| Feltham | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 High Street, Feltham town centre | |
  Feltham Location withinGreater London | |
| Area | 6.56 km2 (2.53 sq mi) |
| Population | 63,368 2011 Census[1] |
| • Density | 9,660/km2 (25,000/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TQ105735 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | FELTHAM |
| Postcode district | TW13, TW14 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°26′59″N0°24′32″W / 51.4496°N 0.4089°W /51.4496; -0.4089 | |
Feltham (/ˈfɛltəm/) is a town inWest London, England, 13.5 miles (21.7 km) fromCharing Cross. Historically part ofMiddlesex, it became part of theLondon Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency ofFeltham and Heston has been held byLabour Party MPs since 1992. In 2011, the population of the combined census area of Feltham,Bedfont andHanworth was 63,368.
The economy of the town was largely agrarian until the early twentieth century, when it was transformed by the expansion of the London urban area. Most of the original High Street was demolished in the 1960s and 1970s. Further redevelopment in the early 2000s created the current shopping centre, which opened in 2006.
Heathrow Airport is to the north west of the town and is a major centre of employment for local residents.Feltham railway station is on theWaterloo to Reading line, betweenTwickenham andStaines-upon-Thames.
Feltham formed an ancient parish in theSpelthorne hundred ofMiddlesex.[2] TheDomesday Book records 21 households and an annual value of six pounds sterling; it was held as lord and tenant-in-chief byRobert, Count of Mortain. A large area of ten cultivated ploughlands is recorded.[3] Following Mortain's son's forfeit of lands (William's rebellion triggering theattainder), the land was granted to theRedvers/de Ripariis/Rivers family. The heir in that family,Hubert de Burgh ('Chief Justiciar and Earl of Kent') swapped Feltham andKempton withHenry III for his manors ofAylsham in Norfolk andWesthall in Suffolk.[4] In 1440Henry VI granted numerous privileges to his joint royal custodian of the two manors, including a daily income of up to 12shillings and that "corn, hay, horse and carriages and other goods and chattels should not be seized for the king's use".[4]
While under total royal control followingHenry VIII's fullannexation of the manor into theHonour of Hampton Court, a lease of all of itsmanor court rights and "franchises, privileges, emoluments, and hereditaments" was granted under his daughterElizabeth I to the Killigrew family of Kempton Park, for 80 years.[4]
However the large manor itself passed 40 years later in 1631 by grant toFrancis (Lord) Cottington, established at his newHanworth Park, who had become Lord Treasurer, ambassador and leader of the pro-Spanish, pro-Roman Catholic faction in the court ofCharles I.[4] His nephew sold it, after a major fire and a very temporary loss caused by John Bradshaw, who arranged the King's execution, under theCommonwealth of England, to Sir Thomas Chambers. His son inherited Feltham manor, whose daughter by an empowering marriage toAdmiral Vere (created Lord Vere) of Hanworth in the same historic county ofMiddlesex (created for him 1750) led to its next owner having a very high title and degree of wealth: her son,Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans inherited the manor and a dukedom with considerable land from a cousin. The Duke was a British landowner and a collector of antiquities and works of art, seated occasionally at Hanworth, who funded an excavation in Italy which produced many sculptureartifacts. Parting with much of the Duke's surfeit of large country houses, minor plot sales dividing the two ancient manors took place in the 19th century. Finally in the early 20th century, until death, the land now considered Feltham was either already subdivided by developers and farmers or owned by senior judge Ernest Pollock turned politician, (1st)Viscount Hanworth. He saw the very large Hanworth manor, which covered most of Hanworth parish divided up due to taxation; it became well-placed to cater to the demand for new homes with new intra-Borough transport links.
In this period in 1784General William Roy set out the baseline of what would become theOrdnance Survey across Hounslow Heath, passing through Feltham.[5] General Roy is commemorated by a local pub. TheMOD Defence Geographic Centre maintains a base in Feltham, announced for disposal in the 2015–2020 Parliament.[6]
In 1831, Feltham occupied an area of 2,620 acres (11 km2), stretching intoHounslow Heath and had a population of 924.[7] TheWaterloo to Reading Line established a station here from its construction in 1848. From 1894 to 1904 the Felham parish was included in theStaines Rural District.[2] In 1901 the parish had a population of 4,534[7] and accordingly in 1904 it was split from the rural district to form theFeltham Urban District.[8] In 1932 the parishes of Hanworth and East Bedfont were also transferred from the Staines district to Feltham Urban District.
From the 1860s until late 1920s Feltham was also home to the "Cabbage King", A.W. Smith.[9] Smith was considered one of the most successful market gardeners of the time, and his "Glass City" of greenhouses along Feltham's High street was unmatched.[9] Smith also lived in the Feltham House (now in the middle of MOD site in the town) for a time. His greenhouses have since disappeared, but many of the fields still remain.
Feltham Urban District was disbanded in 1965 along with theMiddlesex County Council following theLondon Government Act 1963, which transferred administrative control over parts of Middlesex to the new county ofGreater London.
Although opened in 1910, major expansion took place in a similar period, at the extreme south-west of thepost town, atFeltham Young Offenders' Institution or HM Prison Feltham, which is a major such institution providing a range of employments and rehabilitation schemes for young people.[10] It has a border withAshford and the neighbouring village ofEast Bedfont.
Famous former residentFreddie Mercury (born Farokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, 1946–1991) ofrock bandQueen was commemorated by a permanent, Hollywood-style granite star in Feltham's town-centre piazza, unveiled on 24 November 2009 (the eighteenth anniversary of Mercury's death) byQueen guitaristBrian May, alongside Freddie's mother, Jer Bulsara, and his sister. In 2011, owing to neglect and weather damage, Hounslow Council removed the memorial, resolving to substitute a smaller one elsewhere.
Feltham's town centre developed in the period 1860–2010 when the focus of the village moved north from by St Dunstan's Church after the coming of the railway in 1848. For most of the twentieth century, it had a traditional-looking High Street, including moremock tudor shop fronts, and a large medievalmanor house which was controversially demolished in the mid-1960s to make way for a car dealership and petrol station. This has since been demolished but replaced with a hardware, carpets and supermarket siteManor Park.
Most of the originalHigh Street shops were also demolished in the mid-1960s through to the early 1970s. Victorian and Edwardian tall-storey terraced, semi-detached and detached homes are found on Hanworth Road and adjoining roads, and in the smallconservation area at Feltham Pond on the High Street. Many old cottages and workman's terraces were demolished alongside the railway line to make way forbrutalisthigh rise blocks of housing, of originally purelysocial housing to house the homeless and overcrowded people in the borough, such as Belvedere House, Hunter House and Home Court, demolished in the 2000s and replaced with mixed-ownership apartments in a more ornate style in acluster, incorporating designer balconies and architectural demonstrations of free-form structure such as propped overhangs and an unobtrusive at street-level, multi-facetedfloor plan.[citation needed]
The current shopping hub,[11] The centre, Feltham (also known as the Longford Centre, if only by the original developers and some retail tenants), opened in 2006. It retained and refurbished many of the shop units built in the 1960s to replace the demolished buildings, along the High Street frontage, but replaced most of the others with new, larger units. Also added as part of the re-development was a Travelodge hotel, 800 homes, a new and larger library, and a medical centre. The anchor (and largest) store in the centre is anAsda hypermarket, coupled with fashion chains, small restaurants, apublic house and cafés. Near to the retail park mentioned is aTesco superstore and numerous grocery outlets are dotted along the area's High Street. Added to this are regular local trades/services in small clusters in the main named neighbourhoods of North Feltham and Lower Feltham.[11] Prior to this large-scale redevelopment, the rock band Oasis filmed the video for their songStand by Me in The Centre in 1997. Rap groupSo Solid Crew also filmed the music video for their 2003 single,Broke Silence, on Highfield Estate (nearby The Centre), before its eventual regeneration.[citation needed]
In retail, the closest destination with more than 100 outlets isHounslow, centred less than 2 miles (3.2 km) to the north-east, followed byKingston andStaines. Late 2017 saw the approval of the "Feltham Masterplan" by Hounslow council which will see the transformation of Feltham for the next 15 years.[citation needed]
In June 2024 aSurrey Police officer, who repeatedly drove his police car into a 10-month-old breedingheifer, called Beau Lucy, in Raleigh Road, was removed from frontline duties.[12]
Feltham is centred 13.5 miles (21.7 km)west south west of centralLondon atCharing Cross and centred 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from the centre ofHeathrow Airport.[13]
The neighbouring settlements areHounslow,Ashford,East Bedfont (including Hatton),Sunbury Common,Cranford andHanworth.[13]
There is no specifictown council for Feltham; instead a Bedfont, Feltham, Hanworth area forum of councillors considers issues specific to the area on theLondon Borough of Hounslow's council.[11][14]
The town forms part ofFeltham and Heston parliamentary constituency (and theSouth WestLondon Assembly constituency which elects the geographic element of members who advise, steer, assist and scrutinise theMayor of London who is directly responsible for only certain designated policy areas such as Transport for London).[15] There are two local government wards falling entirely within Feltham –Feltham North andFeltham West – though locals often consider sections of the Hanworth Park and Bedfont wards as forming part of Feltham.[16] This area was represented in Parliament from 1992 to 2011 byAlan Keen (Labour). After his death, Labour candidateSeema Malhotra won the by-election.[17]
Feltham Magistrates' Court was built in 1902 as a town hall but converted to a magistrates' court in 1906.[18] The court closed in 2016.[19]
Immediately adjacent to the town centre isMoD Feltham, a secure 30-acre (12 ha) site belonging to theMinistry of Defence.[20]
The main economic activity of the Feltham area was market gardening until well into the twentieth century. A popular variety of pea known as the Feltham First is so-named for being first grown in the town. The market gardens were largely replaced with light industry, gravel and aggregate extraction, and new housing from the 1930s onwards.
Feltham has been associated with land and air transport for more than a century. In what is now the Leisure West entertainment complex of various buildings including cinema, bowling alley and restaurants, the Feltham tramcar was once manufactured and ran along the tracks of many municipal operators, though never in Feltham itself. In the same area of the town, aircraft manufacture was an important industry, particularly in the war years. Feltham was in the early and mid 20th century home to Britain's second largest railwaymarshalling yard which was geared towards freight, and was a target for German air force bombs inWorld War II.
The motor car manufacturerAston Martin had its main factory in Feltham between 1926 (when it bought the former Whitehead Aircraft factory) and 1963.[21] The site is now occupied by part of Leisure West.
A former company based in Feltham from 1911 until the closure of its factory in the 1980s wasMinimax Limited, manufacturers offire extinguishers.
The largest local employer isHeathrow Airport. Associated businesses conglomerate in the business parks of the TW14 (Bedfont and Feltham North) part of the post town particularly in logistics and couriers who store and carry the air freight of much of Britain.[22]
However, accessibility of parts of Central London and a good local road network have also made Feltham a base for a number of high-tech companies, includingDHL andArqiva. The latter is notable in having atelecommunications port (teleport) in Feltham which provides transmission and distribution facilities for TV companies includingSky andChannel 5.
Feltham has in its land use considerably more open spaces than average in (Greater) London;[11] bounding it to the east is a natural small river, theCrane separating off the once vastHounslow Heath to the east, stretching from north byHarlington south toHampton, London until the early 20th century. To other sides it includes a country park formed from converted gravel pits (Bedfont Lakes) with rolling adjacent meadows open to walkers by its railway and (within thepost town) one of Greater London's first airfields,London Air Park atHanworth, which has well-trimmed grass, is surrounded by trees and is a large and sports-oriented public open space.
Public venues include Feltham Assembly Hall, opened in 1965 in Feltham Park, community rooms in the new library, as well as several residents association halls and clubs. Since the controversial removal in 2008 of the Feltham Community Association from the Feltham People's Centre (the former Feltham Hotel), the town has lacked a dedicated community centre and after protests from the community a new one I now being built on Feltham Green with a planned opening date of spring 2025
Springwest Academy (formerly Feltham Comprehensive School) andRivers Academy West London (known as Longford School until 2011) both have excellent sports facilities. These supplement the Hanworth Air Park Leisure Centre and Library, operated by Fusion Leisure on behalf of Hounslow Council. Leisure West (a privately developed and managed complex of entertainment and dining facilities including a multiplex cinema, tenpin bowling alley, bingo club and restaurants) opened on the former industrial sites around Browell's Lane in the mid-1990s.Feltham has aNon-League football clubBedfont & Feltham F.C. who play at the Orchard in East Bedfont. Bedfont Recreation Ground hostsBrentford Women.
The 2011 ethnic groups in Feltham with a total population of 63,368 were:
This is combined data for the Feltham North and West wards with Feltham North being slightly more ethnically diverse than Feltham West.
The town remains among the largest ecclesiastical parishes of theDiocese of London within theChurch of England. The parish church of St Dunstan and the Parish of Feltham have joined with two other churches to create a larger Ecumenical Parish of Feltham founded in the late 1970s. This joins the church together in activities and church services with Southville Methodist Church and the United Free Church of Feltham.
On 24 June 1868,Father Ignatius founded anAnglican Benedictine convent in the parish. Feltham Priory, or Feltham Nunnery, was dedicated to SaintsMary andScholastica (twin sister ofSt Benedict).[4] It lasted five years before the nuns initiated a series of moves which would see them relocate toCurzon Park Abbey in Chester in 1988.
The tall spire fronting tower of an additional church first built 1880–1898, to St Catherine, opposite the railway station forms the façade of St Catherine's House, a London Borough of Hounslow Housing office and temporary housing accommodation.[23]As of August 2014, St Catherine's House is now closed because the council have moved out and relocated elsewhere.
The Roman Catholic church ofSaint Lawrence, with its attendant primary school, faces onto Feltham Green.[24]
NearbyHatton Cross, which is on the Heathrow branch of thePiccadilly line provides aCentral London and Heathrow rail option to Feltham, and is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the town centre. Bus routes 90, 117, 235, 285, 490, H25 and H26 also run frequent services through the town, as well as bus route 116 through Feltham North.
The town is served byFeltham railway station on theWaterloo to Reading Line, Two branch line services operate on the line here, toWindsor andWeybridge.
The town hasLondon Buses services toKingston upon Thames,Richmond,Brentford,Heathrow,Staines-upon-Thames,Northolt,Isleworth andSunbury on Thames. Intervening places such asHayes, Hounslow,Hampton Court/Hampton,Twickenham and Ashford are called at.[25]
Long-distance express services are offered predominantly from various sides of Heathrow to places such asSlough,Reading, Berkshire andCroydon, the latter under the London Buses pricing and operational scheme.[25]
