Inn at East Molesey with Hampton Court Bridge Alfred Sisley 1874
This picture puzzled me. I thought I knew Hampton Court like the back of my hand, but I couldn't fit that Inn into my mental map of the area. I would have expected to see the Mitre Hotel there with Hampton Court Palace behind me to the right. In fact, Sisley was on the other side of the river looking in the opposite direction towards Hampton Court Palace.
This is the same view in 2016. The new bridge is on the left and Hampton Court railway station can be seen in the background. Part of Sisley's bridge can still be seen next to the tree.
The Inn in Sisley's painting was the Castle Hotel, which can be seen as the white building next to the bridge in the postcard below. The building with the conical turret in the postcard is the building in the foreground of the above photo.The cone has been removed.
Hampton Court Bridge c1900
This map from c1890 is quite surprising for those who think they know this area. The river flowing into the Thames is the Mole. It no longer flows into the Thames. When the new bridge was built in 1933 the Mole was diverted to flow into the River Ember and the course shown on the map was filled in with rubble some of which came from the demolished Castle Hotel. The old course of the Mole is now the approach road to the new bridge.
Hampton Court Bridge c1890
On the left of the 1920 photo below you can see the old bridge and next to it the Mole flowing into the Thames. The Ember is the river in the centre and on the right of the photo. It flows into the Thames opposite Hampton Court Palace.
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