Welcome to Chiswick

Congratulations, if you are house hunting in Chiswick you have already won. A home in this great area with all it offers, automatically makes you the envy of many. Now in order to make your transition as smooth and hassle free as possible Hamptons have put together this great guide which will help you choose the best schools, learn a little about planning and building control, read tips on where to shop, eat and lot’s more, all packed into one little guide with clickable links. Perhaps most importantly we have researched some of the leading local professionals and experts who can help you add value and personalise your soon to be new home. A big WELCOME and enjoy.

HISTORY The place we know today as Chiswick was formed from five separate areas. Old Chiswick, Strand-on-the-Green, Turnham Green, Little Sutton and Stamford Brook. By the 17th Century the sweet air and situation of Chiswick was beginning to attract wealthy Londoners and large mansions were being built at Grove House which stood where Kinnaird Avenue is today. By the middle of the 19th century the dukes of Devonshire owned more than half the land in Chiswick parish. The dukes had been steadily acquiring neighbouring estates – Sutton Court, Corney House, Grove House, Moreton Hall – for the last hundred years. In the early years of the 20th century, horse-drawn transport was superseded by electric and motor transport.

TODAY Chiswick is a leafy, affluent district with a village feel. Media and creative professionals mingle in indie shops, wine bars, and high-end restaurants along Chiswick High Road. A footpath runs past the historic pubs and 18th-century homes of Strand-on-the-Green, a picturesque Thameside street. The Roman-style Chiswick House contains Old Master paintings and has vast manicured gardens with picnic and play areas. Chiswick, with its easy access to Heathrow and to central London, is now one of London’s most desirable suburbs. This is reflected in the house prices and the fact that many people who are well known today choose to live here. A large suburb of west London, and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Charing Cross. The village is served on the London Underground by Chiswick Park, Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park and on overland by Chiswick station.

The Turnham Green area is now synonymous with Chiswick for many Londoners, and Chiswick High Road is popular for its cafés and restaurants, and for the variety of its shops. Chiswick’s riverfront and Strand on the Green are the least changed parts of this mini-conurbation, the former still grand in places, the latter hanging on to quaintness.

Chiswick and the surrounding area has been a home to rockstars, celebrities, athletes, academics, artists and common or garden members of the upper-crust for generations. Here are a few notable names you may or may not know..

Dame Helen Mirren-actor (1945-) Anne -Marie Duff -actor (1970-) Phil Collins -musician/songwriter (1951-) Mel Smith -actor /comedian (1952-2013) Anthony Burgess -writer (1917-1993) Alexander Pope-poet/writer (1688-1744) Peter Blake -Pop artist (1932–) Cara Delevingne-model (1992- ) Francis Ronalds -invented electric telegraph (1788-1873) Hugh Grant -actor (1960- ) John Lowenthal- American Lawyer (1925–2003) William Hogarth -artist/cartoonist/satirist (1697-1764) John Edward Thornycroft -engineer (1870-1962) W. B. Yeats -Irish writer /poet (1865-1935)-lived in Chiswick as a boy. Dimitri Mascarenhas-cricketer (1977-) Clifford Harper-writer (1949-)

Notable locals include; Ant and Dec, Sarah Greene, Sophie -Ellis Bexter, Jeremy Vine, Phyllis Logan, Clare Balding, Gavin Campbell and Mary Nightingale