Place Name
Abraham Cowley (1618 – July 28, 1667), was a royalist poet and dramatist, who is said to be perhaps the area’s earliest important literary figure. Among his most notable works are The Mistress and Pindarique Odes, and he penned the phrase “life is an incurable disease”. He also wrote poetry chronicling the English Civil War. Following the defeat of the Royalists he was forced into exile by the Parliamentarians. In 1662 he retired to Barn Elms, the house belonging to John Cartwright but stayed for only three years leaving to take up an offer of a property near Chertsey where he devoted himself to botany and books. This along with Avondale Road and Ashleigh Road; and First and Second Avenues “were laid out with a mixture of houses and flats built between 1903 – 1906, much favoured by employees at the newly built bus garage in Avondale Road,” according Maisie Brown author of Barnes and Mortlake Past. For a time – at least until the 19thCentury – there was a Cowley’s Walk near the site of the old Barn Elms House.
