Place Name
Major Charles Lestock Boileau (February 8, 1800 – January 18, 1889) of Mortlake, developed much of Barnes in the mid-19th Century. For more than a century the family lived at Castelnau House on the banks of the Thames, opposite Ashleigh Road. Boileau’s family were Huguenots who had fled to England to escape religious persecution and settled in Mortlake. Housing development began sometime around 1840 with a series of large houses on Lansdale Road and from 1842 a series if villas on Castelnau. These developments almost doubled (to 1,600) the entire population of Barnes at the beginning of the 19thCentury. Three-times married Boileau gave the land on which Holy Trinity Church was built in 1868. The name itself comes from the Old French verb boi(re) meaning to drink plus the addition of l’ and eau meaning water, hence an ironic nickname, perhaps for a teetotaller, or even for a heavy drinker.
