Kew
Encyclopedia
Kew is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a London borough in South West London, UK, which forms part of Outer London. It is unique because it is the only London borough situated both north and south of the River Thames.-Settlement:...

 in South West London
South West (London sub region)
The South West is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of London Borough of , Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton and Wandsworth. The sub region was established in 2008. The south west has a population of 1,600,000 and is the location...

.
Kew is best known for being the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...

, now a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

, which includes Kew Palace
Kew Palace
Kew Palace is a British Royal Palace in Kew Gardens on the banks of the Thames up river from London. There have been at least four Palaces at Kew, and three have been known as Kew Palace; the first building may not have been known as Kew as no records survive other than the words of another...

. Kew is also the home of Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 which is on public display at The National Archives (previously known as the Public Record Office
Public Record Office
The Public Record Office of the United Kingdom is one of the three organisations that make up the National Archives...

).

Since 1965 Kew has incorporated the former area of North Sheen
North Sheen
North Sheen, an area of London, England in the former Municipal Borough of Richmond ,was incorporated into Kew in 1965 when the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames was created....

 which includes St Philip and All Saints, the first barn church to be consecrated
Consecration
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...

 in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is now in a combined Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 with St Luke's Church, Kew
St Luke's Church, Kew
St Luke's Church, Kew is a parish church in Kew, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is part of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion and, locally, is a member of Churches Together in Kew. St Luke's forms part of the joint parish with St Philip and All Saints...

.

"Kew Village" refers to the parades of shops adjoining Kew Gardens station. It contains a small supermarket, a whole foods
Whole foods
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...

 store, several independent retailers, restaurants (including the well-reviewed The Glasshouse) and cafes. A village community market is held on the first Sunday of every month. There are also major high street
High Street
High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...

 retailers at the nearby Kew Retail Park
Retail park
In the United Kingdom, a retail park is a grouping of many retail warehouses and superstores with associated car parking. Its North American equivalent is a power centre. Retail parks are found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in highly accessible locations and are aimed at households...

 (originally known as Richmond Retail Park).

Henry V
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....

 developed a Carthusian monastery to the south west of where Kew Observatory
Kew Observatory
Kew Observatory was an astronomical and terrestrial magnetic observatoryfounded by King George III , located within the Old Deer Park of the former Richmond Palace in Richmond, Surrey, now within Greater London. The former royal manor of Kew lies to the immediate north...

 now stands. Successive Tudor
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...

, Stuart and Georgian
Georgian era
The Georgian era is a period of British history which takes its name from, and is normally defined as spanning the reigns of, the first four Hanoverian kings of Great Britain : George I, George II, George III and George IV...

 monarchs maintained links with Kew. One of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

's closest friends, Henry Norris, lived at Kew Farm, which was later owned by Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. In Elizabeth's reign, and under the Stuarts, houses were developed along Kew Green. West Hall, which survives in West Hall Road, dates from at least the 14th century and the present house was built at the end of the 17th century. Queen Anne subscribed to the building of the parish church on Kew Green, which was dedicated to St Anne
Saint Anne
Saint Hanna of David's house and line, was the mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ according to Christian and Islamic tradition. English Anne is derived from Greek rendering of her Hebrew name Hannah...

 in 1714, three months before the queen's death.

Today, Kew is a popular residential area because of its transport links and proximity to Kew Gardens
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...

. Most of Kew developed in the late 19th century, following the arrival of the District Line
District Line
The District line is a line of the London Underground, coloured green on the Tube map. It is a "sub-surface" line, running through the central area in shallow cut-and-cover tunnels. It is the busiest of the sub-surface lines. Out of the 60 stations served, 25 are underground...

 of the Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

, and is characterised by large detached or semi-detached
Semi-detached
Semi-detached housing consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each house's layout is a mirror image of its twin...

 houses. Further development took place in the 1920s and 1930s when new houses were built on the market garden
Market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...

s of North Sheen and in the first decade of the 21st century when flat
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

s and houses were constructed at Kew Riverside on land formerly owned by Thames Water
Thames Water
Thames Water Utilities Ltd, known as Thames Water, is the private utility company responsible for the public water supply and waste water treatment in large parts of Greater London, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Kent, and some other areas of in the United Kingdom...

.

Etymology

The name Kew is a combination of two words: the Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

 kai (landing place; 'quay
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...

' derives from this) and Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 hoh (spur of land). The land spur is the bend in the Thames. The name was recorded in 1327 as Cayho.

Transport and locale

The traditional mode of transport between Kew and London, for rich and poor alike, was by water along the Thames which, historically, separated Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

 (on the north bank) from Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 (which then included Kew, on the south bank). Kew was connected to Middlesex by ferry. The first bridge crossing the Thames at Kew was built in 1759. The current Kew Bridge
Kew Bridge
Kew Bridge is a bridge in London over the River Thames. The present bridge was designed by John Wolfe-Barry and opened in 1903 by King Edward VII. The bridge was givenGrade II listed structure protection in 1983.- Location :...

, which today carries the South Circular Road
A205 road
The A205 or South Circular Road is a direct route which crosses South London, UK, running from Woolwich in the east to the junction of the A406 , the M4 and the A4 at Gunnersbury in the west....

 (the A205), was opened by King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 and Queen Alexandra
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...

 in 1903.

The A205 road passes through Kew, with Kew Road providing the main road link to Richmond. The M4 motorway
M4 motorway
The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...

 starts a short distance north of Kew, providing access to Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...

 and the west. The A316 road
A316 road
The A316, also known in parts as the Great Chertsey Road, is a major road in England, which runs from the A315 at Chiswick to the M3 motorway....

 starts in Chiswick and continues over Chiswick Bridge
Chiswick Bridge
Chiswick Bridge is a reinforced concrete deck arch bridge over the River Thames in West London. One of three bridges opened in 1933 as part of an ambitious scheme to relieve traffic congestion west of London, it carries the A316 road between Chiswick on the north bank of the Thames and Mortlake on...

 and junctions with the South Circular Road at Chalker's Corner.

Since 1869 rail services have been available from Kew Gardens station. London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 (District Line) services run to Richmond and to central London. London Overground
London Overground
London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...

 trains run to Richmond
Richmond station (London)
Richmond station is a National Rail and London Underground station in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London which is managed by South West Trains....

 and (via Willesden Junction
Willesden Junction station
Willesden Junction station is a Network Rail station in Harlesden, northwest London, UK. It is served by both London Overground and the Bakerloo line of the London Underground.-History:The station developed on three contiguous sites:...

) to Stratford
Stratford station
Stratford station is a large multilevel railway station in Stratford, east London. The station is served by the National Rail services National Express East Anglia, London Overground and c2c, by London Underground's Central and Jubilee lines, and by the Docklands Light Railway . Stratford is in...

.

Nearest places
  • Brentford
    Brentford
    Brentford is a suburban town in west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent, west-southwest of Charing Cross. Its former ceremonial county was Middlesex.-Toponymy:...

  • Richmond
  • Gunnersbury
    Gunnersbury
    Gunnersbury is a place in the London Borough of Hounslow, with its northern edge in the London Borough of Ealing, west London. It has an area of less than half a square kilometre and is within the west area of the Chiswick W4 postal district of London....

  • Chiswick
    Chiswick
    Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...

  • Mortlake
    Mortlake
    Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...

  • Barnes

Nearest railway stations
  • Kew Bridge station (South West Trains
    South West Trains
    South West Trains is a British train operating company providing, under franchise, passenger rail services, mostly out of Waterloo station, to the southwest of London in the suburbs and in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, and Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight...

    )
  • Kew Gardens station (London Overground; London Underground District Line)
  • North Sheen station (South West Trains)

Bridges
  • Kew Bridge
    Kew Bridge
    Kew Bridge is a bridge in London over the River Thames. The present bridge was designed by John Wolfe-Barry and opened in 1903 by King Edward VII. The bridge was givenGrade II listed structure protection in 1983.- Location :...

    , which carries the A205 South Circular Road. Beside the bridge is Kew Gardens Pier
    Kew Gardens Pier
    Kew Gardens Pier is a pier on the River Thames, in London, United Kingdom. It is situated close to Kew Gardens and Kew Bridge.-Services:The pier is served by boats operated by Westminster Passenger Services Association, under licence from London River Services. Services operate to Westminster Pier...

    , which serves tourist ferries operating under licence from London River Services
    London River Services
    London River Services is a division of Transport for London , which manages passenger transport on the River Thames in London, UK. They do not own or operate any boats but license the services of other operators...

    .
  • Kew Railway Bridge

Parks and open spaces

  • Kew Green includes an old horse pond and is used for cricket
    Cricket
    Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

     matches in the summer.
  • Kew Pond, northwest of Kew Green, has a reed bed
    Reed bed
    Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...

     habitat and a resident population of water birds.
  • North Sheen Recreation Ground in Dancer Road, known locally as "The Rec", was originally part of an orchard
    Orchard
    An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...

     belonging to the Popham Estate, owned by the Leyborne Pophams whose family seat
    English country house
    The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...

     was at Littlecote House
    Littlecote House
    Littlecote House is a large Elizabethan country house and estate in the civil parishes of Ramsbury and Chilton Foliat in the English county of Wiltshire near to Hungerford. The estate includes 34 hectares of historic parklands and gardens, including a walled garden from the 17th and 18th centuries...

    , Wiltshire. Opened in June 1909 and extended in 1923, it now contains football pitches, a running track, a children's paddling pool, two extensive playgrounds, a large dog-free grassed area and a pavilion set amongst trees and shrubs.
  • Pensford Field,previously playing fields of the former Gainsborough School, is now a nature reserve and also the home of Pensford Tennis Club.
  • St Luke's Open Space was derived from a former Victorian school, and is now a quiet sitting area with toddlers' play equipment.
  • Westerley Ware Recreation Ground, a small garden and recreation ground at the foot of Kew Bridge. It has a memorial garden bordered by hedges, a grass area, three hard tennis courts and a children's playground. Originally created as a memorial garden to the fallen in the First World War, the name refers to the practice of netting weird or "wares" to catch fish.

Sport and leisure

Kew has several sports clubs and gyms including Kew Cricket Club
Kew Cricket Club
The earliest reference to Kew Cricket Club in Kew, South West London, England is in 1737. There are four Saturday League teams, a Sunday League team and a Sunday friendly team. Kew Cricket Club operates a thriving Colts section, fielding league teams at the U17, U15, U13 and U11 levels.The...

 http://www.kewcc.co.uk/, North Sheen Bowling Club http://rodsbowlsclubs.yolasite.com/north-sheen-surrey.php./, Pensford Tennis Club http://www.pensfordtennisclub.org.uk/, Putney Town Rowing Club
Putney Town Rowing Club
Putney Town Rowing Club is a rowing club on the tideway, the tidal reach of the River Thames in England. Its official ARA registered colours are navy and white.-Facilities:...

  http://putneytownrc.co.uk/and Richmond Gymnastics Association http://www.richmondgymnastics.co.uk/.

Kew is also home to local football club, Kew Park Rangers http://www.kewparkrangers.co.uk/. The club began in 1997 in Westerly Ware. Word quickly spread at the local school that there was a kick about on Saturday mornings and more children arrived until there were regularly about 10-12 children.

As the crowd of children grew, alongside tournament and further development ambitions, the club decided to become official and registered for the Surrey County Football Association
Surrey County Football Association
The Surrey County Football Association was founded in 1877 and affiliated to The Football Association in 1882, at the same time as a County Senior Cup competition, the Surrey Senior Cup, was established...

. Richmond Council eventually came up with a team pitch
Association football pitch
An association football pitch is the playing surface for the game of association football made of turf. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play".All line markings on the pitch form part of the area which they define...

 and a move to the North Sheen Recreational Ground was secured. Kew Park Rangers Football Club was born in the summer of 1999, and continues to grow year on year. A new £1 million sports pavilion has been built.and was opened in September 2011.

Education

Primary schools

Independent preparatory schools

Quotes

I am His Highness' dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

 at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
Epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....

, engraved on the Collar of a Dog which I gave to his Royal Highness
(Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...

) — Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...

, 1688-1744


'Tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

s and dusty trees.

Highbury
Highbury
- Early Highbury :The area now known as Islington was part of the larger manor of Tolentone, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Tolentone was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Road. The manor house was situated by what is now...

 bore me. Richmond and Kew

Undid me.'
The Waste Land
The Waste Land
The Waste Land[A] is a 434-line[B] modernist poem by T. S. Eliot published in 1922. It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." Despite the poem's obscurity—its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its...

, 1922 (T.S.Eliot), 1888-1965


Go down to Kew in lilac
Lilac
Syringa is a genus of about 20–25 species of flowering woody plants in the olive family , native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly cultivated in temperate areas elsewhere....

-time, in lilac-time, in lilac-time;

Go down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn't far from London!)

And you shall wander hand in hand with love in summer's wonderland;

Go down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn't far from London!)
The Barrel-Organ, Alfred Noyes
Alfred Noyes
Alfred Noyes was an English poet, best known for his ballads, "The Highwayman" and "The Barrel-Organ".-Early years:...

, 1880-1958

See also

  • Kew Observatory
    Kew Observatory
    Kew Observatory was an astronomical and terrestrial magnetic observatoryfounded by King George III , located within the Old Deer Park of the former Richmond Palace in Richmond, Surrey, now within Greater London. The former royal manor of Kew lies to the immediate north...

  • St Anne's Church, Kew
  • St Luke's Church, Kew
    St Luke's Church, Kew
    St Luke's Church, Kew is a parish church in Kew, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is part of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion and, locally, is a member of Churches Together in Kew. St Luke's forms part of the joint parish with St Philip and All Saints...

  • St Philip and All Saints Church, Kew (the Barn Church)
  • Kew Cricket Club

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK