The Great West Road and a Missing Lion – Brentford: Continuing my walk on Sunday 7th January 1990 – the previous post was Chiswick Cottage and Lionel Road Brentford – 1990.
Built around 1970 as the 12 storey headquarters of Beecham Pharmaceuticals it was no longer needed after they became part of Glaxo Smith Kline and was refurbished as as Vantage London with offices let to a number of companies. The building was again refurbished in 2016 and in 2019 was sold to a Luxembourg based company for £30 million.
In 2024 a planning application was made by Resolution Property for its conversion into 178 flats. It was approved following some modifications in April 2025.
The elevated section of the M4 runs on top of the Great West Road in front of the building. The strucvture in the foreground is I think a gritting bin.
Taken under the elevated M4 where slip roads link the A4 Great West Road with the motorway. One project I was working on at the time was inspired by J G Ballard’s 1973 novel ‘Crash’, key scenes of which were set in this area – although the 1996 film of the book by Cronenberg was made in Canada. Ballard who lived not far away in Shepperton obviously knew the area well.
Crash centres around a car crash victim who finds himself aroused by car accidents but my project was more simply about the domination of our culture by the car and I felt threatened by the powerfully enclosed architecture here which is perhaps a modern equivalent of the Roman coliseums, and was rather choked by the fumes.
On previous occasions I had photographed the iconic moderne 1930s buildings along the Great West Road, and this at right shows Beechams, which had this side entrance a few yards down Clayponds Lane. The factory building continues in a more utilitarian fashion but with a tall window, probably lighting a staircase which reflects the style.
The Carville Hall Estate was bought by Middlesex County Council in 1919 for the construction of the Great West Rd, and they sold the parts on both sides of the new road to Brentford UDC as a park, which opened in 1923. The house, orginally known as Clayponds, is now called Simmonds House. Originally built in the late 18th century, the front was re-modelled in the 19th century. It is locally listed.
The park is off Clayponds Lane and parts of it were once dug for clay, leaving ponds, marked as ‘Fishponds’ on the 1871 OS Map.
Beyond the lion and the park are the tall blocks of the Brentford Towers Estate built for Hounslow Council in 1968-72.
The house here had extensive grounds and there is now a park on both sides of the A4/M4. The park to the north of the roads is larger than this but of little interest.
The house is thought to have been built for the “wealthy distiller and brewer David Roberts (c1733-97)” and was later home to “coal and horse racing magnate William Lancalot Redhead (c1853-1909) and his daughter“. It was later converted into flats.
The fate of the lion appears to be a mystery. I was surprised on a later visit to find it no longer there and I’ve not been able to find what happened to it. The most I’ve come across is a suggestion that it was stolen.
I thought that it was probably a Victorian garden ornament made from artificial stone – Coade or Portland Stone etc – and would have been fairly heavy, so the thief would have needed a lorry with appropriate lifting gear.
More from my walk to follow.
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