Place Name
Originally called Worlds End on account that beyond Richmond’s town walls, it was here that Fagg Lane Gate was situated, lay only fields and the tracks leading down to Kew and Brentford ferry. The fact that this name stuck indicates just how slow development of the town was and, perhaps, how untravelled its inhabitants were. In The Streets of Richmond and Kew, James Green, Judith Filson and Margaret Watson write: “From the early 17th century cottages were built along the east side of the road to Kew reaching almost to the site of the present railway bridge, also being described as ‘Kew Road near the Bear’. The name ‘Quadrant,’ which now greatly exaggerates the curve of in the road, only came after the west side of Kew Road was developed in 1876 by Henry Rydon, with the temporary name ‘The Crescent’.” Before this development the curve in the road was more pronounced.
