Place Name
Directional, this road leads from Mortlake to Richmond. Until 1902 the notions Black Ditch ran along the south side of the road from New Richmond to the Thames at Ship Lane. The name Richmond comes from Henry VII’s title as Earl of Richmond, relating to the town in Yorkshire. Richmond comes from Old French meaning strong hill. It was originally called Sheen, meaning shelters from Saxon times, when it was recorded as Sceon sometime around AD950. After Sheen Palace, built by Edward I was razed to the ground in 1501, Henry VII decided to rebuild and renamed it after his Yorkshire earldom. Popham Gardens is named after a prominent local family who were lords of the manor of East Sheen and Westhall. The name came about after Edward Taylor married Anne Leybourne. Unusually their son, William adopted his mother’s surname in 1751 before his own marriage to Anne Popham. Their son General E W Leyborne-Popham took on the additional name in 1804. And he inherited the manor in AD1837. The row of properties was named in his honour in 1905.
