Chiswick High Road is the principal shopping and dining street ofChiswick, a district inthe west of London. It was part of the mainRoman road running west out of London, and remained the main road until the 1950s when the A4 was built across Chiswick. By the 19th century the road through the village ofTurnham Green had grand houses beside it. The road developed into a shopping centre when Chiswick became built up with new streets and housing to the north ofOld Chiswick, late in the 19th century. There are severallisted buildings includingpublic houses, churches, and a formerpower station, built to supply electricity to the tram network.
Chiswick High Road follows the alignment of theRoman road to Silchester as it leads west from London.[1] Near the area ofTurnham Green in Chiswick it was joined by another Roman road, which thus also followed part of the course of the High Road.[2] The road continued to be London's main route west until the 1950s when theA4 dual carriageway was built further to the south across Chiswick.[3]
In theEnglish Civil War, theroyalist forces underPrince Rupert, advancing on London fromOxford along the main road, were halted in a skirmish, the 1642Battle of Turnham Green, by the forces of theEarl of Essex. The royalists withdrew, and never again threatened the capital.[4]
Several large houses were built in Turnham Green along the High Road in the 17th century; John Bowack recorded in 1706 that the area had as many inhabitants as theold village of Chiswick, which is some way to the south of the High Road, on theriver Thames. In the 18th century, the High Road between Acton Lane andHammersmith was bordered "intermittently" with large detached houses.[5]
The High Road was atoll road from 1717 until the abolition of tolls in 1872.Stage coaches served the road on the way to towns such asBath andExeter. Roadside inns for travellers included the Roebuck, and the Packhorse and Talbot.[3]
In November 1805,Royal Navy CaptainJohn Richards Lapenotière travelled Chiswick High Road onhis journey from Falmouth to Whitehall to carry the news of the victory at theBattle of Trafalgar.[6] In 1826,Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, in a story told by his biographers, poisoned his uncle George Edward Griffiths,[a] while living in the uncle's grand home, Linden House on the High Road. He inherited and sold the house, but it was insufficient to clear his debts. He was later convicted offorgery andtransported to Tasmania.[7][8][9]
In 2022, Chiswick High Road provided the basis for the local historian Wesley Henderson-Roe'sBritish Association for Local History award-winning study of changes to shopping habits, based on surveys of the road's shops conducted in 1936 and 2020.[10]
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Chiswick High Road runs the 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) fromKew Bridge northeastwards toChiswick Roundabout, then eastwards through part ofGunnersbury to Turnham Green, and then across Chiswick toKing Street, Hammersmith at the corner withGoldhawk Road.[2][3] The section between Kew Bridge and Chiswick Roundabout is part of theA205 South Circular Road,[11] while the rest of the street is part of theA315.[12]
The street offers many restaurants, bars, and pubs;Time Out describes it as "an undeniably posh but very friendly bubble".[13]
On the north of Chiswick High Road in Gunnersbury is theChiswick Business Park, on the site of a former bus garage. It was designed in 1990–1991 by the architectsTerry Farrell & Partners as a suitable backdrop for buildings by themselves,Foster Associates, andPeter Foggo around the main piazza, and others byRogers Stirk Harbour + Partners andABK Architects around a smaller square to one side.[14]
On the south side is the 18-storey high BSI (British Standards Institution) tower, built aboveGunnersbury station. Between 1966 and 1992 it was a headquarters ofIBM UK.[15] On the north side of this section of the High Road is The Gunnersbury, formerly the John Bull pub, built in 1853, with a billiards saloon built a little later. It became a music venue, visited by bands includingThe Who.[16] The playwrightHarold Pinter lived at no. 373, on the south side.[17]
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The 1910Old Pack Horse is aGrade II listedpublic house on the corner of Chiswick High Road and Acton Lane, at the western end of Turnham Green common.[18] The building historianNikolaus Pevsner writes that it has "plenty of jolly terracotta detail and bowed ground-floor windows".[14] TheChiswick Empire was a music hall theatre facing Turnham Green, opened in 1912 and demolished in 1959.[19]
The Crown and Anchor pub, facing the common from the corner of the High Road and Belmont Road, is a Grade II listed early 19th century building. It is of brown brick over three storeys with flat-arched double-hung sash windows. The ground floor is covered with late 19th century tiles and plaques stating "Young and Co. Ales & Stouts". Above the corner doorway on the upper floors is a large round-arched plaque depicting a yellow-colouredram for theRam Brewery in Wandsworth.[20]
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The Grade II listed Victorian eraChrist Church, Turnham Green, in the middle of the common to the south of the High Road, was designed byGeorge Gilbert Scott. It was completed in 1843 as a short five-sidedchancel with anapse, in the "early English lancet style"[21] with a tall spire. It was extended in length byJames Brooks in 1887 to provide a square eastern end.[21]
The eastern tip of the common, where Heathfield Terrace joins the High Road, is marked by the Chiswick War Memorial, built in 1921.[22] It too is Grade II listed, both for its historic and for its architectural interest. It is anobelisk designed by Edward Willis, the council's engineer and architect.[23]
TheOld Fire Station on the south side of Chiswick High Road was purpose-built in 1891.[24] In 1911, it was equipped with a motor fire escape and ambulance, allowing it to claim it was one of the best in London. The building was provided with a tall tower to hang up the leather hosepipes to dry.[25][26] Itsfaçade is decorated with a carving of a fireman's helmet.[27] It closed in 1963, the station moving to new premises on Heathfield Terrace. The old station has since been used as a restaurant.[28][29]
Chiswick's old police station was built on the corner with Windmill Place in 1871. In 1890 it held 73 policemen; by 1926, the total had risen to 126. It was closed in 1972 when the police station moved across the road to a new building. The old station served as Carvosso's restaurant, then as the Crown restaurant,[30][31] and from July 2024 as the Hound pub with traditional pub food such asScotch eggs, pies, and fish and chips.[32]
In 2001, a statue of the painterWilliam Hogarth withhis dog Trump, made byJim Mathieson, was unveiled on the High Road, not far fromHogarth's House, where he lived from 1749 until his death in 1764.[33]
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The 1886 Roman Catholic Church ofOur Lady of Grace and St Edward stands on the south side of the High Road, on the corner with Duke's Avenue. It is a red brickbasilica by the architectsKelly and Birchall. The main door, with a round pediment, faces the High Road. There is no apse; the side walls are stepped. The ground floor is designed with intentionally blind window panels. The building is ornamented with substantial amounts of moulded and rubbed brick and terracotta decoration. The tall rectangular yellow-brown brick bell-tower was added byGiles Gilbert Scott in 1930; a rather more ornate tower was included in the original plans. The roof is covered with pantiles. Next to it on the High Road is the 18th centuryPresbytery of brown brick withCoade stone details, three storeys with double-hung sash windows; both buildings are Grade II listed.[34][35]
The High Road has for centuries provided ample inns to refresh thirsty travellers. The Roebuck, the Barley Mow and the Coach & Horses were all licensed drinking premises in the 18th century; by the 1820s, some were able to book stage coaches for their guests. The Roebuck was briefly renamed to the 'Rat and Parrot' in the 1990s; the present building, from 1895 replacing an earlier structure, is decorated with stucco and relief statues of stags on its front and side pediments.[36] The George IV was already licensed in 1771, then called Lord Boston's Arms;Fuller, Smith and Turner bought and renamed it in 1826, and rebuilt it in 1931–32.[16]
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Just off Chiswick High Road and parallel to it is Bourne Place, with the sole surviving large detached house of those along the High Road in the 18th and 19th centuries. Afton House, since 1919 the Chiswick Memorial Club, is a Grade II listed building, built circa 1800. It is in brown brick with five bays of double-hung sash windows over four floors; the ground floor and entrance arestuccoed. Its large front garden has been replaced by buildings along the south side of the High Road.[37]
Leading westwards from Bourne Place is the narrow Barley Mow Passage, still with an industrial air. TheSanderson factory building now known as Voysey House was designed by the architectCharles Voysey in 1902. It is faced in white glazed brick, withStaffordshire blue bricks (now painted black) forming horizontal bands, with the plinth, surrounds for door and window openings, and dressings inPortland stone. It was originally awallpaper printing works, now used as office space. It is Grade II* listed. It faces the main Devonshire Works building, and was once joined to it by a bridge across the road. It was Voysey's only industrial building, and is considered an "importantArts and Crafts factory building".[38] In 2024, Sanderson's announced they were moving their headquarters back to Voysey House.[39]
Nos 1-21 Chiswick High Road, on the south side, was designed by William Blore in 1837 and built in 1838. The entire building, then named William's Terrace, survives as a terrace of ten three-storey houses, though with some changes to the front, and additional structures in what were the front gardens, making it less conspicuous than it was when built. The 1837 print omits the roofs and chimneys to make the building look grander and more formal.[40]
The Power House, on the north of Chiswick High Road next to the bus garage, was built as an electricity generating station for theLondon United Electrical Tramway Company between 1899 and 1901. Pevsner describes it as a "monumental freeBaroque brick and stone composition ... by far the most exciting building [on the High Road, and] ... the best surviving example in London from the early, heroic era of generating stations whose bulky intrusion in residential areas was tempered by thoughtful architectural treatment".[41] When it fell into disuse it was threatened with demolition; the campaign to save it resulted in its Grade II listing.[42]
Ballet Rambert's offices and training studios were housed in 94-96 Chiswick High Road from 1971 until 2013, when the company moved across London to theSouth Bank.[43][44] The premises have been converted into the Chiswick Cinema, opened in 2021 with five screens and a bar.[45]
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In 2015,Hounslow Council appraised part of Chiswick High Road as aconservation area, near those ofBedfork Park and theold village of Chiswick, to the north and south respectively. The area's western end is on Clifton Gardens (a short distance east of Turnham Green), and its eastern end is on Chiswick Lane; it extends northwards to take in the buildings on the east side of Turnham Green Terrace, whose shops and restaurants are part of the same shopping centre. The appraisal noted that the "consistent three storey height, regular fenestration pattern, strong parapet line and plot widths work together to provide a regular rhythm"[3] along the High Road.[3]
In 2021, Hounslow Council reappraised the Turnham Green Conservation area.[37] This is adjacent to the Chiswick High Road conservation area, covering the part of the High Road from Chiswick Road inGunnersbury to the west, via the whole of Turnham Green common and the buildings facing its north side along the High Road, to Clifton Gardens in the east. It takes in a substantial area to the south of the common, and was extended in 2019 to include the streets between Sutton Court Road and Duke's Avenue down to the Great West Road.[37]
In 2020, Hounslow Council andTransport for London installed a two-way cycle lane, Cycleway 9, on the south side of Chiswick High Road in a "low traffic neighbourhood" scheme. The lane had a mixed reception among traders and the public.[46][47][48]
A315 Chiswick High Road - Chiswick Lane to King Street (36947)
A315 Chiswick High Road - Heathfield Terrace to Chiswick Lane (16867)
A315 Chiswick High Road - Chiswick Roundabout to Heathfield Terrace (56697)
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51°29′35″N0°16′01″W / 51.49301°N 0.26708°W /51.49301; -0.26708
