Old Chiswick

The village grew up around St Nicholas Church, founded c. 1181 and named for the patron saint of fishermen.

Nearby is the 18th century Chiswick Square, the houses in brown brick with red dressings, and the Arts and Crafts Gothic St Mary's Convent.

John I. Thornycroft & Company founded their shipyard at Church Wharf at the west end of Chiswick Mall in 1864, building the first naval destroyer, HMS Daring, there in 1893.

Of the other constituent medieval villages of modern Chiswick, Strand-on-the-Green lies to the west; Little Sutton and Turnham Green to the north.

[5] The village had a ferry, and people made their living by fishing, boatbuilding, and handling river traffic.

Most of the current church dates from 1882 to 1884, when it was rebuilt to a design by the Gothic revival architect John Loughborough Pearson, except for the surviving west tower, which was built for William Bordall (vicar 1416–1435).

There are some fine 18th century wall-mounted monuments in the tower, and an exceptional[6] one in the south chapel to Sir Thomas Chaloner, 1615.

The alabaster sculpture portrays Chaloner, chamberlain to king James I; he and his wife are kneeling at a prayer desk under a curtained canopy, held open by men in boots.

[9] Leading off Church Street westwards is an "informally landscaped intimate cul-de-sac",[10] Pages Yard, with four 2-storey Grade II cottages from the 17th century.

Facing the square's entrance is the large 3-storey Grade II listed Boston House, built in 1740, behind its wrought-iron railings at the end.

[15][10] A plaque in the square states that "into this garden Thackeray in Vanity Fair describes Becky Sharp as throwing the dictionary".

This was near the drawdock where loads of old marine rope made of hemp could be unloaded, to be recycled into a strong, silky paper by Whittingham's own paper-making process.

One of their chemists developed Cherry Blossom boot polish in 1906; a small tin of it retailed initially for one penny, and it became a well-known product.

Its chapel has a small square tower with a weather vane atop a slender conical spire; inside the chapel is a classical reredos, ceiling paintings by George Ostrehan, and a tapestry panel by Morris & Co.[29][30] It is now run by the Society of Saint Margaret.

Some were destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, some by the widening of Hogarth Lane into the A4 dual carriageway, and the rest by the 1950s slum clearance, leaving only one building, the White Swan pub, also called "The Dirty Duck".