Who Was Who At Strand on the Green
The area has been home to many well known names
A small exhibition organized by the Strand on the Green Association, entitled Who Was Who At Strand on the Green, was held on the Strand in 1979. A larger version, the work of Kathleen Judges and Christopher Knight, was held at Gunnersbury Park Museum in September 1980. This article uses the research for those exhibitions. The list includes many of the residents of the Strand over the last three centuries. It is arranged according to their place of residence so that you can walk from the Grove Park end of the Strand towards Kew Bridge, matching up the people to their homes.
A Brief History of Strand on the Green
Strand on the Green today is a unique urban village which began as a fishermen's settlement in the Middle Ages. Riverside trade and various industries followed without displacing the fishermen. A few members of the nobility and gentry settled in the neighbourhood from Tudor times and in the eighteenth century the Strand attracted both city merchants and hangers-on of the Hanoverian Georges, who spent much time at Kew.
All these elements mingled. Copyholders built or rebuilt premises immediately adjoining the River Thames; the watermen’s steps and landing stages of the gentry were cheek by jowl with the wharves built for trade by brick-makers, coal and stone merchants, maltsters, market gardeners, nurserymen, boat-builders, engineers and inn-keepers, and for the upriver depot of the water-Bailiff of the City of London.
The gradual decline of Strand on the Green in the 19th century was signalled by three major changes in the environment:
1. the Royal Family preferred Windsor to Kew and the Royal Botanic Gardens became a public pleasure ground as well as a botanical institution
2. the opening of the Grand Junction Canal diverted freight traffic to Brentford
3. the opening in 1849 of the L & SW railway line from Waterloo, with stations at Chiswick and Kew Bridge, encouraged builders to buy up the park lands of London Stile House, Sutton Court, Grove House, etc for suburban development.
Although Strand on the Green became almost a slum around the turn of the century, the copyhold system of land tenure still operated here and made large-scale redevelopment difficult. By great good luck many of the old premises survived changes of use until the end of the First World War, when public interest in old buildings and romantic situations brought a gradual restoration of the family houses.
Air raids in the Second World War caused some destruction but the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act resulted in the listing of 39 buildings of special architectural or historical interest. So in the nick of time Planning Committees were enabled to protect old buildings and to prevent the erection of new ones which would appear out of scale with the modest 2 or3 stories which are characteristic of this riverside terrace.
The major threat to the survival of the Strand today comes from the danger of flooding by the “surges” (exceptional high tides) brought by that very River Thames to which it owes its existence! Let us echo Edmund Spenser’s “Sweet Thames, run softly until I end my song”.
GROVE HOUSE
The BARKER family
The Barkers lived at Grove House from 1540 to 1745. Several were Members of the Middle Temple and some were MPs for Middlesex. Scorie Barker remodeled the family home in 1710, using Lord Burlington’s Italian craftsmen.
Lord GRANTHAM
The son of William III’s Master of the Horse. He was the first Earl of Grantham and bought Grove House in 1745.
Humphrey MORICE
Lord Grantham’s successor at Grove House, Morice added a riding school and stabling. He was a close friend of Walpole and had a fine collection of pictures. His horses and a number of stray animals lived in great luxury – he devised the property to a Mrs Luther in 1790 on condition that his animals were cared for until they died naturally. One horse survived until 1815!
Col R W SHIPWAY, JP
He was the last occupant of Grove House and kept there an antiquarian co1lection which included a number of stuffed animals. In 1902 he was involved in the purchase of Hogarth's House which he presented to the Middlesex County Council.
VERNON COTTAGE
Joseph MILLER, 1684-1738
The exact whereabouts of this house is not certain but Joseph Miller occupied Vernon Cottage and five acres of land west of Grove House from 1686 until 1738, and his widow stayed on there after his death. Miller was a comic actor and performed at Drury Lane for 30 years, appearing as at least 59 characters. He was a companion of Hogarth. Joe Miller's Jests was published in 1739.
No 1, STRAND GREEN HOUSE
There were a number of aristocratic tenants here in the 18th century.
Lady ASHBURNHAM
The widow of Lord Ashburnham of Sutton Court, she was living here in 1717.
Lord SCARSDALE of Kedleston
Lord Scarsdale took the house between 1723 and 1726. He was an ancestor of Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India.
Lord CORNBURY
He leased Strand Green House from the Walcot family in 1732-3. He was Henry Hyde, the eldest son and heir of the Earl of Clarendon and Rochester, MP for Oxford University, a noted wit and conversationalist, and first cousin once removed to Queen Anne.
William FAZACKERLY
William and his brother Nicholas came from Turnham Green. Both were wealthy lawyers, related to Lord Gower. William Fazackerly was tenant from 1733 to 1747 and his widow remained there until 1749.
Rev Dr BEARCROFT
He was an antiquarian and Chaplain to George II from 1738. He was Master of Charterhouse from 1753. He was the tenant of Strand Green House from 1758 to 1762 and his widow lived there until 1767.
Thomas WHIPHAM, 1748-1815
He was Prime Warden of the Goldsmith's Company in 1790 and ran a business with his partner, North, from 61 Fleet Street. (His father, Thomas, 1714-1785, was also a particularly skilled craftsman). Thomas bought the house in 1788, having been a tenant of No 69 during 1786-8. He completely re-modelled the house and bought back the coach house and stables which had been separately owned. He was active in local affairs, served as Churchwarden of Chiswick Parish and Treasurer of Chiswick Charity Schools. He was a friend of Zoffany and remained at the house until his death; he left money for the Thomas Whipham Charity.
Dr Stella CHURCHILL
She moved into the house in about 1923 and stayed until 1932. She opened the first child welfare clinic locally at Strand on the Green School in the 1920s. Amongst friends who stayed with her at Strand Green House were:
'ELIZABETH' (May BEAUCHAMP) . This writer, who died in the USA in 1940 and is now largely forgotten, stayed at the house in the 1920s. She was born in New Zealand, a cousin of Katherine Mansfield. Her first marriage was to a German, Count von Arnim, a much older widower who was “The Man of Wrath” in her first and most famous book, Elizabeth and Her German Garden. Her second marriage was to Francis, Earl Russell (the brother of Bertrand). All The Dogs Of My Life was her pseudo-biography, written through the eyes of the fourteen dogs she had owned! and:
Margaret KENNEDY
This author used Strand Green House in The Constant Nymph, in which the appalling Florence, wife of the musical hero Lewis Dodds, buys and redecorates it and sets about establishing a suitable social milieu for the advancement of her husband's career. Eventually he flees from the house with Tessa, the Constant Nymph herself. The scene where Tessa and the other Sanger children arrive unexpectedly and are found sitting on the doorstep of the house, under the pillared porch, is one of the dramatic moments of the story.
Joseph ARMITAGE
An early member of the Art Workers' Guild, he taught at Leicester School of Art and after war service he came to London to set up his own firm, designing and producing architectural ornament for public buildings. He worked with Sir Herbert Baker on New Delhi in 1924-5, on India House and South Africa House in London, and in 1936 on the rebuilt Bank of England. Two years later he produced the coat of arms for the new Chiswick Bridge. He also produced replacement Queen's Beasts for St George's Chapel at Windsor. The National Trust's Oak Leaf is probably his most widely known design - he won a competition for the Trust's symbol in 1935.
Strand Green House in now Nos 1and 2 Strand on the Green, No 3, formerly known as Elston, was often the property of the same owner in the past. Nos 4 and 5 were built for Joseph Armitage in 1938 to designs by W A S Lloyd (see No 53).
No 4
The GOWING Family, 1953-1966.
Donald Gowing was Secretary to the Musician's Benevolent Fund and had wide musical interests. He started an annual music festival at Abbey Dore and organised a memorable performance of Britten's
Noye’s Fludde at Richmond in which he played God. He died in 1967. Professor Margaret Gowing, his wife, has been a civil servant, historian and university teacher. She is now Professor of the History of Science at Oxford University and historian of the UK Atomic Energy Project. She was a member of the Brentford and Chiswick Education Committee and founded the Brentford and Chiswick Association for the Advancement of Secondary Education. The family first lived at No 32 (1950-3). Their son, Nik, is a television news reporter.
No 5
Goronwy REES
Educated at Cardiff and New College, Oxford, Fellow of All Souls in 1931, Rees worked as a writer and journalist in the 1930s. He served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers during World War II. In 1951 he
was estates bursar to All Souls. Between 1953 and 1957 he was Principal of the University of Wales. He resigned because of the controversy over his revelations about Burgess and Maclean. His autobiography, A Chapter of Accidents, appeared in 1972; he died in 1980.
Harold WILLIAMSON, OBE, 1892-1978
He trained at Leeds School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. He was Head of the Chelsea School of Art 1930-1958. His work is represented in the collections of the Imperial War Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. He designed posters to commissions from the GPO and London Transport. An accomplished musician, he wrote and illustrated The Orchestra, published by the Sylvan Press. He lived at No 5 from 1946 to 1963.
Nos 10-14, THE BULL COTTAGES
These were occupied by a variety of craftsmen and fishermen in the past. Built in the 1720s they were condemned as unfit for human habitation in about 1958. However their skillful restoration won a Civic Trust award in 1967.
No 20, RAILWAY COTTAGE
This house was acquired by the company that built the railway through here in the 1860s. Subsequently it was usually occupied by a railway company employee.
Nos 21 and 22
These two were built as a pair, but No 22 has since been altered.
No 21
Allan CUNNINGHAM
Cunningham was a botanist who went to Kew in 1808 to help with the preparation of an edition of Aiton's Hortus Kewensis. He was despatched to Australia after the Napoleonic Wars and in 1826-7 was the first botanist to explore the interior of New Zealand. He bought No 21, which he described as "a pretty cottage", on his return to England in 1831. He was restless though, and soon returned to Australia as Colonial Botanist at Sydney in succession to his brother who had been murdered by aborigines. He seems to have found the job unrewarding and was in poor health by this time. He died of consumption 18 months later.
Lord Hugh CUDLIPP, O.B.E. (b.1913)
Lord Cudlipp lived at No 21 from 1962 to 1964 and moved to No.14 Magnolia Wharf until 1966. He is one of three journalist brothers who rose to edit national newspapers. He edited the Sunday Pictor
ial before and after war service and was Chairman of Daily Mirror Newspapers Ltd, 1963-68 and Chairman of the parent company, the International Publishing Corporation Ltd, 1968-73.
Nos 22 and 23
Cephas HOWARD
He came to Chiswick in 1963 and lived as a tenant at No 22 while he had No 23, designed by Timothy Rendle, built for him. Cephas Howard went to the BBC from the Royal College of Art, where he designed several productions. He also wrote and illustrated children's books. He was lead trumpeter of the Temperance Seven Jazz Band which played for the first few annual dances of the Strand on the Green Sailing Club.
No 24
This was rebuilt after severe damage during World War II. The adjoining bar of The City Barge replaced a pair of very small Elizabethan cottages which were destroyed by a land mine, along with most of the old City Barge in 1940.
No 28
The deeds to No 28 indicate that it was rebuilt in 1752. The first floor of this cottage is built over the right of way from the Strand to Thames Road, known as Post Office Alley.
Florence ANDERSON
An illustrator of children's books, Florence Anderson lived here from about 1910 until 1935. She added the present balcony to the house.
Nos 29, 30, 31 and 32
These properties were rebuilt 1947-8 after bomb damage. No 29 was for a time the Post Office, hence the name of the alley. Later it became a cafe, known as the Cosy Cafe or The Spot of Comfort.
The PEARCE family
Members of this family lived in this row before World War II. There had been Pearces at Strand on the Green working as fishermen, lightermen or barge skippers since 1704. "Bommer" Pearce was one of the last two fishermen allowed to continue commercial fishing in the Thames by the PLA in the 1880s. He kept his eel-pots on a pontoon outside the Bell & Crown.
Geoffrey HOUSEHOLD
He lived at No 29 between 1949 and 1954. It was he who rebuilt and extended it, turning it into a house again. Traveller, soldier, craftsman and writer he produced 14 novels and 4 children's books as well as short stories. He roasted a deer single-handed on Oliver's Island for the local Coronation party!
No 30
John IRWIN (d 1976)
He lived at No.30 for the last twelve years of a strenuous and colourful life which included a voyage before the mast to Australia and culminated in the role of broadcaster, best known for documentaries and television interviews. He introduced the historian A J P Taylor to television audiences and published an autobiography, My Time Is My Own, in 1955.
No 31
John BIRD
This humorist, well-known for his writing in Private Eye magazine and for television, lived here for a short time in the 1960s.
No 32
The Gowing family lived here between 1950 and 1953; see No 4 for details.
MAGNOLIA WHARF
This was formerly the site of the Steam Navigation Company's noisy boat-building works and was sold for building in 1963. The adjoining estate was the property of the Port of London Authority and was sold as building land in 1970.
No 44
This also belonged to the PLA and served as the residence for the depot's foreman.
No 45, PICTON HOUSE
The TRIMMER family
Mary Buffar (daughter of John Trimmer) acquired No 45, the adjoining property, and half of No 49 in about 1790. Mary was the aunt of James Trimmer the younger, whose wife was the famous Sarah. Ann Trimmer inherited the property in 1819 and bequeathed it to her nephew, Joshua Kirby Trimmer, in 1825.
The SAUNDERS family
John Saunders, maltster of Strand on the Green, took on No 45 after Joshua Kirby Trimmer's death. Charles Saunders, a coal merchant, and William Jupp, his son-in- law, succeeded John as owners, followed by Charles' son, J H Saunders, in 1886; he also acquired No 44 in 1889.
Nos 46 and 47
These propertiesstand on the site of a malt-house which was in operation from the early 1700s.
No 49
Commander Philip Edward VAUX, OBE, DSC, RN, (1895-1966)
Commander Vaux rebuilt Nos 48 & 49 which had been wrecked by a land-mine, and lived at No 49 between 1947 and 1952. Having joined the Navy at the age of 18 his service during World War I led to the award of the DSC. In 1920, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant, he embarked on a long career with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, interrupted only by a second period of service in the Navy from 1939 to 1944. In 1926 he was awarded the Bronze Medal when, as Divisional Inspector, he took part in the rescue which followed the wreck of the Tenby Castle and the Cardigan Castle off Connemara. He retired in 1951 and was awarded the OBE the next year.
Sir Thomas BARLOW, CBE (1883~1964)
He lived at No 49 from 1952 until his death. A cotton spinner, he was President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and served as Controller-General of Clothing Coupons during World War II. He was also an art connoisseur and the Strand on the Green Association’s first President.
No 50
This was one of two houses built between 1712 and 1717 by Samuel Martin, who then owned the big malt-house on the adjoining site. No 50 remained remarkably unaltered until 1968 when a new owner thoughtlessly stripped out paneling and other fittings in the process of modernization.
David MALLETT
This Scots poet and dramatist, (real name Malloch) lived at the Strand from 1738 to 1748, at No 67 until 1741 and then at No 50. He was Secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales who lived at the White House at Kew from 1740 onwards. His works include the tragedy, Euridice, performed at Drury Lane in 1730, and Mustapha (1738) written with his friend James Thompson, who lived at Richmond. The Masque of Alfred was written in 1740 for the anniversary of the accession of George 1 and includes the song Rule Britannia.
Nos 52 to 55
This terrace of 5 houses is faced with unusual “White Kentish” brick and was erected in the 1790s. From about 1850 to 1929 nos 53 and 53A were occupied as one house known as “The Ferns”; you can still make out the name between the windows of no 53A.
No 52, RIVER HOUSE
The BROWN family
The Browns were living in a house on this site when Nos 50 & 51 were built. Daniel Brown, citizen and stationer of London, built a high garden wall between his garden and the two new houses and made a careful will in 1726 to ensure that his wife, Susan, his son and his two daughters would have the use of the house and garden for the rest of their lives.
The SYKES family
Edward Sykes, Barrister of New Inn, Middle Temple, moved into the house as a sub-tenant, acquiring the copyhold in 1793 of the big house with its garden running as far as the Ship Inn. He re-built River House on the old foundations and cellars and extended it into a terrace of five 3-storey houses with semi-basement kitchens. The interiors vary in detail and may have been completed to suit the occupants. The property was settled on his two daughters who both married barristers and moved into Nos 53 and 55 in about 1800 . The other two houses were let.
Fritz SPIEGL
He came to England as a child refugee and lodged with Mrs Audrey Tower at No 52 while a student at the Royal College of Music. He joined the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as their youngest principal flute and also became their lampoonist. His version of his wife’s arrangement of a folk-tune became famous as the theme from Z Cars. He gave up orchestral work in favour of composing and writing and became a regular broadcaster.
No 53 MUCKLOW HOUSE
Anthony Sampson LLOYD, FRIBA (1900 - 1974)
W A S Lloyd was senior partner in the architectural firm of Green, Lloyd and Adams (formerly Curtis Green, Son & Lloyd). He moved to No 53 in 1931. He served in the Royal Engineers in India, rising to Lieutenant-Colonel, and was awarded a military MBE. He was responsible for several public buildings in London but is chiefly known for his restoration of St Clements Danes as the RAF Church.
No 53A
Professor A V JUDGES (1898 -1973)
From January 1915 Professor Judges served with the London Rifle Brigade and then with the Tank Corps. In 1939 he became Reader in Economic History at the London School of Economics. He joined the Home Guard and Ministry of Labour and ended World War II as Assistant Secretary and Labour Advisor in the Ministry of Production. From 1949 to 1965 he was Professor of the History of Education at the University of London, and was involved in the boom in teacher training in England at this time. He was also Chairman of the Southern Rhodesian Education Commission in 1962-3. He was a founder member of the Strand on the Green Sailing Club, the Strand on the Green Association and the Brentford and Chiswick Local History Society.
No 56, SHIP HOUSE
Formerly The Ship Inn, this house existed in 1694 and may be older. Almost certainly the oldest house left on the Strand.
Professor G M CARSTAIRS
Professor Carstairs was born in 1915, the son of missionaries in India. He went to school and university in Edinburgh. He has been an apostle of the spreading of the scope and purpose of social psychiatry. An Aldermaston marcher, he was Reith Lecturer 1962-3, Vice-Chancellor of York University 1974-8, and became Visiting Professor of Psychology and Neurosciences at Bangalore. He coined the phrase "Charity is more important than chastity".
Dylan THOMAS (1914-1953)
The Welsh poet knew Professor Carstairs and stayed with him occasionally in Ship Cottage behind Ship House.
Nos 58 & 59
The houses existed in 1753, the property of a widow named Mary Knevett. The two cottages were combined during the ownership of Mrs WRIGHT 1928-1936.
No 59, OLD WILLOWS
Brian REECE. (d 1962)
Brian Reece lived at Strand on the Green 1948-1953, having served in the Royal Artillery between 1940 and 1946. He played in Bless The Bride at the Adelphi Theatre in 1947 and in The Seven Year Itch at the Aldwych in 1953. He was probably best known as PC49 in the radio series in the early 1950s.
No 60, THE DUTCH HOUSE
John GUILLERMIN
This film director lived at No 60 from 1959 to 1964. Although of French parentage he was brought up in Britain. He directed The Blue Max, The Towering Inferno and other successful films and later lived in Hollywood.
No 61, COMPASS HOUSE
Laura SCOTT
Cousin of Eunice Simon, wife of the founder of the Pier House Laundry, Laura Scott lived c1876-1914.
H George WEBB
A printer and engraver, H George Webb moved to No 61 in the 1920s, purchasing the house from Mrs Simon. He had worked as a printer from No 1 Priory Gardens, Bedford Park, between 1899 and 1908, and housed his press in the basement of No 61.
THE MOORINGS
Built on the site of a large and derelict malt-house in 1930 to designs made by the drawing-master at Eton. They were erected for a group calling themselves The Cottage Craftsmen – Miss Spink, Lady Gilliatt, Mrs Tickell and Edward Spencer.
No 1, THE MOORINGS
G W P McLACHLAN
He lived here between 1930 and 1935. He was the editor of a merchant shipping magazine called The Siren and was founder and first Commodore of The Strand on the Green Sailing Club.
No 2, THE MOORINGS
The TICKELL family
Mrs Adelina Hill Tickell (1871-1961) was one of the Cottage Craftsmen. She was the eldest of sixteen children of a Dublin family. Before 1914 she was a well-known hostess in political and literary circles there. She moved to London after the Troubles began and worked for feminist and child adoption societies until 1946.
Jerrard Tickell (1905-1966) was her third son. He was well-known as a novelist and was the author of Odette: The Story Of A British Agent and Appointment With Venus.
No 3, THE MOORINGS.
L G and Dr Mary BRAZIER
The Braziers lived here from 1933 into the 1940s. He was an electrical engineer and she was a neuro-physiologist. They worked together on the modification and use of the encephalogram at the Maudsley Hospital. Early in World War II he devised a way of protecting ships from magnetic mines known as “de-Gaussing”. Dr Mary Brazier was appointed Professor of Neuro-Physiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and later at the Brain Research Institute of California.
No 65, ZOFFANY HQUSE
Johann ZOFFANY (1734 - 1810)
Born in Germany, Zoffany came to England and settled in London in 1760. About this time he was introduced to George III and was commissioned to paint a number of royal portraits. He rented London Stile House between 1764 and 1772 and was appointed a member of the Royal Academy in 1769. He spent much of the 1770s in Italy, but returned to Chiswick in 1779 and rented No 69 Strand on the Green. His wife and family remained here while he was in India in the 1780s; on his return he bought No 69 in 1790. He made considerable improvements to this house, intending it to be his permanent home. Soon afterwards he acquired Nos 66-69 as houses to let. He died in 1810 and is buried at Kew.
Sir George YOUNG (1872-1952)
Sir George lived at Zoffany House from 1919 to 1922. He was the son of Sir George Young, the 3rd Baronet, of Formosa Place, Cookham. He was a diplomat, journalist and author. His works include Poor Fred, a book about the Prince of Wales who lived across the river at Kew, published in 1937.
Philip D HEPWORTH FRIBA
This distinguished architect lived from 1936 at Zoffany House, which he restored with great sensitivity, completely rebuilding the front brick by brick. He had had a prize-winning career at the Architectural Association and Beaux Arts Schools and was Rome Scholar in 1914. His earlier work included town halls, etc, but in the 1920s and ‘30s his domestic architecture was of exceptional quality. In 1944 he became Principal Architect to the Commonwealth War graves Commission and was responsible for the Bayeux, Griesbeek and Dunkirk memorials.
Nos 66, 67, 68, and 69
These are two pairs of Queen Anne houses which were frequently held by the copyholder of No 65 and were usually let to tenants. Nos 66 and 67 are the slightly older pair; 66 retains some original panelling and 67 has been carefully restored. (See also Zoffany above)
Nos 67 and 68
Thomas LONGCROFT
This topographical artist is recorded as living at both nos 67 and 68. He went to work in India in the 1780s at about the same time as his neighbour, Zoffany; he died there in 1793.
No 69
Thomas WHIPHAM
For details see No 1.
Aunt Betsy NEWMAN
The aunt of Cardinal Newman, she was to be found at this address in the 1820s. Newman’s widowed mother and sister joined her here in 1825. News of her bankruptcy two years later so shattered him while at Oxford that he had a breakdown.
Sir John SLESSOR
Sir John lived at Strand on the Green from 1946 to 1953, at Carlton House (nos 68 and 69). He served in the Sudan and in France with the Royal Flying Corps in 1916-1918. He was at Camberley from 1933 to 1935, in India in 1935 and with the Air Ministry in 1938-1941. After further distinguished service during the 1940s he rose to become Chief of the Air Staff 1950-1953. The house was divided into two after he left.
No 70 ZACHARY HOUSE
The ZACHARY family
Mrs Anna Maria Zachary, a widow, lived here from 1797. Her son, a barrister of the Inner Temple,
succeeded her and remained until at least 1823.
Sydney CLOUGH ARCA (Arch) 1889-1972
Sydney Clough won a scholarship to the Architectural Association in 1909 and saw Strand on the Green from a river steamer at this time. He started his architectural practice in 1920 and it expanded as commissions came in, including designs for the London Ice Club at Lambeth and at Richmond Ice Rink. He saw the Strand again in 1926 from his small yacht, and bought Zachary House, then rather derelict in 1929. He restored it, eliminating yacht repair workshops from the ground floor. He battled with the local authority to prevent commercial development when The Moorings site came up for sale. An enthusiastic yachtsman, he was a founder member of the Little Ship Club and was very active in the Yacht and Motor Boat club and the Strand on the Green Sailing Club.
ROSE COTTAGE (corner of Hearne Road)
Nancy MITFORD
The authoress lived here when she was the wife of the Hon Peter Rodd and working at Peter Murray Hill’s bookshop. During this period she wrote The Pursuit of Love, published in 1945, but she does not seem to have used the Strand as the setting in any of her books.
PIER HOUSE
The SIMON family
Camille Simon, a chef in the centre of London, founded the Pier House Laundry on land adjoining his house in the 1860s. His son, Louis, took over the business in 1887 and was succeeded by his grandson, Leonard, who sold the business in 1973. The house was on the river, opposite the large laundry building; the family donated the site of the house and garden as public open space. Alphonse Simon, Camille’s younger son, became a professional photographer and died in 1913.
The LAYTON family
The father of Thomas Layton, the antiquarian and local politician, lived in a house on the site of the Pier House Laundry and owned the right to collect the tolls on the old Kew Bridge. Later the family moved to a house beside the bridge where now Kew Bridge House stands.
SIDNEY HOUSE
Lady Mary SIDNEY
The daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Lady Mary married Sir Henry Sidney in 1551 - their son was Sir Philip Sidney. Lady Mary retired to this house, behind Strand on the Green, when she had lost her good looks through nursing Elizabeth I through smallpox. She died in 1586.
Kathleen Judges and Christopher Knight,
Originally published in B&CLHS Journal 2, 1981.
Local history articles reproduced here are from out of print issues of the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Journal. Recent issues are on sale at Brentford and Chiswick Libraries and subscribers receive a new issue each year as part of their membership benefits.
June 4, 2004