Place Name
This road was named in 1909 commemorating the local association with King George II and Queen Caroline, who were regular visitors to the area, having completed work on White Lodge, the Richmond Park hunting lodge started by his father, George I. They had a road built from Richmond Park across East Sheen Common and then on to Kew, where they could travel down river. This allowed them to avoid the town of Richmond. It is featured on Rocque’s Map of London in 1741 where it is marked as The Queen’s Private Road. All that remains today is a path that runs from Sheen Road to the Bog Gate (so called after Bog Lodge which was renamed the Holly Lodge Centre). Charles Hailstone in Alleyways of Mortlake and East Sheen writes: “The whole of the path is in old Mortlake territory… [It] is probably of some annuity as the quickest way from Upper East Sheen to the Black Horse and so to Richmond. It was loosely called Through the Orchards, any older name having been lost. It was an average of seven feet in width, keeping to the ridge of the hillside on its descent to the Sheen Road. When orchards were in blossom it was renowned as a pretty country walk.”
