Early times

The first people known to have settled in the area were Neolithic tribes living by the riverside 5,000 years ago.  Bronze Age remains have been found in Hammersmith. Coins found near Fulham Palace indicate there were Roman settlements during the third and fourth centuries CE.

The earliest known occurrence of the name is in a grant of the manor to the Bishop of London about 691 when it was spelt Fulanham. In the Anglo Saxon Chronicle it appears as Fullanhamme. By the time of the Norman Conquest the ‘an’ had disappeared and it appears in the Domesday Book (1085-6) as Fuleham. It is likely that its meaning comes from ‘ham’ meaning a homestead or village community and ‘ful’, an Anglo-Saxon word apparently meaning “foul”, “miry” or “muddy”. Fulham thus signifies foul-town with the adjective foul meaning muddy rather than our modern meaning of offensive or unpleasant. 

Over the years, the original woodland was replaced by farmland and, near the river, the good soil encouraged the farmers to grow fruit and vegetables, which were taken to Covent Garden by boat. Fishermen and ferrymen abounded and the bishops and other locals would have travelled by boat.  A fishing village grew up in the vicinity of the present Putney Bridge station and Fulham High Street was in existence by 1391, when it was called Burystrete. The west tower of All Saints’ church was built around 1440. The earliest of the surviving buildings of Fulham Palace dates from around 1480, when it became one of the Bishop of London’s country retreats. Medieval villages developed at Parsons Green, Walham Green and North End. There was little industry: only a couple of malt houses, although in the North the clay soil was gradually being dug to make bricks for the houses that were being built.

The country estates

During the 17th century and, in particular, the 18th century, Fulham became a popular retreat for the wealthy and a number of large country villas were built. The Hurlingham Club is the last important house remaining but other names live on in the area. Margravine Road recalls the existence of Brandenburg House, a riverside mansion built by Sir Nicholas Crispe in the time of Charles I and used as the headquarters of General Fairfax in 1647 during the civil wars. In 1792 it was occupied by the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and his wife, and was let in 1820 to Caroline, the much-scorned consort of George IV. In the Georgian era came Hurlingham House and Lord Craven’s cottage orné north of Fulham Palace built in 1780. The earlier Peterborough House was rebuilt around the same time. Today the roads of Munster, Peterborough, Colehill, Ranelagh and Broomhouse are all reminders of former estates that once existed. 

Travel between Putney and Fulham was by ferry. Pressure to replace it with a bridge increased and, eventually, a Parliamentary Bill was passed in 1726. It met with considerable opposition but was supported by the Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, who is said to have been returning from a visit to George I in Kingston in 1720 when he found the ferry on the other side of the river. The ferrymen were drinking in the Swan Inn and took no notice of his shouts to take him across the river on national business. The Prince of Wales was another supporter as he "was often inconvenienced by the ferry when returning from hunting in Richmond Park”. A wooden toll bridge was built in 1729 and lasted until it was replaced in 1886 by Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s Putney Bridge.

The estates become industrial

Gradually the houses fell into disrepair and the land near the river became industrialised. Fewer people wanted to live there anymore because of the increasing stench from the river.

At Brandenburg House, less than a year after the death of Queen Caroline in 1821, the furnishings and materials of the house were sold by auction and the mansion pulled down. The Haig Distillery was erected in 1857 on part of the former grounds and, in the early 1870s, the final section of the grounds was sold to the Manbre Saccharine Company, who built the Manbre Sugar Refinery on the Brandenburg Farm Estate, a little downstream from the site of the house.

At the other end of the Borough, Sandford Manor House at Sands End became a saltpetre factory, then a pottery and finally housed a cloth-making company. In 1824, the estate was purchased by the Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company, which erected the first gasholder in 1830, reputed to be the oldest gasholder in the World. The gas works provided work for hundreds and also enabled the development of the area. By the end of the century there were many industries – Sunlight Laundry, William de Morgan’s Pottery kiln, Macfarlane Lang’s biscuit factory and Kop’s brewery, which produced non-alcoholic beer. Elsewhere along the Thames busy wharves lined much of the river’s edge.

Housing is needed

By the 1850s the population was increasing rapidly and, with the arrival of the railways and the industrialisation of the land along the river, the remaining estates and market gardens were attracting developers. Jimmy Nichols bought the Peterborough Estate and built the red brick terraced houses each with its distinctive lion on the roof. In the 1880s Messrs Gibbs & Flew, builders from Dorset, decided to capitalise on their modest success in Kensington, by speculatively building 1,200 houses on the market gardens west of North End in Fulham. Unfortunately, the housing slump of the 1880s left them with many unsold properties. They did, however, succeed in persuading the Council to have North End station renamed 'West Kensington' to try to attract new investors to their empty houses.

Another local landowner and developer in the 19th century was the Irish-born politician, Sir William Palliser. As well as Palliser Road itself, a group of roads in West Kensington are named after members of his family including Perham, Charleville, Gledstanes, Barton, Fairholme, Comeragh, Castletown and Vereker Roads. He also owned the 11 acres which would become the Queen's Club. He was heavily in debt when he died suddenly in 1882 and his family did not benefit from his deals.

The last farm to function in Fulham was Crabtree Farm, which closed at the beginning of the 20th-century and we now have the Crabtree Estate, a group of roads centred on the Crabtree Pub.

Transport

The arrival of the railway meant more changes. The District line was extended West in 1869 and West Brompton station was to be the terminus and only stop on the extension from Gloucester Road (Earls Court did not open until 1871). It was extended to Hammersmith in 1874 and West Kensington station, then known as Fulham – North End, was part of that expansion. What is now known as Barons Court was an area of fields and market gardens in 1874 and there was no point building a station there. A station was not considered necessary until 1905.

The District Railway was next extended to Putney Bridge and this involved more new stations, Walham Green (renamed Fulham Broadway 1952) and Parsons Green, which all opened with the new line on 1 March 1880. Putney Bridge and Fulham station was the end of the line until 1889 when the Fulham Railway Bridge was built across the Thames and the line extended south to Wimbledon. In 1902 it was renamed Putney Bridge and Hurlingham and, in 1932, it became Putney Bridge.