton Green' station, and renamed in 1887, is at the Western end of Acton Green common. The London Buses route 94 to

Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End of London, West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a ''List of road junctions in the Unite ...

terminates at the northwestern corner of Acton Green common.

References

{{London Districts Acton, London Areas of London Common land in London Districts of the London Borough of Ealing