Fulham Fallout โข
Nestling between Hammersmith, Fulham and Chelsea lies wonderful Putney. The weather changed and from the recent grey and showery affair the day turned out to be a sun-fest. We thought about pottering in the garden and tidying it up a bit, but it seemed so glorious it felt like a waste not to visit a part of London on the waterside and soak up some much needed sunshine plus to visit a place we hadn't been to before, as mentioned here previously free is always good. So I found online Fulham Palace a mere stone's throw away from Putney Bridge station on the District Line.
Putney itself seems like a lovely area, obviously I don't live there and when visiting somewhere it can all appear good. I have to say it has some beautiful parks and obviously being on the river some lovely views over the Thames. The high street is bustling and has loads of shops, restaurants and bars, the Putney Bridge end is a bit quieter than when you cross the bridge into Putney high street. The roads are really quite busy there is a lot of traffic that passes over, nonetheless looking over the Thames in the bright sunshine was quite lovely despite the traffic noise. We had a nose around some shops, the missus scoring herself a nice dress in a charity shop. We then decided as time was getting on to make our way back to Putney Bridge again to find ourselves a drink and some lunch before attempting to find the Palace.
We dropped into a pub on the corner near Putney Bridge called The Kings Arms which you can check out at the website, ordered a couple of drinks and some food and slid into the comfy chairs, the staff were quite lovely and pointed us the way to the Palace, so refreshed and ready we trotted over the road and through All Saints Fulham Church grounds and onwards to the walled garden of Fulham Palace. I have to say the garden was quite beautiful, maybe because of the time of year, that certain plants and trees were in full bloom. We walked through the arch of Apple Blossom and into a wall of lilac coloured Wisteria, the colours and the wonderful fresh perfumed smells were awesome. We had seen wisteria growing full on on a previous trip to Burgh House in Hampstead around the same time of year and it brought back happy memories of that trip too.
Onwards past the chapel and round the corner to the entrance where we checked in, although the house and gardens are free to visit it helps them if you book in advance to control the number of visitors as it is quite a small museum plus you can make a donation as they are self funded. Our hostess gave us a potted history of the Palace and left us to have a nose around. There was lots of interesting historical information about the Palace and a short video describing some of that in detail, we meandered through the rooms and hit the library where one of the staff showed us around and pointed out the false bookcase which originally lead to another room, evidently as she described the secret door was used at Christmas time so Santa could appear as if by magic and leave the children their gifts, how magical! The museum part is fairly small, but contains plenty of history about the Palace itself and also some archeological finds from around the gardens whilst they have been renovated over the years. The building began to fall into disrepair during the early 1970's, but with a bit of love and care from a passionate bunch of people it has been saved and restored, some of it with 'National Lottery' funding and the rest with the general public donations. It was a warm day when we were there and there were plenty of people even just exploring the walled gardens and relaxing with picnics, if that wasn't enough there is a pretty cool park next door to it with loads of stuff for the kids to enjoy as well as hitting the Thames Path and just sitting on one of the benches overlooking the river.
After the Palace we headed out back into the gardens passing by the sweet little gothic style lodge building and onto the adjoining park to admire all the greenery, fountains and the lovely views over the river via the Thames Path, using the path we wandered along by the river (dodging all the joggers!) over the bridge and on the other side hit another really old and beautiful riverside pub called 'The Duke's Head' which we were quite happy to stop in as it was getting far too hot. Just down the road from there is a legendary pub which has been showcasing music since the 1960's called 'The Half Moon', evidently Kate Bush played her first gig there as well as other famous notable acts including U2 with their first sell out gig!
Anyway musically as we were wandering along the Thames Path I thought of this band, possibly because the track comes from an album by them called 'Fulham Fallout'. The band were one of the early 'punk bands' on the scene in the UK back in the day forming in 1976 and releasing the album in June 1978 on the Indie 'Beggars Banquet' label. The track here is called 'Ain't Got A Clue' which I had previously heard on a compilation album of Indie stuff. They were often described as the UK equivalent of The Ramones by the press of the day, but you go judge.
They were evidently the first band signed by 'Beggars Banquet' and oddly didn't hail from Fulham at all, instead they were from Uxbridge in London and were formed in 1976. For the Fulham Fallout album the band were:
- Howard Wall -ย vocals
- Pete Stride -ย guitar, vocals
- Peter "Esso" Haynes -ย drums, vocals,ย glockenspiel
- Nigel Moore -ย bass, vocals
- Pete "Plug" Edwards - harmonica, backing vocals
I guess to hear the comparison to The Ramones check out the track 'Go, Go, Go' at the link, fast paced, in your face with that old opening line of '1,2,3,4' as used in many of The Ramones opener's. Other tracks from the album include a cover 'And Then I Kicked Her', punking up the original Phil Spector 'And Then I Kissed her' sound a notch or two and knocking The Beach Boys into the sand dunes!
A wonderful day weather wise in London that weekendโ๏ธ, nice museum, couple of drinks, nice food and pubs what more could I ask, until next time leaving with you with another from the album called 'Shadow'.
Picture Thanks
Photo by Jerome Perelman on Unsplash
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