Fulham is a district inside the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in southwest London. It is 3.7 miles south-west from Charing Cross, making it an Inner London district. It is on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hammersmith and Kensington and Chelsea, facing Putney and Barnes. Formerly, it was a parish within the county of Middlesex. It is identified in the London Plan as on the list of 35 major centres in Greater London.
Fulham's history of industrial enterprise extends back to the 15th century, with its Mill at Millshot on the south side of what is now Fulham Palace Road. There was also a pottery, tapestry-weaving, paper-making and brewing industry during the 17th and eighteenth centuries in the area of what is now called Fulham High Street. The next two centuries had been identified for energy production, transportation, the automotive industry, food production and laundries.
For the first part of the 20th century, Fulham remained mostly working class with pockets of wealth at the North End, along the top of Lillie Road and New King's Road. Especially wealthy areas were Parsons Green, Eel Brook Common, South Park and the region surrounding the Hurlingham Club. The area attracted waves of immigration, and fast changes meant that there was poverty - Charles Dickens and Charles Booth noted this, and there were poorhouses that attracted benefactors.
Nowadays, Fulham is rated among the most expensive parts of London and also the UK overall. The average sale price of all property in 2007 was £639,973 - and is most likely to be a lot more now.