Place Name
Unsurprisingly, this denotes the point where the hill starts, since intrinsic features of a road generate appropriate names. But the name itself was a moveable feast, because the description of where the hill began changed over time. James Green, Judith Filson, and Margaret Watson in The Streets of Richmond and Kew write: “In early times the ‘hill’ was considered as starting from what is now the corner of Hill Street and Red Lion Street, thus houses on the Heron Court area were described as ‘on the hill’.” This road was essential since the lower road from Petersham and Kingston was often impassable in winter. The new road which was mentioned in the court rolls of 1608 as Upper Causey (causeway) or the Upper Highway to Petersham allowed travellers to by-pass the boggy or flooded riverside road. By the mid-19thCentury it came to be known as Upper Hill Street and Hill Rise, Hill Street. But where did it begin? In the 1860s Upper Hill Street started from Ormond Road and ended at Lancaster Mews within 30 years however it had retreated down the hill, to end at The Vineyard. In 1891 Hill Rise became the official designation for the street, with Upper Hill Street being dropped – well almost, a few minutes still referred to the former name in Council papers. But all doubt was ended in 1924 when Hill Rise was renumbered.
