Our Patch March 2017
LOOKING BACK
RAVENSCOURT PARK
The estate of Pallenswick, which was part of the manor of Fulham, is recorded in documents from the 13th century onwards. It lay in open countryside between the present Goldhawk Road and King Street. The estate included a large house in extensive grounds with a moat, fed by the Stamford Brook.
One of the most well-known tenants of the Pallenswick estate was the infamous Alice Perrers, the mistress of the elderly King Edward III.
Alice held the estate in the mid- 1370s, but she had powerful enemies. She was eventually stripped of her properties by Parliament.
Later owners included prominent City merchants, lawyers or officers of state. In 1746, Pallenswick was bought by Thomas Corbett, Secretary to the Admiralty.
He made improvements and largely rebuilt the house, which acquired the
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HAMMERSMITH
name of Ravenscourt, derived from the raven featured on his coat-of-arms.
In 1812, Ravenscourt House and 60 acres surrounding it were sold to George Scott for £ 15,000.
Scott came from a wealthy family who owned property in central London, as well as brickfields in Hammersmith. He encouraged development by allowing the building of houses within the estate park and in the area of St Peter’ s Square.
Scott kept a close eye on the style of building by putting terms and conditions for the builders into the leases. He also insisted that the tenants take out fire insurance, even threatening to evict one woman who failed to do this.
In St Peter’ s Square, he restricted the number of leases to tradesmen and excluded noxious trades.
Scott was on the management committee for the building of the first Hammersmith Bridge in 1827, contributed to the extension of the Congregational Church, and also gave land for the building of St Peter’ s Church and schools. His influence on the appearance and character of this part of Hammersmith was considerable.
George Scott died in 1859 and, after one further change of ownership, Ravenscourt House and 30 acres of parkland were sold to the Metropolitan Board of Works, which opened the park to the public in May 1888.
In 1933, memorial gates to Sir William Bull, MP for Hammersmith between 1900 and 1929, were unveiled at the southern end of the park.
The house meanwhile was opened as Hammersmith’ s first public library in March 1890.
Its end came when on 21 January 1941 the building was damaged so severely by incendiary bombs that it had to be demolished. The stables survived and are now used as a tea room.