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In Memory of Macleans & Trico: More from my walk on Sunday 7th January 1990 – the previous post was Chapel, Gothic House, the Globe and Great West Road – 1990

Trico, 980,Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-02 — *Macleans Toothpaste, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-03*

Toothpaste in my youth came as dentifrice, a usually pink powder or block in small tins, around 7 or 8 cm diameter and 2 cm tall, and Macleans had a patent aluminium tin. In my home we only changed to toothpaste in tubes at some time in the 1950s, but we could have been behind the times. And we used Gibbs Dentifrice, not Macleans.

Macleans was begun by a New Zealand born businessman, Alex C. Maclean in 1919, and moved into this splendid new factory on the Great West Road in 1932. The company was bought by Beechams in 1938 and later was swallowed up as a part of GlaxoSmithKline or GSK. You can still apparently get Macleans toothpaste though it bears little relationship to the orginal product and is now produced by Haleon

Trico, 980,Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-04 — *Macleans, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-04*

The centenary of the Great West Road is celebrated in the book The Great West Road: A Centenary History by James Marshall, so far as I know not a relative of mine. “For two miles, from its junction with the North Circular Road and Chiswick High Road to Gillette Corner, a corridor of inter-war factory buildings emerged, a stylish celebration of art deco architecture.”

Trico, 980,Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-61 — *Macleans, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-61*

Unfortunately many of the buildings have now gone, Trico and Macleans among them, although a few of the grander survive. I think I knew when I took these pictures two years before the business moved that these would shortly be demolished.

Trico, 980,Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-51 — Trico, 980, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-51

The Trico Products Windscreen Wiper factory, No. 980, Great West Road, Brentford opened in 1928, three years after the new road was opened by George V in 2025 as the Brentford by-pass. Trico relocated to Pontypool, South Wales in 1992 and the building was demolished.

Certainly I took more pictures of these buildings than the others along this stretch of road, about three times as many as are in this post, though most of the rest are fairly similar to these.

Trico, 980,Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-52 — *Trico, 980, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-52*

In the 1980s there was still little general appreciation of Art Deco or moderne buildings from the 1920s and 1930s and few had been give the protection afforded by listing. The most celebrated case of demolition was the Firestone Tyre Factory which had closed and been sold to Trafalgar House, a company run by Lord Victor Matthews and Nigel Broakes on 22nd August 1980.

A Department of the Environment inspector had the same week decided the building should be listed, but as it was the Bank Holiday weekend no civil servant was available to sign the emergency listing document. “On Saturday 23 August Lord Matthews ordered demolition men to destroy the main features of the facade – the ceramic tiles around the entrance, the white pillars, the pediment above and the bronze lamp standards.” And so one of the finest buildings on the stretch was destroyed.

Trico, 980,Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-54 — *Trico, 980, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-54*

Victor Matthews, who as well as being Chairman of Trafalgar House was the proprietor of the Daily Express, had been made a Life Peer as Baron Matthews of Southgate a month before this despicable act of cultural vandalism.

*Grand Union Canal, Trico, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-56*

The canal which had been so important in earlier Brentford history was irrelevant to the companies which now set up along the new road. They were entirely based around road transport and very much used their impressive frontages as advertisements for their businesses to those driving along the new highway.

*Grand Union Canal, Trico, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-41*

More from other buildings along the Great West Road in the next instalment.

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Chapel, Gothic House, the Globe and Great West Road: Continuing my walk on Sunday 7th January 1990 – the previous post was The Great West Road and a Missing Lion – Brentford.

*Jubilee Chapel, Primitive Methodist, New Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-26*

Built in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the church closed in 1964 when a new church opened in Clifden Rd. The Primitives had joined with the Wesleyans and United Methodists in 1932. The building is a rather curious design laid out along the road with a tower like this at each end and five bays between, the central one with what looks as it should be an entrance with taller brickwork and a triangular pediment above a large oval-topped window. You can see a little of the interesting brickwork in my photograph. The windows now have some delicate metal protection in front of them and the building is still in use, I think by an Electrical contactor. It is locally listed for its architectural and social significance.

*House, Hamilton Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-11*

This Gothick style house at 17 Hamilton Road stands head and shoulders above its neighbours with a basement, steps up to a grand doorway and the fine decoration below its distinctive oriel window. It is capped on one side with an attic gable, making it three and a half storeys. Locally listed.

Performance, Windmill Rd, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-13 — *Performance Cars Ltd, Windmill Rd, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-13*

Although it might gain no stars for its uncompromising 1930s architecture this building for Performance Cars had a blunt and striking appearance and I was sad to see it was about to be demolished, one of many losses of buildings along the Great West Road. It’s a shame it was not saved, although the adjoining workshops were no great loss. Most of its site is now empty or parking for another motor dealer. I took this picture from underneath the elevated M4.

The Globe, Boston Park Rd, Windmill Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-15 — *The Globe, Boston Park Rd, 104, Windmill Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-15*

The Globe pub on the corner of Boston Park Road and Windmill Road is still open and is a popular traditional pub which still has some original features.Though it is no longer run by Fullers you may still be able to get a pint of London Pride. My picture just shows a little of the large globe let into the parapet above the corner of the building.

The pub was built in the 1880s and acquired by Fuller Smith & Turner in 1908. It is named in an impressive series of reviews of Brentford’s pubs written by ‘Wandering Tom’ and published in the County of Middlesex Indepent in 1996 but he tells us nothing mopre than its name. Unearthed by Vic Rosewarne as part of extensive research into Brentford’s pubs, these notes have been re-published as part of the Brentford High Street project.

Macleans, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-16 — *Macleans Toothpaste, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-16*

Finally two pictures – more to follow later – of another and more important loss of the 1920’s factories that lined the Brentford section of the new Great West Road. This was Maclean’s Toothpaste factory, opened in 1932 and together with the neighbouring Trico was demolished in 1992.

Trico Products Windscreen Wiper factory, No. 980 Great West Road, opened in 1928. The Trico business relocated to Pontypool, South Wales in 1992 and the building was demolished.

Macleans, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-01 — *Macleans, Boston Manor Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-01*

Initially the Macleans site, along with the adjoining former Trico factory next to the Grand Union Canal was to be a UK headquarters for Samsung, but plans fell through with an Asian financial crisis and instead building a new headquarters of GlaxoSmithKline was begun in 1998 and completed in 2001. Designed by Hillier with RHWL and Swanke Hayden Connell it was the biggest single commercial development of the time, and one of the few more interesting new buildings on the Great West Road.

GSK announced they were selling it in 2021 and the last of their staff left the building in 2014. There are now plans being made for what will probably be the largest ever development in Brentford.

More from Macleans and Trico in a later post.

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Tag: 980

In Memory of Macleans & Trico – 1990

Chapel, Gothic House, the Globe and Great West Road – 1990