Brook Green is an affluent sub-neighbourhood of

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

in the

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London boroughs, London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 as the London Borough of Hammersmith from the merger of the former Metr ...

. Located approximately west of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

, it is bordered by

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that lies within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and largely surrounds its namesake park, Holland Park. Colloquially referred to as 'Millionaire's Row', ...

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a suburb of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, its ...

and Brackenbury Village. The Brook Green neighbourhood takes its name after the recreational park space also named Brook Green, which runs from Shepherd's Bush Road to Hammersmith Road. The area is principally composed of tree-lined streets with Victorian townhouses and boasts a significant French and Italian, as well as growing Chinese, expatriate community. Brook Green itself and adjacent streets are among the most prestigious and expensive residential addresses in the

due to their proximity to leading schools such as

St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is a private day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in west London, England. The school is included in The Schools Index as one of the world's 150 best private schools and among top ...

, Bute House Preparatory School for Girls, St James Independent Schools, Ecole Francaise Jacques Prevert, and Kensington Wade. Brook Green has two main shopping areas, Shepherd's Bush Road and Blythe Road, the latter of which is home to a number of small, independent shops. Also tucked in behind the green is a large

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

supermarket. Brook Green is also close to Kensington High Street, King Street and

Westfield London Westfield London is a large shopping centre in White City, west London, England, developed by the Westfield Group at a cost of £1.6bn, on a brownfield site formerly the home of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition. The site is bounded by the ...

History

The name Brook Green is first recorded in 1493, and the hamlet was established by the 16th century. The area was developed as industrialisation spread out of London. Businesses in Brook Green included the

Osram OSRAM Licht AG is a German company that makes electric lights, headquartered in Munich and Premstätten (Austria). OSRAM positions itself as a high-tech photonics company that is increasingly focusing on sensor technology, visualization and trea ...

Lamp Factory, now converted into social housing,

J. Lyons and Co. J, or j, is the tenth letter of the English alphabet. J may also refer to: * Palatal approximant in the International Phonetic Alphabet * J, Cyrillic letter Je Astronomy * J, a provisional designation prefix for some objects discovered be ...

and its complex at

Cadby Hall Cadby Hall was a major office and factory complex in Hammersmith, London which was the headquarters of catering company Joseph Lyons and Co. for almost a century. Origins The name originated from Charles Cadby, a piano manufacturer, who purchase ...

, and Post Office Savings Bank Headquarters in Blythe Road. Brook Green was also home to St Mary's College from 1850 to 1925, when the college moved to Strawberry Hill.

, one of the leading independent schools in the country, has been situated on Brook Green since its foundation in 1904. The composer

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

was Director of Music at the school from 1905 to 1934, and in 1933 wrote '' Brook Green Suite'' for the school's junior orchestra. The Brook Green Hotel has stood at the western end of Brook Green since 1886. The original brook, which was covered over in the 19th century, still flows under the hotel. The area's inns – the Brook Green Hotel and the Queen's Head – were originally coach houses, and became popular entertainment venues. Today, the Brook Green Hotel is a pub on ground level, along with a cocktail bar in the basement below and a hotel upstairs. The Queen's Head overlooks the green itself at the front and has a garden at the back. Brook Green boasts four

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

s: they commemorate the artist Sir Frank Short, the composer

, the Silver Studio of design, and the writer Elizabeth Anne Finn (founder of the charity now known as Elizabeth Finn Care). There is also Brook Green Market and Kitchen, a FARMA certified farmers market in Addison Primary School.

Education

* Bute House Preparatory School for Girls *Ecole Francaise Jacques Prevert *Kensington Wade * St James Independent Schools *Larmenier and Sacred Heart Catholic School * Sacred Heart High School *Addison CE Primary School *Lena Gardens Primary School *Avonmore Primary School *St Mary's Catholic Primary School *Lionheart Education (private tutorial college)

Notable residents

* Ken Suttle * Elizabeth Anne Finn * Angelo Colarossi *

Mischa Barton Mischa Anne Marsden Barton (born 24 January 1986) is a British-American film, television, and stage actress. She began her career on the stage, appearing in Tony Kushner's '' Slavs!'' and took the lead in James Lapine's '' Twelve Dreams'' at ...

Richard Eyre Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Eyre has received numerous accolades including three Laurence Olivier Awards as well as nominations for six BAFTA Awards and two ...

John Silvester Varley John Silvester Varley (born 1 April 1956) is an English banker who was the group chief executive of Barclays from 2004 to 2011. Early life John Silvester Varley was born in Warwick. His father, Philip, was a solicitor in Coventry. Varley was e ...

Francis Job Short Sir Francis Job Short PPRE (19 June 1857 – 22 April 1945) was a British printmaker and teacher of printmaking. He revived the practices of mezzotint and pure aquatint, while expanding the expressive power of line in drypoint, etching an ...

Notable businesses

* Immediate Media Co *

Liberty Global Liberty Global Ltd. is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company domiciled in Bermuda, with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Holdings Limited (UK), Liberty Glo ...

Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

Fever-Tree Fevertree Drinks plc, known as Fever-Tree, is a British producer of premium drink mixers, founded by Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow in 2004. History Fever-Tree was founded by gin industry expert Charles Rolls and advertising executive Ti ...

CH2M CH2M, earlier CH2M Hill, was an engineering company that provided consulting, design, construction, and operations services for corporations and governments. The company was organized in Corvallis, Oregon, and headquartered at 9191 South Jamaic ...

* Charlotte Tilbury Formerly: *

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

* The Silver Studio *

Omnifone Omnifone was a UK-based company that was an independent provider of cloud-based unlimited music services to consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers, Internet service providers and consumer brands including Research In Motion, RIM, Sony, ...

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

Nearest places

Places adjoining Brook Green: *

West Kensington West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, includ ...

Transport

Stations: * Kensington Olympia station * Barons Court tube station *

Shepherd's Bush tube station Shepherd's Bush is a London Underground station. It is located in the district of Shepherd's Bush in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The station is on the Central line between White City and Holland Park stations, and is in Tr ...

Shepherd's Bush railway station Shepherd's Bush is an interchange station between the Mildmay line of the London Overground and National Rail services operated by Southern, located in Shepherd's Bush, West London. It opened on 29 September 2008 and lies within Tr ...

* Hammersmith tube station (Piccadilly and District lines) *

Hammersmith tube station (Circle and Hammersmith & City lines) Hammersmith is a London Underground station in Hammersmith, London. It is the western terminus of the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. The station is in Travelcard Zone 2. It is a short walk from the station of the same name on the Picc ...

Goldhawk Road tube station Goldhawk Road is a London Underground station located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the south side of Goldhawk Road, about west of Shepherd's Bush Green. It is on the Circle line (London Underground), Circle and Hammersmit ...

London Underground Lines: *

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road tube station (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines), Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One br ...

Piccadilly line The Piccadilly line is a Deep level underground, deep-level London Underground line running between the west and the north of London. It has two western branches which split at Acton Town tube station, Acton Town and serves 53 stations. The li ...

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Coloured pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's finan ...

* Central line

Cultural references

Brook Green, Hammersmith, appears as "Brugglesmith" in the

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

story of the same name which was first published in 1891. The story is a farce in which the narrator, who it is implied is

William Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...

, has to escort a drunken sailor back to his wife. Brook Green is also mentioned in chapter four of Patrick Hamilton's 1928 novel Twopence Coloured as a place where accommodation can be found.

References

;Footnotes ;Bibliography * *

External links

Friends of Brook Green website
{{LB Hammersmith and Fulham Areas of London History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Districts of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Common land in London Places formerly in Middlesex