Hammersmith & Fulham Historic Buildings Group Walks

The Dove, Hammersmith

As part of the Hammersmith & Fulham Arts Festival, which takes place from 1-9 June, the Hammersmith & Fulham Historic Buildings Group is organising two walks to explore the history of our neighbourhood, on 2nd June and 9th June.

Walk 1: "Hammersmith Riverside"
Walk 1 is titled "Hammersmith Riverside" and takes place on 2nd June at 2.30pm. The walk starts at Putney Bridge and goes to Furnival Gardens, and will look at the buildings and art works along the River Thames.

The walk leader is John Goodier.

Humans of Shepherd's Bush - Number 11

Mike Walsh - childhood in Little Percy St

"I lived on Little Percy Rd in the 1940s; it was a street surrounded by bombsites but it was still our playground for street football, cricket & marbles.

The only trouble though was the chance of smashing a window, or being told by an angry neighbour to go and play in the park. But when we went to Ravenscourt Park with our football gear there was a problem.

All the signs read Keep Off The Grass, so if we put our ball down and kicked it around, a big man in a brown uniform with a bright metal badge pinned to the hat on his head would come marching along in his new leather boots and his little walking stick which had a spike on the end (used to retrieve sweet wrappers that had been left on the grass) & shout, "Go on, out of it, gone on away with you. Don't let me catch you around here again!"

Hammersmith & Fulham Historic Buildings Group AGM 29 Nov

Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group are having their annual AGM at the refurbished Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, on Thursday 29th November.  Drinks at 6.30pm, and the meeting starts at 7pm. Anyone who is interested in the history of our neighbourhood - and its preservation - is welcome to come along and get involved. The historic fabric of our neighbourhood is under constant threat - last year we lost the lovely Art Deco Cineworld in Hammersmith - replaced by a big hole in the ground after our local Council killed the development, without any apparent plan for what might replace it.

Historic Buildings Group AGM on 14th November

Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group are having their annual AGM at the Dorsett Hotel, Shepherds Bush Green, on Tuesday 14th November.  Doors will open at 6.30pm, and the meeting starts at 7pm. Anyone who is interested in the history of Shepherd's Bush - and its preservation - is welcome to come along and get involved. The historic fabric of our neighbourhood is under constant threat - earlier this year we lost the lovely Art Deco Cineworld in Hammersmith - replaced by a big hole in the ground after our local Council killed the development, without any apparent plan for what might replace it.

Shepherd's Bush Past and Present

This video hosted at YouTube is an edited collection of old photographs of Shepherd's Bush, including many shots dating back to the early 1900s, and some photos of bomb damage during the war. See if you can spot your street in the photo montage.

Sex Pistols Return To Shepherd's Bush

In this video from 2008, Sex Pistols' band members Steve Jones & Paul Cook return to Shepherd's Bush, with some not very nice things to say about the neighbourhood where they grew up, especially Shepherd's Bush Market. Cooke's Pie and Mash (sadly now gone) gets a good write-up - it's "the only thing" Steve Jones misses about the Bush, compared with his current life in Los Angeles.

Lost Shepherd's Bush - The Great White City

The postcard above, printed around 1908, shows what Wood Lane used to look like. The postcard shows the entrance to "The Great White City", an exhibition space which hosted many extravagant exhibitions until the outbreak of war in 1914.  Today, Wood lane is an unappealing hodgepodge of Victorian terraces (mostly budget hotels), car parks (soon to be demolished), shopping centres (Westfield), bus stops, offices, and building sites.  It's not a street that invites pedestrians, though this may change as new development changes the landscape over the next few years.  Still, however things turn out, it's hard to imagine Wood Lane ever looking as good as it did over a hundred years ago.

Explore the History of Shepherd's Bush With West London Walks

West London Walks - just £5!

Until the late 19th century Shepherd's Bush was just a collection of fields, but that doesn't mean we lack history.  For those who want to explore the rich history of our neighbourhood and the neighbourhoods around us, Caroline MacMillan of West London Walks offers a series of personally led walking tours.  Her walks are "informal, full of interesting and unusual facts and, most of all, are to be enjoyed".  Best of all, Caroline's walks start at a very reasonable £5.

The History of Shepherd's Bush

Shepherd's Bush Green

Ever wondered why Shepherd's Bush is called Shepherd's Bush? Or how White City got its name? Or how our neighbourhood first developed, and why? There are some excellent books on the history of Shepherd's Bush in our local library, but better yet read this article in Wikipedia about how our neighbourhood came to be.  Did you know, for example, that in the Nineteenth Century Shepherd's Bush was a major centre of pineapple production in London? Well, Wikipedia says so, so it must be true.

A Bird in The Bush - Your Guide to Shepherd's Bush

A Bird in The Bush

A Bird in the Bush was an excellent blog about our neighbourhood. Now sadly discontinued, the archive is still accessible and you can see plenty of recommendations about places to go and things to see and do in our part of West London. Some of it is a bit our of date, but overall it's still a great resource.