In 1680 the homicidalPhilip Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke murdered a watchman, William Smeeth, after a drunken evening in the local tavern.[5] A similar but far less serious episode in the tavern, theOld Packhorse Inn, in 1795 saw the youngDaniel O'Connell arrested for drunken and riotous behaviour.[6]
From 1912 until its closure in 1959, theChiswick Empire theatre stood facing the north side of Turnham Green.[7]
At the eastern end of the green stands Chiswickwar memorial. It is in the form of a stone obelisk at the top of a flight of five steps, encircled by a metal fence and ayew hedge. It was unveiled on 13 November 1921 by the9th Duke of Devonshire andArthur Winnington-Ingram, the Bishop of London. It is made ofCornish granite. It was designed by a local architect, Edward Willis. It was givenGrade II listed status in 2015.[8]
Along the southern side of the green is Heathfield Terrace; its largest buildings are the Italianate 1876Chiswick Town Hall, designed by W. J. Trehearne, and the formerArmy and Navy Furniture Repository, built around 1900, and now converted into flats. Further west, at the corner with Heathfield Gardens, is the red brick 1913 Turnham Green Church Hall withArts and Crafts style decoration; it was built here as residents objected to having it in the park beside the church. It is now used as a school.[10][11] Facing the southwestern corner of the green is Fromow's Corner, an "attractively detailed"[12] curved red brick building with brick pilasters; a plaque at the corner of the roofline proclaims "Fromow & Sons Estd 1829, Erectd 1889".[12]
In 2021, Hounslow Council reappraised the Turnham Green Conservation area.[12] This is adjacent to the Chiswick High Road conservation area (which is further east), 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.[12]
Fromow's Corner, 1889
FormerArmy and Navy Furniture Repository, Heathfield Terrace, c. 1900
"One night by Turnham Green I robbed a revenue collector, and what I took from him I gave to a widow to protect her".[13]
Charles Dickens's novelA Tale of Two Cities, set in the time of theFrench Revolution at the end of the 18th century, mentions "that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, [who] was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature in sight of all his retinue."[14]
The song "Suite In C" on the eponymous albumMcDonald and Giles, which alludes to places in London, includes the line "The sun shone 'til Turnham Green".[15]
The song "Junkie Doll" byMark Knopfler includes the line "Turnham green, Turnham green, You took me high as I've ever been".[16]
Harold Hume Piffard, amateur pioneer aviator, built a plane in 1909 in a shed on Back Common Road[24]
The painterVincent van Gogh spent three years in Chiswick in the 1870s, teachingSunday school pupils in the newly-constructed Chiswick Congregational Church, which was on the site of the Arlington Park Mansions on Turnham Green; he wrote of Chiswick as a "verdant" district of London.[25][26][27]
The Italian poetUgo Foscolo, who died in exile here, by F.-X.-P. Fabre, 1813
Sketch of Turnham Green Congregational Church byVincent van Gogh, c. 1875. He taughtSunday school in the iron structure, now replaced by Arlington Park Mansions.[27]
Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane North, facing Turnham Green, withE. M. Forster blue plaque
^David L. Smith, 'The infamous seventh earl of Pembroke, 1653–1683' (a sub-section of 'Herbert, Philip, first earl of Montgomery and fourth earl of Pembroke (1584–1650), courtier and politician') inOxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2004)
^Bolton, Diane K.; Croot, Patricia E. C.; Hicks, M. A. (1982). Baker, T. F. T.; Elrington, C. R. (eds.).A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7. London: Victoria County History. pp. 90–93.
.jpg)
.jpg)
![Sketch of Turnham Green Congregational Church by Vincent van Gogh, c. 1875. He taught Sunday school in the iron structure, now replaced by Arlington Park Mansions.[27]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSketch_of_Turnham_Green_Congregational_Church_by_Vincent_Van_Gogh_c1875.jpg)
.jpg)
