St Margarets is an affluent suburb and neighbourhood in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in south-west Greater London, London, England, forms part of Outer London and is the only London boroughs, London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller ...

, about west-southwest of

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

. It is bounded by the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

Tideway The Tideway is the part of the River Thames in England which is subject to tides. This stretch of water is downstream from Teddington Lock. The Tideway comprises the upper Thames Estuary including the Pool of London. Tidal activity Depending ...

to the north-east, and the River Crane to the north-west and north where the land tapers between those rivers. Land and buildings closer to Richmond Bridge than the eponymous railway station are, traditionally distinctly, known as East Twickenham. Both places go by their post town and traditional parish, Twickenham quite often; in the 19th century the south of St Margarets was marked on maps as Twickenham Park. The area hosts a house that

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...

saw built during his painting career and St Margarets railway station is within of Marble Hill House. Uniquely in London among the few places prefixed ''Saint'' it is named after a house. Specifically it is named after a large house together with

appurtenant An appurtenance is something subordinate to or belonging to another larger, principal entity, that is, an adjunct, satellite, or accessory that generally accompanies something else.Henry III of England Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of John, King of England, King John and Isabella of Ang ...

) and the aristocracy, a few uprisings later cemented into constitutional change led by de Montford. The net result of the uprisings was a settled parliamentary system enabling limits to the monarch's powers to tax and departure from such edicts as the

Provisions of Oxford The Provisions of Oxford ( or ''Oxoniae'') were constitutional reforms to the government of late medieval England adopted during the Oxford Parliament of 1258 to resolve a dispute between Henry III of England and his barons. The reforms were de ...

and

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

. takes its name from the former Saint Margaret's House, the second guise of which stood from 1827 to 1853. It was the country house of

Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa, Order of the Thistle, KT, Royal Society, FRS (February 1770 – 8 September 1846), styled Lord Kennedy between 1792–4 and known as the Earl of Cassillis between 1794 and 1831, was a British peerage, Sco ...

(12th Earl of Cassilis), and for a few final decades became the home of the Earl of Kilmorey. Their names can be found in such streets as Kilmorey Gardens and Ailsa Road.

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

and Edwardian houses dominate the housing stock. In 1854 the St Margaret's Estate was laid out for building family houses, becoming one of the first garden suburbs. Today's developed suburb dates from the arrival of the railway. The new railway station was preliminarily "Ailsa Crossing" as it passed through the estate, but it became "St Margarets" before opening. A memorial was unveiled in April 2017 to the 6000

Belgian refugees Following the creation of Belgium as a nation state, Belgian people have sought refuge abroad on several occasions. From the early days of independence and the threat of The Netherlands or France, to two World Wars and the Independence of Congo, B ...

many of the adults of whom lived and worked locally during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. It is on the west bank of the Thames at Warren Gardens, next to the site of the Pelabon Munitions Works.

Annual events

St Margarets Fair is held each July in Moormead Park by the River Crane, a channel from its larger stream, on the western limits.

Buildings

In 1814 the painter

had built Solus Lodge in Sandycoombe Road. The house survives as

Sandycombe Lodge Sandycombe Lodge is a Grade II* listed house at 40 Sandycoombe Road, Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In the picturesque-cottage style, it was designed and built in 1813 by the artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) as h ...

. ''Gordon House'' is a

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, Hi ...

Georgian mansion on the river Thames at St Margarets. Like St Margaret's House it was owned by Lord Kilmorey. The house has a

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...

wing, added in 1738. For many years, it was used as part of

Brunel University Brunel University of London (BUL) is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. It became a university ...

. In recent years the house has been redeveloped by Octagon Developments, with the former chapel and coachhouse converted to private homes. The Kilmorey Mausoleum has been moved several times, and is now on the northern edge of St Margarets. It was built in the 1850s by the 2nd Earl of Kilmorey and contains the bodies of the Earl and his mistress, Priscilla Anne Hoste. Now a Grade II* listed building, it was built to resemble an ancient Egyptian monument. It is jointly maintained by Richmond upon Thames Council and

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

. The mausoleum is occasionally open to the public. The

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Church of St Margaret of Scotland on St Margarets Road was built to a modern design of the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Austin Winckley and opened in 1969. In 1999 it became a Grade II

listed building 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, Hi ...

. Its forerunner stood on site from 1938, after the relevant mission begun in an adjoining house in 1930. Twickenham and Isleworth as broad encompassing areas have had no other churches named after the saint. In Anglicanism, two late-19th-century-founded Anglican church parishes serve the area. The place represents the north-west third of Saint Stephen's and the eastern two-fifths of All Souls, if the Crane is taken as the northern limit.

Education

There are three main schools nearby, in Twickenham: Orleans Park School (secondary), St. Stephen's Primary School (primary) an
Orleans Primary School
(primary).

Local commerce and townscape

Two main streets have a range of shops, cafés and bars/pubs serving food.

Twickenham Studios Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

are at the heart of the village and have recently announced plans to expand their presence in St Margarets. The high street has well-frequented local, independent businesses. Most roads are residential, some of which tree-lined. The most common house type is semi-detached; some detached, mainly those of three or four storeys have been subdivided. To the east of the "village" is the relatively verdant-setting houses and many classical flats (apartment buildings) of Twickenham Park.

Neighbouring areas

Direct neighbours comprise: *East Twickenham/Cambridge Park to the south-east. *

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

across the river to the east (accessible across Twickenham Bridge, Richmond Bridge and Richmond Lock Footbridge) *

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

from the west through to the south. * Old Isleworth and the Ivybridge estate,

Isleworth Isleworth ( ) is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hounslow, West London, England. It lies immediately east of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane, London, River Crane. Isleworth's original area of ...

is to the north and northwest in the adjoining

London Borough of Hounslow The London Borough of Hounslow ( ) is a London borough in west London, England, forming part of Outer London. It is governed by Hounslow London Borough Council. The borough stretches from near Central London in the east (Chiswick) to the b ...

. Between

Richmond Lock Richmond Lock and Footbridge is a lock, rising and falling low-tide barrage integrating controlled sluices and pair of pedestrian bridges on the River Thames in southwest London, England, and is a Grade II* listed structure. It is the furthest ...

and

Kew Bridge Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway (upper estuary of the Thames) linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Q ...

is the first reach of the Thames proceeding upstream out of Central London with green, wooded expanses on both sides:

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

, associated golf course, and

Syon Park Syon Park is the garden of Syon House, the London home of the Duke of Northumberland in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow. It was landscaped by Capability Brown in the 18th century, and it is Grade I listed by English Heritage under ...

which are all lightly wooded. Marble Hill House and

Marble Hill Park Marble Hill Park is an area of of parkland in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is an English Heritage site that surrounds Marble Hill House, a Palladian villa originally built for Henrietta Howard, the mistress ...

are immediately to the south.

Transport

Road

In modern station-centric terms St Margarets is quite narrowly cut through, as to about , by the busy Chertsey Road ( A316), which connects

to the M3 motorway. Much of south St Margarets is in a controlled parking zone (CPZ), which restricts parking to residents and holders of vouchers.map of CPZ in south St Margarets
Author: London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

Rail

The normal service from St Margarets station is four stopping-service trains per hour to and from Waterloo. Both Richmond and Twickenham stations are a short bus journey from most parts of the suburb and have status as major stops on the transport network – meaning semi-fast and somewhat fast services call at those stations.

Bus

Two bus routes run through St Margarets: the 110 (

Hounslow Hounslow ( ) is a large suburban district of West London, England, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 14 metropolitan cen ...

–

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. 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. It ...

) and the H37 (

–

). Other nearby bus routes are 33, R68, R70 and 490 coming from central Twickenham along Richmond Road; all of these, except 33, go past Richmond station.

Notable inhabitants

Living people

Historical figures

Footnotes and references

Footnotes

Citations

External links

St Margarets Community Website

St Margarets Fair

Turner's House Twickenham

Marble Hill House Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Margarets Areas of London Districts of London on the River Thames Districts of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Places formerly in Middlesex St Margarets, London Twickenham