Lillie Road Recreation Ground

The road and recreation ground get their name from Sir John Scott Lillie, a veteran of the Peninsular War who owned land in Fulham and began development of what is the eastern end of Lillie Road in 1826. He lived at a house called The Hermitage set in extensive grounds on the corner of Lillie and North End Road, later built over by coal yards. Lillie was also an inventor and responsible for an early machine gun, which became known as the Lillie Rifle. A gardener called Sandell once had a business here, resulting in it gaining the name Sandell's Corner. In the C17th the land where the recreation ground was later laid out was an orchard and gravel pits in the ownership Lady Pye, whose son Sir Nicholas Crispe was a wealthy trader in goods and slaves. Crispe built Brandenburgh House on the Fulham riverside, and after his death in 1666 at his behest his embalmed heart was buried in Hammersmith chapel-at-ease, later St Paul's Hammersmith (q.v.), although his body was buried at St Mildred's Bread Street, only reunited when St Mildred's churchyard was cleared in 1898 and his remains brought to Hammersmith.

The recreation ground is extensively used for sport as a result of which the grass has suffered and there are large tracts of asphalt. A mural on the sports centre was repainted in July 1996. On the north-west corner of the site is a kiosk and public conveniences, the lodge now used for alternative healthcare. There are good London plane trees in the park. The railings along Fulham Palace Road were set back to produce a grass verge along the road and shrubs are now being planted in the area.