Picture shows St Nicholas church on the left and Bedford House in the centre, from Panorama of the Thames.
Chiswick Mall, Strand on the Green and other roads along the river have provided more than their fair share of writers – as have the residential houseboats! You can read more from the links below, which will be supplemented in due course – including a section for Chiswick Mall. Our thanks to Paul Wade who has added lots of riverside names in our latest update in April 2020. If you’d like to suggest names or a new section for this page, please email admin@chiswickbookfestival.net putting “River” in the subject box.
Strand on the Green
This road, at the western end of Chiswick, has been home to many writers, including Nancy Mitford and Wayne Sleep. See more on Who Was Who at Strand on the Green, Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society
St Nicholas Church
Chiswick’s oldest parish church has a wealth of historical material: Church website – Heritage – History – Stained-glass Windows – Chaloner Monument – Notable tombs – Archives – The Burges Window (BCLHS) – Church Tower (BCLHS) – Wikipedia page
Some notable writers and artists are buried in the church’s graveyard – see Writers Trail – and letters from the vicar’s wife, Molly Rich, describe life in Chiswick in WW2 in the book A Vicarage in the Blitz, illustrated by her daughter, the artist Anthea Craigmyle.
Panorama of the Thames
This website contains much information about writers and roads (click link above). Picture above shows St Nicholas church on the left and Bedford House in the centre.
The Panorama of the Thames copy about residents of Bedford House reads:
Warwick Draper (barrister and ‘William Morris socialist’) lived here in the early 1920s, during which time he wrote his important history of Chiswick. Sadly, in 1926 he fell to his death from a balcony whilst inspecting a chimney fire. In 1928 the house was bought by the Canadian Sir Arthur Ellis, Physician to the London Hospital. He sold it in 1945 to the actor Sir Michael Redgrave, who lived here with his family until 1954, when Sir Arthur Ellis bought it back again.
Thames Festival Trust
This website highlights stories about Chiswick writers who have lived by the river, and on houseboats, including John Osborne, who wrote Look Back In Anger on his Chiswick houseboat at Cubitts Yacht Basin: “In 1955 the 27-year old was a struggling actor and untried playwright. In June that year he completed Look Back in Anger and by the following August it had been rejected by every theatrical management and play agent he could find. His fortunes turned when the English Stage Company optioned the play and took Osborne on as actor, understudy and play reader.” [taken from: The Cinema of Tony Richardson: essays & interviews. Edited by James Walsh. p67]….
….Other residents included: the American actor-producer Phil Brown and his wife and author Ginny Brown, author of an account of living on Chiswick Mall, ‘Swans at My Window’, who lived on Mayflower I and later Mayflower II. The couple represented bohemian life on the river and attracted much media attention due to this alternative way of living. A British Pathè clip entitled ‘Cobbler Girl’ shows Ginny painting and making shoes aboard her boat.”
… and Imogen Stubbs, the actress whose mother bought Cetus from Shirley Harrison and her husband John for £600 in the early 1960s when Imogen was only about three years old [9]. Imogen said living on a boat was “a nightmare at the beginning” but that her mother “kind of liked the adventure of that”. Like Shirley, Imogen’s mother was drawn to the river due to personal preferences and a desire to be in London and for adventure. Imogen described a “very tomboyish, very Huckleberry Finn life” spent playing on (and in!) the river along with her best friend who also lived on a boat at Chiswick. Imogen recalls that “we used to just jump off the edge and float down the river to Hammersmith Bridge”. She remembers her childhood on the river as “paradise” and “magical” and described it as a “very bohemian life”.
… Denis Postle and his family (with two sons) moved aboard in 1972 and went on to spend forty years afloat [12].
Chiswick Pier Trust
Chiswick Pier Trust organises events about the River Thames and offers several trails and walks by the river to download
On a Bend in the River
Lots of information on this blog by Duncan JD Smith, Hidden Europe