HAMMERSMITH, a town and parish in the county of Middlesex, situated on the north bank of the Thames, miles S.W. of Hyde Park corner, and now connected with London by continuous lines of streets. The bridge across the Thames at Hammersmith, completed in 1827 at a cost of <£80,000, was the earliest suspension bridge erected near London. Formerly Hammersmith was celebrated for its nurseries and market gardens, but these have almost entirely given place to buildings. In the neighbourhood there are a number of fine residences. The principal public buildings are the parish church of St Paul, consecrated in 1631 and restored in 1864, containing a number of interesting monuments; the Latymer schools, founded by Edward Latymer in 1624; the Godolphin school, founded in the 16th century, and rebuilt as a grammar school in 1862, with accommodation for 200 boys; the Roman Catholic theological institute, founded originally as a school for ladies in 1669; the convent of the Good Shepherd, with an asylum for penitent women; the convent of Little Daughters of Nazareth; the Roman Catholic reformatory, the town-hall, the office of the board of works, and the West London hospital. In the district there are distilleries, lead-mills, oil-mills, coach factories, boat building yards, and the works of the West Middlesex Water Company. The population of the parish in 1861 was 24,519, and in 1871 42,691. Hammersmith falls within the limits of the metropolitan district, and forms part of the parliamentary borough of Chelsea.