Chiswick is perhaps best known for two architectural marvels: the sumptuous Palladian villa of Chiswick House, and the pioneering Arts and Crafts model community of Bedford Park.
Both, in very different times, added immensely to Chiswick’s appeal for the great, the good and the gifted. The finest minds of the day were like moths to the flame of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, when she was chatelaine of Chiswick House in the eighteenth century. For her, the house and its gardens were ‘My earthly paradise’.
Bedford Park, the very first garden suburb, was designed to draw creatives, and did: W. B. Yeats wrote what is among the most famous poems in the English language here, the artists Lucien and Camille Pissarro (father and son) found inspiration on its streets, and G. K. Chesterton met the love of his life.
In more recent times, the literary giants Harold Pinter, Anthony Burgess and John Osborne lived here, all in their early years when struggling to break through. Peter Blake, creator of the art for The Beatles’ Sgnt Pepper, the most famous album cover of all time, is a long-term resident.
Musicians Phil Collins and John Entwistle were born here, and it was home to Island Records, the pioneering label that brought Bob Marley to fame. He recorded tracks for one of his most successful albums, Exodus, here.
Along with the arts, industry has also flourished in Chiswick. William Morris, father of the Arts and Crafts movement, spent formative years here, and his designs were mass produced in the town by the Sanderson company.
Thornycroft built torpedo boats and fast launches, and steam-powered vehicles including a dust cart developed for Chiswick Council. Lino was invented here, and Cherry Blossom polish manufactured. Chiswick is still home to the capital’s favourite ale: London Pride. Indeed, At Fuller’s Griffin brewery, techniques were perfected to reliably brew real ale, delighting beer purists.
There are strange – perhaps tall – tales too. One is that Cromwell is buried beneath St Nicholas’s church, another that Jack the Ripper came here to commit suicide in the Thames. One unlikely-but-true story is that a party in Chiswick inspired a key scene in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Another unlikely connection is to Jayne Mansfield, who opened ‘a sweet little flyover’ here.