Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Brentford
Named after the River Brent, which empties into the Thames, just west of Chiswick,
Brentford
was the first point at which you could ford the tidal river in ancient times,
and (very possibly) the place where Julius Caesar crossed in 54 BC. Nowadays, it's
worth visiting, not for its humdrum high street, but for its various scattered historic
landmarks, from the conspicuous campanile of
Kew Bridge Steam Museum
to the
discreet charm of the aristocratic estate of
Syon
.
22
Gunnersbury Park
Daily: park 8am-dusk; museum April-Oct 11am-5pm; Nov-March closes 4pm • Free •
T
020 8992 1612,
W
hounslow.info •
!
Acton Town
Like Chiswick Park,
Gunnersbury Park
used to have a Palladian villa at its centre, in
this case designed by Inigo Jones' son-in-law, John Webb, for George II's favourite
daughter, Princess Amelia. Amelia used the place as a summer retreat and also erected
the Neoclassical temple that overlooks the boating lake to this day. At one time, the
temple was used as a private synagogue by the Rothschilds, the last owners of the
estate, who sold it to the local council in the 1920s. The park has plenty of history -
but it could do with some love and attention, too. Nevertheless, it's still worth popping
into the
Gunnersbury Park Museum
, housed in the Rothschilds former double mansion.
The highlights of the museum are a fully restored set of Victorian kitchens, and a
permanent collection of historical vehicles, including a tandem tricycle and the
Rothschilds' own Victorian “chariot”.
Kensington Cemetery
143 Gunnersbury Ave • Daily 9am-dusk • Free •
T
020 8992 2924,
W
rbkc.gov.uk •
!
Gunnersbury
When the local council bought neighbouring Gunnersbury Park in the 1920s, they put
aside the southeast corner for a new cemetery, known as Gunnersbury or
Kensington
Cemetery
. The nearby borough of Ealing has a large Polish community, and the
cemetery contains a black marble obelisk erected in 1976 to the 14,500
Polish POWs
who went missing in 1940, when the Nazi-Soviet Pact carved up Poland. A mass grave
containing 4500 bodies was later discovered by the advancing Nazis at Katyn, near
Smolensk, but responsibility for the massacre was denied by the Russians until fifty
years later, as a plaque bitterly records. Fifty yards to the south is the grave of
General
Komorowski
, leader of the Polish Home Army during the ill-fated 1944 Warsaw
Uprising, who lived in exile in Britain until his death in 1966. Also buried here is the
film director
Carol Reed
, best known for
The Third Man
. There's no direct access to the
graveyard from the park, only from Gunnersbury Avenue.
Kew Bridge Steam Museum
Green Dragon Lane • Tues-Sun 11am-4pm • £10 •
T
020 8568 4757,
W
kbsm.org • Bus #237 or #267 from
!
Gunnersbury or Kew Bridge
train station from Waterloo
Di
cult to miss thanks to its stylish, tapered, Italianate standpipe tower,
Kew Bridge
Steam Museum
occupies an old pumping station, 100yd west of Kew Bridge. At the
heart of the museum is the
Steam Hall
, which contains a green triple-expansion steam
engine, similar to the one used by the
Titanic
, and four gigantic nineteenth-century
Cornish beam engines, while two adjoining rooms house the pumping station's original
beam engines, including the world's largest.
The steam engines may be things of great beauty, but they are primarily of interest to
enthusiasts. Not so the museum's wonderfully imaginative and educational
Water for
Life
gallery, situated in the basement and overlooked by a vast bank of ancient boilers,
baths, sinks, taps and kettles. The exhibition tells the history of the capital's water
supply: the section on rats and cockroaches goes down particularly well with kids,
while the tales of the Victorian “toshers”, who had to work the sewers in gangs of three
to protect themselves from rat attacks, will make adults' stomachs turn. The best time
