Place Name
Features on John Rocque’s 1746 map of Surrey as Horse Road, to distinguish it from Kew Foot Lane. It was also known variously as the highway to Kew, Kew Horse Road, and Kew Lane. In 1766 King George III agreed to repair, widen and maintain Kew Lane from the newly opened bridge at Kew to the Brown Bear public house, which was situated at The Quadrant (then called World’s End on account of the fact that the town ended here). In exchange he wanted to close an old road leading from the Brentford Ferry to Richmond, which ran by the river and through the royal estate he was busy creating at Kew. For a time in the 19thCentury the Northern end of Kew Road was called Richmond Road but this ended in 1895 when the whole highway took its present name all the way from Kew Bridge to The Quadrant. Kew is thought to come from Old English meaning a neck of land by a landing place, it was first recorded as Cayho in 1327 and Kayho three years later – it is made up of two Anglo-Saxon words cæg (meaning key or peg) and the ho or hōh indicating a spur of land. By 1439 it was spelt Keyhow, Kayo in 1483, Kaio in 1532, and Kewe in 1535.
