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A view from 1824
"Survey the delightful shores of Chiswick, to which the noble, the poet and the painter, have for ages have preferred their retreat, to solace from the cares of national business, to sport with the muses, and to fathom the deepest recesses of polite arts."
This is part of a description of Chiswick taken from "The Steam-Boat Companion", published in 1824, and part of the Layton Collection held at Hounslow Library.
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Chiswick Hall, Chiswick Mall |
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View from Hogarth's Tomb |
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Artistic Community
The graveyard of the old chuch of St.Nicholas at Chiswick holds the bones of many of Englands artistic community. Hogarth's tomb is easily recognised. The epitaph was written by David Garrick, who submitted it to Dr.Johnson for approval before the engraving took place.
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Chiswick Mall
This print from 1834, shows that nearly two centuries ago, the riverfront was already well established as a resort for the rich and famous, but in previous centuries the community had earned a simple income from fishing.
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Chiswick Mall |
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Frozen Thames at Chiswick |
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Harsh reality
Viewing the Thames from Chiswick on a warm summers day, gives no sense of the harsh reality of living by the river in past centuries. This photograph from 1926, shows a winter's scene which would seem more appropriate to Scandinavia.
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The Draw Dock
The heart of the riverside community could be found in front of the Red Lion public house. For centuries barges would tie up here at high tide, and wait for the low tide to leave them beached on dry land. Horse drawn carts could them pull up along side the barges, to allow goods to be loaded and unloaded.
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Draw Dock at Chiswick Mall |
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Chiswick Mall |
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Thorneycroft
This sketch of the draw dock at Chiswick in 1909 shows a factory in the background. Thorneycroft, the famous boat building company, manufactured river launches, pleasure steamers, torpedo boats and even destroyers here at Chiswick during the Victorian period. The need for deep water to launch their ships eventually resulted in their move to Southhampton in 1904.
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Old-world survival
"Few of the crowds of travellers that are set down by the electric tramcars at Kew Bridge ever take more than passing and superficial notice of that curious old-world survival, Strand-on-the-Green, a quaint waterside hamlet of Chiswick, which is far older than any of its surroundings."
The above was written by Charles G. Harper, in his "Rural Nooks Round London" published in 1924, a copy of which is at the local history section of Hounslow Central Library. The electric tramcars have gone, but Strand-on-the-Green, has managed to keep its charm.
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Strand-on-the-Green |
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The Bull's Head, Strand on the Green |
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Harper goes on to write, "The place consists of a double row of mostly old houses, the front row, of inns, malt-houses, wharves, and several substantial, and highly respectable old mansions, standing on a species of continuous quay, looking on to water at high tide, and out upon a muddy foreshore and tussocks of grass at the ebb."
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Introduction
Chiswick
