"This narrow back passage through the shops near Hampton Court used to lead to the river, but not any more. The town is on the south side of the Thames, across the river from Hampton Court Palace, with Hampton Court railway station next to the town. The railway station used to be separated from the town centre by the River Mole, which flows into the Thames, but in the early 1930s, the river was diverted to the south, avoiding the town entirely."
"That allowed several new roads to be built in the town along with a much larger bridge, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, across the Thames on a new alignment. That also meant that a small alley passing through the formerly riverside fronting shops now faces a busy road instead. The alley is very early, and may once have been more significant before the area fully developed with shops and houses."
"Around the 1820s, John Mullins, the landlord of the Castle pub, built a row of cottages behind the shops, further filling in the site. They didn't have much of a view, as they faced another row of houses, but those were demolished sometime between 1937 and 1955. Hence, there's now a car park in the middle of the alley. In 2014, a heritage street light was added to the alley, seemingly its first such illumination."
The narrow alley near Hampton Court originally opened onto the river but lost its riverside position after the River Mole was diverted south in the early 1930s. The diversion enabled new roads and a larger Lutyens-designed bridge and moved the river away from the town center. The alley, once possibly more significant, became a back passage as shops and cottages filled the gap; cottages built by John Mullins in the 1820s further enclosed it. Demolition of houses between 1937 and 1955 created a car park in the alley. A heritage street light was added in 2014, and the alley, once Mullins Alley, now goes by Chatter Alley.
Read at ianVisits
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]