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Brentford, Chiswick & Hammersmith – 2018

Friday, December 27th, 2024

Brentford, Chiswick & Hammersmith: On Thursday 27th December 2018 we still had a lot of Christmas excess to walk off despite having made our normal Boxing Day walk the day before. But we had followed that with a second Christmas dinner.

Brentford, Chiswick & Hammersmith - 2018 — *‘Rule Britannia’ on a boat moored below Thames Lock at Brentford*

This is still one of my favourite walks in West London and includes various stretches I’ve often walked over the years in one direction or the other, usually during the times of year when days are short and we don’t want to spend much time in travelling. And during the time between Boxing Day and New Year, rail travel is often something of a lottery with much of the network being shut down for engineering work.

Brentford locks were gauging locks so that tolls could be charged based on the weight of goods in barges. The flats here on a site between the River Brent and the canal have replaced large dockside sheds.

Even our short journey to Brentford was affected in 2018 and the usual direct train service to Brentford – our slow route to Waterloo – was not running. But we could take a train to Twickenham and go the rest of the way on the top deck of a bus, always one of the most interesting ways to travel in London. And the bus did take us more conveniently close to where I wanted to start this walk, at the bridge which takes Brentford High Street over the Grand Union Canal.

Brentford used to be a rather dirty downmarket industrial and commercial centre, with sheds and warehouses, factories, docks on the canal and where this enters the Thames, a thriving market, a large gas works and more. It has changed dramatically in the last 40 or so years with much of its river and canal sides now filled with luxury flats. Parts of the old Brentford remain but more and more is disappearing, including some things in these pictures I made in 2018. I’ve been there a few times since and it remains an interesting walk.

More on My London Diary at Brentford to Hammersmith. Here I’ll simply post a few images with captions from some of the key places along our route apart from the picture at the top of the post they follow roughly in the order I took them, though we did quite a bit of wandering around in Brentford.

*The River Brent from the footbridge over the weir.*

*Below Thames Lock the river comes back into the channel leading from the lock to the Thames.*

*A working boatyard at Dock Road on the River Brent*

*John’s Boat Works, Lot’s Ait with the bridge to it built in 2012*

*Hounslow Council and boat owners fought a long battle over the moorings at the gasworks site, but these boats were simply abandoned after the council’s victory.*

*Strand on the Green at low tide. It was warm enough to sit in the sun and eat our sandwiches*

*We walked through the gardens and out from the main gate to Chiswick House*

*The footpath to St Nicholas’s Church in Chiswick*

In Hammersmith we took the District line to Richmond and then a train back home to tackle some of the leftovers from our Christmas lunch.

More on My London Diary at Brentford to Hammersmith.

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Tags:2018, booatyard, Brentford, Chiswick, Chiswick House, gas works, Grand Union Canal, Hammersmith, Hammersmith Bridge, Hounslow Council, John's Boat Works, London, London Photos, Lot's Ait, low tide, moorings, peter Marshall, River Brent, River Thames, St Nicholas's Church, Strand-on-the-Green, Thames Lock, Walk, weir
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Brentford, Lot’s Ait and the Thames, 1988

Tuesday, April 19th, 2022

*Battles of Brentford, Monument, pillar, Ferry Lane, Brentford, 1988 88-9a-56*

I had to go back to my full-time work as a teacher at the start of September 1988, and the start of a new year always kept me fairly busy. Back then we had large groups of beginners taking photography courses – it was one of the most popular course in the college, partly because many thought it would be an easy option to make up the number of subjects they were required to take.

*Red Lion, pub, Brentford High St, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-32*

We spent a week or two instructing them in the basics – shutter speeds and apertures, and then took them out en masse each with a camera an a 36 exposure film to some local area for a day out to take some pictures so they would then have a film to learn how to develop and print. They would also get a very loose brief suggesting the kind of things they might look for in making pictures.

*Dock, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-41*

In 1988 we chose to take them to Brenford riverside and then on to Chiswick Park and I think we had around 30 students with myself and another member of staff. Things were a lot easier then – no such things as risk assessments and having students who were all over 16 we simply told them a few very basic safety rule and that if they missed the train back home they would have to find their own way.

Boatyard, Lot's Ait, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-21 — ***Boatyard, Lot’s Ait, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-21***

It wasn’t unknown back then for myself and the other member of staff having set the students into action to find a convenient place for a pint or two, though I don’t think we did on this outing.

Boatyard, Lot's Ait, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-24 — *Boatyard, Lot’s Ait, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-24*

I think on this occasion I walked along the riverside with the students, taking a few pictures myself and giving advice to anyone who needed it. It was low tide, and even if they took few photographs many of the students enjoyed walking in the mud, though I tried to keep my own shoes reasonably clean and dry, keeping to the shingle.

Decaying Boat, Lot's Ait, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-13 — *The Good Ship Variety, Decaying Boat, Lot’s Ait, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-13*

The stretch of riverfront we took them down to, by Lot’s Ait, was then lined with largely derelict industrial buildings, but is now lined with luxury flats. On Lot’s Ait itself there was a boatyard, opened in the 1920s by The Thames Lighterage company to build and repair lighters; it was one of the last on the tidal Thames when it closed down in the early seventies. Fortunately it has so far escaped redevelopment and was reopened a few years ago as John’s Boat Works, with the island now linked to Brentford by a footbridge.

Lot's Ait, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-12 — *Brentford Ait, Lot’s Ait, River Thames, Brentford, Hounslow, 1988 88-9a-12*

We came off the river to go along the High St to Kew Bridge station, where we took another train for the second half of our day out in Chiswick Park which you will see in a later post.

Tags:1988, Batttle of Brentford, boatyard, Brentford, Brentford Ait, decaying boat, dock, Ferry Lane, Hounslow, John's Boat Works, Lot's Ait, monument, music venue, Red Lion, River Thames, the good ship variety
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Posts Tagged ‘Lot's Ait’

Brentford, Chiswick & Hammersmith – 2018

Brentford, Lot’s Ait and the Thames, 1988

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