Arlington Park Mansions : A Century Not Out

Residents celebrate the one hundredth birthday of their home

Residents of Arlington Park Mansions, the well-known block of flats which overlooks Turnham Green Common, gathered in Chiswick Town Hall on 10 July to celebrate the one hundredth birthday of their home.

James Wisdom, Chairman of the Brentford and Chiswick Local History Society, spoke about the area’s history: its long association with St Paul’s Cathedral, the Battle of Turnham Green in 1642, the market gardens and the local building boom at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was at that time that the imposing house known as The Chestnuts was pulled down to make way for Arlington Park Mansions.

Daniel Weyman, the well-known actor who will be playing Nicholas Nickleby at the Gielgud Theatre later this year, read an account of the Mansions’ history which had been researched and written by John Harrison, Chairman of the Board. This included a dramatic description of the London Blitz as seen from his flat by the novelist E. M. Forster, the most eminent of the Mansions’ residents to date. It also recounted the residents’ travails with their various landlords until, in 1986, they bought the freehold and took control of the Mansions themselves.

After these two lively and informative talks, the residents joined in a party to celebrate the first century and drink to the next.