Putney

District in the southwest borough of Wandsworth in London, England. Putney is situated on the southern bank of the Thames opposite Fulham, and is a pleasant, semi-suburban residential area. Putney Bridge is the starting point of the Oxford–Cambridge Boat Race; the first University Boat Race started there in 1845, and since 1856 it has been an annual event.

The area's places of interest include St Mary's Church, where in 1647, representatives of the New Model Army debated the constitutional future of England; Putney Lower Common; and Putney Heath, which was the scene of a duel in 1798 between British prime minister William Pitt and George Tierney and of one in 1809 between Lord Castlereagh and George Canning. Famous residents include William Pitt; poet Algernon Swinburne; writer Theodore Watts, who looked after Swinburne; and Constance Garnett, translator of Russian literature. Leonard Woolf, husband of writer Virginia Woolf, grew up in Putney, and Edvard Beneš, the second president of Czechoslovakia, lived here during his exile in London 1938–45; politician Thomas Cromwell and historian Edward Gibbon were born in Putney, while British prime minister Clement Attlee was born, brought up, and cremated here.

Putney

Town in Windham County, southeastern Vermont, USA, on the Connecticut River, 14 km/9 mi north of Brattleboro; population (1990) 2,400. It is a retail centre situated in an area of orchards and soft fruit farms. Horticulture, paper milling, and boxmaking are the principal industries, and the town has a theme park, named Santa's Land. Educational foundations include Putney School (1935) and Landmark College (1983).