Chiswick

Chiswick ( CHIZ-ik) is a district in West London, split between the London boroughs of Hounslow and Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth, Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England and Fuller's Brewery, London's largest and oldest brewery. In a meander of the River Thames used for competitive and recreational rowing, with several rowing clubs on the river bank, the finishing post for the Boat Race is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge. Old Chiswick was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with an agrarian and fishing economy beside the river; from the Early Modern period, the wealthy built imposing riverside houses on Chiswick Mall. Having good communications with London, Chiswick became a popular country retreat and part of the suburban growth of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was made the Municipal Borough of Brentford and Chiswick in 1932 and part of Greater London in 1965, when it merged into the London Borough of Hounslow. Modern Chiswick is an affluent area which includes the early garden suburb Bedford Park, Grove Park, the Glebe Estate, Strand-on-the-Green and tube stations Chiswick Park, Turnham Green, Gunnersbury and Stamford Brook, as well as the Gunnersbury Triangle local nature reserve. Some parts of Bedford Park and Acton Green are in the Chiswick W4 postcode area but the London Borough of Ealing. The main shopping and dining centre is Chiswick High Road. Chiswick Roundabout is the start of the North Circular Road (A406). At Hogarth Roundabout, the Great West Road from central London becomes the M4 motorway, while the Great Chertsey Road (A316) runs south-west, becoming the M3 motorway. People who have lived in Chiswick include the poets Alexander Pope and W. B. Yeats, the...