Place Name
Originally part of the “Church Path” that the inhabitants of Roehampton used to reach St Mary’s before they had their own church. The Quill Hotel (later The Quill), a public house, stood on the corner of Charlwood Road and Chelverton Road. Originally a coaching inn, it was built by a Putney-born solicitor and property developer, Henry Scarth. It was said that Scarth named the pub in honour of the quill pen (education), that had allowed his father to rise from humble beginnings to become a solicitor. Opened in 1854, it was rebuilt in 1964, then demolished and flats built on the site in 2003. Sir Walter Besant in his London South of the Thames published in 1912 writes: “To the west short roads have been pushed out into the market gardens, and north, at the angle, stands the Quill Inn, behind which Quill Alley, a narrow paved passage skirting the backs of the houses, leads into a labyrinth of small streets set at all angles and of all degrees of respectability. There are many newly-built flats on either side of Quill Alley.”
