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From our files January, ten, 25, 50 and 100 years ago

2:33pm Thursday 22nd January 2009

hb week 4, 23/1/09 Ten years ago One of the borough’s largest employers is to sell its new £240 million headquarters and rent it back for £18 million a year. Pharmaceutical giant SmithKline Beecham is expected to announce the owner of the new offices on the Golden Mile in Brentford within weeks. The new owner will have to pay for the construction costs and then rent it to SB over 25 years. The proposed development on the 13 acre former Trico site is the size of seven football pitches and will house a 13 storey tower block and nearly 1,650 staff.

From our picture files 1984

From our picture files 1984

2:32pm Thursday 22nd January 2009

Facing a barrage of questions from concerned residents about the Richmond Riverside development scheme in January 1984 were left to right, Michael Honey, chief executive and town clerk, Tim Razzall, chairman of policy and resources committee, council leader David Williams and Michael Hebron, head of technical services.

Dates and data

2:27pm Thursday 22nd January 2009

DATES&DATA Excavations at St. Martin-in-the-Fields is the subject of the first meeting of 2009 of the Hounslow and District History Society to be held at Montague Hall, Montague Road, Hounslow on Tuesday January 27 at 8pm. Secretary 020 8890 5078.

Dates and Data

2:20pm Friday 16th January 2009

Pictured here is the view from Richmond Hill by Cropsey. Richard Thomas’ lecture on Richmond Hill: a place in art - visions of perfect harmony explores the story of paintings of the famous view and of their famous artists, such as Cropsey, Reynolds (who lived on the Hill at Wick House) and Turner. Richard Thomas is a freelance lecturer and artist, associated with the Tate for many years. He has also worked with education teams at the National Gallery, Christie's Modern Art Studies and Sotheby's Institute. This will be a rare opportunity for those who missed - and those who wish to hear again - his sell-out talk on the subject at the Petersham Festival. The evening is organised by the Richmond Local History Society at Duke Street Baptist Church, Richmond. Visitors welcome £1. Doors open 7.30pm for 8pm on Monday January 12. Secretary Elizabeth Velluet 020 8891 3825. Visit hhtp:// richmondhistory.org.uk The Stag Brewery - due to close next year - has a fascinating history, and its life and times in the last century are spelled out in the book Hand in Hand – Watney’s Mortlake World. Compiled by Murray Hedgcock from the archives of the company magazine, this is published by the Barnes and Mortlake History Society. Copies are available through the society website - http://www.barnes-history.org.uk/ The next Barnes and Mortlake History Society lectures begin at 8pm on Thursday January 15 at the Sheen Lane Centre, 74 Sheen Lane, East Sheen. Secretary Helen Deaton 020 8878 4071. Visitors welcome £2. James Wisdom will relate The history of fishing in Chiswick. The West Middlesex Family History Society meets in the Montague Hall, Montague Road, Hounslow, 7.15pm open, talk at 8pm. Free. Society membership and further information Yvonne Masson, 65 St Margarets Grove, Twickenham. TW1 1JF or visit www.west-middlesex-fhs.org.uk Meetings include talks on aspects of family or local history. In addition, many of the society's resources and indexes are normally available for consultation from about 7.15 pm. Thursday January 15: Sex and Love in Shakespeare and the Jacobeans by Peter Storfer. Brentford and Chiswick History Society, 020 8994 4231, talks take place on the third Monday of the month at the Chiswick Memorial Club, Afton House, Bourne Place, Chiswick starting at 7.30pm. Remember that Afton House does not open until 7pm. If you wish to become a member, come along to one of the meetings or send a cheque for £9 made payable to Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society to membership secretary, 12 Brook Road South, Brentford TW8 0NN. Also enclose your name, address and phone number. Brentford and Chiswick Local History Society.

New season starts with Chiswick Mall

New season starts with Chiswick Mall

4:41pm Thursday 15th January 2009

First in the new season of Brentford and Chiswick History Society meetings on Monday January 19 takes the theme: Riverside Chiswick - Then and Now.

From our picture files 1999

From our picture files 1999

4:43pm Thursday 15th January 2009

Bully off...Isleworth and Syon School hockey team, left to right, Rohan Mohindra, 14, Amik Sakhey, 13, Tom Painter, 13, Ben Thomas, 13, Gavinder Gill, 13, Peter Stone, 13, Henry Huynh, 14, Navin Mann, 13, James Rhodes, 13, Mo Bhatti, 13 and James Woodcock, 13. A former professional footballer, government ministers and a television company were all backing Isleworth And Syon School’s bid to gain Sport College status. BSkB sports commentator and former Scotland International Andy Gray, Brentford and Isleworth MP Ann Keen and Tessa Jowell, Minister for Public Health all voiced their support to headteacher Richard Weeks, himself a former PE teacher.

A picturesque Victorian wedding

Miss Gladys Blanche Catherine Cowper

4:45pm Thursday 15th January 2009

By 1909, The Chiswick Times was featuring the occasional photograph and line drawing illustrations were becoming common. These two portraits were submitted to accompany a report of The Wedding of the Week, subtitled: A pretty ceremony, when the account was published in the issue of January 15, 1909....

From our files - January

4:39pm Thursday 15th January 2009

Ten years ago Shoppers braving the January sales showed their anti-European colours with a call to keep Britain out of the European Monetary Union. More than 200 passers-by signed a petition put out by the newly formed Democracy Movement on Richmond’s George Street.

From our picture files 1984

From our picture files 1984

4:34pm Thursday 15th January 2009

Seal pups appeared in the Richmond reach of the Thames. Sarah Credland seen sitting on the deckhouse with a friend on her converted Dutch barge at 4a Ducks Walk on the Twickenham side, was one of the first people to report sightings around the Flower Pot Islands opposite Askew House on Sunday. Port of London Authority staff who can identify individual adult seals by their markings, report that pups have rarely if ever, been seen before. Local riverman Ron Moore who has spent 26 years on the Thames, said the seals had a very good chance of survival. “They’ve never had to much fish in all their lives”, he said. “It’s the poor anglers you ought to worry about”. Dr Brian Bertram, curator of mammals at London Zoo, welcoming their appearance told the Times: “The greater variety of wildlife we can see, the better”. He said seals include predators such as pike in their total catch and should not go hungry.

Richmond's Victorian Gothic gem

Garth Groombridge's view of Petersham in the 1970s...

4:28pm Thursday 15th January 2009

Members of the Richmond Local History Society were treated to a tour of the Petersham Hotel a few weeks ago and Judith Church contributed an account of the day to the society’s January newsletter.

From our files - Richmond and Twickenham Times

2:20pm Friday 9th January 2009

The Nicholas family show off their latest addition, James Graham, who was born on Christmas morning 1983 at Kingston Hospital.

Researching life of

4:32pm Thursday 8th January 2009

I am researching the life of my great grandfather, Thomas Moore May, who lived in Kew and worked as a warden at Kew Palace in 1901.

From our files January 9

4:37pm Thursday 8th January 2009

Ten years ago Ann Keen, MP for Brentford and Isleworth has been appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Frank Dobson.

Say cheese! We're off on a day trip

Say cheese! We're off on a day trip

4:41pm Thursday 8th January 2009

The pictures are courtesy of Isleworth Remembered - photographs on a DVD, made with the help of Lampton School, which were selected from the Isleworth Remembered exhibition staged by the Isleworth Society in September 2003. The book, Isleworth Remembered - Memories of life in a riverside London villa 1900-2003 was published in the same year. www.isleworthsociety.ik.com/ Can readers help the Isleworth Society with information on this photograph? The staff of Isleworth Brewery are pictured before an outing outside a Watney Reid pub. Note their buttonholes and almost everyone is wearing a hat. Where was the photograph taken and when?

An 18th century gift to the gossip columns

Henrietta Howard, widely known as ‘The Swiss’ on account of her carefully cultivated neutrality.

4:31pm Thursday 8th January 2009

As guest speaker for the Borough of Twickenham Local History Society’s annual Alan Urwin Memorial Lecture, author Tracey Borman rammed home the axiom that fact is stranger than fiction on the subject of local society girl, Henrietta Howard.

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