Other

(lost) Friends’ Meeting House - Hammersmith

Inscription

This garden is on the site of the Friends’ Meeting House and Burial Ground, 1765-1944.

Looks like something used to be mounted on the granite top of this pillar, but what? This memorial was probably erected in 1951 when the bomb site was cleared for the Festival of Britain celebrations.

See here for another sad empty plinth.

Site: Friends’ Meeting House - Hammersmith (2 memorials)

W6, Furnivall Gardens

The tree-less plaque is in the lawn some distance to the right, outside our photo, which was taken from inside the garden.

Concerning Furnivall Gardens generally, a nearby information board informs: "The gardens are named after Dr Frederick James Furnivall, 1825 - 1910, a distinguished scholar of English literature and an important figure in the development of the sport of rowing. In 1896 he founded the Hammersmith Sculling Club for Girls and Men, now called the Furnivall Sculling Club, whose premises are in Lower Mall.

Furnivall Gardens cover the area which was formerly the mouth of the Hammersmith creek, an outlet into the Thames from Stamford Brook. In 1936 after the decline of the fishing industry in the creek harbour in the early 19th century, the creek was filled in and the water channelled through an underground culvert.

Many of the buildings in the creek area were destroyed by bombing during World War II and, in 1948, the council created an open space in this area, to be used during the Festival of Britain. A walled garden was constructed on the bombed site of what had, since 1765, been the Friends' Meeting House and burial ground.

Furnivall Gardens and Hammersmith Pier were opened on 5th May 1951."

The pier was built as a dock where festival-visitors could board a ferry to the Battersea and the South Bank.

The 1954 film Impulse has a scene at about 44 minutes where the characters arrive at Dove Pier and walk across Furnival Gardens. The camera briefly shows some of the large buildings on the other side of the Great West Road, and before that a windowed ruined wall which seems to stretch northwards from what is now River House, across the Gardens to the Great West Road.

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Friends’ Meeting House - Hammersmith

Subjects commemorated i

Friends’ Meeting House - Hammersmith

Hammersmith Quakers gives: "Members of the Society of Friends (better known a...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Friends’ Meeting House - Hammersmith

Also at this site i

Fred Haines

Fred Haines

This tree was planted in memory of Fred Haines by his colleagues on 20th Apri...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

South Bank mosaic - Vivien Leigh

South Bank mosaic - Vivien Leigh

SE1, South Bank Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall / Purcell Room

These mosaics are laid in the pavement in a rather sad, out the way, corner of the South Bank, at street level, near the non-main entranc...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Christ Church, Lincoln Tower

Christ Church, Lincoln Tower

SE1, Westminster Bridge Road, Lincoln Tower

From Pastscape: "... the octagonal spire ... is decorated by two groups of inwrought red sandstone bands interspersed with rows of stars....

1 subject commemorated
Lankester clock

Lankester clock

E1, Commercial Road

The plaque is on the wall at pedestrian eye height, immediately below the clock. Numbers 384-392 did not become part of the hospital unt...

1 subject commemorated
Platform 9 3/4

Platform 9 3/4

N1, Euston Road, King's Cross Station

The ride on the Hogwarts Express starts from King's Cross railway station platform 9 3/4, which is invisible to Muggle eyes and is reache...

2 subjects commemorated
Joseph Grimaldi grave for dancing on

Joseph Grimaldi grave for dancing on

N1, Pentonville Road

Left - right: Dibdin - Grimaldi. 2018: we could not get the graves to produce any music but having now seen this Londonist video we need...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator

Previously viewed

Pandit Shyamji Krishna Varma

Pandit Shyamji Krishna Varma

N10, Muswell Hill Road, 60

At the time the address was 9 Queens Wood Avenue.

1 subject commemorated
Euston Arch pavement plaque

Euston Arch pavement plaque

NW1, Euston Road

We were delighted to be told of this fourth pavement plaque in Camden by Alan Wito, Principal Planner with Camden Council.  The other thr...

1 subject commemorated
Unidentified woman

Unidentified woman

On the memorial she is identified as "a niece of the late Squadron Leader B. A. Grace, DFC, RAAF" and information about Bert Grace is easy to come by but we cannot ID his niece. 

Person, Friend / family, Australia

1 memorial
Caxton Hall - head 2 - Caxton

Caxton Hall - head 2 - Caxton

SW1, Caxton Street, 10, Caxton Hall

Normally both Chaucer and Caxton are shown with full beards but the facial hair on head number 6 looks slightly more like Chaucer's, whic...

1 subject commemorated
British Library

British Library

16 years between the laying of the foundation stone in 1982 and the opening in 1998.  The Independent explains the delay: "The reason it has taken so long to build ... has relatively little to do w...

Building, Museums / Libraries

2 memorials