Latimer Road station was opened in 1868 after the railway operator decided to create a junction with another line that is now the London Overground. This junction was eventually dismantled in 1940.
The station’s is named from a road that is not now located nearby.
As no station building had been planned originally, there was no space for one at Latimer Road station. The only street-level entrance is a modest door into the viaduct arch. This is typical of minor suburban railway stations and serves as a reminder that the Hammersmith & City line was not originally part of the London Underground.
Following the construction of the Westway, the portion of Latimer Road south of it, which had been historically considered part of Shepherd’s Bush, was renamed Freston Road after Edward Latymer, a philanthropist from Freston who had left a charitable bequest in 1627.
Latimer Road bridge
In Bruce Robinson’s Withnail & I (1987), Withnail and Marwood drive under the Latimer Road railway bridge in the Jaguar on their way to Uncle Monty’s cottage in Cumbria.
The Latimer Road bridge has appeared in many other TV and film shots over the years, including The Blue Lamp, Quadrophenia and The Sweeney.
Mr Christie
10 Rillington Place was situated close by to Latimer Road. This was the residence of Reg Christie from 1938 to 1953, where he committed at least six murders, including that of his wife, and potentially others.
Christie notoriously framed his neighbour, Timothy Evans, for one of his murders, which led to Evans being wrongly convicted and executed for the crime. The victim in this case was Evans’s infant daughter, which sparked public outrage and contributed to the eventual abolition of the death penalty in 1965.
Frestonia
Back in 1977, a group of squatters who had been occupying buildings slated for demolition decided to proclaim their territory as the Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia. Faced with eviction from the Greater London Council, they went as far as to apply for membership to the United Nations and even created their own postage stamps. Notably, actor David Rappaport served as their Foreign Minister, and playwright Heathcote Williams was their Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
The self-proclaimed Republic of Frestonia covered the area stretching from the beginning of Bramley Road to Olaf Street, although neighbouring streets differed only in that their buildings had already been fully demolished.
Westway Stables
Established in 1994 as a community riding school, Westway Stables was located underneath the elevated motorway and was later rebranded as West London Stables.
The stables themselves were constructed earlier by the Westway Trust in 1979, replacing the previous ones used by totters and travellers who had occupied the land before the Westway’s construction in 1968.
Interestingly, Hercules, the horse featured in the popular TV show Steptoe & Son, was sourced from one of the local rag and bone men who operated in the area.
Short, fat hairy legs
Delgarno Way – a little to the north of our walking route – was home to BBC rehearsal studios in the local community centre- situated in the middle of a run-down council estate near Wormwood Scrubs. It must have been an unusual sight for the residents to see Rolls Royces turning up every day.
Despite this, Eric and Ernie enjoyed the location because it was secluded and allowed them to focus on their rehearsals without distractions.