Goldhawk Road

Goldhawk Road is a road in West London, which starts at Shepherd's Bush and travels west. There are numerous shops, restaurants and businesses lining the road, which forms the southern boundary of Shepherd's Bush Green.

History

Shepherd's Bush, from an 1841 London map by Davies.

Goldhawk Road's name derives from one John Goldhawk, who in the late 14th century held extensive estates in Fulham.[1]

Goldhawk Road was of little note until the mid-seventeenth century, when a cottage on the street became the home of one Miles Sindercombe, a disgruntled Roundhead who in 1657 made several attempts to assassinate Oliver Cromwell. Sindercombe planned to ambush the Lord Protector using a specially built machine with muskets fixed to a frame. His plan failed, Sindercombe was sentenced to death, and his cottage was eventually demolished in the 1760s. [2]

A map of London dated 1841 shows Goldhawk Road forming the southern boundary of Shepherd's Bush Green. At that time Shepherd's Bush was still largely undeveloped and chiefly rural in character, with much open farmland compared to fast-developing Hammersmith, and several ponds or small lakes. Scattered buildings are shown, mostly lining the main thoroughfares of Wood Lane, Cumberland Road (now the Uxbridge Road), and Goldhawk Road.[3]

From 1939 until 1999 Queen Charlotte's Hospital was situated in Goldhawk Road.[4]

Railways

Goldhawk Road tube station

There is also a tube station named Goldhawk Road, built in 1914. Goldhawk Road station is a London Underground station located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the south side of Goldhawk Road, about 250m west of Shepherd's Bush Green. It is on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines in Travelcard Zone 2. Although the line here was opened in 1864 a station was not opened at this location until 1 April 1914 when Shepherd's Bush station (now Shepherd's Bush Market) was moved from its original location between Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road to a location on the north side of Uxbridge Road.

Stamford Brook tube station, though located in the London Borough of Hounslow, also has its main entrance in Goldhawk Road, near the Chiswick end.

Future

Hammersmith and Fulham Council have released plans, in association with property developers Orion Shepherd's Bush Ltd, to build around 200 flats and houses as part of a large-scale renovation and improvement of Shepherd's Bush Market. The development would involve demolition of a number of Victorian shopfronts, No's 30-52 Goldhawk Rd, including a Pie and Mash shop at number 48 which has been owned by the same family since 1899. The controversial plans are subject to a Judicial Review hearing on 15-18 May 2012.[5]

In popular culture

In the track "Love is a Bourgeois Construct" from their 2013 album Electric, Pet Shop Boys reference Goldhawk Road: "I've been hanging out with various riff-raff, somewhere on the Goldhawk Road, I don't think it's gonna be much longer, 'til I'm mugging up on the penal code".[6]

In their single Green Fields, The Good, the Bad & the Queen reference the Goldhawk Road: "I wrote this song years ago, late at night somewhere on the Goldhawk Road. I was never sure how or why."

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Charles James Feret, Fulham Old and New (The Leadenhall Press, London, 1900), Volume III, page 267
  2. ↑ Denny, p.51
  3. ↑ Denny, p.49
  4. ↑ "Lost Hospitals of London". myzen.co.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  5. ↑ Shepherd's Bush blog Retrieved January 2012
  6. ↑ "Lyrics: Love is a bourgeois construct". petshopboys.co.uk. Pet Shop Boys Partnership. Retrieved 3 May 2015.

References

External links

Coordinates: 51°30′07″N 0°13′37″W / 51.502°N 0.227°W / 51.502; -0.227

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