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Hatton, London facts for kids

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Hatton
The Green Man in Hatton (4517084337).jpg
The Green Man pub in Hatton
Hatton is located in Greater London
Hatton
Hatton
OS grid reference TQ095755
London borough
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town HOUNSLOW, FELTHAM
Postcode district TW6, TW14
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
EU Parliament London
UK Parliament
  • Feltham and Heston
London Assembly
  • Ealing and Hillingdon
  • South West
List of places
UK
England
London
51°28′04″N 0°25′21″W / 51.4678°N 0.4226°W / 51.4678; -0.4226

Hatton including Hatton Cross is a small settlement and locality in the historic County of Middlesex and the London boroughs of Hillingdon and Hounslow, on the south-eastern edge of London Heathrow Airport and straddling the A30 road.

The area was for many decades a notorious place for highway robberies and its surviving old inn, The Green Man has a hiding-hole behind the chimney. A nearby road is named Dick Turpin Way accordingly. Aside from the heyday of such problems in the 17th and 18th century the area had attractive rural houses with gardens, one having been built by Edward III and visited by Richard II, another centuries later having been the home of Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet through to his grandson, first cousin of the first Viscount Hanworth resident at much larger Hanworth Park.

It remains technically a hamlet or neighbourhood of Bedfont from which it is separated by a field and local sports facilities. It is flanked to the north and north-west by major roads, depots, warehouses, hotels and parking areas associated with London Heathrow Airport which take up the north of the locality, leading to the consolidation of that area into Hillingdon since 1994. It is joined, south, by Bedfont and North Feltham and to the east by the River Crane, over which is Hounslow West. The settled part is the interior and one side of a triangle south of the dualled A30. Further south a line of houses continues which faces Hounslow Urban Farm and is then engulfed by naming into the North Feltham Trading Estate such as Feltham Ambulance Station beside the farm. The current naming has eaten into what was once squarely Hatton, just as Heathrow has from the opposite direction.

Etymology

Hatton's name comes from Anglo-Saxon Hǣþtūn = "heath farmstead"; until 1819 its cultivated area was surrounded by heath.

Neighbours

Heathrowmap
Map of Heathrow Airport and Hatton

It is bordered by Feltham to the south, Bedfont to the west and Heathrow Airport to the north. The A30 road forms the borough boundary with Hillingdon; a border established in 1994, before then land north of the road had been in Hounslow.

Features and facilities

Hatton's main architectural features are a collection of industrial buildings providing ancillary services to Heathrow Airport. The area is noisy due to aircraft overhead on the southern approach to Heathrow. The local meeting place is a quiet little pub, "The Green Man", owned by the Punch Taverns. Adjoining the Green Man is a field where horses, geese, cows and other livestock live: Hounslow Urban Farm (next to Hatton Cemetery), the largest inner city farm in London.

Hatton has a small cafe, but no shops or post office, but there is a convenience store and newsagents within Hatton Cross station. There is a 24-hour Tesco supermarket and petrol station adjoining the urban farm to the south. Hatton no longer has a church, since the chapel building in Steam Farm Lane was converted for office use in 2000. Most of the local housing is mainly semi-detached or maisonettes built between the 1930s and the 1950s. Several older properties remain in Green Man Lane, including the old Manor house (now the headquarters of a car leasing company) and two other 18th century dwellings. The 17th century blacksmith's yard and buildings have been converted into a family home.

East of Hatton is a large lake, which used to be a sand and gravel quarry. It is over 500 metres long, but divided by a new road, The Causeway.

Lost features

North of the Great South West Road

When London Heathrow Airport was built, it obliterated all of Hatton that was north of the A30 road (Great South-West Road); that lost part of Hatton straggled northward along Hatton Road, which used to run straight right across what is now the airport from Hatton to Harlington Corner (A4 road and A437 road crossing). Notable buildings along Hatton Road included, in order from north to south:

  • The Limes: a large house, east side. Built around 1840.
  • The Cedars: a large house, east side, its site is now in line with the north runway. An old photograph shows a big pond in front of it and cedars round it; it faced north. Charles Dickens was a friend of the family of Mary Ann Cooper (née Mitton), and sometimes visited them; they lived in The Cedars. She was the inspiration for his character Little Dorrit. Built around 1840.
  • Hatton Road Farm: west of Hatton Road, roughly in an equilateral triangle with The Cedars and Hatton Gore.
  • Hatton Gore: a large house, east side, its site is now on the north edge of the truck depot which is west of the Enfield Road Roundabout. It faced somewhat east of southwards (parallel to the road) at one side of a big garden. It was built from York stone got when an old building of the Bank of England was demolished. The famous plant collecter Frank Kingdon-Ward moved to Hatton Gore in 1923. He built there a big rockery looking like a bend in a river ravine in the Himalayas. He sold the house due to a loss that he made running a plant nursery business. Built around 1840.
  • The Common: a farm, west side
  • The Dog and Partridge: pub, west side
  • The Cyclist's Rest: east side, a snack shop; it used to be a pub called The Magpies
    • Various smaller houses and cottages were between these houses.

These buildings were demolished in or before 1949. Hatton Road survives as a north end stump (Hatton Road North), visible surface tarmac and wide cropmark on grass east of the end of the north runway, unnamed alignments among service area buildings, the south part of the airport internal road Eastchurch Road, and a south end stump.

South of the Great South West Road

  • Temple Hatton, a country house in grounds east of Hatton Farm in the bend of Fagg's Road. Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Baronet owned it. In 1899 it was sold to a Roman Catholic order and became an orphanage called St.Anthony's Home. In 1958 it was sold due to the effect of aircraft noise. Its site is now occupied by airport-related premises (St. Anthony's Way and St. Teresa's Road: Google Earth view).
  • Steam Farm, so named because it was the first in the area to have a steam-powered plough. The sites of it and Hatton House and other buildings in the island between Fagg's Road and Dick Turpin Way and Great South West Road are now occupied by a Gate Gourmet works.
  • Hatton Farm: had several buildings and a Mission Hall, between Great South West Road and Fagg's Road and the northwest edge of what used to be Temple Hatton. The current Google Earth view (as at April 2012) shows waste ground, the Mission Hall, and one derelict farm building with gaps in its roof.

Transport

The nearest London Underground station is Hatton Cross. The area is served by a number of London Buses routes, connecting Hatton to the airport, Hounslow, Northolt, Southall, Richmond and Staines.

Free parking is possible in Hatton Lane, but the roads around Hatton are either red routes (stopping not allowed), double yellow lines, or residents' parking (other parking banned Monday to Friday 8:30 to 17:30). A few credit card-paid spaces are near the Green Man which has its own patrons' parking spaces.

For more than a century, until the 1840s' laying of major railways, stagecoaches increasingly passed locally. The changing of horses locally waned into the early twentieth century. They used the nearby-divergent road two miles north (i.e. between London and all places due west (e.g. Bristol). They used the highway of Hatton for all places WSW such as Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

Hatton has a depot of Ashford Luxury Coaches, whose "Windsorian" branded coaches have been used to transport members of the British Royal Family.

Amenities and economy

Hatton Green

This has pub-restaurant "The Green Man", owned by the Punch Taverns. Adjoining the Green Man is a field where horses, geese, cows and other livestock live: Hounslow Urban Farm next to Hatton Cemetery. It states itself to be the largest "urban" farm in London. Apart from the remaining kernel of Hounslow Heath, the Borough is highly built up or in public parks, having modest average garden size. A few "rural" farms are in London, mainly in the lowest population density part: Bromley – in the North Downs.

Hatton Cross (the Cross)

Hatton has a small café by the green on Faggs Road and a convenience store and newsagents within Hatton Cross station. Barclays Bank with car park is in the highly road-dominated zone north of the Cross. A petrol station with Subway food outlet faces the south-west of the Cross and The Atrium, a large hotel facing a restricted-access lane also faces the Cross. In what was once squarely but is today the debatable south of Hatton a 24-hour Tesco supermarket and petrol station adjoining the urban farm. Hatton no longer has a place of worship; its Baptist Chapel/Anglican Mission Room was converted for office use in 2000. What little housing exists is mainly semi-detached or maisonettes built between the 1930s and the 1950s. Several older properties remain in Green Man Lane, including the old Manor house (now the headquarters of a car leasing company) and two other 18th century dwellings. The 17th century blacksmith's yard and buildings have been converted into a family home.

Air France-KLM's head office for United Kingdom and Ireland operations, which includes facilities for both, is at Plesman House in Hatton Cross. Its inauguration was on 6 July 2006, having moved from Hammersmith. The Plesman House, outside of Terminal 4 of Heathrow Airport, has the UK commercial team, sales team, and support team.

East of Hatton is a large lake, which used to be a sand and gravel quarry. It is over 500 metres long, but divided by a new road, The Causeway.

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