Inventory Site Record

Ravenscourt Park opened as a public park in 1888, laid out on the former grounds of the Ravenscourt estate, formerly known as Pallenswick. The moated manorhouse passed through numerous owners including Edward III's mistress Alice Perrers. From 1812 it was owned by George Scott who may have sought Humphry Repton's advice on landscaping of the grounds. In 1887 the house and remaining grounds were acquired by the MBW and Hammersmith Vestry, and opened to the public in 1888. The former stables were converted into the park's Refreshment Rooms, with public toilets added on at the north side. The mansion was used as a public library, until it was destroyed by WWII bombing. The park contains remnants of the earlier planting, and the lake was once part of the moat.

Site location:

Paddenswick Road

Postcode:

W6

What 3 Words:

actual.object.vision

Type of site:

Public Park

Borough:

Hammersmith & Fulham

Open to public?

Yes

Opening times:

7.30am - dusk

Special conditions:

Facilities:

Children's play areas, paddling pool, sandpit, café; tennis courts, basketball courts, football pitch, bowling green

Events:

Various events. Educational activities associated with nature area, and Hammersmith Community Gardens Association.

Public transport:

Tube: Ravenscourt Park, Stamford Brook (District). Bus: 27, 190, 267, 391, H91, N9, N11

Citymapper    
Google Map    
streetmap.co.uk

Research updated:

09/02/2022

Last minor changes:

19/07/2023

Please check with the site owner or manager for latest news. www.lbhf.gov.uk; www.friendsofravenscourtpark.org.uk

By the late C18th Hammersmith had grown to be an important settlement on the Great West Road, originally a Roman road, which led west from London towards Bath. There were a number of small hamlets including those at Paddenswick Green and Starch Green, and grand houses had been built by wealthy people who were attracted to the healthy reputation of the area. It otherwise remained largely rural, with pasture and arable land, nurseries and orchards, until the mid to late C19th when house building began in earnest. In 1869 the London and South Western Railway constructed the line from Waterloo to Richmond with stations at what is now Ravenscourt Park (originally known as Shaftesbury Road) and Turnham Green.

Ravenscourt Park was laid out on land that was once part of the estate of Pallenswick (variously spelt Palingswick, Palyngwyk) in the Manor of Fulham, and at its greatest extent covered around 100 acres. Owned in the C14th by Alice Perrers, Edward III's mistress, the estate went through various private owners. The moated manorhouse was demolished in 1648/50 by its then owner Maximilian Bard who had the new mansion built to the west of it. In 1747 the estate was sold to Thomas Corbett, Secretary to the Admiralty, who changed its name to Ravenscourt, a pun on his own name, 'corbeau' being French for raven, which featured on his coat of arms. When he died the estate consisted of the mansion, 'outhouses, gardens, lands and farms [. . ;] the gardens elegantly laid out'. A plan of 1754 shows the park in roughly its present form including the long avenue from the south to the house, and a moat that may be the basis of the present lake. In 1812 the house and estate of 60 acres was sold to George Scott (1778-1859), who according to Thomas Faulkner employed Humphry Repton to advise on landscaping the grounds. At that time much of the estate consisted of fields and meadows. The previous owner, John Dorville, had begun selling off parts of the estate land for development and Scott, who already owned brickfields, did the same. Scott was responsible for laying out St Peter's Square (q.v.). A philanthropist as well as a builder Scott endeavoured to ensure that new housing on his land was well-designed and well built. By the 1850s there were flower gardens, lawns and orchards, and a variety of trees had been planted, and an ice house was located east of the house.

After the death of Scott's widow in 1884, the house and 32 acres that remained of the estate were eventually bought in 1887 by the Metropolitan Board of Works from Richard Birkin, who had acquired the property in c.1885. The MBW had paid £58,000 for the property, requesting Hammersmith Vestry to contribute half of this cost, for which it provided a loan. The park was laid out by the LCC, which had by then succeeded the MBW, under its Head of Parks, Lieut. Col J J Sexby. The public were first permitted into the park in August 1888. The house was leased to the Vestry and became Hammersmith's first public library, opening in 1890. An Old English Garden, later known as the Scented Garden, was created on the former walled kitchen garden, and in ensuing years the park was provided with additional facilities such as a bandstand, Teahouse, toilets and tennis courts. The empty lake was filled and provided with boats that very soon became popular. The Sir William Bull Memorial Gates in King Street at the southern park entrance date from 1933 and commemorate Sir William who had died in 1931. He was MP for Hammersmith from 1900-1929, became its first Honorary Freeman for services to his local constituency and was a keen supporter of the park. During WWI the park was the venue for fundraising and other events, and during WWII trenches were dug in the park and the house was for a time closed. On 21 January 1941 incendiary bombs destroyed the house, although throughout the war the park continued to be the venue for entertainments and concerts, and was also used for allotments. After the war new attractions and events were added to the park.

The great early C18th avenue of elm and chestnut trees remained until the 1920s, but the elms became dangerous and had to be cut down by the LCC, and have now been replaced with flowering cherries. However, there are still many good remnants of earlier planting including a clump of London plane trees west of the avenue, and a grotesque old (or possibly pathological) plane. This tree, nicknamed the 'fat' tree, had survived a direct bomb hit in WII and has become a symbol of Hammersmith's postwar regeneration. South of the railway, which had been constructed in 1869 taking a small area of the grounds, are more mature planes and VE Day commemorative carpet bedding. Perimeter planting includes lime and plane and there are Cedars on the former lawn of the house, whose former site is visible as a mound by the lake. The large lake of c.0.5 hectares was once part of the Stamford Brook system and is the largest body of water in the borough, with an island covered with dense hawthorn and elm. The pond is home to a flock of Canada geese, swans and various species of duck. In the north-east of the park are yew, holm oak and butcher’s broom that was probably remnants of a shrubbery. C18th ornamental iron gates with overthrow and the cipher of Thomas Corbell, which had survived the WWII bomb damage, were placed at the entrance to the walled Scented Garden and in 2008 were restored and painted the original black and gold. The restoration work was undertaken by The Iron Works, an ironmongery company formerly based in the park. This flower garden has formal beds planted with colourful perennials, a small pond and paved paths. There are a few formal planted beds and some modern clumps of shrubbery with a wide range of species.

When the park opened to the public in the late C19th, the former stables were converted into Refreshment Rooms, and public toilets were added on at the north side. The stables had originally formed part of a group of outbuildings at the south-east of the Georgian mansion. It was a 2-storey building, with the tackroom on the first floor only accessible via a trapdoor in the ceiling of the floor below. The turret on the roof dates for the 1890s, replacing the original clock and wind tower that was pulled down in c.1889. The Tea House is currently closed while it is being refurbished to designs by Burrell Foley Fischer Architects, due to reopen later in 2022. South of the stables are two glasshouses, which were used by the Council's gardeners to grow plants for the park, one of which having a fernery. They were abandoned due to cost in the early 1990s but were later converted into Community Greenhouses in 2004. They are managed by Hammersmith Community Gardens Association, a local environmental charity set up in 1984, which looks after four community gardens in the borough. Fund-raising has enabled a new glasshouse to be constructed, housing a green community centre where a year round programme of activities will be run, due to open in Spring 2022.

In the north-east corner near the Paddenswick Road entrance to the park is the Walled Garden, originally the kitchen garden of the manor house. It is maintained by a volunteers group, the Friends of the Walled Garden, who work in the garden on the first Saturday morning of each month. A Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ grant is being used to restore two of the herbaceous flowerbeds, while an earlier grant from the Western Riverside Environment Fund transformed the disused goldfish pond into a central feature with an armillary sundial to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the park being opened to the public.

A nature conservation area, developed by Groundwork West London, has been developed in the north of the park on land that was housing since before 1830 until after WWII, with a pond created in 1988.

A granite memorial to Giles Vernon Hart, a victim of the Tavistock Square bombing on 7 July 2005 has been erected in the park. According to the inscription, he was 'A lifelong campaigner for freedom and human rights, honoured by NSZZ "Solidarnose" as one who supported Poland in her hour of need.'

The Friends of Ravenscourt Park was established in 2009 since when they have undertaken numerous projects, including two archaeological digs in 2014 and 2015, in partnership with the Museum of London. In 2020, the Friends produced a downloadable Tree Trail with details of 25 of the park's 600 trees. It includes several trees that are on the Great Trees of London list, such as a huge Tree of Heaven that is one of the tallest examples in UK. Other trees on the trail include North American Red Oaks, Indian Bean Trees, ancient limes and chestnuts and a 100-year-old avenue of wild cherry trees. More recent plantings include a line of elms resistant to Dutch elm disease.

Sources consulted:

LB Hammersmith & Fulham Archives Dept, 'A note on the open spaces of Fulham and Hammersmith', 1974 p16; Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, 'The Buildings of England London 3: North West' (Penguin, 1999 ed) p213; J J Sexby, The Municipal Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces of London (1898); LB Hammersmith & Fulham Ravenscourt Park 1588-1988: a resource pack; Rosamond Vercoe 'Ravenscourt', Fulham and Hammersmith Historic Society, 1991; John Archer, Daniel Keech 'Nature Conservation in Hammersmith & Fulham', Ecology Handbook 25, London Ecology Unit, 1993; information on www.friendsofravenscourtpark.org.uk; signage in the park.

Grid ref:

TQ223790 (522344,179022)

Size in hectares:

13.35

Site ownership:

LB Hammersmith & Fulham

Site management:

Environment Department, Parks Service (ground maintenance by Quadron Services); Ravenscourt Society; Friends of Ravenscourt Park

Date(s):

1887

Designer(s):

LCC: Lieut. Col J J Sexby

Listed structures:

LBII: Walls and wrought-iron gates of Walled Garden, Lodge at Paddenswick Road Gate, Tea Room (former stables)

On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens:

No

Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965:

No

Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931:

No

Local Authority Data

The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.

On Local List:

No

In Conservation Area:

Yes

Conservation Area name:

Ravenscourt and Starch Green

Tree Preservation Order:

No

Nature Conservation Area:

Yes - Borough Importance II

Green Belt:

No

Metropolitan Open Land:

No

Special Policy Area:

Yes - Archaeological Priority Area (part)

Other LA designation:

District Park; Open Space of Borough-wide Importance

Ravenscourt Park Walled Garden - Photo: Colin Wing
Date taken: 30/07/06 17:09

Click a photo to enlarge.