Introducing the FHHS

Here you can find information on the Fulham and Hammersmith Historical Society, contact info, how to join, and a list of the books that we have published and you can buy. We will also be publishing reports on past events (for forthcoming events, you are encouraged to join and receive the Society’s regular newsletter). Whether you join or not please click the box at the top right to follow our posts.

The membership rate is £10 standard or £8 concessions or £15 for couples.

Fulham anf Hammersmith Historical society… The Future. October 2023

FHHS has , following an EGM, applied to become part of the Fulham Society. We await their decision.

Formed some 70 years ago, membership has dropped below sustainable level, for, holding meetings, raising subscriptions and attracting new members and Committee members with the appropriate skills . Venues are demanding huge fees often in the £100’s for a couple of hours for use of rooms. Our constitution requires us to seek out a charity with similar aims if we close down.

It is hoped going forward that FHHS will become a sub group of the Fulham Society, our funds will be used for new pubications, and the Fulham Society will be able to look after membership , the accounts and IT. It is hoped meetings talks, walks etc will continue ,and that the present FHHS website will be available on the Fulham Society website in due course.

Keeping it in the Family.

Thinking of holding a street part Peter Trott’s family have been holding celebratory ones since 1939.

Checkout this BBC linkhttps://apps.talktalk.co.uk/appsuite/api/mail/thorpebank-road-in-shepherd-s-bush-has-quite-the-history-when-it-comes-to-street-parties-and-many-of-1533494105468112897.mp4?action=attachment&folder=default0%2FINBOX&id=166345&attachment=2&user=3&context=769469&decrypt=&sequence=1&delivery=download&callback=yell

The narrowest house in London may be in Shepherds Bush

Follow this link to You Tube to see Peter Trott’s explanation

Summer/Autumn Newsletter 2022

The latest FHHS news letter has been put on the website, but due to lack of webmaster skills can only be found by opening the Newsletter heading on the Websites fromt page and scrolling down to the end of the list of Newsletters. Click on this link to open It contains details of our next talk, and also the Agm agenda etc.

Summer Autumn 2022 News;etter.

Please check the new newsletter, which contains details of AGM . talks etc. Open Website and click on the Heading and open. I am trying to send link be email as well..from webmaster

A LITTLE LOCAL RETAIL HISTORY

A new member, Mr Orman, has contributed this youtube video that tracks the site of Hurlingbookshop over the years. It is a charming and well researched piece that is quite long for youtube but well worth a view.

A bit of unashamed advertising too!

Maybe you have a local vignette of potted history too?

Subscriptions

Please could members kindly check their membership standing orders. A large number of you failed to notice the increase in your subscriptions for 2022, and consequently are slightly under paid. Please check your newsletter or the website for full rates .

Please credit the one-off extra payment as soon as possible by bank transfer, so we can balance our accounts, and adjust your standing orders for payments if you wish to continue as members and receive our newsletters. Thankyou

Parson’s Green

The new publication by Sue and Lance Pierson on the ‘irregular triangle’ in Fulham has just been published, and is available for £6.00 plus postage and packing. CheckPublications page for full details

Why not puchase the new edition of Hammersmith Bridge £10.00at the same time and save on postage and packaging

OLD OAK LODGE

More from the ever resourceful Peter Trott in one article it encapsulates the speed of change in LBHF at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For context here is John Rocque’s map of 1771.

John Rocque’s map 1771

From a few big houses admist fields and orchards to city in 150 years!

Old Oak Lodge

At one time Rosebank Road led to Old Oak Lodge, but now any archaeological evidence of the Lodge lies beneath Galloway Road in Shepherd’s Bush.

There is no record of when Rosebank Road was named but it may have been built as a driveway to the Lodge. I have not discovered when the lodge was built. It is not shown on John Salter’s 1830 map but it is named on James Wyld’s map of 1848.

John Wyld’s map of 1848

It may have been built before 1841 but unfortunately the census for that year mainly consists of names and only a few premises are actually listed. In the 1851 census Henry Cressweller and his family are listed as the residents and by 1861 market gardener George Cutts was living there. Shortly afterwards engraver William Henry McQueen moved in with his family. William died in the Lodge in 1867.

In 1881 Old Oak Lodge was listed as standing between the Vicarage of St. Luke’s Church and The British Queen public house. Shortly after that the Lodge was numbered as 390 Uxbridge Road. In 1886 William’s wife Jane also died in the Lodge. Her unmarried daughter Jane Harriot McQueen was the sole beneficiary and became the owner of the Lodge.

The 1891 census shows Jane living there with a cook and housemaid. There were adjoining stables with rooms occupied by a coachman and his family and a gardener and his family.

1893 – 96 OS map

By 1901 Jane was living there with her niece Jane Braithwaite and her husband plus their three children, a servant, a coachman, his wife and two children, and a gardener and his daughter plus her family.

Postcard sent to Jane’s niece in 1904

Jane was still on the electoral roll for 390 Uxbridge Road in 1906, which was around the time that there were plans to demolish the Lodge and build a new road. On 15th May 1907 there was an application for the proposed new road to be named Galloway Road. This coincided with the change of numbering on the Uxbridge Road and the 1907 electoral roll lists Jane at 444 Uxbridge Road. The Lodge was probably demolished before the electoral roll was published. Jane moved to Yiewsley, 1 Cumberland Road, Acton and first appears on the electoral roll in 1913. She died two years later and was buried in the large private family grave at Brompton Cemetery.

This article (with several errors) appeared in The West London Observer on 22 January 1915:

‘A very old inhabitant of Shepherds Bush has passed away in Miss Jean Harriet McQueen, who died at Yewsley, Cumberland Road, Acton on the 13th January in her 85th year. Miss McQueen was the surviving child of the late Mr W H McQueen of the Old Oak Lodge, Uxbridge Road where he brought up his family in the middle of the last century. Mr McQueen was one of the partners in the well-known firm of sporting print sellers whose series of racehorses, jockeys and race courses were so popular some years ago. The firm also engraved for a great many mid-Victorian artists. Miss McQueen was a loyal supporter of St Luke’s Church, Uxbridge Road from the time when the church was first built until she sold her own estate and went to live in Acton. The site of the Old Oak Lodge and its grounds is now occupied by Wormholt Road. The funeral took place at Acton Parish Church on Monday and she was interred at Brompton Cemetery.’

1910 Inland Revenue map

The above map from the Layers of London website shows the newly built Galloway Road superimposed on the 1893 – 96 OS map with the position of Old Oak Lodge clearly visible.

ONLINE ACTIVITY WHILST THE VIRUS RAGES

Those yearning for the days when we had regular visits and talks might want to have a look at Emery Walker’s House website for their Virtual Events. Not the same but interesting while we wait. I wasn’t aware of the T.E. Lawrence connection. Do have a look, their members get a discount.