West Brompton

The centuries-old boundary traced by Counter's Creek, probably marked the eastern edge of Fulham Manor since Saxon times and is now partly lost beneath the West London Line railway.

Ten years later, William Marsden decided to erect a new Cancer Hospital in memory of his wife, and a tract of land was found for it along the Fulham Road in Brompton.

Designed by Messrs John Young & Son, Architects,[5][6] and built by the Lawrence Company in 1859, it has subsequently achieved world renown as The Royal Marsden Hospital.

Notable residents of West Brompton include the naturalist, writer and illustrator, Beatrix Potter,[7] William Hurlstone (1876–1906), English composer born in Empress Place,[8] and Benjamin Rawlinson Faulkner (1787–1849), reputedly Queen Victoria's favourite portrait painter.

[5] The early Fulham buildings were associated with freight transport such as the wharves in today's Rickett Street and Roxby Place, south of Lillie Road, and a brewery to offer refreshment to the canal, barge and later railway workers as well as the builders of the nearby Westminster and Brompton Company's new 40 acre cemetery opened in 1840.

[5] These were followed in 1864 off its north side by a small terraced cul-de-sac abutting the railway with a number of attached retail outlets onto the main road, a development called Richmond Place, the current Empress Place (scheduled for demolition for a dense high rise development), and in 1866 by a terrace of more substantial houses along Richmond Road, both designed by the City of London architect, John Young, known for his signature ornamental brickwork.

[5] West Brompton Station provides London Underground District line services to Wimbledon in a Southerly direction and Edgware Road and Upminster to the North and East.

Between 1869 and 1874 the Middlesex County Cricket Club had its home on the Lillie Grounds, prior to moving to Lord's in St John's Wood, where the turf was judged to be superior.

Two months later, a two-year-old girl named White Star Ghost Dog lost her life when she fell from her mother's arms on a horse ride.

It contains the historic 'Lillie Enclave' destined to be replaced, under the aegis of Mayor Boris Johnson, on its Western flank along with three social housing estates by an ambitious high rise development, trailed as four new 'villages' on decking, due to obliterate most of its existing biodiversity and history.

After the purchase in 2014-2016 of all of the 150-year-old residences in Empress Place and retail outlets by Lillie Bridge, scheduled for demolition,[18] they were soft-stripped by the original developer company and are occupied as 'meanwhile use', such as very popular 'The Prince', formerly, the 'Prince of Wales' public House.

[19] The extant mid-Victorian residential and retail precinct became subject of five separate Certificates of Immunity from Listing, (COIL)s issued in May 1922 by Historic England to the present development company, which frees the buildings for re-development for a period of five years.

[20][21][22][23][24] There are major plans to regenerate the land made vacant after the demolition of the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and adjoining property, including TFL's, historic Lillie Bridge Depot, in total 40 acres.

The Kensington Canal 1850 or Counter's Creek
The Kensington Canal by William Cowen c. 1845
1826 steps to the old canal port west of West Brompton station
Sir John Fowler , civil engineer
Lillie Bridge Sports Grounds with the former Lillie Arms pub prominent against the skyline
Beatrix Potter , aged fifteen with her spaniel , Spot, c.1881
Lillie Bridge from West Brompton station
Polychromatic brick and stucco house (1865) in Empress Place SW6