Inventory Site Record

The first church here was built in 1631 as a Chapel-of-Ease within the Parish of Fulham, only becoming the parish church when Hammersmith became a separate parish in 1834. St Paul's Church was rebuilt in 1882/3 on the site of the old church. Its churchyard was reduced in size when Hammersmith Flyover was built in 1961 as part of the Great West Road extension, and most of the gravestones had been cleared when it became a public garden, in the care of the local authority. St Paul's Green was created as a new public open space adjacent to the church in 1998.

Previous / Other name:

Hammersmith Parish Church

Site location:

Hammersmith Road/Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith

Postcode:

W6 9PJ

What 3 Words:

nights.bats.magma

Type of site:

Public Gardens

Borough:

Hammersmith & Fulham

Open to public?

Yes

Opening times:

unrestricted

Special conditions:

Facilities:

St Paul's Centre: café, bookshop

Events:

Public transport:

Tube: Hammersmith (District, Piccadilly, Hammersmith & City). Bus: 9, 10, 33, 209, 211, 419

Citymapper    
Google Map    
streetmap.co.uk

Research updated:

01/11/2011

Last minor changes:

19/07/2023

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

The first church on this site was consecrated on 7 June 1631 by the Bishop of London, William Laud. It was originally a Chapel-of-Ease to Fulham Parish Church of All Saints (q.v.), and was provided for the parishioners of the small distant hamlet of Hammersmith. The Earl of Mulgrave, Edmund Sheffield, who purchased the site for the chapel, had petitioned the Bishop in 1629, making reference to 'the length and foulness of the way [. . . ] in winter most toilsome sometime over ploughed land'. The cost of building was largely met by Sir Nicholas Crispe, and the foundation stone was laid in March 1630. Sir Nicholas, who had a riverside house at Hammersmith, was an ardent Royalist and supporter of Charles I, erecting a fine monument in the chapel dedicated to the king's memory, which had a bronze bust of Charles I by Le Sueur. When Sir Nicholas died in 1665, although he was buried at St Mildred Bread Street, his request that his heart be buried in a stone urn under the king's bust at Hammersmith chapel was carried out, though later his body and heart were re-united. The old church was described by Isabella Burt in 1871 as 'a plain, spacious, handsomely built brick structure' with 'a quadrangular tower, supported by graduated buttresses'; the church door was approached 'by a handsome avenue of limes, trimmed and trained to a state of neatness'. Daniel Defoe described the village in the 1720s as 'formerly a long scattering place, full of gardeners grounds with here and there a house of some bulk' but which now had fine houses and a square, and its residents were keen to be granted a license for a market, and to have built a 'fine stone bridge over the Thames'. The first Hammersmith Bridge was built in 1823, whose designer, William Tierney Clark, has a memorial in St Paul's Church.

Hammersmith remained within the Fulham Parish until 1834 when it became a separate parish. In the following decades it grew from a village to a prosperous Victorian suburb, particularly after the arrival of the railways in the 1860s, and in January 1880 it was decided that a new larger church was needed. The foundation stone for St Paul's Church was laid by the Duke of Albany in July 1882 and the nave was consecrated on 13 October 1883. Designed by Hugh Roumieu Gough and J P Seddon in 'Early English Gothic' style, the new church was built on the site of the C17th chapel, with a number of its interior fittings and old monuments, including Crispe's monument to Charles I, installed in the new church. Another monument in St Paul's commemorates Thomas Chamberlain, first Mayor of Hammersmith in 1900-02, whose firm was responsible for building the new church.

In 2000 the congregation was joined by 180 people from Holy Trinity Brompton (q.v.) and new facilities were needed for church activities. Funding was raised for a major extension to the west of the church, which was completed in 2011 as St Paul's Centre.

St Paul's Church formerly had a larger churchyard, but it was reduced in size when Queen Caroline Street was widened for the building of the Hammersmith Flyover in 1961. The surrounding churchyard wall, which appears in the 1880 architect's drawing to be of terracotta and brick, no long exists, and iron railings formed the boundary with Queen Caroline Street, but the boundary with Bridge Road was open. Care of the churchyard was handed over to Hammersmith Council in 1950; most of the graves were cleared away with a small number remaining alongside the wall and one chest tomb partially surrounded by railings was that of Barbara Banks (d.1763), with several benches placed informally. A number of trees are found in the churchyard, including a fine oak tree.

When the northern part of the churchyard was re-landscaped in the late C20th, a new urban open space was created on what had previously been derelict land used as an NCP car park, which was purchased by LB Hammersmith and Fulham and laid out in conjunction with realignment of roads. The design was commissioned in 1996 from landscape architects Whitelaw + Turkington, and it was landscaped between March and November 1998. St Paul's Green provides an open green space south of St Paul’s Church and running west to the Flyover, with grassed areas, a wide broadwalk, seating and a sitting wall, avenue of trees and railings to the road. LB Hammersmith and Fulham won Beacon Status for St Paul's Green in 2002 as 'an outstanding example of good practice for improvements to urban open spaces across the borough', having already won the Landscape Institute Design Award in November 2001.

Sources consulted:

Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, 'The Buildings of England London 3: North West' (Penguin, 1999 ed) p204; Isabella Burt, 'Historical Notices of Chelsea, Kensington, Fulham and Hammersmith', 1871; Thomas Faulkner 'The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hammersmith', 1839; 'The Meaning and History of the Church Building' (article on St Paul's Hammersmith website); LB Hammersmith & Fulham 'Hammersmith Broadway Conservation Area Character Appraisal', 1999. See Hammersmith Council website Historical Sculptures Search for information on other monuments of note in churchyard.

Grid ref:

TQ233784 (523260,178450)

Size in hectares:

0.3

Site ownership:

Church of England (Diocese of London)

Site management:

LB Hammersmith & Fulham Environment Department, Parks Service

Date(s):

1631; 1882/3

Designer(s):

Church: H Roumieu Gough and J P Seddon

Listed structures:

LBII*: St Paul’s Church. LBII: Tomb of Fenn family; tomb of Banks family; tomb of Samuel Jones; tomb of Barbara Banks; Tomb of Richard Honey and George Francis

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:

Hammersmith Broadway

Tree Preservation Order:

Yes

Nature Conservation Area:

No

Green Belt:

No

Metropolitan Open Land:

No

Special Policy Area:

Yes - Site 17 Hammersmith Centre Park. EN 23, TN 11

Other LA designation:

TPO 39/16/71 Oak, Lime (8), and Prunus. Small Local Park; Open Space of Borough-wide Importance

St Paul's Green - Photo: Colin Wing
Date taken: 11/06/11 11:23

Click a photo to enlarge.