Teddington

Teddington is a largely suburban town centred on a linear settlement in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London, on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham; its centre is mid rise urban development. It is 10.4 mi south west of Charing Cross. It stretches inland from the River Thames to Bushy Park. As with most of London north of the Thames it was in the abolished county of Middlesex and it is a post town with a long high street reaching down to pubs and leisure clubs by the riverside. It has no dual carriageways and no high rise residential buildings.

Economy
Teddington is mostly residential but is bisected by an almost continuous road of shops, offices and other facilities running from the river to Bushy Park. There are three clusters of offices on this route: on the river Teddington Studios and Haymarket Group form a media hub whilst on the edge of Bushy Park the NPL, NMO 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, and offices outside this axis include Tearfund. Several riverside businesses and houses were redeveloped in the last quarter of the 20th century as blocks of riverside flats.

Teddington has the site of the first/last lock of the river, Teddington Lock, just within Ham's boundary in fact today, accessible via the Teddington Lock Footbridges. This marks the upstream limit of the Tideway, a complex of three locks of which the barge lock at 218 yd is the longest on the River Thames.

In 2001 the RNLI opened the Teddington Lifeboat Station, one of the four Thames lifeboat stations, below the lock on the Teddington side. The station became operational in January 2002 and is the only volunteer station on the river.

Etymology
The name "Teddington" derives from the name of an Old English tribal leader, and it was known in Saxon and Norman times as Todyngton and Tutington. The name does not derive from "Tide's End Town", as claimed by Rudyard Kipling among others. The "ton" ending simply means settlement or enclosure.

Teddington's beginnings
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. However, the first permanent settlement in Teddington was probably in Saxon times. Teddington was not mentioned in the Domesday book 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 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 and with most land was owned by the Abbot of Westminster, the remainder was rented by tenants who had to work the fields a certain number of days a year.

The Hampton Court gardens were erected in 1500 in preparation for the planned rebuilding of a 14th-century manor to form Hampton Court Palace in 1521 and 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 acted as more hunting grounds.

Bushy House was built in 1663, and its notable residents included British prime minister Lord North who lived there for over twenty years. 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. Shortly afterwards, the future William IV of the United Kingdom lived there with his mistress Dorothy Jordan before acceding to the throne, and later with his Queen Consort, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. The facilities were later converted into the NPL.

Economic change
In subsequent centuries, Teddington enjoyed a prosperous life due to the proximity of royalty and by 1800 had grown significantly, with a population of over 700. 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. 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 to 14,037 in 1901.

To account for this, 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 the High Church tendencies there) and formed their own independent and Reformed, Protestant in style, congregation at Christ Church. Their original church building was to be found on what is now called "Church Road".

The Victorians attempted to build a massive 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. 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.

The early 20th century


On 26 April 1913 a train was almost destroyed in Teddington after an arson attack by suffragettes.

Great change took place around the turn of the 20th century in Teddington. Many new establishments were springing up, including Sim's Opticians and Dowsett's newsagents, which still exist today. 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 manage the growing population especially during the First World War. Money was raised over the next decade to build Teddington Memorial Hospital in 1929.

By the beginning of the Second World War, by far the greatest source of employment in Teddington was in the NPL. Its main focus in the war was military research and its most famous invention, the "bouncing bomb", was developed. During the war General Dwight D. Eisenhower planned the D-Day landings at his Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in Bushy Park.

Modern times
This had been a Warner Bros film studio which was heavily bombed during the war. Most major rebuilding from bomb damage in World War II was completed by 1960 and it was becoming a very attractive place to live. Chain stores began to open up, including Tesco in 1971.

Teddington Studios, a digital widescreen television studio complex and one of the former homes of Thames Television, opened in 1958.

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".

Societies
The Teddington Society, which was formed in 1973 by local residents, seeks to preserve the character of Teddington and to support local community projects. The Society is developing a wiki which includes a Directory of Buildings of Townscape Merit (BTMs) and Listed Buildings in Teddington.

Education
The education authority for Teddington is Richmond-upon-Thames Borough Council.

Primary schools in Teddington include Collis (Fairfax Rd), St Marys & St Peters (Church Rd), Sacred Heart RC School (St Marks Road) and Stanley Juniors and Infants (Strathmore Road). Secondary schools include Teddington School and Waldegrave School for Girls.

Sport
In the late 19th century, Bushy Park became home to Teddington Cricket Club. From this, stemmed Teddington Hockey Club in 1871, which was responsible for introducing important rules of the modern game including the striking circle and the "sticks" rule.
 * Cricket and hockey clubs in Bushy Park
 * Others
 * Kingston Royals Dragon Boat Racing Club
 * The Lensbury sports and social club of Royal Dutch Shell – private members' club with membership available to non-Shell employees. The sports teams previously associated with it have become independent
 * Royal Canoe Club
 * The Skiff Club
 * Teddington Athletic FC
 * Teddington Rugby Football Club
 * Walbrook Rowing Club
 * Weirside AFC play at the Broom Road site; they have a clubhouse overlooking Teddington Lock

Transport
Teddington railway station is on the Kingston Loop Line and served by South West Trains. Trains run both ways to London Waterloo, one way via Kingston upon Thames and Wimbledon every fifteen minutes, the other via Richmond and Putney every 30 minutes. Trains also run to Shepperton every 30 minutes.

Teddington is also served by a number of buses. These are 285 (24 hr service to Kingston via Hampton Wick, and London Heathrow via Hampton Hill, Hampton, Hanworth, Feltham and Hatton), 281 (24 hr service to Tolworth via Hampton Wick, Kingston and Surbiton, and Hounslow via Fulwell, Twickenham and Whitton), 33 (24 hr service to Hammersmith via Twickenham, Richmond, East Sheen, Barnes and Castelnau, and Fulwell), R68 (to Hampton Court via Hampton Hill and Hampton, and Kew via Twickenham and Richmond), 481 (limited Monday to Saturday service to Kingston via Hampton Wick, and West Middlesex Hospital via Fulwell and Whitton) and X26 (to West Croydon via Kingston, New Malden, Worcester Park, Cheam, Sutton, Carshalton, Wallington Green and East Croydon, and London Heathrow via Hatton).

Royal park

 * Bushy Park (shared approximately equally between it and two parts of the Hamptons), whether by post town or by parish.

Nearest railway stations

 * Teddington railway station
 * Hampton Wick railway station
 * Fulwell railway station
 * Strawberry Hill railway station

Religious sites

 * St. Mary's with St Alban's Church of England parish church, built circa 1400
 * Teddington Baptist Church – evangelical Baptist church
 * Sacred Heart Roman Catholic
 * St Mark's Parish Church of South Teddington
 * Teddington Methodist Church
 * Christ Church – an independent Church of England style congregation
 * St Peter and St Paul – Church of England, rebuilt circa 1980, a 120-seat late 20th-century church. Incumbent since 29 June 2007, Reverend Father Jack Knill-Jones.

Literature

 * John Sheaf, Ken Howe: Hampton and Teddington Past, Historical Publications, October 1995 ISBN 0-948667-25-7
 * K. Howe, M. Cherry: Twickenham, Teddington and Hampton (Britain in Old Photographs), Sutton Publishing, 29 October 1998

Living people

 * Mo Farah, Olympian long-distance runner, has a home in Teddington
 * Viv Groskop, journalist, writer and comedian, lives in Teddington

Historical figures

 * The Dowager Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV, spent her last years (1837–1849) at Bushy House, Teddington
 * Sir Noël Coward (1899–1973), actor, playwright and songwriter, was born at 131 Waldegrave Road, Teddington. There is a bust of Coward in Teddington Library, sculpted by Avril Vellacott, which is only a short distance away
 * Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours (1814–1896) lived at Bushy House
 * Eugène Marais (1871–1936), South African lawyer, naturalist, poet and writer, lived in Coleshill Road in Teddington from 1898 to 1902
 * Norman Selfe (1839–1911), engineer, naval architect, inventor, urban planner and advocate of technical education, was born in Teddington

In film, fiction and the media
The Telegraph has published a vein of articles lauding Teddington as a suburb, highlighting it as "very leafy".