Borough in London, England
Hammersmith and Fulham
The 26.2-mile marathon distance began with a royal request in 1908, and the finish line was in what is now Hammersmith and Fulham. That is only the start of the borough's firsts.
Key information
- County
- Greater London (west London, on the north bank of the Thames)
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 183,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- about 16 square kilometres
- Known for
- Craven Cottage, Stamford Bridge, Loftus Road, Hammersmith Bridge, the Hammersmith Apollo, BBC Television Centre, the 1908 Olympics
- What locals are called
- No single name sticks; Fulham fans are Cottagers, QPR fans are the Hoops, Chelsea fans are the Blues
- Famous people
- Johnny Haynes, William Morris, Gustav Holst, Francis Ronalds
- Football clubs
- Fulham, Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers
About Hammersmith and Fulham
Three league clubs in one borough
Few places in Britain pack in as much top-level football as this stretch of west London. Fulham play at Craven Cottage, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road in Shepherd's Bush. All three are within a few miles of each other. Craven Cottage is the oddity. It sits right on the Thames, and a real cottage stands in one corner of the ground. Fulham have played there since 1896, and the Stevenage Road stand, designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1905, is still in use. Fulham began in 1879 as a church Sunday school side, which makes them London's oldest professional club. Fulham even gave Chelsea its name. Gus Mears first offered Stamford Bridge to Fulham, who declined. Chelsea were then founded in 1905 at the Rising Sun pub opposite the ground, and took the name of the neighbouring district because a club called Fulham already existed. Fulham also had a briefly famous statue. Owner Mohamed Al-Fayed put up a Michael Jackson monument outside the ground in 2011, and it was gone by 2013. In 1961 Johnny Haynes became the first English footballer on £100 a week, after the maximum wage was scrapped.
The day the marathon got its odd length
White City was built for the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908, and its stadium hosted that year's London Olympics. The marathon began at Windsor Castle and ended in front of the royal box, which gave a distance of 26 miles 385 yards. That odd figure was later fixed as the standard distance, and every marathon runner since has been chasing the number set in this corner of west London. The area stayed in the public eye through the BBC. Television Centre in White City opened in 1960 and became the setting for generations of Saturday night shows, children's TV and election-night coverage. Today Westfield London is the main draw nearby, but the old BBC site still shapes how people picture the area.
Where Ziggy Stardust said goodbye
Hammersmith is a music town. The Hammersmith Apollo opened in 1932 as a cinema and has since hosted gigs by a long list of rock, pop and comedy acts. The Beatles played Christmas shows there in 1964 and 1965. On 3 July 1973, David Bowie announced the retirement of Ziggy Stardust from its stage, to the shock of the audience. The Clash later wrote (White Man) in Hammersmith Palais about the town's old dance hall. Shepherd's Bush Empire and the Bush Theatre keep up the tradition, and the Lyric Hammersmith has been putting on plays since 1895. Gustav Holst taught at St Paul's Girls' School in Brook Green and composed The Planets while working there.
A riverside full of firsts and oddities
The Thames shapes the borough, and the Boat Race rowers pass Craven Cottage and Hammersmith Bridge on their way to Mortlake. The present Hammersmith Bridge was designed by Joseph Bazalgette and opened in 1887. It replaced William Tierney Clark's 1827 bridge, one of the first suspension bridges across the Thames. Cracks in the ironwork closed it to motor traffic in 2019. On the Upper Mall, the Dove pub has a bar room listed in the Guinness book as one of the smallest in Britain. Nearby is Kelmscott House, where William Morris lived from 1878 until his death in 1896. He founded the Kelmscott Press in 1891 at 16 Upper Mall, just along the road. In 1816 Francis Ronalds built an eight-mile experimental electric telegraph in his garden at Kelmscott House. Fulham Palace was the country home of the Bishops of London for over a thousand years. Its Tudor courtyard survives beside Bishops Park, and although the historic moat was largely filled in in 1924, a small excavated section is still visible. Fulham was also known for its pottery. John Dwight founded Fulham Pottery in the 1670s and made English stoneware there.
Markets, Polish bakeries and river cafés
Shepherd's Bush Market has been trading beside the railway viaduct since 1914. It remains the place to find Caribbean, West African, Middle Eastern and South Asian ingredients, fabrics and street food. The Uxbridge Road is lined with restaurants from all over the world. In King Street, Hammersmith, the POSK Polish centre opened in 1974 and marks the area's long-standing Polish community. Delis and bakeries nearby sell pierogi and rye bread. At the grander end, the River Café at Thames Wharf opened in 1987 and became one of London's best-known Italian restaurants. Meanwhile Queen's Club hosts tennis tournaments before Wimbledon, and real tennis and rackets are played there too.