House Clearance in Perivale

Perivale, a little local history

The name of Perivale was first used in 1508, when it was spelt Pyryvale. The word seems to be a compound of perie (pear tree) and vale. It was one of the smallest parishes in Middlesex, with only 633 acres and a population of less than 100, until the twentieth century.

In the fourteenth century, there was some arable farming here, some woodland and a windmill. The church of St. Mary’s Perivale dates back to the early thirteenth century at least.

House Clearance in Peckham

Peckham, one of the Southwark villages

One of Southwark’s famous ‘villages’ mentioned in the Doomsday book, today Peckham is a vibrant, colourful, cultural melting-pot full of trendy galleries and controversial street art. The name is of Saxon descent meaning ‘the village of the river Peck’, and a small stream ran through the district until it was enclosed in 1823.

During the 18th century, Peckham flourished as a commercial centre, with extensive market gardens and

House Clearance in Parsons Green

Parsons Green, quite a smart area

It’s impossible to think of Parsons Green without Sloane Rangers springing to mind. After all, it’s just down the road from Chelsea and a local pub, The White Horse, is known as the Sloaney Pony on account of the posh types that drink there.

Many of the cast of Made In Chelsea have been spotted in the area at some point, and pinstripe shirts far outnumber baseball caps. Parsons Green is actually part of Fulham, rather than Chelsea, and

House Clearance in Palmers Green

Palmers Green, first established in the 1600s

There was a Palmers Field here in 1204 and a road called Palmers Green in 1324 but there is no record of a settlement until the late 16th century, when there were four houses.

The Broomfield Park estate belonged to the City of London alderman Sir John Spencer in 1599. Two centuries later Sir William Curtis, another alderman, acquired nearby Cullands Grove. It is Curtis who is remembered in the name of Alderman’s Hill – and who

House Clearance in Paddington

Paddington, there is a station there too

Paddington Station in London is one of Britain’s most splendid and historically significant railway termini, as the home and headquarters of the Great Western Railway, and as one of the masterpieces of its chief engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59).

Steven Brindle’s comprehensive history, the first full-length study of the station to be published, first appeared in 2004. Around the same time, in the course of research for the

House Clearance in Orpington

Orpington, all the way back to the Stone Age

Orpington has a long and interesting history dating back to the Stone Age. The town has some historic sites and buildings, particularly around the parkland setting of the priory gardens.

All the buildings in the northern part of the town are within a Conservation Area and the Priory, its outbuildings and walls are designated listed buildings. The park is also Grade II listed and on the English Heritage’s register of parks and

House Clearance in Northwood

Northwood, it was a wood

Northwood lies in an area once covered by vast forests, hunted and fought over by Romans and ancient Britons. The British tribe, the Belgar, who lived in this part of the country, distinguished themselves when, in 54 BC under Cassivellaunus, they almost defeated the Romans under Julius Caesar. Boudicca (Boadicea) is reputed to have died at Stanmore.

In Saxon times Offa, King of the Middle Saxons, entrusted the district to the Abbey of St Albans.

In Norman

House Clearance in Northolt

Northolt, a local history

Northolt was called Northala when it was first mentioned in 1086 in the Domesday Book. The name Northolt was first used at the end of the sixteenth century. It is called Northolt to distinguish it from Southolt (as Southall used to be known).

There was a settlement here in Saxon times. After the Norman Conquest it was given to Geoffrey de Mandeville, one of William’s followers. There were fifteen hides of land, a priest, seventeen villagers, three

House Clearance in New Southgate

New Southgate, a borrowed name

It’s not surprising that New Southgate should have had to borrow its name from its older neighbourbecause there was absolutely nothing here until the Great Northern Railway arrived, apart from two groups of farm buildings in Bowes Road. If this place was thought of at all, it was as an eastern extension of Colney Hatch – and this was the name originally given to the station when it opened in 1850. Betstyle Lodge appeared

House Clearance in Muswell Hill

The Forest of Muswell Hill

Muswell Hill was once part of the Forest of Middlesex. Tracks along the higher ground  were made by man where the views were better and the going was drier. The Romans came and left evidence of their stay in the form of coins found near Muswell Hill Road, and in the remains of pottery kilns in Highgate Woods. The extent and duration of their settlement is unknown, but a fort may well have been established on the Highgate plateau, with it’s steep slope

House Clearance in Mottingham

Mottingham, first recorded in 862AD

Historically Mottingham was an extra parochial district attached to Eltham, the name being first recorded in 862AD as Modingahema meaning the land of Moda’s people, sometime interpreted as ‘the proud place’. 

In historic times the main settlement lay along what is now Mottingham Lane, where large houses such as Fairy Hall and Mottingham House could be found. The rest of the district was farmland. 

The arrival of the railway

House Clearance in Mortlake

What does Mortlake have to do with Salmon?

Domesday Book recorded the presence of a fishery here and Mortlake’s name probably derives from the Old English words ‘mort’, a young salmon, and ‘lacu’, a small stream (since lost).

Although the manor of Mortlake was extensive, the village consisted of just a few riverside houses on a single street until 1619, when James I provided financial backing for the estab­lishment of a tapestry works employing

House Clearance in Morden

Morden, something you didn’t know

Early Morden developed around twin nuclei: St Lawrence church (and later Morden Park House) in the south-​​west and Morden Hall (shown in the photograph above) in the north-​​east.

Morden had been under the control of Westminster Abbey throughout the Middle Ages but it gained a resident lord of the manor in 1553. Richard Garth built Morden Hall and his descendants lived here for three centuries. St

House Clearance in Mitcham

Mitcham open space

Mitcham is home to a large area (460 acres) of South London’s open green space in the form of Mitcham Common. There are several ponds and a few buildings on the Common.

The Seven Islands pond is the largest of all the ponds on the Common, and was created as the result of gravel extraction during the 19th century. The most recent, Bidder’s pond, was created in 1990 and named for George Parker Bidder.

The buildings comprising the

House Clearance in Mill Hill

Mill Hill, 1 bishop and a couple of Abbots

Mill Hill was once buried in an ancient forest that covered the most of Middlesex, Herts & Essex. The local remains of that forest being Scratchwood, which was hunted up to the 1920’s and became an Open Space in 1932, and the woods at Moat Mount, where it is likely there was an Iron Age settlement c.500BC.

Up to 410AD the Romans had some presence in the area – scattered evidence has been found and at Copthall parts of a minor road

House Clearance in Merton

Merton, the early years

Mitcham, Morden, Merton and Wimbledon merged to form the London Borough of Merton in 1965, but the area was settled much earlier. Archaeology has shown that Merton was active even in prehistoric times. Celtic warriors were roaming Wimbledon Village long before the shoppers and drinkers of today. You can find the remnants of an Iron Age hill fort to the southwest of Wimbledon Common windmill, and there is evidence of another Celtic fort in the Pollards Hill area of

House Clearance in Mayfair

Mayfair, more than a spot on the Monopoly board

Mayfair, top spot on the Monopoly board, epitomises that smart, fashionable flavour that is so uniquely London, where chic boutiques stand alongside some of the capital’s most prestigious hotels. Its location couldn’t be more central – just a few minutes’ stroll south of Oxford Street, north of Piccadilly or east of an expansive Hyde Park. But in Mayfair, the frenetic city rush is quickly forgotten. It’s a

House Clearance in Marylebone

Marylebone, in Westminster

Marylebone is situated within the City of Westminster in Central London. It is sometimes also written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone. The name came from the Church called St. Mary’s (now known as St. Mary’s Parish Church), which was built on the bank of a small stream or “Bourne” called the Tybourne or Tyburn. The church and the surrounding area later became known as St Mary at the Bourne which, over time, became shortened to its present

House Clearance in Manor Park

Manor Park, historically speaking

First used in the nineteenth century to describe a suburban settlement near Manor Park station, it now describes the whole of the Little Ilford district. The name ‘Manor Park’ derives from the Manor House built in the nineteenth century and once the home of a Lord of the Manor of West Ham.

In 1086, when the Domesday Book was compiled, the parish of Little Ilford was known simply as ‘Ilford’. It was not until the thirteenth century that

House Clearance in Malden

Malden in the past

The area has a long history as the ancient parish of Malden, derived from the Old English mæl duna, meaning ‘the cross on the hill’.

Malden appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Meldone, held partly by William de Wateville and partly by Robert de Wateville. Its domesday assets were: 4 hides and 3 virgates; 1 chapel, 1 mill worth 12s, 6½ ploughs, 5 acres

House Clearance in Maida Vale

Maida Vale, pasture and woodland

This area belonged to the Bishop of London in 1647, when it was covered by woodland and pasture. There were no structures apart from farm buildings until the end of the 18th century. Houses were built after 1807, to specific­ations laid down by the Church, which included the use of stock bricks and slate roofs.

A short stretch of the Edgware Road was called Maida Vale in 1828 although the name was not applied to the neigh­bouring locality

House Clearance in Leytonstone

Leytonstone, the way of the rich and famous

When you walk along Leytonstone High Road you are walking in the footsteps of some famous and at least one infamous people.

The High Road has always been a gateway to London and has been trodden by countless millions from the 10th Roman Legion over two thousand years ago to the latter day legions of men and women who work in the City of London and Docklands.

Famous people that have first set foot in Leytonstone include Sir Alfred

House Clearance in Leyton

Leyton, a little history

LEYTON, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in West Ham district, Essex. The village stands adjacent to the river Lea, the Great Eastern railway, the boundary with Middlesex, and the London and Ongar railway, 5¼ miles NE by E of Bishopsgate, London; took its name, signifying Leatown, from its position on the Lea; occupies or is near the site of a Roman station, near the Roman or Stone way to Colchester; and where many coins and other relics of the

House Clearance in Lewisham

Lewisham in Saxon times

In Saxon times, Lewisham began its humble beginnings as Oleofsa’s village. In 862 Lewisham was referred to as LIofshema mearc, then as Lieuesham in 918 and as Levesham in the Doomsday Book of In 1086. Abraham Colfe, Vicar of Lewisham from 1610 to 1657, founded a grammar school, a primary school, and six almshouses for the inhabitants of Lewisham in 1664.

In 1816 Lewisham was described as a rural village on the banks of the Ravensbourne that could only to

House Clearance in Lee Green

Lee Green and the Olde Tiger’s Head

Situated at the eastern end of Lee High Road, this was the original centre ofLee, which expanded north and west to meet Blackheath and Lewisham, and then south to Lee station

The delightful tiled sign on the wall of the entrance to the Old Tiger’s Head, Lee Green

The Tiger’s Head public house was built in 1766 and became famous for its bowling green and notorious as a haunt of smugglers.

In 1809 the

House Clearance in Knightsbridge

A brief history of Knightsbridge

Knightsbridge emerged from a rag-tag patch of land between the villages of Charing, Chelsey and Kensing Town. It first appeared in the written record as Kyngesbrigg in a charter of Edward the Confessor; the name had morphed by 1361 to Knightsbridge. An important development in Knightsbridge was the building of a hospital, so located to ‘give the patients the benefit of country air’. The hospital existed for more than three hundred years until

House Clearance in Kingston Upon Thames

SAXON AND MEDIEVAL KINGSTON UPON THAMES

Kingston Upon Thames was once the king’s tun or estate. In Saxon times it had royal connections. In 838 King Egbert of Wessex called a church council there. Furthermore several Saxon kings were crowned in Kingston, including Edward the Elder (900), Athelstan (925), Edmund (940), Edred (946), Edwy (955) and Edward the Martyr (971). However after the Norman conquest in 1066 Kingston Upon Thames lost some of its former importance. Kings were no

House Clearance in Kingsbury

Kingsbury, The Early Years

The history of Kingsbury goes back to the Bronze age and Roman times. However, only scattered remains of these ancient periods have been found – ancient cremation burials near the Welsh Harp Reservoir and some Roman material at the site of St.Andrew’s Church and at the junction of Buck Lane and Kingsbury Road. The known settlement began to develop during the Anglo-Saxon times, in the 10th century AD, when this area was between two ancient north-south

House Clearance in Kilburn

Kilburn in WWII

During the Second World War Kilburn suffered bomb damage, including a V1 hit on Canterbury Terrace that kiled 16 people. After the war the Greater London Plan was brought about the redevelopment of Kilburn Obsolete industry was replaced with flats. Unfortunately, many Victorian buildings also had to go. Blocks of flats were also built on Shoop Up Hill. A lot of labour was provided by Irish immigrants, many of whom settled in the area.

In the early 1960s a shopping

House Clearance in Kentish Town

Kentish Town, the official version

Kentish Town is an area of diversity in terms of its mixed communities, wide-ranging economy and varied physical environment.

It is a long established town centre with a large active residential community, an important high street and diverse business community including the Regis Road Industrial Estate.  

Kentish Town is an unassuming place but beneath its surface is a wealth of charm, historic character and a thriving cultural identity

House Clearance in Kennington

Kennington, an undiscovered gem

IT’S HARD to find an area in this city that hasn’t been re-discovered, re-packaged, and re-sold to the highest bidder in recent years. But one pocket of central London still remains an underrated gem, ripe for development, and increasingly attractive to investors.

Kennington, located just south of the river from Westminster, has housed a heady mix of young professionals, social housing tenants and MPs over the years. The area is within the

House Clearance in Isleworth

Isleworth, or once Gistelworde

In the survey of Doomsday, this place is called Gistelworde, in subsequent ancient records for some centuries, uniformly Istelworth; and afterwards occasionally Istleworth. About Queen Elizabeth’s time, it was commonly in conversation, and sometimes in records, called Thistleworth, which name was much in use in the early part of the present century, and is now not wholly disused. In parochial and other writings, however, it has been uniformly spelt

House Clearance in Ilford

Fun things about Ilford

Louise Weener from Sleeper (the indie band) was from Gants Hill.
Winston Churchill slept in the library of Woodford County High School.
Noel Edmonds went to The Glade Primary School, dropped in quite literally a few years ago in a helicopter.
Two trains with nuclear waste pass through Ilford every week! 
Ian Durie was at the Gants Hill cinema in 1978 when the floor collapsed.
Paul Ince used to live in Ilford, Trevor Brooking went to Ilford County

House Clearance in Hounslow

Hounslow, a resting place.

Historic Hounslow was for centuries a resting place for travellers on their way to central London. More recently, Hounslow Heath was the site of the UK’s first civil airport, and Heathrow, just down the road, is a major employer. Hounslow’s main shopping area is the high street, and the Civic Centre in nearby Lampton Road houses Hounslow Council.

A large, leafy and ethinically diverse borough stretching from Chiswick in the east to Heathrow Airport

House Clearance in Hornsey

Hornsey, what’s going for it?

Hornsey’s a kind of urban salon de refusés, where people not yet resigned to Tottenham end up if they can’t afford Crouch End and Muswell Hill, where, in turn, people end up if they can’t afford Highbury and Islington, which, in turn, is where people end up when they can’t afford Mayfair and Marylebone. Nobody ever really moves there positively; no one ever says, “Ooh, if only we could afford to live in Hornsey.” But they

House Clearance in Holloway

HOLLOWAY, a suburban district of London

In the parish and union of Islington, Finsbury division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county Middlesex, 4 miles N.N.W. of St. Paul’s. It consists of Upper and Lower Holloway, and includes the whole district lying in the hollow beyond Islington towards Highgate Hill, the southern spur of which forms part of Upper Holloway.

It has direct communication with the City and West End every five minutes by omnibus, besides two stations on the Great

House Clearance in Holborn

Holborn is a bustling and vibrant commercial district.

It owes its development to the Inns of Court, which flourished under Elizabeth I. The four Inns of Court set the tone of the area as a centre for commerce and fierce intellectual debate. This continued into the Victorian era, with the stunning terracotta Prudential Assurance representing the commercial confidence of the day. Holborn is a centre of law, but it has also been a place where justice was dispensed. During the turbulent

House Clearance in Highgate

Highgate, an extract from the 1868 Gazetteer

HIGHGATE, a chapelry and suburban village in the parishes of St. Pancras and Hornsey, Holborn and Finsbury divisions of the hundred of Ossulstone, county Middlesex, 5 miles N.W. of the General Post-Office, and 4¼ N. of Charing Cross.

It is situated on the summit and slopes of one of the highest hills in the county of Middlesex, rising to the height of the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Its immediate neighbourhood is particularly

House Clearance in Highbury

Highbury, a military monastic order

In the 13th century the farms and woodland here came into the possession of the Knights Hospitaller, a military monastic order. The Hospitallers’ manor house was burned down by Wat Tyler’s rebels in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

The woods were mostly cleared during the 17th century. Londoners who had been burned out of their homes in the Great Fire camped out on Highbury Fields.

In 1740 a tea and ale house opened

House Clearance in Highams Park

Highams Park of Epping Forest

The history of Highams Park and Hale End is closely associated with Epping Forest and Walthamstow. When the new urban village was built on the Greenwich Meridian at the beginning of the 20th century, at first it was known as Hale End in Walthamstow, Essex. It did not become part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest until 1965.

Chingford postal services were used rather than the Walthamstow post office and subsequently, most of the area, which is

House Clearance in Hendon

Hendon is a place in the London Borough of Barnet.

It is a suburban development situated 7 miles (11.3 km) north west of Charing Cross.

Hendon was historically a civil parish in the county of Middlesex. The manor is described in Domesday (1087), but the name, ‘Hendun’ meaning ‘at the high hill’, is earlier. There is even evidence of Roman settlement discovered by the Hendon and District Archaeological Society and others; an urn burial of a child was found in nearby

House Clearance in Hayes

Hayes, the five villages of

Until the 20th century Hayes was made up of five villages, Hayes Town (also called Cotmans Town), Wood End, Botwell, Yeading and Hayes End.

Little is known about the early history of the area. Many flint tools have been found. As well as a Bronze Age axehead near Botwell and the remains of an Iron Age settlement at Heathrow Airport.  

Hayes is first mentioned in Saxon records. The name derives from the Anglo Saxon “hese” meaning “

House Clearance in Hatch End

Hatch End, a tale of two estates

Hatch End is a leafy suburb located in North West London forming part of the London Borough of Harrow. Hatch End grew from a small hamlet off Headstone Lane(by Letchford House which dates back to 1670), when the London to Birmingham Railway was constructed in 1837, the directors of the railway had lived along the railway line in The Avenue and it is believed that the trains would stop outside their houses to take them to work.

House Clearance in Harrow

Harrow, more than just a school

The Borough of Harrow lies to the north-western outer ring of Greater London bordering on the next county of Hertfordshire. It is an incredibly diverse area with over 40% of it’s population coming from ethnic minorities, but has less pronounced differences in wealth than other boroughs. The area around the prestigious Harrow-on-the-Hill is very affluent with average house prices in excess of £1.5m. However, there are fewer pockets of real

House Clearance in Harlesden

Harlesden or “Herewulf’s Tun”

It began as a Saxon settlement in a woodland clearing. There was a thriving brick and tile works from the 15th century, and by the 16th century it had grown to a village of seven houses surrounding a green that bordered the Harrow Road. One of these properties was the main farmhouse of the estate owned by All Souls College. Harlesden had soon developed its own identity and in the mid-18th century could boast

House Clearance in Hampstead

Hampstead, a brief history

Hampstead began as a Saxon village. Its name was once hamstede, which meant homestead. For centuries it was just a quiet village like many others in England where the people grew crops and grazed animals.

However in the late 17th century Hampstead, like many villages near London began to develop as wealthy people fled the plague of 1665 and the fire of 1666. Rich people wanted to live near the amenities of London but away from the noise and dirt of the

House Clearance in Hammersmith

Hammersmith, the home of “Rule Brittania”

Did you know that Scottish poet James Thomson is thought to have written the words for “Rule Britannia” in the Dove pub situated on Hammersmith’s historic Thames riverside? It was actually a part of a masque, Alfred, written with his friend Mallet ; Arne supplied the well-known tune. The pub, originally it seems a coffee house, claims to have the smallest bar in Britain, at 3

House Clearance in Hainault

The History of Hainault Forest

Following the Perambulation of the Forest of Essex in 1641 in the reign of Charles I the exact boundaries of the forest were established – the River Lee formed a natural boundary in the West, with the highway from Bow bridge to Ilford and the Whalebone Road the Southern boundary and a series of stones formed the Eastern boundary. The forest was bisected by the River Roding from Passingford Bridge north of the Richard Stone to Ilford. It was a natural

House Clearance in Hackney

The surprising history of Hackney

Go back 450 years and you’ll find a forgotten Tudor world of gleaming palaces, hunting grounds and bubbling brooks all removed from central London. What we call Hackney today was, in the 16th century, a cluster of small villages in a sea of meadows housing kings, courtiers and aristocrats. The Tudor upper crust was drawn to Hackney for holidays, hunting and sometimes matters of high state.

At King’s Place (later Brooke House) in

House Clearance in Greenwich

The Greenwich Meridian…

separates east from west in the same way that the Equator separates north from south. Inextricably linked with Greenwich Mean Time, it also sits at the centre of our system of time zones. Its path is determined by the location of an historic telescope, the Airy Transit Circle, which is housed at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

Such is the Meridian’s fame that each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors from all around the world make their way to the

House Clearance in Greenford

GREENFORD and its surrounding areas…

have become an upcoming buoyant area in which to live. It is only minutes away from Ealing and Harrow, offers links to central London with the A40 and the M4, and also has easy access to Heathrow Airport.

Greenford is an established area consisting mainly of 1930s and 50s properties, with a wide range of houses and maisonettes. There are local schools for all denominations and extensive shopping facilities where both modern and traditional tastes

House Clearance in Golders Green

Golders Green, it’s quiet on Saturday afternoons

It’s a given that Saturday afternoon is the busiest time of the week on the high street. Not so in Golders Green.

This north-west London suburb is home to a sizeable Orthodox Jewish community and is therefore at its quietest at that time, in contrast to Hampstead and Brent Cross down the road. Come nightfall, though, it bursts into life, with many cafés and food stores staying open until well into the early

House Clearance in Gipsy Hill

Gypsy Hill, more than a road

Gipsy Hill is the name of the main road that runs in a southerly direction from Gipsy Road, near its junction with South Croxted Road, up to Westow Hill in Upper Norwood. It takes its name from the presence of Gipsies in what was a relatively remote rural area until Gipsy Hill railway station was opened in 1856. On 11 August 1668, Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that his wife had visited “the gypsies at Lambeth”; they may

House Clearance in Fulham

Fulham, more vibrant than appearances might suggest

Less than three and a half miles away from the city centre, Fulham is a vibrant area within the London Borough Hammersmith and Fulham. It lies directly across the river from Putney and Barnes and is well served by the District Line as well as a somewhat erratic river boat service!

Chelsea’s poorer sibling is popular amongst backpackers, antipodean residents and those who have aspirations to live in SW3 but can’t quite

House Clearance in Forest Hill

Forest Hill, one of the highest places in London

“High and healthy” was how Forest Hill was described in the 1930s. Forest Hill is one of the highest hills in London with spectacular views towards central London and the North Downs .

Originally part of the Great North Wood, providing timber for the great dockyards at nearby Deptford, until the mid 19th century Forest Hill was sparsely inhabited with charcoal burners and woodsmen. 

Forest Hill is bordered by Sydenham,

House Clearance in Finsbury Park

Finsbury Park, a potted history

Most London interchange stations are the result of the gradual accruing of new lines over the decades, a process that has rarely resulted in the ideal experience for station users. Finsbury Park is a particularly striking example of this, in part due to that peculiarity of North London geography that led one local branch line to be dubbed ‘The Northern Heights’. The locality of the future station was historically known as Stroud Green (now only

House Clearance in Finchley

FINCHLEY, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Barnet district, Middlesex.

The village stands 4¾ miles NNW of Finchley-Road r. station; and has two stations of Finchley-East-End and Finchley and Hendon on the London and Edgware railway, a post office‡ under London N, and a police-station. The parish includes also part of Whetstone village. The property is much subdivided. Finchley common, a tract of upwards of 1,000 acres, was long noted as a resort of highwaymen;

House Clearance in Feltham

Feltham, parish of Spelthorne

Feltham formed an ancient parish in the Spelthorne hundred of Middlesex. It has a record in the Domesday Book hich records 21 households and an annual value to its lord of the manor of six pounds sterling, taxable at 12 geld units and was held as lord and tenant-in-chief by Robert, Count of Mortain. A large area of ten cultivated ploughlands is recorded.

Following Mortain’s son’s forfeit of lands (William’s

House Clearance in Farringdon

In the City of London there are two Wards for Farringdon

Farringdon Within and Farringdon Without — a situation caused by the splitting of the original Farringdon Ward in 1394. “Without” and “Within” denote whether the Ward fell outside or within the London Wall — this was also the case for the Wards of Bridge Within and Bridge Without. These Wards cover a fairly considerable part of the City, though before 2004 these Wards covered

House Clearance in Euston

Euston, not a real place?

Euston is not a community, it has no clear boundary, and no-one would say “I live in Euston”. It is instead a transport hub, where a triumvirate of tube lines, train tracks and Euston Road meet. Euston is a centrifugal force, a portal in the transport matrix, which sucks you up and propels you onwards and outwards. The transport links take you places faster, and bring places closer to Euston. Euston then is a natural spot to place major

House clearance in Enfield

The Borough of Enfield is London’s most northerly

It can trace its origins back to Roman times when it lay along Ermine Street, the great Roman route leading the length of the country up to the strategic centres of Lincoln and York. Enfield town made an early appearance in the Domesday Book of 1086 when it was just a small town a day’s journey from the capital; since then London has continued to expand and in doing so has swallowed up the town relegating it to a mere suburb.

House Clearance in Eltham

Eltham was home to royalty in the fifteenth century.

King Henry VIII grew up and raised his own children there. More recently, E Nesbit wrote some of her wonderful novels for children at Well Hall and an amazing art deco house was built in the 1930s.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the palace at Eltham was a favourite royal residence. It was not only convenient for monarchs who wished to travel to and from France, but also a refreshing distance from London which, at the

House Clearance in Edmonton

Edmonton, noted for its witch and devil, for John Gilpin

and its 18th-century fairs, lay about 7 miles from London on the main road to Ware and the north. Southgate, known for its elegant mansions and the cricketing Walker brothers, lay some 2¼ miles west of Edmonton village. Edmonton parish was a compact rectangle in shape, approximately 5 miles long and 2¼ miles from north to south until the Act for inclosing Enfield Chase in 1777 added 1,231 a. jutting

House Clearance in East Ham

Manor of Eastham-hall

The manor of Eastham, as early as the reign of Edward the Confessor, belonged to Westminster Abbey. It is not certain when it was alienated from that convent; but it appears, that in 1226, it was the property of Ralph le Moigne, who held it by grand serjeanty as caterer of the King’s kitchen. It was soon afterwards vested in the Montfichets. Margery, sister and one of the coheirs of Richard de Montfichet, the last heir male of this family, brought the manor of

House Clearance in Earl’s Court

Earls Court, once part of ancient manor of Kensington

It seems difficult to imagine now, but up to a hundred and fifty years ago Earl’s Court was a rural area, covered with green fields and market gardens. For over five hundred years the land, part of the ancient manor of Kensington, was owned by the De Vere family, Earls of Oxford, descendants of Aubrey De Vere, who followed William the Conqueror to England in 1066. The Earl held his Manorial Court where Old Manor Yard is now,

House Clearance in Ealing

Ealing, not just the home of British cinema

Ealing derives its name from Gillingas, meaning the people of Gilla, who may have been an Anglo-Saxon settler. Over the centuries, the name has changed, and has been known as Yealing, Zelling and Eling, until Ealing became the standard spelling in the nineteenth century.

The Church of St. Mary’s, Ealing, the parish church, dates back to at least the early twelfth century. The parish of Ealing was divided into manors, such as those of

House Clearance in Deptford

“Such a place hath Deptford…” Pope

The town of Deptford—anciently written Depeord—which lies on the east side of Rotherhithe, and stretches away to Lewisham on the south, and to Greenwich on the east, was, at a very remote period, known as West Greenwich. It derived its present name from being the place of a “deep- ford” over the little river, the Ravensbourne, near its influx into the Thames, where a bridge was many years ago built over it, just before

House Clearance in Dalston

Dalston, cool place

Long dismissed as a fading east London suburb with a chaotic daily market, a strip of cheap Turkish restaurants and a rudimentary relationship with street hygiene, Dalston E8 now finds itself the unlikely owner of Britain’s coolest postcode. Its roll call of fashion habitués reads like a Who’s Who of past and present design figureheads – Christopher Kane, Gareth Pugh and Marius Schwab have set up shop there, while old guard

House Clearance in Dagenham

Dagenham, the forgotten borough?

It’s London’s forgotten borough, an empty flatland of council housing, arterial roads and industrial decline, famous for only two things: a slowly dying car manufacturing plant, and a four year period in which the BNP was second largest party on the council. The area combines inner city poverty with suburban desolation, and while it’s only 15 minutes up the line from Fenchurch Street it feels somehow remote: with London yet, somehow, not

House Clearance in Croydon

Croydon is a market town, situated ten miles south of London.

The parish is very extensive; in the Conqueror’s Survey, it is said to contain twenty plough lands, and is now supposed to be about thirtysix miles in circumference, being bounded on the north by Stretham and Lambeth; on the east by Beckenham, Addington, Sandersted, and Coulsdon; on the south by Beddington; and on the west by Micham. The arable land exceeds the pasture in a great proportion: a considerable part of Norwood

House Clearance in Crouch End

Crouch End, once excellent for fishing

Many years ago, the Crouch was a wide sleepy river winding gently through wooded hills and peaceful valleys on its long journey south from the Watford gap to the Thames. On its way, it passed through a quiet vale bounded by meadows, where a small community of shepherds and farmers tended the land and their flocks, occasionally, but unsuccessfully, fishing in the river or hunting for deer or bear in the hills. Evidence of this pastoral existence

House Clearance in Cricklewood

Cricklewood or Le Crickeldwode

Cricklewood lies in a valley between five hills (between Shoot-up Hill, Childs Hill, Hendon (‘the high hill’), Dollis and Dudden Hills. In the times when the whole area was covered in thick woods, five streams used to run down the hills and meet. All of them are now culverted. The name was given by the Saxons, meaning ‘wood with uneven outline’ and was first recorded in 1295 in its normanised version of ‘Le Crickeldwode’. Then it was

House Clearance in Covent Garden

A history note of Covent Garden

The area around Covent Garden stretching down to The Strand was, in mid Saxon times, a thriving trading settlement known from contemporary charters as Lundenwic. The exact extent of the Saxon settlement is calculated to be up to 60 hectares and this figure is based on evidence from archaeological excavations, chance finds of artefacts during development and research. The trading port was established along the Thames foreshore at the foot of The Strand and

House Clearance in Colindale

Colindale, formerly in the borough and ancient parish of Hendon

The area was essentially the dale between Mill Hill and The Burroughs. By the middle of the 20th century, it had come to include that part of the Edgware Road between The Hyde and Burnt Oak.

The area is named after a 16th century family of the same name. Until the 20th century Collindale, was without any buildings save for a large house called Collindale Lodge, Collindale Farm and a few cottages. (A spelling with two

House Clearance in Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell, it used to be the industrial estate of the 1700s

Clerkenwell used to be a part of London’s industrial heartland. Now, the warehouses are home to design agencies and magazines, the factories have become exclusive bars and restaurants, and the slum housing has been turned into exclusive flats for professional twenty-somethings. As the local population moved out, the pubs fund a new way of making money, and many of London’s oldest and best gastropubs are in this area,

House Clearance in Clapton

Clapton used to be called Clopton

CLAPTON, so spelt in 1593, was from 1339 until the 18th century normally rendered as Clopton, the ‘farm on the hill’. The Old English clop, ‘lump’ or ‘hill’, presumably denoted the high ground which rises from the Lea. Later to cover the north-eastern quarter of the parish, Clapton grew up along the way which in 1745 was called Hackney Lane, part of which ran through the waste of Broad (later Clapton) common. In the 19th

House Clearance in Clapham

Clapham in the 18th Century

Clapham began to grow in the late 17th century. Refugees arrived from the Great Plague of London in 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666. By the end of the century Clapham was quite a large village. In the late 18th century it became a fashionable place for the rich to live as it was close to the amenities of London but was in a rural setting away from the dirt and noise of the city.

Gauden Road is named after Sir Dennis Gauden who was a victualler (supplier of

House Clearance in The City of London

The City of London is the historic heart of London.

This area was already a bustling trading post almost 2000 years ago, when it was part of the Roman Empire. Many of the irregular streets still follow the ancient Roman roads. The boundaries of the City also loosely follow the path of the Roman wall that was built here in the 2nd century AD.

Today the City is a mostly commercial district dominated by the stately buildings and skyscrapers that house offices for the finance industry.

House Clearance in Chiswick

Chiswick, a country retreat

This large suburb of West London was formerly a country retreat. Due to its good transport links with London, the area continued to grow and it became a significant area that features an expanding commercial presence. Extensive regeneration has given Chiswick a vast range of restaurants, bars and pubs and retail developments.

Popular among professional commuters as well as visitors, it is also convenient with Heathrow Airport travellers due to its motorway

House Clearance in Chislehurst

Chislehurst is over one thousand years old

The Anglo Saxon name means ‘stony wood’, appropriate even today.

Until the arrival of the railways in 1865 Chislehurst was very much a rural community, with a few large houses such as Kemnal, Frognal, Scadbury and Camden surrounding the Chislehurst commons.  Two events in quick succession changed that forever.  First the arrival of the railway in 1865 enabled merchants and professionals from the City of London to commute

House Clearance in Chingford

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Chingford like this:

“CHINGFORD, a village and a parish in Epping district, Essex. The village stands on the verge of the county adjacent to Epping forest and the river Lea, 2 miles NE of Water-Lane Junction r. station, and 9½ NNE of St. Paul’s, London; and has a post office under Woodford, London, NE. The parish comprises 2, 766 acres. Real property, £7, 270.

House Clearance in Chessington

Chessington, adventures aside

Chessington is a town in Greater London just north of Leatherhead and home to nearly 23,000 people. The Hogsmill River runs through the town, and the church of St Mary’s dates back to the 13th Century which makes for an interesting interlude. For lovers of architecture a visit to ‘Homewood’ displays the Modernist ideal of a house coupled with delightful garden, or perhaps the majestic 17th Century Stuart Mansion of ‘Ham House’

House Clearance in Chelsea

Chelsea, more than a football club

Football is traditionally a working class sport, but an ordinary fan of Chelsea FC earns around double the national average income, a statistic that tells you everything you need to know about this fabulously wealthy riverside neighbourhood. Two long high streets, the King’s Road and the Fulham Road run parallel to the river, meaning that nowhere in the neighbourhood are you ever more than a few minutes’ walk from a world-class restaurant, an

House Clearance in Catford

Catford, no longer frequented by wild cats

The name Catford is usually explained as having been taken from a ford across the River Ravensbourne frequented by wild cats. In 1745 there were a few houses at Catford Bridge, and separate hamlets at Perry Hill and Rushey Green. The open space called Rushey Green, which was east of the modern road, was an ancient area of settlement, with moated houses on either side. The green was enclosed in 1810, and cottages were rapidly built over it.

A

House Clearance in Canary Wharf

Canary Wharfed, the docklands Phoenix

Canary Wharf is built on the site of the old West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs. From 1802 to 1980, the area was one of the busiest docks in the world, with at one point 50,000 employed.

During World War II, the docks area was bombed heavily and nearly all the original warehouses were destroyed or badly damaged. After a brief recovery in the 1950s, the port industry began to decline. Containerisation, a limit of 6,000 long tons (6,096 MT)

House Clearance in Camden

Camden, home to markets heaths and zoos

home to sprawling street markets, world-famous music venues, first-class museums and theatres, London Zoo, 681 acres of Hampstead Heath and some of the city’s busiest transport hubs.

The London Borough of Camden is a hugely diverse wedge of 22 square kilometres of inner London. With bustling Covent Garden at its tip and fed by the arteries of Euston and King’s Cross, the borough fans out to Kilburn in the west, Hampstead and Highgate

House Clearance in Camberwell

Camberwell, trendy without the price tag

Camberwell has enjoyed mixed fortunes over the years. It has gone from a fashionable area with a good, large-scale Victorian housing stock to an area associated with drugs and deprivation to a trendy area once again, stoked by the booming art market and the spread outwards of London’s relentless growth in wealth.

Camberwell certainly bears the marks of two very different worlds – from the local population to the growing trendy

House Clearance in Bromley

Bromley is the largest London Borough

The history of Bromley goes back to before William the Conqueror, in fact first mention of Bromleag has been traced to AD 862 and had become Bronlie by 1086 (Domesday Book). A brief summary ofk Kentish history can be found HERE. Incidentally, the name Bromley is derived from the broom plant (which grows very easily around here) and should not be confused with Bromley by Bow which name is derived from brambles (apparently)! An

House Clearance in Brixton

Brixton, it used to be called Brixistane

Brixton used to be known as Brixistane and was mostly dull farmland until the Vauxhall Bridge opened in 1816. Better transportation options turned the area into a suburban paradise, with huge Victorian houses sprouting up along the main roads. These buildings were being converted into flats and boarding houses by the start of the 20th century, and the 1940s and ‘50s saw waves of immigrants from the Caribbean settling in the area.

House Clearance in Bow

Bow, The home of Eastenders

With a cash machine by Bow Road Tube station asking, “What language do you require: English or cockney?” you truly are in the heart of east London in Bow.

Don’t expect EastEnders come-to-life, however – it’s a little less dramatic than that. Instead, an eclectic mix of students, professionals, young families and ‘born-and-breds’ live alongside each other to create a bustling thoroughfare that connects the east to the

House Clearance in Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury, a vibrant historical part of London

Bloomsbury is an upmarket residential area of London. Although administratively, it is largely part of the borough of Camden (with only a small part lying within the City of Westminster), it is generally regarded as a Central London district.

This is a vibrant historic district made most famous by a group of turn-of-the-century writers that included Virgina Woolf and EM Forster (the Bloomsbury Set), economist John

House Clearance in Biggin Hill

Biggin Hill was there before there was an airfield

Biggin Hill, in recent years, has been going through a period of intense change both in it’s appearance and character. Property development on a large scale has brought with it rapid growth in population, new and improved roads, shops, schools and firms of estate agents. What people are happy to go on calling a village is by certain standards a town of some size, but our new towns were properly planned, and many of our older ones

House Clearance in Bexleyheath

William Morris lived in Bexleyheath

William Morris was born on the 24 March 1834 at Walthamstow. By the time of his death in 1896 he had been hailed as a genius and had completely altered many peoples ideas in the worlds of art and politics.

Bexleyheath is now a major suburb of London but it began its life as an area of scrubland containing a few dwellings and a windmill. In the 19th century the land to the north of the settlement was developed into parkland. As the city of

House Clearance in Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green, an increasingly arty place

Once considered as dim as a dusty candle, Bethnal Green is experiencing a revival that’s transforming it into a chandelier. Some of the neighborhood’s back alleys remain endearingly dodgy, but Bethnal Green’s influx of boutique hotels, boutique firms, and boutique…boutiques, are quickly adding to its rising stardom. Art galleries and swanky lounges share Bethnal Green with its resident cast of gentlemen’s clubs—the

House Clearance in Bermondsey

Bermondsey, home to the New Caledonian Market

Bermondsey Market was famous in the past for being the place where thieves could sell their goods with impunity. No more thieves today, but the market still keeps the early trade hours held in the past.

The traders set their stalls around 4 am, and the best time to shop is 5 am, before the best bargains sell out. Bermondsey Market is open only on Fridays, regardless the weather.

It is biggest flea market in the city. You can find

House Clearance in Beckenham

If you liked Enid Blyton you’ll like Beckenham

Once the home of children’s author Enid Blyton, Beckenham still retains an almost innocent feel that the famous author conveyed in her books. Characterised by wide tree lined streets, a strong local community and great choice of period architecture, Beckenham is a truly brilliant find. It is a safe and leafy suburb with a ‘café society’, a busy high street, great links into London (to Victoria in just 20 minutes)

House Clearance in Bayswater

What to do in Bayswater

The culturally diverse inhabitants of Bayswater live in one of London’s most architecturally traditional areas. London’s Arabic, American, and Greek communities make their homes in pillared Georgian terraces and neat garden squares, with a great expanse of Hyde Park’s landscaped English parkland almost on their doorsteps. Edgware Road is London’s Arab high street, and in summer the air is rich with the scents of Okacbasi barbecues and shisha pipes

House Clearance in Battersea

Battersea, Popular with young families

Battersea is a hugely popular and bustling residential area situated between two commons and because of its incredible and sustained popularity with young families, the area is known as ‘Nappy Valley’. Good local schools, wide open recreational spaces and easy transport links to central London also attract the younger crowd – professionals who take full advantage of the trendy bar and restaurant scene. 

Characterised by

House Clearance in Barnet

The Barnet Borough Guide, a sample of…

Lying on the outer edge of north London, Barnet is the second largest of London’s boroughs and has a relatively diverse population and landscape. To the north it benefits from large swathes of countryside, whilst to the south it becomes ever more densely populated towards Hendon, Colindale and Cricklewood. From a reported figure of just 6,000 in 1800, Barnet’s population grew rapidly in the mid-nineteenth centry as the capital’s

House Clearance in Barnes

Barnes, a perfectly formed Thames side village

Barnes village has a handful of small boutiques, as well as a local grocers, delis, a bookshop and some very fine restaurants. It’s also where you’ll find some of London’s most expensive streets, such as The Terrace where the famous British composer, Gustav Holst lived. Today Barnes is home to many high-profile broadcasters, politicians and actors.

Barnes is also the unlikely setting for one of London’s most famous music

House Clearance in Barking

Barking does have it’s history

Barking Abbey is where Barking started, in the year 666. Despite getting smashed to bits by Vikings, it stuck around for the better part of a millennium before being dissolved by Henry VIII in 1541.

The unexpectedly beautiful ruins still stand in a stretch of parkland known as Abbey Green. The neighbouring St Margaret’s Church is a relative newcomer dating from the 12th century, but that’s rather fine looking too. One of those places that

House Clearance in Balham

What about Balham, gateway to the South?

In recent years, Balham has witnessed significant change, which is reflected by an increasingly affluent residential population, but has retained its multicultural community and identity. Balham Town Centre is well used by local residents and has started to become a destination within its own right.

Balham Town Centre is focused on three main roads, Balham Station Road, Balham High Road and Bedford Hill, which create a triangle with Hildreth

House Clearance in Anerley, SE20

What’s Happening in Anerley?

There’s not been this much fuss made of Anerley since the Crystal Palace, accompanied by the railway, moved here in the 19th century. Nobody seemed to notice this little suburb, all eyes being focused on the big glass lump at the top of the hill. The same thing’s happened again: all this palaver about the opening of the new London Overground line, linking South London with the east and the north, yet nobody seems to have spotted the new

House Clearance in Alperton, NW10

Alperton gets on TV:

The towpath of the Grand Union Canal in Alperton has been used for various scenes in the BBC TV soap EastEnders. It was first used in an episode which aired on 3 October 1985, when the character Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham) meets with Michelle Fowler (played by Susan Tully) and it is revealed Den is the father of Michelle’s baby. It was used again on numerous occasions, most famously on 23 February 1989, when Den Watts was shot before falling into the

House Clearance in Aldgate, E1

An introduction to Aldgate:

Once the eastern most gateway through London Wall, leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the east end, Aldgate is now dominated by the Gherkin, the building of insurance company AXA, and the London Metal Exchange. Such offices and industry have brought a range of facilities and amenities to the area, to cater for the workers. Anyone looking to buy or rent a restaurant, cafe or other leisure commercial property would therefore do well to locate in

House Clearance in Acton, W3

An introduction to Acton, W3:

Situated in the London Borough of Ealing, this region boasts an impressive total of seven railways, making it one of the most accessible parts of London! Historically, Acton was an ancient village; more recently, however, as London became bigger and expanded it got swallowed up, losing its identity and becoming a region within the capital city. In fact, Acton only became part of Ealing in 1965 and was formerly considered to be located in

House Clearance in Coulsdon

An introduction to Coulsdon

Coulsdon is an outer London suburb. It has a rich history which can be dated back to 675 when a deed for Coulsdon (Curedesdone) Manor was granted; however people had been living in the area long before this time with archaeologists discovering evidence of flint axes (c100,000 BC).

It benefits from an excellent location with easy access to the South Coast, central London and the M25 motorway. There are also three railway stations and very good bus