In this short film we’re following a route from Putney Bridge along New Kings Road to Fulham Broadway, then back along Fulham Road to the High Street.
The first people we know about in the area were Neolithic tribes who lived by the riverside 5,000 years ago. Excavations have revealed Bronze Age remains in Hammersmith by the former Creek, and Roman settlements from the third and fourth centuries CE.
The name ‘Fulham’ is believed to derive from ‘a settlement by the muddy ford’. In 704AD, Waldhere, Bishop of London, acquired a place called ‘Fulanham’ from the Bishop of Hereford. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the Manor of Fuleham covered a wider area.
As well as the area we now call Fulham High Street, there were three other mediaeval settlements: Walham Green (now Fulham Broadway), North End (now often called West Kensington), and Parsons Green. The 18th century saw mansions being built such as Hurlingham. In the 19th century terraces of suburban housing followed, and by the 1920s the district had become largely working-class.
It’s odd to think that as recently as the early 1980s Fulham had a very poor and down-market reputation, because in the decades since it has become very upmarket with house prices soaring, and new developments such as Chelsea Harbour and Imperial Wharf being built.
Archive material by author (c) 2000-2003. The old pub pictures were taken for a survey of the public houses of Hammersmith and Fulham during 2003. This led to a book called "Images of England: Hammersmith and Fulham Pubs" published by the History Press.
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