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| Teddington | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Teddington Location withinGreater London | |
| Area | 4.27 km2 (1.65 sq mi) |
| Population | 10,562 (2021)[1] |
| • Density | 2,474/km2 (6,410/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TQ159708 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | TEDDINGTON |
| Postcode district | TW11 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°25′26″N0°19′55″W / 51.424°N 0.332°W /51.424; -0.332 | |
Teddington is an affluent suburb of London in theLondon Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Historically anancient parish in the county ofMiddlesex and situated close to the border withSurrey, the district became part ofGreater London in 1965. In 2021,The Sunday Times named Teddington as the best place to live inLondon,[2] and in 2023, the wider borough was ranked first inRightmove'sHappy at Home index, making it the "happiest place to live in Great Britain"; the first time a London borough has taken the top spot.[3][4]
Teddington is situated on a longmeandering of the Thames betweenHampton Wick andStrawberry Hill, Twickenham. Mostly residential, it stretches from the river toBushy Park with the commercial focus on the A313 road. At Teddington's centre is the High Street and Broad Street, alongsidemid-rise urban developments, containing offices and apartments. There is asuspension bridge over the lowest non-tidal lock on the Thames,Teddington Lock.
The district's commercial focus – containing shops, offices and other facilities – is along theA313, which is named (from west to east):Hampton Road,Broad Street andHigh Street. Broad Street contains a mixture of chain shops, cafes and supermarkets, alongside independent businesses, while the High Street is composed of nearly all local and independent businesses and restaurants from Teddington and South West London.
There are two clusters of offices on this route; on the edge of Bushy Park theNational Physical Laboratory,National Measurement Office andLGC form a scientific centre. AroundTeddington station and the town centre are a number of offices in industries such asdirect marketing andIT, which includeTearfund andBMT Limited. Several riverside businesses and houses were redeveloped in the last quarter of the 20th century as blocks of riverside flats. Starting in 2016 the riverside site of the formerTeddington Studios was redeveloped to provide modern apartment blocks and other smaller houses.[5]
The lowermost lock on the Thames,Teddington Lock, which is just withinHam's boundary, is accessible via theTeddington Lock Footbridges. In 2001 theRoyal National Lifeboat Institution opened theTeddington Lifeboat Station, one of four Thames lifeboat stations, below the lock on the Teddington side. The station became operational in January 2002 and is the only volunteer station on the river.
The place-name ‘Teddington’ is first attested in a Saxon charter of 969, where it appears as ‘Tudintún’ (’The Crawford Collection of Early Charters’, Oxford, 1895). It appears as ‘Tudincgatun’ in the ‘Cartularium Saxonicum’ edited by Birch, published in London from 1895-1893. It is listed as ‘Tudinton’ in theFeet of Fines for 1197. The name means “the tūn [town or settlement] of Tud(d)a’s people”.[6]
Teddington is at the point of the River Thames where tidal flow ceases owing to it containing the 'final lock'. It has been postulated that the name thus derives from "Tide End Town." Such theory featured inRudyard Kipling’s poem, "The River's Tale", which has the line "At Tide-end-town, which is Teddington." The poem was written to serve as the introduction to a history of England for schoolchildren, written byC. R. L. Fletcher, published by theClarendon Press in Oxford in July 1911, and byDoubleday Page in New York in September 1911.
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There have been isolated findings of flint and bone tools from theMesolithic andNeolithic periods inBushy Park, and some unauthenticated evidence ofRoman occupation.[7] However, the first permanent settlement in Teddington was probably inSaxon times. Teddington was not mentioned in theDomesday Book of 1086 as it was included under theHampton entry.
Teddington Manor was first owned byBenedictine monks inStaines, and it is believed they built a chapel dedicated to St. Mary[which one?] on the same site as today's St. Mary's Church. In 971, a charter gave the land in Teddington to theAbbey of Westminster. By the 14th century Teddington had a population of 100–200; most of the land was owned by theAbbot of Westminster and the remainder was rented by tenants who had to work the fields a certain number of days a year.
The Hampton Court gardens were laid out in 1500 in preparation for the planned rebuilding of a 14th-century manor to formHampton Court Palace in 1521. They were to serve as hunting grounds forCardinal Wolsey and laterHenry VIII and his family. In 1540 some common land of Teddington was enclosed to form Bushy Park, and also used as hunting grounds.
Bushy House was built in 1663. One notable resident wasBritish Prime MinisterLord North, who lived there for over twenty years.[8]
A large minority of the parish lay in largely communal open fields, restricted in the Middle Ages to certain villagers. These wereinclosed (privatised) in two phases, in 1800 and 1818.[9][10] Shortly afterwards, theDuke of Clarence lived there with his mistressDorothy Jordan[11] before he became King William IV, and later with his Queen Consort,Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. The buildings were later used for theNational Physical Laboratory.
In subsequent centuries, Teddington enjoyed a prosperous life due to the proximity of royalty, and by 1800 had grown significantly. But the "Little Ice Age" had made farming much less profitable and residents were forced to find other work. This change resulted in great economic change in the 19th century.
The first major event was the construction of Teddington Lock in 1811 with itsweir across the river.[12] This was the first (and now the biggest) of five locks built at the time by theCity of London Corporation. In 1889Teddington Lock Footbridge, consisting of asuspension bridge section and agirder bridge section, was completed, linking Teddington toHam (then inSurrey, now in London). It was funded by local business and public subscription.
After the railway was built in 1863, easy travel to Twickenham,Richmond,Kingston and London was possible and Teddington experienced a population boom, rising from 1,183 in 1861 to 6,599 in 1881 and 14,037 in 1901.[13]
Many roads and houses were built, continuing into the 20th century, forming the close-knit network ofVictorian andEdwardian streets present today. In 1867, a local board was established and anurban district council in 1895.
In 1864 a group of Christians left the Anglican Church of St. Mary's (upset at itshigh church tendencies) and formed their own independent and Reformed, Protestant-style, congregation atChrist Church. Their original church building stood on what is now Church Road.
The Victorians attempted to build a large church,St. Alban's, based on theNotre Dame de Paris; however, funds ran out and only thenave of what was to be the "Cathedral of the Thames Valley" was completed.[14] In 1993 the temporary wall was replaced with a permanent one as part of a refurbishment that converted St Alban's Church into theLandmark Arts Centre, a venue for concerts and exhibitions.
A new cemetery,Teddington Cemetery, opened at Shacklegate Lane in 1879.[15]
Several schools were built in Teddington in the late 19th century in response to the1870 Education Act, putting over 2,000 children in schools by 1899, transforming the previously illiterate village.
On 26 April 1913 a train was almost destroyed in Teddington after anarson attack bysuffragettes.[16]
Great change took place around the turn of the 20th century in Teddington. Many new establishments were springing up, including Sims opticians. In 1902 theNational Physical Laboratory (NPL), the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, and the largest applied physics organisation in the UK, started in Bushy House (primarily working in industry and metrology and where the first accurateatomic clock was built) and the TeddingtonCarnegie Library was built in 1906.Electricity was also now supplied to Teddington, allowing for more development.
Until this point, the only hospital had been the very smallcottage hospital, but it could not accommodate the growing population, especially during the First World War. Money was raised over the next decade to buildTeddington Memorial Hospital[17] in 1929.
By the beginning of theSecond World War, by far the greatest source of employment in Teddington was in the NPL.[citation needed] Its main focus in the war was military research and its most famous invention, the "bouncing bomb", was developed. During the war GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower planned theD-Day landings at his Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) atCamp Griffiss inBushy Park.
The "towpath murders" took place across the river in 1953. On 1 June, Barbara Songhurst was discovered floating in the River Thames, having been stabbed four times. Her friend Christine Reed, then missing, was found dead on 6 June. On 28 June, Alfred Whiteway was arrested for their murder and the sexual assault of three other women that same year. Whiteway was hanged atWandsworth Prison on 22 November 1953. Whiteway and the girls were all from Teddington. The case was described as "one ofScotland Yard's most notable triumphs in a century".[18]
Teddington Studios, a digitalwidescreen television studio complex and one of the former homes ofThames Television, opened in 1958 on the site of Weir House. The studios were redeveloped in 2016 into luxury housing, though the old lock keepers cottage that predated the studios, known as Weir Cottage, was preserved.
Most major rebuilding from bomb damage in World War II was completed by 1960. Chain stores began to open up, includingTesco andSweatshop in 1971.
The Teddington Society, formed in 1973 by local residents, seeks to preserve the character of Teddington and to support local community projects.[19]
The education authority for Teddington isRichmond upon Thames London Borough Council.
Primary schools in Teddington include Collis Primary School (Fairfax Road), St Mary's & St Peter's Primary School (Church Road), Sacred Heart RC School (St Marks Road) and Stanley Juniors and Infants (Strathmore Road).[20] Secondary schools includeTeddington School.[21]
St Mary's & St Peter's Primary School was originally founded by Dorothy Bridgeman (d. 1697), widow ofSir Orlando Bridgeman, who left £40 to buy land in trust for educating poor children. In 1832, the foundation opened a boys' school, Teddington Public School, under the patronage ofQueen Adelaide. Its buildings now house the primary school.[22]
TheLandmark Arts Centre, an independent charity housed in aformer church, delivers a wide-ranging arts and education programme for the local and wider community. Its activities include arts classes, concerts and exhibitions.[23]
Teddington station is at the centre of the town, and the closest railway station. Additionally,Hampton Wick station is located to the south,Strawberry Hill station to the north, andFulwell station to the west; all can be reached by London buses from Broad Street.
Teddington railway station, served bySouth Western Railway trains, is on the electrifiedKingston Loop Line close to the junction of theShepperton Branch Line. Trains run toLondon Waterloo in two directions around a circular loop: one way viaKingston upon Thames andWimbledon every 15 minutes, the other viaRichmond andPutney every 30 minutes. Trains also run toShepperton every 30 minutes.
Currently paused, theCrossrail 2 project was planned to run through Teddington Station. Upgrading the existing lines on the Wimbledon section of the South West London network, TfL projected an increase in service up to 10-12 trains an hour to Central London, from a 2015 average of 6.[33]
Teddington is served byLondon Buses services to other London locations, includingHeathrow Airport,Hounslow Central,West Croydon andCastelnau. Routes 33, 281, 285, 481, 681, R68 andSuperloop SL7 serve the town centre, and all seven connect the town with eitherTwickenham orKingston upon Thames.[34]
Neighbouring districts | |
|---|---|
| Ward | Detached | Semi-detached | Terraced | Flats and apartments | Caravans/temporary/mobile homes/houseboats | Shared between households[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (ward) | 339 | 972 | 1,217 | 2,065 | 1 | 22 |
| Ward | Population | Households | % Owned outright | % Owned with a loan | hectares[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (ward) | 10,330 | 4,853 | 31 | 35 | 427 |
Only notable people with entries on Wikipedia have been included. Their birth or residence has been verified by citations.
| International | |
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| Geographic | |
