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Survey of London: Volume 6, Hammersmith. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1915.
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LXII.—Nos. 55, 57 and 59 GREAT CHURCH LANE
It appears from a number of references to property in this locality that Great Church Lane was originally a bridle-path running east from the church—one of the various Warple (fn. 1) ways which figure so constantly as boundaries in the records of Hammersmith. It seems to have traversed a large meadow, one of the "common fields" into which the parish was divided, called Shortlands. The Fulham Court Rolls for 14th October, 1692, contain an entry relating to two cottages and half an acre of land, formerly part of Shortlands, "abutting north upon the King's highway leading from London to Brentford, and south upon the Warple way leading from North End to Hammersmith chapel." (fn. 2) The southern part of this property corresponds to the present No. 47 Great Church Lane. Shortlands, therefore, extended northward from Great Church Lane to Hammersmith Road. It also extended southward to the sewer (the Parr Ditch) whose line marked the subsequent parish boundary, for the list of Butterwick's lands devised by Latymer in 1624 includes certain portions of Shortlands, of which one was bounded by the Warple on the north and the common sewer on the south. (fn. 3) This is obviously to be identified with that item of the Latymer Foundation property described in a lease of 1804 as containing by estimation 3 roods, and abutting north on the Warple way. The estimate was too high, and the same piece of land when let on lease in 1875 was said to be 1 rood 27 poles. It now consists of Butterwick Cottages, Nos. 128 and 130 Great Church Lane.
Another parcel of Shortlands included in the same list was bounded by Parr Lane (i.e. Fulham Palace Road) on the west. It may, therefore, be concluded that Shortlands extended between Hammersmith Road and Great Church Lane eastward from Fulham Palace Road.
The neighbourhood is very much altered now, but a few old houses are still to be found. Nos. 55, 57 and 59, at the south-east corner of Rose and Crown Lane, date from the 18th century, but they possess no particular architectural features.