| Official Name: | Twickenham |
| Static Image Name: | cmglee London Twickenham aerial.jpg |
| Static Image Caption: | Aerial view of Twickenham Stadium (centre) and Stoop Stadium (background) from the north in August 2015 |
| Coordinates: | 51.449°N -0.337°W |
| Area Total Km2: | 12.36 |
| Population: | 62,148 |
| Population Ref: | (2011 Census)[1] |
| Os Grid Reference: | TQ1673 |
| Charingx Distance Mi: | 9.9 |
| Charingx Direction: | NE |
| London Borough: | Richmond |
| Region: | London |
| Country: | England |
| Post Town: | TWICKENHAM |
| Postcode Area: | TW |
| Postcode District: | TW1, TW2 |
| Dial Code: | 020 |
| Constituency Westminster: | Twickenham |
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames 9.9miles southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the borough council's administrative headquarters are located in the area.
The population, including St Margarets and Whitton, was 62,148 at the 2011 census.[2]
Twickenham is the home of the Rugby Football Union, with hundreds of thousands of spectators visiting Twickenham Stadium each year. The historic riverside area has a network of 18th-century buildings and pleasure grounds, many of which have survived intact.[3]
This area has three grand period mansions with public access: York House, Marble Hill and Strawberry Hill House. Another has been lost, that belonging to 18th-century aphoristic poet Alexander Pope, who was known as the Bard of Twickenham.[4] Strawberry Hill, the Neo-Gothic prototype home of Horace Walpole is linked with the oldest Roman Catholic university in the country, St Mary's University.
Excavations have revealed settlements in the area dating from the Early Neolithic, possibly Mesolithic, periods. Occupation seems to have continued through the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Roman occupation. The area was first mentioned (as "Tuican hom" and "Tuiccanham") in an 8th-century charter to cede the area to Waldhere, Bishop of London, "for the salvation of our souls".[5] The charter, dated 13 June 704, is signed with 12 crosses. The signatories included Swaefred of Essex, Cenred of Mercia and Earl Paeogthath.
In Norman times Twickenham was part of the Manor of Isleworth – itself part of the Hundred of Hounslow, Middlesex (mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086).[6] The manor had belonged to Ælfgār, Earl of Mercia in the time of Edward the Confessor, but was granted to Walter de Saint-Valery (Waleric) by William I of England after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The area was farmed, while the river provided opportunities for fishing, boatbuilding and trade.
Bubonic plague spread to the town in 1665 and 67 deaths were recorded. It appears that Twickenham had a pest house in the 17th century, although the location is not known.
There was also a watch house in the middle of the town, with stocks, a pillory and a whipping post whose owner was charged to "ward within and about this Parish and to keep all Beggars and Vagabonds that shall lye abide or lurk about the Towne and to give correction to such...".
In 1633 construction began on York House. It was occupied by Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester in 1656 and later by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.[7]
1659 saw the first mention of the Twickenham Ferry, although ferrymen had already been operating in the area for many generations. Sometime before 1743 a "pirate" ferry appears to have been started by Twickenham inhabitants. There is speculation that it operated to serve "The Folly", a floating hostelry of some kind. Several residents wrote to the Lord Mayor of the City of London:
In 1713 the nave of the ancient St Mary's Church collapsed, and the church was rebuilt in the Neo-classical style to designs by a local architect, John James.
In 1736, the noted pharmacist and quack doctor Joshua Ward set up the Great Vitriol Works to produce sulphuric acid, using a process discovered in the seventeenth century by Johann Glauber in which sulphur is burned together with saltpetre (potassium nitrate), in the presence of steam. The process generates an extremely unpleasant smell, which caused objections from local residents. The area was also soon home to the world's first industrial production facility for gunpowder, on a site between Twickenham and Whitton on the banks of the River Crane. There were frequent explosions and loss of life. On 11 March 1758, one of two explosions was felt in Reading, Berkshire, and in April 1774 another explosion terrified people at church in Isleworth.[8]
In 1772 three mills blew up, shattering glass and buildings in the neighbourhood. Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, wrote complaining to his friend and relative Henry Seymour Conway, then Lieutenant General of the Ordnance, that all the decorative painted glass had been blown out of his windows at Strawberry Hill.
The city of Huntsville, Alabama was first settled as Twickenham in 1805. In 1811 the name was changed to its present name of Huntsville. It was named after Twickenham, the home of founder LeRoy Pope’s kinsman, Alexander Pope. The name is still used today as a neighborhood and a Historical District.[9]
The powder mills remained in operation until 1927 when they were closed. Much of the site is now occupied by Crane Park, in which the old Shot Tower, mill sluices and blast embankments can still be seen. Much of the area along the river next to the Shot Tower is now a nature reserve.
The 1818 Enclosure Award led to the development of 182acres of land to the west of the town centre largely between the present day Staines and Hampton Roads, where new roads – Workhouse Road, Middle Road, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Common Roads (now First to Fifth Cross Roads respectively) – were laid out.[10] During the 18th and 19th centuries, a number of fine houses were built and Twickenham became a popular place of residence for people of "fashion and distinction". Further development was stimulated by the opening of Twickenham station in 1848.
In 1898 some buildings on London Road, near the east end of King Street, were demolished, and a new road was built, in order to relieve congestion on the older Church Street. This new road was named York Street and opened on 1 March 1899.[11]
Electricity was introduced to Twickenham in 1902[12] and the first trams arrived the following year.
In 1939, when All Hallows Lombard Street was demolished in the City of London, its distinctive stone tower designed by Christopher Wren, with its peal of ten bells and connecting stone cloister, and the interior furnishings, including a Renatus Harris organ and a pulpit used by John Wesley, were brought to Twickenham to be incorporated in the new All Hallows Church on Chertsey Road (A316) near Twickenham Stadium.[13]
There was a high-profile murder on 19 August 2004, when French woman Amelie Delagrange (aged 22) died in hospital after being found with a serious head injury (caused by battery) in the Twickenham Green area. Within 24 hours, police had established a link with the murder of Marsha McDonnell, who was killed in similar circumstances in nearby Hampton 18 months earlier.[14] Levi Bellfield was found guilty of both murders on 25 February 2008 (as well as a further charge of attempted murder against 18-year-old Kate Sheedy) and sentenced to life imprisonment.[15] In 2011 he was found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler,[16] a teenage girl who vanished from Walton-on-Thames in March 2002 and whose body was later found in Hampshire woodland.[17]
From 1888 the area was administered jointly between the newly formed Middlesex County Council and the Twickenham Local Government District board, which had been established with the passing of the Local Government Act 1858. Under the Local Government Act 1894 the area became Twickenham Urban District. In 1926 Twickenham was granted a charter of incorporation to become a municipal borough. Eleven years later the urban district councils of Teddington, Hampton & Hampton Wick merged with Twickenham.In 1965 Middlesex County Council was abolished and replaced with the Greater London Council, and the boroughs of Twickenham, Richmond and Barnes were combined to form the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In 1986 the Greater London Council was abolished and most powers devolved to local boroughs and others to the Government and joint boards. In 2000 the Greater London Authority was set up and two-tier administration returned, but with the top tier having a much more limited strategic role.
The borough council offices and chamber are located at York House, Twickenham and in the adjacent civic centre.[18] [19]
The Twickenham constituency in the UK Parliament includes the towns of Twickenham, St Margarets, Whitton, Teddington, Hampton, Fulwell, Hampton Hill and Hampton Wick. Since the 2019 UK General Election, the Member of Parliament (MP) has been a Liberal Democrat, Munira Wilson.
As Twickenham is a London suburb, many local residents commute to central London or work locally in retail, hospitality, education or for one of the many professional firms based in the area. London Heathrow Airport is important to the local economy both through direct employment and the cluster of international firms that have their European headquarters in the Thames Valley area. Unemployment in the area is very low, however there is a big difference in the salaries earned by residents who work inside the borough, compared to those whose employment is based outside.
The council has been making efforts to regenerate Twickenham town centre which has been struggling due to strong competition from Hounslow, Richmond and Kingston upon Thames. It differs from most town centres as it has fewer retail shops, particularly chain stores, and more cafes, restaurants, banks and estate agents.[20] There has been a comprehensive scheme of town centre improvements including repaving in Yorkstone, a new arts centre, and improved gardens and riverside walk. However, plans to build a barge house for Gloriana at Orleans Gardens[21] and to move the youth centre out of Heatham House so the building could be converted into a hotel proved controversial and were dropped.
Data for 1891–1961 is available for the Urban Sanitary District, that was then the Metropolitan Borough which always included Whitton. This area temporarily expanded for 31 years to include Hampton and Teddington from 1935, rising from 2421acres to 7014acres.[22] The 2001 and 2011 Censuses give detailed information about the town/district. The settlement's population in 2011 were living in 22,273 households.[23]
| Ward | Detached | Semi-detached | Terraced | Flats and apartments | Caravans/temporary/mobile homes/houseboats | Shared between households | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Twickenham | 254 | 987 | 1,459 | 1,302 | 32 | 13 | |
| St Margarets and North Twickenham | 431 | 1,092 | 1,193 | 1,843 | 23 | 17 | |
| Twickenham Riverside | 221 | 694 | 1,008 | 2,866 | 28 | 36 | |
| West Twickenham | 148 | 1,300 | 1,770 | 1,052 | 0 | 10 |
| South Twickenham | 9,987 | 4,599 | 30 | 41 | 167 | |
| St Margarets and North Twickenham | 11,172 | 4,616 | 28 | 40 | 197 | |
| Twickenham Riverside | 10,396 | 4,280 | 25 | 32 | 175 | |
| West Twickenham | 10,528 | 3,814 | 28 | 44 | 246 |
In terms of ethnicity (as of 2011 census), the majority of people in all four wards identified themselves as White British, ranging between 71% of the population in Twickenham Riverside to 78% in South Twickenham.[24] [25] The next largest ethnic groups in all four wards were Other White, White Irish and Indian.[26] [27]
Twickenham is bounded by the River Thames on the south and the land is relatively flat though it does rise gently to the west as it approaches Whitton. The land is fertile and was home to numerous market gardens before housing became the predominant land use with the coming on the railways in the mid nineteenth century.
The town is bordered on the south-eastern side by the River Thames and Eel Pie Island – which is connected to the Twickenham embankment by a narrow footbridge, the first of which was erected in 1957. Before this, access was by means of a hand-operated ferry that was hauled across using a chain on the riverbed. The land adjacent to the river, from Strawberry Hill in the south to Marble Hill Park in the north, is occupied by a mixture of luxury dwellings, formal gardens, public houses and a newly built park and leisure facility.
In the south, in Strawberry Hill, lies St Mary's University, Twickenham historically specialising in sports studies, teacher training, religious studies, the humanities, drama studies and English literature. Strawberry Hill was originally a small cottage in two or three acres (8,000 or 12,000 m2) of land by the River Thames. Horace Walpole, a son of the politician Robert Walpole, rented the cottage in 1747 and subsequently bought it and turned it into one of the incunabula of the Gothic revival. The university shares part of its campus with Walpole's Strawberry Hill. On adjacent land were the villa and garden of the poet Alexander Pope. The villa was demolished in 1808/09 following the orders of Lady Howe, who became irritated with the large number of tourists who visited the place.[28] The grotto which formed the basement survived. A memorial plaque was placed on the site in remembrance in 1848.
A road just north of the campus is named Pope's Grove, and a local landmark next to the main road is the Alexander Pope Hotel (previously known as Pope's Grotto), a public house and hotel where Pope's landmark informal garden used to be. Near this hostelry lie St Catherine's school for girls and Radnor House School, in a building on the site of Pope's white stucco villa and the location of Pope's original – surviving – grotto.
There are a large number of fine houses in the area, many of them Victorian. The open space known as Radnor Gardens lies opposite Pope's Grotto.
Not far from Pope's Grotto is the Roman Catholic Church of Saint James, which has a memorial window in the form of the Royal Arms of Portugal and memorials to Manuel II, Portugal's last king, who worshipped here and died in nearby Fulwell Park in 1932.
Twickenham proper begins in the vicinity of Pope's Grotto, with generally large period houses to the west, the traditional definition of which is Twickenham Green, and similar housing in the east all the distance to Richmond Bridge typically largest near the Thames. The town centre is not actually in the centre of the town, rather in the south-eastern corner, as Twickenham was built up moving away from the Thames. Whitton lies further to the north and west.
The districts of East Twickenham and St Margarets lie to the north-east of central Twickenham on the west side of Richmond Bridge, the shortest bridge on the Tideway. These are popular for their attractive tree-lined residential roads and an eclectic range of shops and cafés. St Margarets is the location of Twickenham Studios, one of Greater London's major film studios.
East Twickenham abuts the River Thames at Richmond Bridge and St Margarets has its river frontage immediately to the north. The great estate of Cambridge Park, home of Richard Owen Cambridge, the 18th-century satirical poet, was located here.
See main article: List of schools in Richmond upon Thames.
Twickenham has a university and several schools in Twickenham including secondary schools, primary schools and kindergartens. Many of these are easily accessible by the local bus network mentioned in the Transport section.
Richmond upon Thames College, a college of further and higher education, is on Egerton Road in Twickenham.
St Mary's University, Twickenham has been located in Twickenham since moving from Hammersmith in 1925.
Until 1971 London Transport operated a bus depot known as Twickenham garage (coded AB) on Cambridge Road, East Twickenham. The relevant destination blind for garage journeys always referred to this location as Richmond Bridge, which was close by. On closure, all its routes and vehicles were transferred to Fulwell bus garage, but the building remained under the ownership of London Transport until the mid-1990s when it was demolished to make way for a housing development.
Fulwell garage was originally the base for London United Tramways in south Middlesex.[29] The trams were replaced by trolleybuses that started operating from Fulwell garage in the 1930s. The trolleybuses were later replaced by AEC Routemaster buses and Middlesex's last trolleybus terminated here on the night of 8 May 1962, following a commemorative circuit of the Fulwell routes by Middlesex's first trolleybus, No.1 of the A1 class Felthams, known as "Diddlers". This vehicle is preserved in working order.
Originally Twickenham railway station was situated on the western side of the A310 London Road bridge before the new station was opened on the eastern side. This accounts for roads named Railway Approach and Station Road, which now give no access to the station.
The main railway station in the town is Twickenham itself, although St Margarets, Whitton, Fulwell and Strawberry Hill stations are also within the Twickenham post town. Stations in nearby towns (all, except for Richmond and Isleworth, once part of the former Borough of Twickenham) are:
London Buses serving Twickenham are:
| Route | Start | End | Operator | |
| 33 | Fulwell station | Castelnau | London United | |
| 110 | Hounslow bus station | Hammersmith bus station | London United | |
| 267 | Fulwell bus garage | Hammersmith bus station | London United | |
| 281 | Hounslow bus station | Tolworth | London United | |
| 290 | Twickenham | Staines | Transport UK London Bus | |
| 481 | Kingston | West Middlesex University Hospital | Transport UK London Bus | |
| 490 | Heathrow Terminal 5 | Richmond | Transport UK London Bus | |
| H22 | Hounslow | West Middlesex University Hospital | London United | |
| R68 | Kew Retail Park | Hampton Court | Transport UK London Bus | |
| R70 | Hampton | Richmond | Transport UK London Bus | |
| N22 | Oxford Circus | Fulwell | London General | |
| N33 | Fulwell station | Hammersmith bus station | London United |
All above routes serve King Street in the town centre apart from the 110 and the 481. The 481 runs through western Twickenham and the 110 runs through northern Twickenham. The N22 and the N33 only operate at night (00:00–05:00).
Twickenham is home to the headquarters of the Rugby Football Union and Twickenham Stadium. The England national rugby union team play all their home matches at Twickenham Stadium, which is one of England's largest sports stadiums and the world's largest rugby stadium. Harlequins, a rugby union club, play at the Twickenham Stoop.
Twickenham Stadium hosted Rugby World Cup fixtures in 1991, 1999 and 2015, including semi-final matches in 1999 and the final matches in 1991 and 2015.
The Exchange is a community building, including a 320-seat theatre, opposite Twickenham railway station. It opened in October 2017.[30] The building is owned by Richmond upon Thames Council and is managed by St Mary's University, Twickenham.[31] [32]
The Twickenham Museum is a volunteer-run museum[33] opposite St Mary's parish church. It is open every day except Mondays.
The Cabbage Patch pub on London Road has, since 1983, been a regular venue for live music on Sunday nights, organised by TwickFolk.[34] [35]
See main article: Pope's Urn. In 2015, working in partnership with Richmond upon Thames Council and the architectural design practice Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Twickenham resident Graham Henderson conceived, designed, built and installed Pope's Urn, an important contemporary piece of public art, inspired by the poetry of Alexander Pope.[36] Enjoying a central position on the Twickenham riverside, the sculpture was commissioned to celebrate the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and was opened in a ceremony in September 2015.[37]
| Name | Denomination/Affiliation | Address | Website | Image | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 138 Chertsey Road, Twickenham TW1 1EW | website | ||||
| Church of England | Campbell Road, Twickenham TW2 5BY | website | |||
| 174 Amyand Park Road, Twickenham TW1 3HY | website | ||||
| Free Grace Baptist | Powdermill Lane, Twickenham TW2 6EJ | website | |||
| Holy Trinity | Church of England | 1 Vicarage Road, Twickenham TW2 5TS | website | ||
| 61 Pope's Grove, Twickenham TW1 4JZ | website | ||||
| Church of England | Church Street, Twickenham TW1 3NJ | website | |||
| Church of England | Richmond Road, East Twickenham TW1 2PD | website | |||
| Salvation Army | Salvation Army | May Road, Twickenham TW2 6QP | website | ||
| Queen's Road, Twickenham TW1 4EN | website | ||||
| First Cross Road, Twickenham TW2 5QA | website |
See main article: List of people from Richmond upon Thames.