Hammersmith and Fulham, London Borough Genealogy

Guide to London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
As with all the other London Boroughs, Hammersmith and Fulham Borough was organized by the central UK Government in 1965. This reorganization did not consider the need for historical records nor genealogical research. It was formed by merging the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith and the much more ancient Metropolitan Borough of Fulham. All were previously part of the County of Middlesex. Included later in this document is the web site for the now defunct County of Middlesex that should be of major help in researching family history.

What is provided here for history is a compilation of the older history for Fulham, and also material from Hammersmith.

Fulham, or in its earliest form "Fulanhamme", is thought to have signified land in river bend "of fowls" or "mud" (compare Foulness) (noting the Tideway would lap certain fields periodically), or "belonging to an Anglo Saxon chief named Fulla". The manor of Fulham is in medieval documents stated to have been given to Bishop Erkenwald about the year 691 for himself and his successors in the See of London. In effect, as is geographically clear, Fulham Palace, for nine centuries the summer residence of the Bishops of London, is the manor and parish of Fulham. In 879 Danish invaders, sailed up the Thames and wintered at Fulham and Hammersmith. Raphael Holinshed (d.1580) wrote that the Bishop of London was lodging in his manor place in 1141 when Geoffrey de Mandeville, riding out from the Tower of London, took him prisoner. During the Commonwealth the manor was temporarily out of the bishops' hands, having been sold to Colonel Edmund Harvey.

There is no record of the original erection of a Parish church in Fulham, but the first written record of a church dates from 1154 as a result of a tithe dispute. The first known parish priest of All Saints Church, Fulham was appointed in 1242. The medieval extant part of All Saints Church was demolished in 1881, during reconstruction by Sir Arthur Blomfield, in order to enlarge it, however, it did not date farther back than the 15th century. There is a comparably old church on the opposite bank of the Thames, St Mary's Church, Putney, across what was a ferried crossing.

The 19th century roused Walham Green village, and the surrounding hamlets that made up the parish of Fulham, from their rural slumber and market gardens with the advent first of power production and then more hesitant transport development. This was accompanied by accelerating urbanization, as in other centers in the county of Middlesex, which encouraged trade skills among the growing population. In 1824 the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company, the first public utility company in the world, bought the Sandford estate in Sands End to produce gas for lighting - and in the case of the Hurlingham Club, for ballooning.

In !907 the engineering HQ of the Piccadilly Line in Richmond Place (16-18 Empress Place) oversaw the westward expansion of the line into the suburbs. At the turn of the century, the London Omnibus Co. in Seagrave Road oversaw the transition of horse-drawn to motor buses, which were eventually integrated into London Transport and London Buses. This attracted a host of other automotive enterprises to move into the area.

Hammersmith originally meant "(Place with) a hammer smithy or forge", first recorded in 1294. Hammersmith is in the historic county of Middlesex. It was the name of a parish, and of a suburban district, within the hundred of Osselstone. In the early 1660s, Hammersmith's first parish church, which later became St Paul's, was built by Sir Nicholas Crispe who ran the brickworks in Hammersmith. It contained a monument to Crispe as well as a bronze bust of King Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur. In 1696 Sir Samuel Morland was buried there. The church was completely rebuilt in 1883, but the monument and bust were transferred to the new church.

Hammersmith Bridge was first designed by William Tierney Clark, opening in 1827 as the first Suspension bridge crossing the River Thames. Overloading in this original structure led to a redesign by Joseph Bazalgette, which was built over the original foundations, and reopened in 1887. In 1984–1985 the bridge received structural support, and between 1997 and 2000 the bridge underwent major strengthening work.

In 1745, two Scots, James Lee and Lewis Kennedy, established the Vineyard Nursery, over six acres devoted to landscaping plants. During the next hundred and fifty years the nursery introduced many new plants to England, including fuchsia and the standard rose tree.

Major Industries established in Hamersmith during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries include the following: the Osram lamp factory at Brook Green, the J. Lyons factory (which at one time employed 30,000 people). During both World Wars, Waring & Gillow's furniture factory, in Cambridge Grove, became the site of aircraft manufacture.

Cemeteries (Civil)
Margravine Cemetery 23 Margravine Gardens Hammersmith, London W6 8RL Phone: +44 20 8747 3020

Fulham Cemetery 62 Bronsart Rd Fulham, London SW6 6AB

St Mary's Catholic Cemetery Harrow Rd White City, London NW10 5NU Phone: +44 20 8969 1145

Parishes
All Saints, Fulham Church address: Pryors Bank Bishops Park, Fulham, London SW6 3LA Phone: +44 20 7736 3264

Christ Church Church address: 67 Studdridge St Fulham, London SW6 3TD Phone: +44 20 7736 4261

St Dionis Church address: 18A Parsons Green Fulham, London SW6 4UH Phone: +44 20 7731 1900

St Paul's Church address: Queen Caroline St Hammersmith, London W6 9PJ Phone: +44 20 8748 3855

St Etheldreda's Church address: 528 Fulham Palace Rd Fulham, London SW6 6JF Phone: +44 20 7736 3809

St Alban's Church address: 2 Margravine Rd Hammersmith, London W6 8HJ Phone: +44 20 7381 6306

St Peter's Church address: St Peter's Terrace Fulham, London SW6 7JS Phone: +44 20 7385 1242

St Peter's Hammersmith Church address: Black Lion Ln Hammersmith, London W6 9BE Phone: +44 20 8741 4848

All Saints Church address: 70a Fulham High St London, 3LQ Phone: +44 20 7736 3264

St Nicholas' Church address: The Vicarage Chiswick Mall, London W4 2PJ Phone: +44 20 8995 4717

St Simon's Church address: 020 Rockley Rd Hammersmith, London W14 0DA Phone: +44 20 7603 4879

St Andrew's Church address: Greyhound Rd Hammersmith, London W14 9SA Phone: +44 20 7385 5023

Non Conformists
Other Christian and non-christian groups follow:


 * Baptist
 * Burning Bush Church
 * Chinese Church in London
 * Evangelical
 * Iglesia de Dios (Philippine)
 * Immanuel Ministries
 * Maranatha Christian Church
 * Methodist
 * Redeemed Christian Church of God
 * Roman Catholic
 * Salvation Army
 * Seventh Day Adventist
 * TREM, Fulham

There are a number of communities of non Christian religions including the following:


 * Buddhist
 * Confucian
 * Jewish
 * Muslim
 * Sikh

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the UK government from July 1837 to the present day. Prior to that, the only available records were those kept by the ecclesiastical bodies. As the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham was previously considered part of Middlesex County, there is a link to the Middlesex County records below.


 * London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham BMD records


 * Hammersmith and Fulham District BMD records


 * Middlesex BMD parish records


 * Parishregister.co.uk: Middlesex parish records

Local Histories

 * London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Local Studies


 * British History Online: Hammersmith


 * British History Online: Fulham


 * Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush Past by Barbara Denny


 * Thrift Books: Fulham Past by Barbara Denny

Maps and Gazetteers

 * Hidden London: Hammersmith


 * Hidden London: Fulham


 * London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Map Gallery


 * Openstreetmap: Hammersmith and Fulham Borough map


 * Google Maps: London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham

Newspapers

 * getwestlondon.co.uk: Hammersmith and FUlham news


 * wikipedia: Hammersmith Chronicle


 * The London Evening Standard: Hammersmith and Fulham edition


 * The Independent: Hammersmith and Fulham edition

Occupations
The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has exceptional transport links - the nearest major business center to Heathrow, 14 tube stations, the West End and the City in easy reach, and HS2 at Old Oak Common poised to speed up travel to the rest of the UK. We’re home to numerous international businesses - and new regeneration projects are boosting White City, Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith town center and Fulham. Our thriving media, creative, and cultural scene includes the Lyric and Bush Theaters, LAMDA, Riverside Studios and the BBC. Our leisure facilities and night-time economy make the borough a great place to live and work.

Due to its location next to the heart of "The City", the Borough offers employment opportunities both within the city itself, and throughout the greater London area.

The Borough is a major location for many international airline companies. Virgin Group operates its headquarters at The School House, 50 Brook Green. Iberia operates the Iberia House in the borough. All Nippon Airways operates the London Office on the fourth floor of Hythe House. South African Airways has its United Kingdom office in the South African Airways House. Iran Air's London offices are also located in the borough. For a 15-year period Air France had its UK and Ireland office in Hammersmith. Also, TAP Portugal runs an administrative office in the Borough, near to Hammersmith Bus Station.

Other major Corporations providing employment within the Borough follow: Sony Mobile Communications has its headquarters in the borough CE Europe, a subsidiary of Capcom, has its head office in the George House in Hammersmith in the borough. Coca-Cola, Disney and L'Oréal also all have UK headquarters in Hammersmith, as well as a number of other major businesses.

Societies

 * The Fulham and Hammersmith History Society


 * London, Westminster, and Middlesex FHS


 * West Middlesex FHS


 * Forebears: Fulham

Archives

 * London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Archives


 * The National Archives: Hammersmith and Fulham Archive Center


 * The National Archives: Hammersmith History Group


 * The National Archives: Fulham

Web Sites

 * The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham council


 * Wikipedia: London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham


 * Wikipedia: Hammersmith


 * Wikipedia: Fulham


 * Wikipedia: Middlesex