Hammersmith in 1839
Hammersmith is in Kensington division of Ossulston hundred, 4 miles from Hyde-park Corner. The chapelry of Hammersmith, a dependency of Fulham parish, has an area of 2,140 acres, with a population, in 1831, of 10,222. The principal street extends nearly two miles along the western road, and consists of several ranges of good modern houses. An elegant suspension-bridge crosses the Thames at this place. There are two churches : one erected in 1631, a spacious brick building; the other a Doric edifice, built within the last few years. The Dissenters have several places of worship, and the Catholics have a chapel and a convent of Benedictine nuns. Brandenburgh House, a villa erected by Sir Nicholas Crispe in the seventeenth century, and improved by subsequent occupants, was the residence of the late queen Caroline during her last abode in England. She died here, and after her death the house was pulled down. There are large nursery-grounds in the parish, and brick-making is extensively carried on. The living of Hammersmith is of the clear yearly value of £310. There were in the chapelry, in 1333, an endowed school called ‘Latymer’s school,’ with 80 boys ; a charity school for 50 girls, a school of industry with 57 girls, three other charity schools (one of them supported by Catholics), with 90 children ; twenty-nine other day-schools, with 532 children ; eighteen boarding-schools, with 466 children ; and eight Sunday-schools, with 572 children. |