Goldhawk Road

Goldhawk Road is the name of a road in West London. It starts at Shepherd's Bush Green and travels west. There are numerous shops, restaurants and businesses lining the road, which forms the southern boundary of Shepherd's Bush Green.

History

Shepherd's Bush, from an 1841 London map by Davies.

Goldhawk Road was of little note until the mid-seventeenth century, when a cottage on the street became the home of one Miles Sindercombe, a disgruntled Roundhead who in 1657 made several attempts to assassinate Oliver Cromwell. Sindercombe planned to ambush the Lord Protector using a specially built machine with muskets fixed to a frame. His plan failed, Sindercombe was sentenced to death, and his cottage was eventually demolished in the 1760s. [1]

A map of London dated 1841 shows Goldhawk Road forming the southern boundary of Shepherd's Bush Green. At that time Shepherd's Bush was still largely undeveloped and chiefly rural in character, with much open farmland compared to fast-developing Hammersmith, and several ponds or small lakes. Scattered buildings are shown, mostly lining the main thoroughfares of Wood Lane, Cumberland Road (now the Uxbridge Road), and Goldhawk Road.[2]

Railways

Goldhawk Road tube station

There is also a tube station named Goldhawk Road, built in 1914. Goldhawk Road station is a London Underground station located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the south side of Goldhawk Road, about 250m west of Shepherd's Bush Green. It is on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines in Travelcard Zone 2. Although the line here was opened in 1864 a station was not opened at this location until 1 April 1914 when Shepherd's Bush station (now Shepherd's Bush Market) was moved from its original location between Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road to a location on the north side of Uxbridge Road.

Future

Hammersmith and Fulham Council have released plans, in association with property developers Orion Shepherd's Bush Ltd, to build around 200 flats and houses as part of a large-scale renovation and improvement of Shepherd's Bush Market. The development would involve demolition of a number of Victorian shopfronts, No's 30-52 Goldhawk Rd, including a Pie and Mash shop at number 48 which has been owned by the same family since 1899. The controversial plans are subject to a Judicial Review hearing on 15-18 May 2012.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Denny, p.51
  2. ↑ Denny, p.49
  3. ↑ Shepherd's Bush blog Retrieved January 2012

References

Pet Shop Boys 2013 "Love is a Bourgeois Construct" Electric Album Reference to Goldhawk Rd. "I've been hanging out with various riff-raff somewhere on the Goldhawk Road I don't think it's gonna be much longer 'til I'm mugging up on the penal code..."

The Good, The Bad and The Queen single "Green Fields" references the Goldhawk Rd. "I wrote this song years ago, late at night somewhere on the Goldhawk Road. I was never sure how or why."

External links

Coordinates: 51°30′07″N 0°13′37″W / 51.502°N 0.227°W