51°28′14″N0°12′58″W / 51.47056°N 0.21611°W /51.47056; -0.21611
Bishops Park is a park inFulham, West London. The park was opened by theLondon County Council in 1893, on land given by theChurch Commissioners. It is listedGrade II on the register of parks and gardens of special historic interest maintained byEnglish Heritage.
The park runs north of theRiver Thames fromAll Saints church along a broad tree-lined avenue and an embankment path along the river, and ends at Bishop's Park Road. It contains tennis courts and bowling greens, with another small park area fronting Fulham Palace Road. It is adjacent toFulham Palace andFulham Football club.
A memorial to members of theInternational Brigade who volunteered to fight in theSpanish Civil War has been located within the park since 1997.[1] The park has a poolside beach and facilities for basketball, tennis, table tennis, lawn bowling and skating, and hosts a farmers' market.
The park was formally opened bySir John Hutton, chairman of the LCC, in 1893. It included land known as Bishop's Walk, Bishop's Meadow and West Meadow, formerly owned by theChurch of England as Lord of the Manor of Fulham, and administered by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. It had been given over to theFulham District Board of Works on condition that it be laid out and maintained for public recreation.
The meadows had already been protected from flooding by the creation of anembankment; the river wall was built between 1889 and 1893 by Joseph Mears, the father ofChelsea F.C. foundersJoseph andGus Mears.[citation needed]
In 1894 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners sold Fulham Vestry, the house of Pryors Bank (then called Vine Cottage) and its gardens. The house was demolished in 1897 and replaced by a Pseudo-Tudo refreshment pavilion, but the gardens were preserved and opened as an extension of Bishops Park in 1900 after extension of the river walk. They contain four 1940s sculptures titledAdoration,Protection,Grief andLeda, presented in 1953 bysculptor James Wedgwood as a commemoration of the coronation of QueenElizabeth II.[citation needed]
A further sculpture,Affection, a mother and child byJoseph Hermon Cawthra, was added in 1963;[2] both sculptors had studios in the area.[1] The park was expanded again in 1903.[2]
Scenes from the 1976 horror filmThe Omen were shot on location in the park.[3][4]
After a successful lottery funding bid in February 2011, the park underwent a major restoration project, when it lost its Victorianbandstand, with almost the entire site being modernised.[5][6]
