Place Name
Named after John Lewis (1713 – 1792) Richmond brewer and local hero who ensured access for the public to Richmond Park. Ever since Charles I had enclosed huge areas of Richmond, Mortlake, and East Sheen to form the park the public had at least been given rights to cross it. But little by little those rights were eroded as the great and the wealthy attempted to close it off for their own amusements. This began under Robert, Lord Walpole, eldest son of the prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who as ranger used it as a weekend retreat, hunting deer and shooting wild turkeys, that had been brought in as game. By 1735, so many people came to watch these bloody pursuits that it was considered “not only troublesome but very dangerous”. And so hunting tickets were issued which were obtained from the ranger. Soon, tickets were required for carriages and, even this, was further curtailed with Fence Month, a time when, ticket or not, the park was closed off supposedly for the protection of young deer. The public were further frustrated when following Walpole’s death, he was replaced as ranger by Princess Amelia, George II’s daughter. She continued the policies of closing the park to the hoi polloi – a fact that infuriated the town folk. When on May 16, 1751 the Vestry attempted to carry out the ancient and largely ceremonial practice of beating the bounds (checking on the boundary posts that marked the area of their jurisdiction) they found the ladders that gave access to the park over the walls had gone. Taking matters into their own hands the gentlemen attempted to use an old pedestrian gate, which had been closed for many years. Now, whether they broke it down themselves or whether they found it broken, is a matter of conjecture but whatever the truth, the fact they gained access to the park so infuriated the princess that she refused all access to the public. Enter our local hero John Lewis who 1755 demanded access to the park. David McDowall in Richmond Park: The Walker’s Historical Guide takes up the story as recounted by Lewis’s friend Gilbert Wakefield: “‘Lewis takes a friend with him to the spot, waits for the opportunity of a carriage passing through, and when the gatekeeper was shutting the gate, interposed and offered to go in. ‘Where is your ticket?’ ‘What occasion for a ticket – anybody may pass through here?’ ‘No, not without a ticket.’ ‘Yes, they may.’ ‘No, not without a ticket.’ ‘Yes, they may, and I will.’ ‘You shalln’t.’ ‘I will.’ The woman pushed; Lewis suffered the door to be shut upon him.'” With this, Lewis took the case to court at Kingston Assizes. It took three years but on April 3, 1758 the gatekeeper Marta Gray lost the case. Asked how he wanted access, Lewis requested the return of the ladders, having rejected a gate which might in time, be locked. But his efforts did not end there. The peeved princess designed the ladders with the rungs spaced so far apart that the very young and elderly would not be able to climb them. Lewis returned to court which ordered the ladders be made more accessible. George III took over as ranger in 1792 and opened up the park to carriages.
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