Brentford Town is a 'Thames through town' rather than a radial town, the best examples of which are now Uxbridge or Kingston. It really follows the London road of which Brentford High Street is really part and is cut in two by the A4 albeit not as badly as Chiswick.It was (or is) the County town although it never received it's charter but recognition of this is validated by the fact that it did not receive a London Postal district code (which preceded the national postcode system. Hence Hanwell W7 which is further away from the designated centre of London than Brentford. This was because the town was deemed the county town of Middlesex and at the time the principal county court was located here, even though the Middlesex Guildhall is in Westminster which was the county town until it became a city.The other factors were it's industrial and strategic location. The river and the railhead and canal junction. Brentford's key industries included a gas works, water pumping station, docks, breweries, followed by a raft of other industries from boatbuilders to tyres to pharmaceuticals. But, it has always lacked a true centre to gravitate to. It's why it had pubs littered everywhere with clear divisions between Gas, Water, docks and railway folk.But it does have pocket communities and some of it intact. Sadly, the value of these is being eroded by political and social meddling and new arrivals who are attracted by this strong sense of community but don't want to put in to it.The current centre is more or less between the canal bridge to the west before the hamlet of Syon and the Ealing Road so the epicentre is near the Half Acre but given it is little more than a busy through road and has little space it's not ideal.A shame the plans for the riverside of the High Street to not open up the space to have a green and a space that fits the old town in scale rather than the array of vast tenement boxes with 0.4 of a car parking space per dwelling.Another chance missed?
Anthony Waller ● 5108d