Place Name
Until water pipes were laid water was supplied from wells, springs or directly from the River Thames. Known as Well Alley in Victorian times, featuring on a map under that name in 1867 and for a short time before that it was also known as Budders Lane – for reasons unknown. In the early 17thCentury it was called West Well. Unsurprisingly this was named after a well and spring that stood at the foot of this lane and which fed the lakes in the grounds of two large estates Temple Grove and The Firs. The well had stood there from at least the mid-16thCentury Charles Hailstone in Alleyways of Mortlake and East Sheen writes: “In an undated survey if c1544 – 1563 the well is situated in the Conygarthes, or fields used for the rearing of rabbits for the table and fur, in the gravelly downs going north from well lane. In the 1617 survey West Well stands in a small close in the same location and there is next to it another close of one and half acres ‘anciently a grove’ called West Well Coppice, fronting Well Lane on the eastern side of Percival Road. An estate map of 1811 shows a small open bath of water opposite The Mullions.” John Eustace Anderson writing in Mortlake Memories wrote: “Why called Well Lane was I expect through there being a small open well or tank in the lane, which was about three or four feet in depth, surrounded by stone kerning. It stood next the brick wall of The Planes, in a small brook next the present stable gates, filled up a long time ago. When a young boy I recollect one of my friends tumbling in.”
