More from the Golden Mile continues from where my previous post on my walk on Sunday 7th January 1990, Curry’s, Firestone, A Fountain & Kluwer – 1990, ended. This is my final post on this walk.
Adini, 891, Great West Rd, Isleworth, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-12
Just to the west of Syon Lane on the Great West Road in Isleworth is this 1933 Art Deco factory by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners built for William Burnett Chemicals. This was the furthest west of the 1930s commercial buildings on the new road and past it are residential properties in the north of Isleworth and Osterley.
Adini, 891, Great West Rd, Isleworth, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-12
The building is I think still in use by fashion clothing firm Adini. In 2023 Hounslow Council turned down a planning application to develop the site retaining and restoring this locally listed Art Deco building but with two six storey blocks containing 51 flats on the site. The developers appealed and I am not sure of the current state of the proposal.
Softsel, 941, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1h-65
I hadn’t finished with the ‘Golden Mile’ and turned around and walked east back into Brentford along the Great West Road. 941, the occupied by Softsel was another building by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners for cosmetics company Coty.
This building is now the private Syon Clinic.
Steps, 971, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1h-66
Another grand set of steps led up to the factory of Leonard Williams Ltd, who made Packard cars here from 1929. Queensway in 1990 it now leads to DFS Brentford Sofa & Furniture Store, but only these steps remain of the previous building.
Pyrene Building, Westlink House, 981, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1h-51
Built 1929-1930 by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners for Pyrene, makers of fire extinguishers it is Grade II listed. The main windows here had already been altered by 1990.
Pyrene Building, Westlink House, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1h-44
This grand entrance and the gate posts are perhaps the most interesting feature of the building. The building now provides tailor-made office space for companies of all sizes.
Pyrene Building, Westlink House, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1h-44
I still hadn’t quite finished with the Golden Mile, but my final pictures were a set of five pictures of the remarkable former Curry’s HQ at 991 Great West Road which featured in an earlier post – you can see them starting here on Flickr.
Grand Union Canal, Great West Rd, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1h-34
I ended my walk by with a final picture looking south from the bridge which takes the Great West Road over the here combined River Brent and the Grand Union Canal before getting away from the noise and dust of the road and walking along the canal towpath to Brentford High Street where I could catch a bus to start my journey home.
Curry’s, Firestone, A Fountain & Kluwer continues from where my previous post about my walk on Sunday 7th January 1990 In Memory of Macleans & Trico – 1990 ended.
Former Curry’s, 991, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-42
Warehouse and offices built in 1935-6 by F E Simpkins as a distribution centre for Curry’s Ltd. Grade II listed in 1994. Curry’s lost their headquarters building when it was taken over during the war to make aircraft parts. But in 1996 they opened a new superstore a few yards down the road at 971, a site where from 1929 Packard Cars were built; it had beenbadly damaged by a V2 in March 1945, but was rebuilt and became an annexe to Sperry Gyroscope until they moved to Bracknell in 1966.
In 1990, 991 Great West Road was Cooper West London Service. After some years of disuse in 2000 it became the offices of JC Decaux.
Gate, Firestone Tyre Factory, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-43
Closed in 1979, the factory was bought by Trafalgar House and demolished during the 1980 August bank holiday to preempt its listing, due to be announced two days later. It was one of the finest buildings designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners and only the second to be opened on the Great West Rd in 1928.
Gate, Firestone Tyre Factory, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-31
Its demolition was widely condemned as an act of architectural vandalism by architectural critics, many of whom would gladly have lain down in front of the bulldozers had they known about it in time. It’s demolition led directly to the listing of at least 150 twentieth century buildings previously ignored, though too many remained unprotected and have been lost.
Many of us felt that Lord Victor Matthews who ordered the instant demolition to avoid listing should have been in some way brought to justice – or at least have his life peerage removed. But nothing was done.
Fountain, Great West Road, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1g-35
The building at the left of this image is the former Coty Cosmetics Factory at 941 Great West Road from 1932 by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners, now Syon Clinic, and to the right an odd structure outside Homebase. This fountain must have been close to the corner of Shield Drive, perhaps to distract attention from the bland and mediocre more recent buildings in the area.
Harlequin Avenue runs north from the Great West Road and is still lined by factories and commercial buildings, few of much architectural interest. Kluwer Publishing was perhaps the exception but this building has since been demolished.
The Gillette building at the corner of the Great West Road and Syon Lane marks the western end of Brentford’s ‘Golden Mile’. To the west of here the land was owned by the Church Commissioners who only permitted residential development in Osterly.
Designed by Sir Banister Flight Fletcher in 1936-7, Gillette continued to make razor blades here until production was moved to Poland in 2006. The tall tower can be seen from miles away in this flat corner of Middlesex.
Plans to convert the building into a hotel and small business park fell through and in 2013 the site was purchased by The Vinyl Factory and made available for filming, at first with four large stages. Plans were approved in 2025 to make more of the site available for filming while preserving the Grade II listed building – and are expected to provide more than 3,400 permanent jobs.
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
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.”
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
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
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
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.
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 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, 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 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, 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.
Vantage London, Great West Rd, M4, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-45
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.
Great West Rd, M4, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-35
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.
Flats, Carville Hall, Carville Hall Park, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990,90-1f-22
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.
Lion, flats, Carville Hall Park, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-23
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.
Lion, Carville Hall, Carville Hall Park, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-24
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.
St Alban’s Cottage, 164, Duke Rd, Chiswick, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1e-43
I can’t now remember how I got to Duke Road from Hammersmith – either by walking through some of the back streets or by taking a bus to Hogarth Lane where a footpath, Devonshire Passage, leads to Duke Road by the side of St Alban’s Cottage, a detached house dating from 1871.
This is on the Glebe Estate, formerly an open filed providing an income to the vicar of St Nicholas Church, Chiswick and owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and St Paul’s Cathedral who let it for building in 1869. As Gillian Clegg remarks, “That charming little enclave of Victorian cottages between Duke Road and Devonshire Road, Glebe Street and Fraser Street has become one of the most desirable, not to say expensive, places in which to live, which is somewhat ironic since the houses were built as homes for Chiswick’s less affluent.” And this is probably the most charming of the cottages in the area.
I went up Duke Road to the Chiswick High Road in Turnham Green and I think probably jumped on another bus to Kew Bridge.
Lionel Road South runs from beside Kew Bridge Station to the Great West Road and is now dominated by Brentford Football Club’s Gtech Community Stadium. RSR Fasterners in Station House was close to the corner with Kew Bridge Road. All of the land in this area had been railway land and was important for bringing passengers and coal from the north of England in the 1850s. In 1990 this building was still on the edge of the station’s freight yard as the sign directing deliveries indicates. The company RSR Fasteners was founded in 1948 and moved here the following year. The business is now based in Hayes.
At the back of the signs here for Tunnel Cement, Brentford Commercials and others is a sign for the British Rail Freight Yard, although some sources say the goods yard closed in 1967. In the background you can see Kearney’s large shed and beyond it the Agfa building on the Great West Road.
The Agfa building was extensively refurbished and became 27 West but the rest was swept away with the development of the new Brentford stadium. There are now further plans for the development of the area.
I’m not sure that the rather rusted vehicle here was a good advert for the servicing provided by the Tony Western Garage.
Another view of Rydal Engineering and to the right of the Volvo lorry is Kearneys, with the Agfa building again in the background.
Agfa were one of the pioneers of colour negative film, introducing Agfacolor in 1932 and I’d occasionally used Agfa film, but they had failed to keep up with others and almost all of the colour I have put online was taken on Fujicolor – and when I made prints in the darkroom they were all on Fuji paper – except for the project ‘German Indications’ which I printed from transparencies on outdated Agfa reversal paper.
Flats, Green Dragon Lane from Lionel Rd, Kew Bridge, Brentford, Hounslow, 1990, 90-1f-55
Looking across Lionel Road was a parking yard protected by a tall fence, The railway line is lower down and out of sight beyond this, and the four tall blocks of flats are on Green Dragon Lane. Here is what I wrote about when they appeared in a picture from an earlier walk:
Six 23 storey blocks were built here as the Brentford Towers Estate in 1968 to 1972 by the London Borough of Hounslow.
Green Dragon Lane apparently got its name from a 17th century pub but there appears to be no record of where this was, though there are or were around 40 other pubs of that name elsewhere in the country. The name is usually thought either to have come from the Livery Badge worn by servants of the Herbert family, the Earl of Pembroke, which showed a bloody arm being eaten by a dragon or a reference to King Charles II’s Portuguese Catholic queen, Catherine of Braganza whose family badge was the Green Wyvern.
Vaisakhi is the traditional New Year and harvest festival of the Punjab in India and Pakistan and gained added significance for Sikhs, the majority population in the area when at Vaisakhi in 1699 Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru, founded the Sikh nation with the establishment of the Khalsa Panth.
Vaisahki is actually the 13th or 14th of April each year, but the festival is celebrated over several weeks at different Gurdwaras. You can read more about Vaisakhi and see some of my earlier pictures from various Nagar Kirtan (Sikh processions) on My London Diary posts from 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 and although they follow a similar pattern there are differences. In Hounslow the event seemed to me to have more active participation by women and girls than in some of the others.
I’d previously photographed the celebrations at most of of the Gurdwaras around London as a part of a larger project on religious celebrations in London, but had somehow missed out on covering the festival in Hounslow.
I’d always enjoyed photographing Vaisahki as the Sikhs were always very hospitable – I was made very welcome and guided and encouraged to take photographs and Hounslow was no exception. I wrote a fairly long description of the event on My London Dairy and included some of my personal history in the area where I – and my father – grew up.
The procession began at the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha which was built on the site of the dye factory where I had my first full-time job – and where many of the shop-floor workers were Sikh. On the route various people had set up stalls offering free food and soft drinks to everyone in the procession – and I enjoyed their hospitality, but was soon too full to be able to accept more.
It went along streets that were very familiar to me, past the clinic where I was weighed and measured as a baby and my mother was given free orange juice and cod-liver oil (which I didn’t thank them for.) Past the nursery school, Major Drake Brockman’s Academy, from which I was expelled aged 4, past the school my father left in 1913 at the age of 14 (though he wouldn’t recognise it now) on to the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha where the procession halted for more celebrations before continuing back to its starting point.
I wrote this post some months ago but when I tried to publish it none of the pictures appeared. They seem to be working now, though I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Poor Little Overlooked Images: I’m often asked “Is it worth putting images on Flickr?” My answer is it depends on why you take pictures, what you photograph and what you expect to get out of it.
Ionic Temple, lake and obelisk, Chiswick House Gardens, Chiswick, 1977 10c103
To state what I think is obvious, I don’t make a living out of Flickr, though I do get the occasional sale because people have found my pictures through it. It’s actually getting a little embarrassing now, as I shut down my business after Covid and I think I’m going to have to re-open it due to increasing sales.
Cheshire St, Tower Hamlets, 86-4r-23
But what I’ve always wanted to do is to share my images with other people, and Flickr is certainly doing that. When I was writing this some months ago there were over 45,000 views of my pictures on Flickr in a single day, and many days there are over 10,000 views. In total I’ve now had over 15 million views of my pictures there.
Brick Lane, Tower Hamlets 86-4r-11
Of course it isn’t the same as a gallery show, but most of those I’ve taken part in over the years have been lucky to get 100 visitors coming to view them in a day. So Flickr can get your work seen, and seen by a very much wider range of people than are interested enough to go into a gallery to see photographs.
Collegiale Notre-Dame de la Crypte, Cassel, France
Though I have to say that some of those people see very different things in the pictures than what interested me and what I was trying to say when I made the picture.
D933, France
I don’t mind this. Sometimes they give me information about the scene which I was totally unaware of – and occasionally it adds something to my appreciation. Often I get comments which are very personal to the viewers who may have lived or worked in somewhere that I photographed and it perhaps adds another layer to my view of the image, as well as being pleasing that they found it of interest.
Notting Hill Carnival, 1999. Peter Marshall 99-823-11_2400
But there are some things I don’t like. People who share my images on social media without naming me as the photographer is perhaps the top of the list, and if anyone should dare to colorize one of my black and white images I might to moved to take out a contract on them. So far as I’m aware it hasn’t happened yet.
St Omer, France
But while my most viewed images have been seen over 20,000 times (one now 35,699 views) there are also a few which have apparently never been viewed at all.
St Omer, France
They aren’t any worse than most of my other pictures – and in any case how would anyone know without viewing them. I think it may actually reflect some small glitches in Flickr’s recording of views, as when I click on them in the Flickr report it actually states “No recent stats available for this photo” and I’m fairly sure some at least will have been seen by some people.
St Omer, France
But here, illustrating this post. are some of the fifteen images which had apparently never been seen when I wrote this post a few months ago. And after writing I discovered why – Flickr had changed their privacy settings to private. Not me – all of my images are uploaded as public. Somehow a stray bit or byte in their database had flipped. I’ve just checked again and found a different half-dozen images hidden in the same way.
Flickr has a reasonable search facility (though occasionally it goes haywire) and almost all of my images are keyworded. If you want to know if I have taken a picture of your street or town – or anything else – simply click this link to Flickr and type my name followed by what you want to find in the search box at the top of the page.
So to find if I have photographed Pegasus simply type:
Peter Marshall Pegasus
into the search box – and it should find all seven. Londoners in particular may find it useful to search on the names of London boroughs in this way.
Chiswick Waste, Stamford Brook, British Grove & St Peter’s Square: The fourth post on my walk which began at Kew Bridge Station on 10th of December 1989. The previous post was Bedford Park – 1989.
Bedford Park had played an important role in the development of suburban housing for the affluent with the Garden City movement, but after wandering around surrounded by red brick for more than an hour I was glad to get away from it and back to something rather different.
We sometimes think of recycling as being new and green, but it has long been important in our economy. Back in my young days there were ‘pig bins’ for waste food on our street, my father spent half an hour or so neatly smoothing out and rolling our waste newspapers into a neatly tied package to put out on the bin for salvage, and as kids we would eagerly search the neighbourhood for bottles to return to shops and scrap copper, brass, aluminium, lead and zinc to take to our local scrap dealer for pennies. When you only got 6d a week from your parents for pocket money every little helped.
Of course dealers like this one largely worked on an industrial scale – the prices here are in pounds per hundredweight – and a hundredweight was 8 stone – 112 lbs or 50.8 kilograms.
Stamford Brook is now be called one of London’s “Lost Rivers”. Wikipedia has a lengthy description of its complex courses with at least three sources, its six strands and four mouths into the Thames. When the county of London was carved from Middlesex in 1889 its most western course formed the boundary between the London Borough of Hammersmith and the Middlesex urban districts of Brentford and Chiswick – and since 1965 between the London Boroughs of Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham.
One northern part of the river is the Bollo Brook, and some of its water was diverted to the lakes at Chiswick House which still have and outflow to the Thames. But most of the rest of the river had been culverted by 1900, largely becoming a part of London’s sewage system. Hopefully the opening a few days ago of London’s supersewer will end the use of two of the mouths at Chiswick and Hammersmith being storm overlows and discharging untreated sewage into the Thames.
Grove House, 66, British Grove, Chiswick, Hounslow, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12b-14
British Grove also has a culvert running under it through some of Stamford Brook was diverted. There was a track here from at least the 18th century. The houses on Chiswick High Road immediately west of British Grove, some listed and dating from 1830-40, are named as British Terrace on the 1873 OS Map and British Grove appears as a narrow track along the boundary between Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham with houses only on its west side and the name British Grove across the long back gardens of the houses on the west side of St Peter’s Square. It had previously been a southern part of Chiswick Field Lane and
Later parts of those back gardens were built on and Grove House at No 66 appears to date from around 1930. It is now four flats.
Island Records, Royal Chiswick Laundry, British Grove, Hammersmith, Hounslow, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12b-16
British Grove has a several small claims to fame. It was here around 1863 that Frederick Walton first made linoleum having taken over the British Grove Works in 1860 from rubber manufacture Richard Beard. Unfortunately Walton’s works burnt down in 1862. They were insured and were rebuilt but were too small and Walton moved to Staines which became the centre for the development and manufacture of lino – though later much was made at Kirkaldy. The Staines works closed in 1974.
The Royal Chiswick Laundry was built in the rear garden of 22 St Peter’s Square in the 1890s, facing onto British Grove. The laundry closed in 1968 and the works were used briefly by “a company that added soundtrack to film before the property in 1973 became the offices, recording studios and premises of Island Records, who moved in with a staff of 65.” Their recording studio included “the base of the chimney, which was occasionally used in recordings to add reverberation” to vocals.
Many locals were relived when Island Records moved out and were in 2005 replaced by architects who retained and restored much of the buildings which were renamed Island Studios.
House, St Peter’s Square, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12c-65
This is No 22, the house in whose back garden the Royal Chiswick Laundry was built, at the south-west corner of St Peter’ Square. The houses in the square were built in 1825-30 and 32 are Grade II listed.
Houses, St Peter’s Square, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12c-52
The square was developed piecemeal by builders working to a master plan by the landowner George Scott on part of his Ravenscourt Park Esate, “mostly built in groups of three, with stucco fronts, pediments and Ionic porches.” Between these houses you can see the square chimney of the Royal Chiswick Laundry. And you can admire the architectural detail.
House, St Peter’s Square, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12c-41
Two lions look rather angry at each other beside the stairs to the door of Number 30, with an eagle above the doorway.
Houses, St Peter’s Square, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1989, 89-12c-43
Some of the houses have gateposts with large pineapples – and perhaps others once did. And here again that impressive work above the side gates, as well as an eagle above the front door.
I took a few more pictures around the square, which really is worth a visit, before dragging myself away from one of London’s finest squares towards St Peter’s Church where the next account will begin.
Conveniently a large plaque on the house tells me this is Prioy Gardens and gives the date of its construction, 1880. The London Borough of Hounslow street sign confirms the street name and tells me it is in Chiswick, true, but more specifically it is in Bedford Park. Yet a third street name can be seen on the wall of the house in case anyone was still in doubt.
This Grade II listed house at 1 Priory Gardens is a part of the Bedford Park Estate, “a pioneering commercial development of some 350 houses and a few public buildings built between 1875 and 1886 by inexperienced developer Jonathan Carr.”
The estate was planned “to create a community of like-minded middle class aesthetes who were defined by modest financial resources and significant artistic aspirations” and was generally regarded soon after as ‘The First Garden Suburb’ and had a great influence on later suburban housing.
The whole estate reflects the Queen Anne Revival style of the period which the listing calls ‘Picturesque‘ and is also known as Domestic Revival. Most of the houses and public buildings on the estate built before 1880 were designed by Richard Norman Shaw, the leading architect of this style, but this was one of the earliest by his protégé E J May who had taken over as Estate Architect. A planning application to demolish the house and develop the site was turned down in 1973 and it is now the headquarters of the Victorian Society.
The Tabard Inn at the right of this row also dates from 1880 and is Grade II* listed, one of the public buildings in the area designed by Richard Norman Shaw. This building was was “a pioneering ‘improved’ pub and represented a rejection of the Gin Palace in favour of a more traditionally inspired and respectable inn” and retains much of its original interior features. The exterior of this group of properties was inspired by the well-known Staples Inn on High Holborn – which some may remember featured on tins of Old Holborn hand rolling tobacco.
To the left of the pub is the managers house, and closer to my camera at left are the Bedford Park Stores. Wikipedia has a long and interesting entry on this group of buildings. The stores later became a showroom for coachbuilder H. J. Mulliner & Co.
The buildings of Bedford Park which had become run-down and many in multi-occupation by the middle of last century were saved from ruin by an influential campaign by the Bedford Park Society and all of Carr’s buildings were listed in 1967. Ealing and Hounslow Councils created conservation areas covering the estate in 1970.
This is I think 15 Priory Avenue, one of 4 houses at the crossroads with Rupert Road, where I could have faced in any direction and photographed a listed house, or walked down either of the roads lined with them. I think this was the most distinctive corner, but it was a rather overwhelming ensemble.
Back on the Bath Road the Wendy Wisbey theatrical agency, address 2 Rupert Road, occupied what had previously been The Phildene Stage School. In 2010 it became part of Orchard House School, now part of Dukes Education.
This was another building designed by Richard Norman Shaw. Unfortunately because of the mass nature of the listing of buildings in this area the listing text is almost devoid of any information.
Another picture of this agency which was also a dance school which shows the fine window at the east of the Bath Road frontage.
Houses, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, 1989, 89-12b-51
Another picture from Bedford Park showing some rather less grand houses. I can no longer recall the exact location – perhaps someone wlll be able to recognise it.
St Michael & All Angels’ Parish Hall, Woodstock Rd, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, ,1989, 89-12b-44
The Parish Hall adjoins the church and is listed together with it. The church by Richard Norman Shaw was built in 1880 as a central element in the new Bedford Park Estate, but the parish hall was a later addition in 1887. The front of the church and the hall face The Avenue but there is a small grassed area in front and the street sign in the photograph is for Woodstock Rd.
The central pillar seems remarkably stout and the decorative ironwork includes two angels above each door.
I left the church and walked down past Turnham Green Station to Chiswick High Road to continue my walk. More later.
