, in the
River Thames at
Twickenham in
London , can only be reached by a footbridge or boat. Eel Pie Island was earlier called Twickenham
Ait and before that The Parish Ait, even earlier the island was three separate aits.
In 1889 it was proposed to build a bridge to the island but that didn't happen until 1957.
Today, it has about 50 houses with 120 inhabitants with some small businesses and a nature reserve at each end. It is also home to
Twickenham Rowing Club , one of the oldest rowing clubs on the Thames, and
Richmond Yacht Club .
The island was the site of the now legendary which was a genteel
19th Century building hosting
Ballroom Dancing during the
1920s and
1930s . In the
1950s it became a venue for
Jazz and then in the
1960s the new sound of
Rock and
R&B .
Many famous names performed here between
1962 and
1967 :
In
1967 , Eel Pie Island Hotel was forced to close because the owner could not meet the £200,000 cost of repairs demanded by the police. Squatters soon moved in. In
1969 , the Club briefly reopened as , with progressive bands like
Black Sabbath ,
The Edgar Broughton Band , and legends
Led Zeppelin .
The
Eel Pie Studios were owned by
Pete Townshend and were the location of several significant pop and rock recordings. Townshend's publishing company, ''Eel Pie Publishing Limited'' is named after the
Ait .
Original
Doctor Who actor
William Hartnell lived in a house on the island during the
1960s .
In
1971 , the Eel Pie Island Hotel burned down in a mysterious fire. The centre of the island was devastated by fire in
1996 and a year later the footbridge was damaged by a utilities contractor, a new one being opened in August
1998 .
In 2005, Eel Pie Island was briefly invaded by writer and presenter
Danny Wallace , who intended to claim the territory as his own and form a new country, but order was swiftly restored when his two-man invasion force was routed by local authorities.
Eel Pie island is the home of the indie band
Mystery Jets and
Trevor Baylis .
Eel Pie Island was also the setting of a murder mystery written by David Frome (Zenith Brown) in 1932. It was part of the Mr Pinkerton Series, featuring amateur sleuth Evan Pinkerton, a widower Welshman, and his friend Chief Inspector J. Humphrey Bull of Scotland Yard.
