Mortlake - History

History

Mortlake appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Mortelage. It was held by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury. Its Domesday assets were: 25 hides; 1 church, 2 mills worth £5, 1 fishery, 33 ploughs, 20 acres (81,000 m2) of meadow, wood worth 55 hogs. It rendered £38 plus 4s 4d from 17 houses in London, 2s 3d from houses in Southwark and £1 from tolls at Putney. Mortelage is thought to mean a small stream containing young salmon, referring to a fishery in the area on a former tributary of the River Thames which is now gone. The manor belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury until the time of Henry VIII, when it passed by exchange to the Crown. From the early part of the 17th century until after the civil wars, Mortlake was celebrated for the manufacture of tapestry, founded during the reign of James I-VI at the Mortlake Tapestry Works.

Its most famous former resident is Elizabeth I's advisor, John Dee. The cemetery of St Mary Magdalen’s Roman Catholic Church Mortlake contains the tomb of Sir Richard Burton, and the ashes of comic-magician Tommy Cooper are interred at Mortlake Crematorium.

Since 1845, the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race has had its finish point at Mortlake, marked by the University Boat Race stone just downstream of Chiswick Bridge. Several other important rowing races over the Championship Course also either start or finish at the stone.

Mortlake bus garage, situated in Avondale Road, was closed in 1983. Much of the site was rebuilt as housing but a small area near the railway was retained as a turning point for buses, with toilet facilities for drivers, and a small office. Mortlake garage had opened very early in the 20th century and originally catered for horse buses. In later years the stables were converted into the traffic office.