Ravenscourt Park

Ravenscourt Park or RCP is an 8.3 hectare (20.5 acre) public park and garden located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is one of the Borough's flagship parks, having won a Green Flag Award.Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park tube stations are close by.

The origins of Ravenscourt Park lie in the medieval manor and estate of Palingswick (or Paddenswick) Manor, located on the site and first recorded in the 12th century. The historic name still exists today in the name of Paddenswick Road, which runs along the north east boundary of the park.

By the 13th century the manor house was a mansion surrounded by a moat fed by the Stamford Brook, and the lake in the centre of the park today is a remnant of the original moat.

King Edward III’s mistress Alice Perrers lived in the manor during the 14th century.

The manor house was rebuilt in 1650 and in 1747 it was sold to Thomas Corbett who named it Ravenscourt, probably derived from the raven in his coat of arms, which was itself a pun on his name as corbeau is French for raven.

In 1812 the Ravenscourt House and estate were bought by its final private owner, George Scott, a builder and philanthropist who developed nearby St Peter’s Square. Scott employed leading landscaper Humphry Repton to lay out the gardens of the estate, and encouraged the building of houses along its edges. According to a park plan from 1830, there were 78 houses within the park, and by 1845 this number had risen to 330.

In 1889, the first public library in Hammersmith opened in Ravenscourt House.

Part of Ravenscourt House was used as a tuberculosis dispensary from 1918.

Ravenscourt House was demolished after severe damage by incendiary bombs in 1941 during the Second World War. Only the stable block remains today. Often referred to as the Ravenscourt Park tea house, the former stable block now houses the park’s café.

In 1887, representatives of the Scott family sold the estate to a developer for building purposes, to be covered, as rumour had it, with working class dwellings. Efforts were made to prevent this, on the one hand by an attempt to repurchase the property by public subscription and on the other by an appeal for the necessary funds to the Metropolitan Board of Works. Both these efforts failed and largely owing to the price demanded by the new freeholder, said to be well over £70,000, for his acquisition.

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