Place Name
Hilary – also spelt Hillary and Hilarius – was a Romano-British bishop or archbishop of London and one of the earliest to serve the City, sometime in the 4thCentury. Little is known about him but he pre-dates St Augustine, the man who established the Christian faith on a firm footing in the 6thCentury. It is thought he took his name from bishop Hilary of Poitiers, who was a major figure at the time. This is one of a small number of Edwardian streets that are named after bishops of London, who were lords of the manor of Fulham. Their former summer house, Fulham Palace, is a few miles away and Wormholt, as the area was referred to, was considered the waste ground of the manor and used for “depasturing cattle and swine of copyhold tenants”.
