Brentford Dock lock gates and Justin Close - geograph

Brentford Dock in

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

, west

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, was a major trans-shipment point between the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

(GWR) and barges on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. The building of Brentford Dock was started in 1855 and it was formally opened in 1859. The former dock yard was redeveloped in 1972 and is now Brentford Dock Marina and Brentford Dock Estate.

History

The original dock was built on a large island between the

and two mouths of the

River Brent The River Brent is a river in west and northwest London, England, and a tributary of the River Thames. in length, it rises in the Borough of Barnet and flows in a generally south-west direction before joining the Tideway stretch of the Thame ...

. Part of the land was owned by timber merchant

James Montgomrey James Montgomrey (1 September 1811 – 4 June 1883) ran a large timber mill in Brentford, Middlesex, that was in the family for 120 years. He also led the development of considerable infrastructure in the town to enhance public amenity. Life and f ...

in the 19th century. Brentford Dock was built by Great Western and Brentford Railway Company (later part of the GWR), to the south of the mouth of the

and

Grand Junction Canal The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-p ...

, and opposite

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

. Montgomrey had sold part of his Montgomrey's Wharf premises to the company in 1855, including a corridor crossing the canal and river that enabled road access from the High Street (called Dock Road). The dock was constructed to a design by

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

. The entrance to the dock was via a lock from the River Thames. The company also built the

Brentford Branch Line The Brentford branch line, also known as the Brentford Dock Line, is a freight-only branch railway line in west London, England. The route, which opened in 1859, was backed by the Great Western Railway and built by the Great Western & Brentford ...

to it from the GWR main line at

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

, which was originally at 7 ft gauge and terminated at the dock. Construction began in 1855 and was completed in 1859. Brunel's original covered dock was destroyed by fire in 1920 and replaced by an iron and steel structure. The dock provided a trans-shipment point for goods between the railway network and barges operating on the Thames to the

Port of London The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary (since 1968, a line drawn from Foulness Point in Essex via Gunfleet Old Lighthouse to Warden Point in Kent) with the North Sea ...

After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the Thames frontage was adapted for boats of up to 300 tons. Craft using the dock included heavy river barges, canal boats and sailing barges, and the dock offered customs facilities. Traffic included

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

wood pulp Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

, animal feedstuffs,

cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, general merchandise and, in the 1950s, Morris cars from Oxford. Coke from

Southall Gas Works Southall Gas Works is a former gas works site of around in Southall, west London, which is currently being redeveloped for mixed-use including 3,750homes as part of Berkeley Group’s The Green Quarter. Location The site is located in Sout ...

was carried in daily

block trains A unit train, also called a block train or a trainload service, is a train in which all cars (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route. They are disti ...

from Southall to the dock.

Closure and redevelopment

The dock closed on 31 December 1964. It was redeveloped as housing and a marina in 1972 by the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

(GLC), to a design drawn up by architect

Sir Roger Walters Sir Roger Talbot Walters, CBE, FRIBA, FI Struct E, (1917-2010) was a British architect noted for his role in a number of major post-war projects in London from the Thames Barrier to the redevelopment of Covent Garden. He also worked on a numb ...

in 1968. Construction work for the Brentford Dock housing estate began in 1972 and the project was completed in 1978. The construction of Brentford Dock Marina started in 1978 and the official opening was on 7 August 1980. Sir

Horace Cutler Sir Horace Walter Cutler (28 July 1912 – 2 March 1997) was a British Conservative politician who served as leader of the Greater London Council from 1977 to 1981. He was noted for his showmanship and flair for publicity and was, in several way ...

, then head of the GLC, sailed up river from County Hall on the boat ''Princess Freda''.

References

External links and mapping

Brentford Dock
{{authority control Brentford, London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hounslow Geography of the London Borough of Hounslow London docks Port of London River Thames