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Richmond

View from Richmond Bridge looking towards the former position of Kew Palace

Since Anglo Saxon times there has been an important manor house just east of the present Richmond Bridge. Easily accessible by the Thames from London, this manor soon became a royal residence. Edward I was responsible for creating a royal manor here, and Shene Palace as the building was known, became an important royal retreat. Edward III died here, and his successor the young Richard II made Shene his main residence in 1383. Sadly Richard's wife Anne of Bohemia was to die at Shene aged 28 in 1395. Richard in his grief demanded that Shene Palace be demolished. Another palace was then built around 1420. This building burnt down in 1497, and was in its turn replaced by a Tudor palace, built on the orders of Henry VII. In 1501 this building was named Richmond Palace, after Henry's ancestral home of Richmond Castle in Yorkshire. The town of Richmond then began to grow up around the palace.

Richmond Palace remained an important residence during Tudor times, and Elizabeth I was to die here in March 1603. Decay then set in through the seventeenth century, with demolition following the deposition of Charles I by Parliament in 1649. James II ordered partial reconstruction in 1688, just before his own confused deposition by Parliament. James's daughter Anne was to spend much of her carefree childhood at Richmond Palace, which at that time served as a kind of boarding school for young royals. She was to go on to become Queen Anne in 1702. Queen Anne would be the last monarch to block an act of Parliament. Anne's friend Sarah Churchill had been a fellow student and playmate at Richmond Palace, and seeing Anne as an ordinary girl, she found it very hard to accept the flummery of royalty which was later to surround Anne. Anne's reign marked an important moment in the decline of royal power and mystique, and scenes in this change were played out at Richmond Palace as Anne played childhood games with Sarah.

 

 

 

Boathouses near Richmond Bridge

By 1779 most of Richmond Palace had been lost, although a few buildings survive, including the gatehouse. Meanwhile Richmond had been growing around the palace, becoming a place, in a sense where everyone could be a royal. The promenade past the palace on the riverside, Cholmondeley Walk, was the basis for one of the first public footpaths in Britain. It was laid out in the eighteenth century , originally consisting of two paths, a lower route close to the river for tradesmen, and a higher and drier route for upper classes. This footpath became the focus for an idyllic landscape created along the Thames between Hampton and Kew, below the famous viewing point on Richmond Hill. The landscape itself became a garden, anticipating naturalistic developments in garden design. In this landscape people could walk as royals once did. People also took to the river, led in many ways by the example of royalty. The upper classes in London would travel by water along the Thames, avoiding the dirt and noise of London's streets. The royal family had their own extravagant barge for these journeys. Into the nineteenth century, with far greater numbers of people enjoying leisure time, pleasure boating became popular. The Thames at Richmond was a particularly favoured location for boating. Thames watermen made additional income hiring out their wherries and larger shallop boats. By the end of the nineteenth century there were 3000 boats for hire between Richmond and Teddington. Each boat could in a sense be seen as a little royal barge. The political power of monarchy may have declined, but the power of monarchy as a leader of fashion continued. Interestingly traditional boat building continues at Richmond today. In arches near Richmond Bridge boats are still built using the clinker method, of nailing and "clenching" one plank to another. Naturally boats can still be hired on Richmond riverside.

 

 

 

View of central London from Richmond Park

Richmond Park on the hill above the river was another royal playground which is now open to everyone. Created by Charles I in 1637, this huge deer park is an enormous recreational area. There are wonderful views over Richmond, and central London. See our Richmond Park page for more information.

If you're in Richmond why not go to Paradise Road just behind the main street and have a look at Hogarth House. Virginia Woolf lived here with her husband Leonard. They set up their own publishing company, producing books on a hand press in the basement, and then stitching the pages together. In 1923 Hogarth Press published the first edition of T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land. People like T.S. Eliot might be the royalty of literature, but looking at Hogarth House where books were printed out by hand, a sense of distance between ordinary life and the supposedly rarified experience of certain special people diminishes.

Richmond itself has a compact little centre with many small individual shops, as well as more familiar high street names.

The Museum of Richmond in the Old Town Hall, Whittaker Avenue, is a good place to explore the history of Richmond. Glass from Richmond Palace is kept here. One piece is inscribed with the monogram of Henry VII who built Richmond Palace, which encouraged the original founding of Richmond.

Directions: Richmond is eight miles west of central London. Richmond station is served by the District Underground line, and also by normal rail services. Richmond station is within easy walking distance of the riverside, and the park. Parking can be difficult and expensive in Richmond, so public transport is recommended.