Dukes Meadows

Dukes Meadows is a riverside park in Chiswick, London. The land was purchased from the Duke of Devonshire in 1923. A seaside-type promenade and a bandstand were built alongside the riverfront and opened by the Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI) in 1926.[1] In 1998 a group of local people formed the Dukes Meadows Trust to protect the interests of the park.[2]

Bandstand in Duke's Meadows

The land in 1902 consistend of orchards and meadows, with a farmhouse.[3] In 1902, a plan was made to build homes for 40,000 people on the site, in a new town called Burlingwick. This scheme was never built. In 1914 the Brentford Gas Company introduced a bill in parliament to build a gasworks over 80 acres of the meadows. Chiswick residents objected to the plan and the bill was not passed. In 1923 Chiswick Urban District purchased the land to build a park. To finance the purchase, gravel extraction tool place from 1924 to 1937; the gravel pits were not restored until after 1948 when they were restored and filled in.

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  Ceramic way marker with map on the Thames path, Duke's Meadows, Chiswick, London. Installed in 2002

References

1. "Parks and open spaces". London Borough of Hounslow. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
2. "Dukes Meadows Trust". Dukes Meadows Trust. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
3. "Dukes Meadows: The Threats to its Rural Survival".