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Fulham Apartments
Fulham is one of the most desirable places to live in London. It’s beautifully green with an interesting history and a great choice of restaurants, pubs, shops and entertainment. This guide to the culture, style, and history of Fulham – brought to you by the experienced staff of the Collingham, one of the most popular Fulham serviced apartments groups – will give you all you need to know about west London’s finest.
Why Stay in Fulham?
Fulham sits neatly and tidily in a flowing bend in the River Thames. To the north are Chelsea and Hammersmith and to the south across the river are Putney and Battersea. It’s an affluent, leafy suburb of London populated by young, upwardly mobile professionals and families as well as tourists and business travellers.
Fulham is an increasingly popular choice for those seeking to explore London – within easy reach of central London yet close to the trendy hubs of west London. For this reason the options for those seeking holiday accommodation in Fulham are increasing – from hostels and hotels to luxury rentals. At the Collingham, we have a great choice of family friendly serviced apartments in Fulham – giving you the perfect base from which to explore London.
Fulham Serviced Apartments
When you stay in serviced holiday apartments in Fulham such as the Collingham, you are a short 15 minute tube ride from the glitz and glamour of the West End. You benefit from all the amenities and facilities you’d expect from a four star hotel in central London but with the added freedom to come and go as you please.
You have the freedom to entertain guests, friends or business associates, as well as fully-equipped kitchens and living spaces. Some apartments also have private terraces overlooking the stunning Collingham Gardens.
Designed to capture a classic contemporary British feel, the Collingham is close to the world-renowned shopping areas of Knightsbridge, Sloane Square and the King’s Road and we are consistently voted in the Traveller’s Choice Awards as one of England’s Top 20 Hotels for Families on TripAdvisor.
Fulham – A Green, Tranquil Haven in West London
Fulham is known for its proximity to some of London’s most famous green spaces. Wandsworth Park, Clapham Common, Putney Heath and a few miles to the west, the magnificent Richmond Park with its 600+ wild Red and Fallow deer – who have roamed free in the park since 1529 – are all close and Fulham can rightly lay claim to be one of the most beautiful and highly sought after areas in London.
Fulham has a quiet, peaceful, old school vibe about it and although the area has its fair share of buzzy bars, restaurants and cafés as well as lots for families to do, the pace of life is noticeably slower than that of central London!
The History of Fulham
While Fulham today is a wealthy neighbourhood, its beginnings were less than salubrious. There is some conjecture as to the true etymology of the name but was written originally as Fullenham, Fullonham and its earliest form of Fulanhamme and either means ‘the place of fowls’ (or mud) due to the fact that this part of the Thames was prone to occasional flooding or ‘land in the crook of a river bend belonging to an Anglo-Saxon called Fulla’.
The manor was supposedly given to Bishop Erkenwald, Bishop of London from 675 to 693 AD, for himself and his successors in the See of London. In the 870s Danish invaders sailing up the Thames spent their winters in Fulham, close to the site of the old Fulham Bridge (replaced by Putney Bridge in 1886) and perhaps the most famous building in the area, Fulham Palace, the summer home to successive Bishops of London from at least the 11th century through to 1975 was built. Today, Fulham Palace is a museum dedicated to the history of the building and the Bishops of London and it has a beautiful botanical garden which is a must see!
During restoration of the Palace at the turn of the 21st century, archaeologists revealed the remains of Neolithic settlements and experts have traced habitation in the immediate area back 5,000 years. Roman remains were also found suggesting they were present in the area during the third and fourth centuries AD.
There aren’t any records remaining that document the building of Fulham’s first parish church but there is a record of the appointment of the first rector (name unknown) in 1242, suggesting a church was on site up to a century before that, but this seems to be a fact that will remain a mystery.
The area stayed ostensibly the same as a riverside retreat for the clergy and not much more for 700 years until the 18th century. Before the property developers of the day were waiting to create Fulham’s famous wide, tree-lined avenues and packing them with grandiose Victorian and Edwardian houses, the area gained a somewhat odious reputation as a debauched place to be. It was filled with drinking and illegal gambling dens and the moneyed classes of the West End would come for a drink and a bet as well as taking advantage of the numerous and varied ‘ladies of the night’.
This period of Fulham’s history has been described as a ‘low rent Las Vegas’ where people dipped in and out for a fix of whatever their particular vice happened to be.
As with virtually all areas surrounding central London, the advent of the railway in the late-1800s transformed the area from largely rural into a busy, vibrant commuter hub and as more people came into the area, more homes were built and the Fulham we know today began to take shape.
Up until the aftermath of the Second World War, Fulham remained predominantly working class but from the 1950s through to the 1980s, the area was subject to extensive and widespread renovation and regeneration and today, Fulham may not be in quite the same bracket in terms of property prices as tracts of Chelsea and Mayfair but it’s pretty close.
Fulham – Eat, Drink…
If you’re staying in serviced apartments near Fulham, you are spoiled for choice where food and drink is concerned. The Michelin-starred River Café and Harewood Arms (the only starred pub in London) are two of dozens of fantastic restaurants in the area. There is also a great selection of gastropubs and traditional English pubs in the area.
For those travelling with children, one of the biggest benefits of staying in family friendly serviced apartments in Fulham like the Collingham, is that you can cook and prepare food at your convenience. All the local supermarket chains deliver so you can do your shopping online. If you enjoy discovering your own fresh ingredients, thanks to a strong French and Italian influence in the area, you’ll find some amazing, authentic delis and food shops as well as the famous organic Wholefoods supermarket, numerous farmers’ markets and independent, specialist food shops.
…and Shop!
Fulham Broadway Shopping Centre welcomes a staggering 12m people a year where you can shop, eat, work out and watch films and the area is famous for its streets filled with vintage clothes, furniture, bric-a-brac and boutiques of all sorts and if you venture down Lillie Road, you’ll find some amazing antique shops.
You’re also close to the world-famous shopping hubs of Sloane Street, King’s Road and Knightsbridge so don’t forget to bring your wallet!
Travelling to Fulham
Fulham is served by a number of tube stations including Fulham Broadway, Parsons Green and Putney Bridge (all District Line) and the mainline stations of Victoria, Waterloo and Charing Cross are a short taxi journey away.
Buses into central London are regular and plentiful and you can also go the other way into Richmond, Clapham and Wimbledon and the M4 motorway will take you west, eventually ending up in South Wales!
Interesting Facts About Fulham:
- The first traffic calming speed humps in the UK were installed in Linver Road in 1984
- Fulham FC is London’s oldest football club, founded in 1879 as Fulham St Andrew’s Church Sunday School FC
- Lillie Bridge Grounds which hosted the second ever FA Cup Final is in Fulham. The Wanderers beat Oxford University 2-0 in 1873
- At dictionary.com, a ‘fulham’ is described as a ‘dice loaded at one corner either to favour a throw of 4, 5 or 6 (a high fulham) or to favour a throw of 1, 2 or 3 (a low fulham)
- In 1698, Fulham resident Susanna Fowles was tried at the Old Bailey for ‘pretending to be possessed with the Devil’. She was found guilty and sentenced to jail
Serviced Apartments in Fulham – Why Choose The Collingham?
The Collingham offers a range of the very best serviced holiday apartments near Fulham. As an independent, boutique provider, we offer guests a first-class service from the moment you walk in the door to the moment you leave.
Our dedicated team take care of everything you need to make your stay as comfortable as possible. Our family friendly serviced apartments in Fulham range from studio apartments to a magnificent three bedroom, two bathroom penthouse which is perfect for entertaining, dining, working and relaxing in style, comfort and elegance.
If you’re looking for award-winning Fulham serviced apartments, the Collingham ticks every box.