Fulham

Lore & Background

First recorded by name in 691, Fulham was an extensive Anglo-Saxon estate, the Manor of Fulham, and then a parish. Its domain stretched from modern-day Chiswick in the west to Chelsea in the southeast; and from Harlesden in the northwest to Kensal Green in the northeast. It originally included today's Hammersmith. Between 1900 and 1965, it was demarcated as the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham, before its merger with the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith to create the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The word Fulham originates from Old English, with Fulla being a personal name, and hamm meaning land hemmed in by water or marsh, or a river-meadow.

In Their Own Story

November, 6:47 p.m. The sky over Fulham is the colour of wet slate. You push through the turnstile at Craven Cottage and the first thing you notice is the smell—cold concrete, damp wool, the faint sweetness of a hot pie from the bar. The Thames is a black ribbon to your left, the water slapping the concrete embankment in a low, rhythmic hush. The terrace is packed, white scarves rising and falling like a slow tide, and someone two rows ahead is singing a verse you half-remember, the words slightly wrong, the rhythm perfect. The floodlights buzz to life. A young midfielder in white and black receives the ball near the touchline, shields it with his shoulder, and plays a pass that is not brilliant but is *right*—exactly the pass the team needs. The terrace exhales, then roars. It is not a Champions League night. It is not a title decider. It is a Tuesday, a mid-table club, a river, and a hundred and forty years of showing up. And that is enough. That has always been enough.

Reader's Guide

Two Premier League football clubs, Fulham and Chelsea, play in Fulham. Two other notable sporting clubs are the Hurlingham Club, known for polo, and the Queen's tennis club, known for its annual pre-Wimbledon tennis tournament. In the 1800s, Lillie Bridge Grounds hosted the first meetings of the Amateur Athletic Association of England, the second FA Cup Final, and the first amateur boxing matches. The Lillie Bridge area was the home ground of the Middlesex County Cricket Club, before it moved to Marylebone.

Did You Know?

• Fulham industrial history includes pottery, tapestry-weaving, paper-making and brewing in the 17th and 18th centuries in Fulham High Street, and later the automotive industry, aviation, food production, and laundries.
• In the 19th century, there was glass-blowing in Fulham, and this resurged in the 21st century with the Aronson-Noon studio and the former Zest gallery in Rickett Street.
• Lillie Bridge Depot, a railway engineering depot, opened in 1872, is associated with the building and extension of the London Underground and the electrification of Tube lines from the nearby Lots Road Power Station.