Origin of Elm Road

Elm Road, prior to the mid 19th Century, was known as Hog Lane. John Roque's 1746 map of what is, in effect, today's Greater London shows the lane running through open countryside from Park Road (then Latchmere Lane), down to Richmond Road (then Canbury Lane). The lane dates from earlier, as there is a reference to Hog Lane Gate from records in 1683. The name of Elm Road was adopted in the early 1860s, presumably in reference to the many Elm trees in the area and in anticipation of the enhanced marketing potential of a street named Elm Road rather than Hog Lane.

Lindsay's directory of 1864 identified no businesses or dwellings on Elm Road, which at that time also included the lower part of Canbury Park Road. However an extension of the railway line from Twickenham to Kingston was completed in 1863, making commuting from Kingston to London a feasible proposition and opening up opportunities for industrial development in North Kingston. In 1869 the line was extended in the other direction to Ludgate Circus via New Malden. The British Land Company bought the land around Elm Road to develop a substantial new housing estate in anticipation of the demand from both commuters and the workforce that was required for the emerging industries the railway had attracted to North Kingston.

Housing Boom

The development of the railways coincided with a demographic explosion in England. The population almost doubled between 1851 and 1901. New housing rapidly replaced the fields and market gardens to the North of Kingston, and with it came the people.

Directories, such as Philipson's, Lindsay's and Kelly's, meticulously recorded details of who lived in the streets of Kingston. By 1884, the development of Elm Road had begun, with 5 homes and a number of businesses established, including the pub, the Wych Elm.

By 1893, there were around 80 dwellings in Elm Road, scattered along the road as far as Park Road. There was a Salvation Army barracks at number 40. The Gladstone Liberal Club was at 145 Elm Road, accessible via the rear entrance. There were several shops, including a post office at number 138. The occupations of the inhabitants of the houses were largely tradesmen - gardeners, decorators, dairymen, oilmen, carmen, umbrella makers, bootmakers, retailers and sundry other trades.

By 1924 Elm Road was a thriving and well-established residential street. A small business area surrounded the Wych Elm, with a greengrocers at number 130, a printing business at 132 and a bakery at 142/144. Number 1 Shortlands Rd was a farriers and number 2 appears to have been a grocers. The Salvation Army and the Gladstone Liberal Club still had premises in Elm Road.

A street called Hudson Road ran between Elm Road and the graceful curve of Elm Crescent, and at number 28 Worthy Dicks plied his trade as a grocer. Where Hudson Road once stood there is a car park for Canbury Medical Centre and the start of several small industrial parks that run along the length of Elm Crescent.

St Luke's National School

St Luke's in Gibbon Road was concecrated in 1889 and Elm Road became part of the newly established parish. At the time of its errection the spire was the tallest structure in Kingston, reputedly so that people could navigate the maze of streets and alleys in North Kingston to get to church. With the church also came schools. National schools were intended to provide education for the poor in association with every parish. As soon as St Luke's had been consecrated, work began on building an infants and a main school on Elm Road for the children of parishioners. The original school buildings have been demolished, but the gatepost for the old school still survives on Elm Road at the corner of the current primary school and the recreation ground, inscribed "Saint Luke's National School".

The Aircraft Industry

During the inter-war years the bottom of Elm Road backed on to the factory of the ever-enlarging H.G. Hawker Engineering Company.

The Sopwith Aviation Company had expanded from its early beginnings at Brooklands to a former Roller Skating Rink in Canbury Park Road in 1912, drawing on the availability of boatbuilding and coachbuilding skills in the area to scale up aircraft production. By 1915 they were successful enough to build an additional site at the junction of Elm Road and Canbury Park Road. The company rose to prominence during World War I producing many famous fighter aircraft including the Sopwith Camel. After the war the company was wound up but almost immediately reformed as H.G. Hawker Engineering and went on to make a series of important military aircraft. Rebranded as Hawker-Siddeley, the company moved its headquarters and most of its manufscturing to a new site on Richmond Road in 1948.

World War Two

Kingston was the target of 31 raids in the Second World War - high explosive bombs in late 1940, V1 rockets in 1944 and a single V2 in 1945. A bomb fell on the Hawker factory on the corner of Canbury Park Road and Elm Road on 4th October 1940, but with little impact on production. Presumably the factory was the intended target of many of the raids over Kingston in 1940, having supplied the workhorse of the Battle of Britain that summer - the Hawker Hurricane.

A bomb fell at the junction of Elm Road and St George's Rd on 12th November 1940, leaving a crater in the road but little damage and no injuries. However a bomb that landed on housing in Elm Road between York Road and Florence Road on 29th December 1940 caused considerable damage, with 18 dead. Four people were awarded the British Empire Medal for tunnelling through the debris to rescue survivors. As was often the case, the Anderson shelters were undamaged, but residents had been reluctant to use them.

On 22nd January 1945 a V2 fell at the junction of Park Road and New Road blowing away completely the houses at the point of impact, causing a large crater, and doing major damage to adjoining properties, including some in Elm Road. As a result of the rocket attack 33 houses were demolished and 8 people died.

Unsympathetic developments you may see breaking up the rows of Victorian housing in North Kingston were in some cases the result of air raids, but the overwhelming majority of them are attributable to planned development.

The Canbury Culvert

Sections of Elm Road have flooded on at least two occasions. It was reported that a burst water main caused flooding in 1957, and in July 2007 the Surrey Comet reported that elderly residents were evacuated from Sobraon House and Delft House in Elm Road, as a result of flooding. Both floods occured in the same part of Elm Road. It seems clear from 19th century maps (but not 18th century ones) that a water channel ran between Acre Road and Elm Road then West into the Thames from Canbury Park Road. It is now entirely culverted, but its route can be discerned from the alignment of the back gardens and old skating rink building in the aerial photo from 1924.

What is it? In maps its course looks very artificial, and I suspect it was formed for drainange and possibly irrigation, However I have also heard claim that it is an offshoot of the Latchmere Brook. This flows through the Latchmere neighbourhood and Tudor Estate and on to Petersham where it joins the Sudbrook stream before reaching the Thames.

For me, for now, the section behind Elm Road is the Canbury culvert.

Post-War Years

The character of North Kingston has changed significantly since the 1960s when it was still noted mainly for its industries and artisanal character. In 1965 a new St Luke's Primary School opened and the the Secondary School closed. The old Salvation Army barracks, latterly the Welsh Hall, a Methodist Chapel, became the site of two residential homes. All the retail outlets have gone (although the old Kingston Park Tavern on King's Road has reinevented itself as a Coop). The Hawker facility backing onto Elm Road was for a time an annex of Kingston Polytechnic, latterly University, before closing in 1992.

The reputation of the local pubs, and of the area itself, was poor in the immediate post-war years. However, in recent years, a licencee, Michael Pearson, has turned around the reputation of both the Canbury Arms and subsequently the Wych Elm. June Sampson, a local journalist and prolific chronicler of Kingston's history, remembers the area around the Canbury Arms in her history of St Luke's as being frequented by prostitutes, no doubt taking shelter under the railway bridge on Queen Elisabeth Road in inclement weather.

In keeping with a long tradition of brewing in Kingston, once its principal industry, a local brewery,Park Brewery, has operated in Kingston since 2014 and in 2024 opened "Park Brew and Kitchen" on the corner of Park Road and Elm Road.

If you have any old photos or memories of Elm Road and the surrounding streets, please do contact me at nicoatridge@gmail.com.

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