Мортлейк: История и современность лондонского пригорода

Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes. For many centuries it had village status and extended far to the south, to include East Sheen and part of what is now Richmond Park. Its Stuart and Georgian history was economically one of malting, brewing, farming, watermen and the Mortlake Tapestry Works (1617–1704), Britain's most important producer. A London landmark, the former Mortlake Brewery or Stag Brewery, is on the edge of Mortlake. The Waterloo to Reading railway line runs through Mortlake, which has a pedestrianised riverside, two riverside pubs and a village green. The Boat Race finishes at Mortlake every March/April.

The area lies within the Mortlake and Barnes Common ward of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In the 2018 local elections two Conservatives and one Liberal Democrats were elected to represent the ward, with two Liberal Democrats and one Green elected in 2022. The ward is part of the Richmond Park parliamentary constituency, and the South West constituency in the London Assembly.

The place name 'Mortlake' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Mortelaga and Mortelage, a name with two possible derivations. If the second element is the Old English lacu meaning a stream, then the first element is very likely the fish name mort meaning a young salmon, hence 'salmon stream'. If the second element is the dialect lag meaning a long, narrow marshy meadow, then the name means 'Morta's meadow'. Mortlake lay in the hundred of Brixton, which faded into obscurity. According to the Domesday Book, the manor and parish of Mortlage The manor belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury until the time of Henry VIII, when it passed by exchange to the Crown. From the early part of the 17th century until after the English Civil War, Mortlake was celebrated for the manufacture of tapestry, founded during the reign of James I at the Mortlake Tapestry Works. Mortlake was reduced by when Richmond Park was created by Charles I in 1637. Other parishes also lost smaller amounts of land to the new deer park. Colston House's forebear was built by Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex then acquired by Edward Colston, major benefactor and investor to the port city of Bristol. This was pulled down in 1860. John Barber, Lord Mayor in 1733, a suspected Jacobite opposed to the 'Georgian' House of Hanover but Member of Parliament for the City on the strength of his opposition to Walpole's protectionist excise scheme, was buried in Mortlake in 1741. He had given land to extend the churchyard. Sir Henry Taylor, KCMG, the dramatic poet, lived in Mortlake in the 19th century.

Katherine Jenkins, classical singer, lives in Mortlake. Tom Hardy, actor, producer, writer and former model, grew up in Mortlake.

Apart from Archbishops of Canterbury, Mortlake's most famous former resident is John Dee (1527–1608/09), mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, alchemist and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. He lived at Mortlake from 1565 to 1595 except for the six years between 1583 and 1589 when he was travelling in Europe. His house no longer exists but it became the Mortlake Tapestry Works and at the end of the 18th century was a girls' school. Sir Christopher Packe (1593?–1682), Lord Mayor of London, lived in Mortlake in about 1655–60. John Partridge (astrologer) (1644–c.1714) was born at East Sheen and apprenticed to a local shoemaker. He died in Mortlake and is buried there. The cemetery of St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake contains the tomb of the Victorian explorer and orientalist Sir Richard Burton (1821–1890). Former British Prime Minister Henry Addington (1757–1844) who, as Lord Sidmouth, was Ranger of Richmond Park, and after whom the park's Sidmouth Plantation is named, is buried at St Mary the Virgin Mortlake. Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), English mathematician and writer, lived in Mortlake when she was 15 years old.

Mortlake is mostly a residential commuter town with a strong history of self employed trades as it has traditionally centred its commerce on its foreshortened boundary, the Upper Richmond Road, arguably half part of East Sheen. Some businesses on the north side of the Upper Richmond Road make reference to the old ecclesiastical and ward boundaries supported by their still Mortlake side streets. East Sheen was once a manor in the parish of Mortlake and since early times an economic forum, and now a dining and convenience hub of the two districts. The Victoria County History's volume on Surrey, written from 1910 to 1912, does not list East Sheen as a parish, describes its detailed history under Mortlake and states the parish was "now connected with Barnes on one side and with New Richmond on the other". With the advent of motor transport, the buildings on Mortlake's winding high street, also known as the Lower Mortlake Road, have been mostly residential or used by the brewery.

In the 1840s Charles James Philips and James Wigan acquired Mortlake Brewery, which had existed since the 15th century. In 1889 the brewery was acquired by James Watney & Co., which in 1898 became Watney Combe & Reid after acquiring Messrs. Combe Delafield and Co. and Messrs. Reid and Co. When Watney's Stag Brewery in Victoria, London, was demolished in 1959, the name was 30 years later, applied to Mortlake Brewery. Being the last phase of The Boat Race which refers to all the traditional local names, it is still widely referred to as the Mortlake Brewery. In November 2015, it was announced that the site had been sold for £158m to Reselton – part of Singapore's City Developments, which also bought the former Teddington Studios. The brewery closed in December 2015 and there are plans to build 850 apartments on the location.