Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Piccadilly Line crosses and the next bridge is Gallows Bridge, a fine cast-iron bridge
of 1820, probably the first canal bridge by Horseley Ironworks. The inscription of 'Grand
Junction Canal Co. 1820' was altered to 'Grand Union Canal Co. 1820' although the Grand
Union Canal was not formed until 1929.
Beyond the M4, which is climbing up on to Chiswick Flyover, is Boston Manor House, a
fine Tudor building of 1623 with 1670 Jacobean extensions, good plasterwork and one of the
best English Renaissance ceilings.
The A4 Great West Road is next to cross, quickly followed by the Barnes Bridge to Houn-
slow railway. After these there is a Canal & River Trust depot with warehouse roof over the
towpath and the canal, the last remaining overhanging warehouse roof of its kind. The rest of
this reach has been dramatically rebuilt with a dazzling array of new apartments. At the far
end of the reach with its Grade II toll house, one of London's smallest museums, is Brentford
Gauging Lock, which is actually two locks side by side, beyond which the water is semi-tid-
al.
Below the lock is Brentford High Street bridge, carrying the A315, first built as the Roman
road from London to Silchester. In the time of Edward I the bridge was kept in good repair
by a toll levied on every Jew passing over. An Act of George IV set a penalty of penal ser-
vitude for life for wilfully damaging the bridge. Grounds Coffee & Wine Bar is one of the
few conspicuous buildings that does not seem to be brand new, surprising as Brentford was
the county town of Middlesex. JMW Turner was a local resident, as was Betty Higden in
Our
Mutual Friend
. Lionel Wallace saw the door in HG Wells'
The Door in the Wall
when called
to a House of Commons division while dining at Brentford.
The grounds of Syon House have seen plenty of activity over the centuries. In 1016 Ed-
mund Ironsides defeated the Danes here. In the 1642 Battle of Brentford, Prince Rupert beat
the Parliamentarians and the Civil War might have ended there but the Royalists blew up an
ammunition barge and the noise was mistaken for gunfire. Syon House itself began as a mon-
astery for the order of St Bridget and had the dubious honour of being one of the first reli-
gious houses to be suppressed by Henry VIII. Perhaps it was just coincidence that dogs got
into his coffin and savaged his corpse while it rested here overnight on the way to Windsor
for burial in 1547, after it had been predicted that dogs would lick his blood for damaging the
abbey. Katherine Howard was imprisoned here until she was executed, Lady Jane Grey was
said to have been here when she was offered the crown, Charles I as a prisoner visited his
children here and it was loaned to Pocahontas in 1616.
