The Parish Boundary

Mortlake is often thought of as the town on the riverside, but the parish of Mortlake, now known as Mortlake with East Sheen, extends from the Thames well into Richmond Park. Indeed the residents of Mortlake were particularly aggrieved when Charles I enclosed a large portion of its woods and commonfields into his new hunting park in 1637.

The current boundary of the ecclesiastical parish is shown in the map opposite in red. But before 1892 Mortlake parish was even larger. In that year the area bounded by the blue line was transferred to Richmond forming the new parish of Kew.

Starting at the Thames and proceeding clockwise, the boundary goes down White Hart Lane and at Priest's Bridge follows the course of Beverley Brook. In Richmond Park it takes in Hartington Hill, White Lodge, the northern tip of Sidmouth Wood and the eastern half of Conduit Wood. Outside Richmond Park the original boundary ran along the east side of Grove Road, Pesthouse Common, Manor Road and Sandycombe Road. It met the Thames at Kingston Creek, with Kew Gardens station and Gipsy Corner both within Mortlake parish.