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Teddington is an affluent suburb of London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and situated close to the border with Surrey, the district became part of Greater London in 1965. In 2021, The Sunday Times named Teddington as the best place to live in London,[2] and in 2023, the wider borough was ranked first in Rightmove's Happy at Home index, making it the "happiest place to live in Great Britain"; the first time a London borough has taken the top spot.[3][4]
Teddington is situated on a long meandering of the Thames between Hampton Wick and Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. Mostly residential, it stretches from the river to Bushy Park with the commercial focus on the A313 road. At Teddington's centre is the High Street and Broad Street, alongside mid-rise urban developments, containing offices and apartments. There is a suspension bridge over the lowest non-tidal lock on the Thames, Teddington Lock.
Economy
The district's commercial focus – containing shops, offices and other facilities – is along the A313, which is named (from west to east): Hampton Road, Broad Street and High Street. Broad Street contains a mixture of chain shops, cafes and supermarkets, alongside independent businesses, while the High Street is composed of nearly all local and independent businesses and restaurants from Teddington and South West London.
There are two clusters of offices on this route; on the edge of Bushy Park the National Physical Laboratory, National Measurement Office and LGC form a scientific centre. Around Teddington station and the town centre are a number of offices in industries such as direct marketing and IT, which include Tearfund and BMT Limited. Several riverside businesses and houses were redeveloped in the last quarter of the 20th century as blocks of riverside flats. Starting in 2016 the riverside site of the former Teddington Studios was redeveloped to provide modern apartment blocks and other smaller houses.[5]
The place-name ‘Teddington’ is first attested in a Saxon charter of 969, where it appears as ‘Tudintún’ (’The Crawford Collection of Early Charters’, Oxford, 1895). It appears as ‘Tudincgatun’ in the ‘Cartularium Saxonicum’ edited by Birch, published in London from 1895-1893. It is listed as ‘Tudinton’ in the Feet of Fines for 1197. The name means “the tūn [town or settlement] of Tud(d)a’s people”.[6]
Teddington is at the point of the River Thames where tidal flow ceases owing to it containing the 'final lock'. It has been postulated that the name thus derives from "Tide End Town." Such theory featured in Rudyard Kipling’s poem, "The River's Tale", which has the line "At Tide-end-town, which is Teddington." The poem was written to serve as the introduction to a history of England for schoolchildren, written by C.R.L. Fletcher, published by the Clarendon Press in Oxford in July 1911, and by Doubleday Page in New York in September 1911.
There have been isolated findings of flint and bone tools from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in Bushy Park, and some unauthenticated evidence of Roman occupation.[7] However, the first permanent settlement in Teddington was probably in Saxon times. Teddington was not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as it was included under the Hampton entry.
Teddington Manor was first owned by Benedictine monks in Staines, and it is believed they built a chapel dedicated to St. Mary[which one?] on the same site as today's St. Mary's Church. In 971, a charter gave the land in Teddington to the Abbey of Westminster. By the 14th century Teddington had a population of 100–200; most of the land was owned by the Abbot of Westminster and the remainder was rented by tenants who had to work the fields a certain number of days a year.
The Hampton Court gardens were laid out in 1500 in preparation for the planned rebuilding of a 14th-century manor to form Hampton Court Palace in 1521. They were to serve as hunting grounds for Cardinal Wolsey and later Henry VIII and his family. In 1540 some common land of Teddington was enclosed to form Bushy Park, and also used as hunting grounds.
A large minority of the parish lay in largely communal open fields, restricted in the Middle Ages to certain villagers. These were inclosed (privatised) in two phases, in 1800 and 1818.[9][10] Shortly afterwards, the Duke of Clarence lived there with his mistress Dorothy Jordan[11] before he became King William IV, and later with his Queen Consort, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. The buildings were later used for the National Physical Laboratory.
Economic change
In subsequent centuries, Teddington enjoyed a prosperous life due to the proximity of royalty, and by 1800 had grown significantly. But the "Little Ice Age" had made farming much less profitable and residents were forced to find other work. This change resulted in great economic change in the 19th century.
The first major event was the construction of Teddington Lock in 1811 with its weir across the river.[12] This was the first (and now the biggest) of five locks built at the time by the City of London Corporation. In 1889 Teddington Lock Footbridge, consisting of a suspension bridge section and a girder bridge section, was completed, linking Teddington to Ham (then in Surrey, now in London). It was funded by local business and public subscription.
After the railway was built in 1863, easy travel to Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston and London was possible and Teddington experienced a population boom, rising from 1,183 in 1861 to 6,599 in 1881 and 14,037 in 1901.[13]
Many roads and houses were built, continuing into the 20th century, forming the close-knit network of Victorian and Edwardian streets present today. In 1867, a local board was established and an urban district council in 1895.
In 1864 a group of Christians left the Anglican Church of St. Mary's (upset at its high church tendencies) and formed their own independent and Reformed, Protestant-style, congregation at Christ Church. Their original church building stood on what is now Church Road.
The Victorians attempted to build a large church, St. Alban's, based on the Notre Dame de Paris; however, funds ran out and only the nave of what was to be the "Cathedral of the Thames Valley" was completed.[14] In 1993 the temporary wall was replaced with a permanent one as part of a refurbishment that converted St Alban's Church into the Landmark Arts Centre, a venue for concerts and exhibitions.
Several schools were built in Teddington in the late 19th century in response to the 1870 Education Act, putting over 2,000 children in schools by 1899, transforming the previously illiterate village.
20th century
On 26 April 1913 a train was almost destroyed in Teddington after an arson attack by suffragettes.[16]
Great change took place around the turn of the 20th century in Teddington. Many new establishments were springing up, including Sims opticians. In 1902 the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, and the largest applied physics organisation in the UK, started in Bushy House (primarily working in industry and metrology and where the first accurate atomic clock was built) and the Teddington Carnegie Library was built in 1906. Electricity was also now supplied to Teddington, allowing for more development.
Until this point, the only hospital had been the very small cottage hospital, but it could not accommodate the growing population, especially during the First World War. Money was raised over the next decade to build Teddington Memorial Hospital[17] in 1929.
The "towpath murders" took place across the river in 1953. On 1 June, Barbara Songhurst was discovered floating in the River Thames, having been stabbed four times. Her friend Christine Reed, then missing, was found dead on 6 June. On 28 June, Alfred Whiteway was arrested for their murder and the sexual assault of three other women that same year. Whiteway was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 22 November 1953. Whiteway and the girls were all from Teddington. The case was described as "one of Scotland Yard's most notable triumphs in a century".[18]
Teddington Studios, a digital widescreen television studio complex and one of the former homes of Thames Television, opened in 1958 on the site of Weir House. The studios were redeveloped in 2016 into luxury housing, though the old lock keepers cottage that predated the studios, known as Weir Cottage, was preserved.
Most major rebuilding from bomb damage in World War II was completed by 1960. Chain stores began to open up, including Tesco and Sweatshop in 1971.
The Teddington Society
The Teddington Society, formed in 1973 by local residents, seeks to preserve the character of Teddington and to support local community projects.[19]
Primary schools in Teddington include Collis Primary School (Fairfax Road), St Mary's & St Peter's Primary School (Church Road), Sacred Heart RC School (St Marks Road) and Stanley Juniors and Infants (Strathmore Road).[20] Secondary schools include Teddington School.[21]
St Mary's & St Peter's Primary School was originally founded by Dorothy Bridgeman (d. 1697), widow of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, who left £40 to buy land in trust for educating poor children. In 1832, the foundation opened a boys' school, Teddington Public School, under the patronage of Queen Adelaide. Its buildings now house the primary school.[22]
The Landmark Arts Centre, an independent charity, delivers a wide-ranging arts and education programme for the local and wider community. Its activities include arts classes, concerts and exhibitions.[23]
Currently paused, the Crossrail 2 project was planned to run through Teddington Station. Upgrading the existing lines on the Wimbledon section of the South West London network, TfL projected an increase in service up to 10-12 trains an hour to Central London, from a 2015 average of 6.[33]
Only notable people with entries on Wikipedia have been included. Their birth or residence has been verified by citations.
Living people
Julian Clary, comedian, author, actor and LGBTQIA+ activist, grew up in Teddington.[35]
Mo Farah, Olympian long-distance runner, has a home in Teddington,[36] and the post box on Broad Street was painted gold in 2012 to celebrate one of his two gold medals in the Olympic Games of that year.
The Dowager Queen Adelaide (1792–1849), widow of William IV, spent her last years (1837–1849) at Bushy House, Teddington.[41]
Luffman Atterbury (1740–1796), composer and builder, lived at a house now known as Clarence House, between Middle Lane and Park Lane facing Park Road, from 1780 until 1790.[42]
Sir Noël Coward (1899–1973), actor, playwright and songwriter, was born at 131 Waldegrave Road, Teddington.[43][44] There is a bust of Coward, sculpted by Avril Vellacott,[45] in Teddington Library, which is only a short distance away.[46]
Eugène Marais (1871–1936), South African lawyer, naturalist, poet and writer, lived in Coleshill Road in Teddington from 1898 to 1902.[52]
Frederick North, Lord North (1732–1792), British statesman, Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782, lived at Bushy House as his London suburban residence when Ranger of Bushy Park, from 1771 to 1792.[8]
Norman Selfe (1839–1911), engineer, naval architect, inventor, urban planner and advocate of technical education, was born in Teddington.[53]
John Thaxter (1927–2012), theatre critic, lived in Teddington.[54]
Howe, Ken; Cherry, Mike. Twickenham, Teddington and Hampton in Old Photographs: A Second Selection (Britain in Old Photographs), Sutton Publishing, 1998. ISBN978-0750916950
External links
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