Place Name
Originally called Blind Lane which was first mentioned in a mid-16thCentury survey. It was a common country name for a path that Peters out in the fields or waste. In 1906 John Eustace Anderson, Mortlake’s first local historian, described it as: “A pretty country lane, on the east side being the present brick wall, very rustic with its supports, still standing, and which I think is the oldest brick wall at the present time in Mortlake. On the other side there used to be a tall grassy bank with a splendid tall hedge the whole way up the lane.” Sir John Temple (March 25, 1632 – March 10, 1705) was an Irish politician, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons (which existed from 1287 – 1801) and Attorney General for Ireland. He was the great-great-grandfather of the Prime Minister and statesman Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston and his descendants on the female line include the poet Lord Byron. He bought the estate later known as Temple Grove in the late 17thCentury, following the Jacobite takeover of 1689, when all Protestant office holders in Ireland were barred from office and their estates confiscated by the Patriot Parliament. His brother Sir William Temple (1628 – 1699) lived for a time in Richmond. His exile was short-lived however, he returned to Ireland two years later following the defeat of James II’s Irish supporters in 1691 and he was granted some 12,000 acres in County Sligo. He served as Attorney General for Ireland until May 1695 when he retired to his estates at East Sheen where he lived until his death. The property was held for several generations of the Temple family, including his son Henry Temple, who became the 1st Viscount Palmerston (1673 – June 10, 1757). The association with the area came to an end when the future PM came of age. On his father’s advice he sold the estate and the house was later converted into a school. In 1861 four large semi-detatched villas called Temple Sheen were built between Temple Sheen and West Temple Sheen. They have since been knocked down.
