Cholmondeley Walk gets its name from the Cholmondeley family. They had been important to the crown from 1686 when the 2nd Earl, George gave up his legal career to join the Queen’s Regiment of Horse. The oldest regiment in existence today and named after Queen Mary, James II’s wife.
George must have been a protestant sympathiser because he played an integral role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This was when the Catholic King James II was overthrown and replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange.
Rewarded by being appointed the Groom of the Bedchamber, he lived on Richmond Green. In 1711 he swapped a parcel of land for this land by the river with the owner of Trumpeters House. The land had formed part of the western boundary of the privy chambers of Richmond Palace but by the 1700s it was a wasteland.
It wasn’t until after his death that his son the 3rd Earl built a property on the riverside, giving the walk its name. One of the only reminders of the Cholmondeley family in Richmond. The House was renamed by its future resident The Duke Queensbury.
There are still a few parts of the former houses remaining, including this hexagonal tower in Friars Lane.
