West London oddities

Across the past few months, I've visited several places in west London, mainly Brentford. Is Brentford the prettiest place in London, probably not, but there are still some interesting things to see there. In this post, I'll discuss several locations which could have been blogposts if they weren't so boring on their own. You'll also see me stretch the definition of west London a bit.

The aits

For the past few months, I've been meaning to blog about a small section of the Thames Path between Kew Bridge and Brentford. Initially I failed due to writer's block, but then it was a matter of realising the post itself wouldn't be interesting. So a basic summary:

• Kew Bridge is wonderful, I mean why wouldn't it be? This part of the Thames looks gorgeous in both the summer and winter. There's been a bridge here since 1759, with the current one being the third to stand here - it opened in 1903. Various boats are docked along the river bank, and it must be nice to go boating here.

• As you walk along the Thames, though, it gets grimier. Eventually you end up walking beside an old estate, smashed up windows and all, and it looked exactly the same in the winter as it did a few months prior. The only thing that's changed is a doodle of a THC molecule was covered up, I mean come on. 

• You also have some nice in-river islands, or aits. They're inaccessible, and more mud deposit than anything else, but they're still cool to see amidst the dredgery. There are two notable ones - Lot's Ait, which does actually have buildings on it, and Brentford Ait, which doesn't. I'm pretty sure the one in this photo is the latter.

• The Thames Path isn't exactly straightforward here, at times you have to go to the main road and then cut back. But the actual path this side of the river isn't the best, either, especially once you reach the start of the Grand Union Canal. It's easy to get lost from here, not least if you find yourself by the nearby River Brent. So I stopped here both times, and to be honest I don't feel guilty about it.   

As far as I got

Brentford stadiums

Yes, a month ago I blogged about Brentford's stadium. But they've played in several stadiums before, most notably Griffin Park, where they played for over a century until they moved out in 2020. 

I visited Griffin Park, well what's left of it, which is nothing. It's funny because it still exists on Google Maps, which says the site is "permanently closed". You can even see old satellite imagery of the ground to this day, which reveals it to be a standard old-school stadium. Now, though, it's a building site, probably waiting to be filled with high-rise flats, so all I have is this pathetic photo of a gate hiding the construction works.

What used to be Griffin Park

The stadium was probably most well known for having one pub on each corner, and three of them still exist to this day, which is kind of impressive considering the club has moved quite a bit away from there. This, for instance, is the Griffin, which is still proudly Brentford-supporting to this day. The Princess Royal, on the other hand, is the only one which hasn't survived, and is now an Armenian Orthodox Church, yet still dressed up in red and white.

   

However...I've also been to where Brentford FC started, and lo and behold, it was at a pub. It's now a modern flat, a stone's throw away from the Thames at Kew Bridge, but back in 1889, this was the site of the Oxford and Cambridge Hotel. You might note the Boat Race between the two unis passes through Kew. Either way, in 1889, members of the Brentford Rowing Club met here and decided football was a good idea, and that was that.

North Korean embassy

One of the more random things you'll find in Gunnersbury is the North Korean embassy to London. It's in a rather standard-looking house, and it's probably easier to pick out when the flagpole in the patio has the North Korean flag flying. Sadly, when I visited, it wasn't there, and I only confirmed I was in the right place by peering closely at the front door. Indeed, a small plaque saying this was the North Korean embassy was there. So that's cool.

The North Korean embassy, no really

I will admit I'm not North Korean, so I had nothing else to do, aside from walk away. I will add that, this being a bog standard house in a dull suburb, the embassy has a back garden, with a basketball hoop. I wonder if the diplomats sometimes do slam dunks after lunch.

You might now wonder why anyone should care. Firstly, most embassies can easily be found in central London, around Kensington and Belgravia. I could write an entire blogpost about all the embassies I see when walking to uni. There are exceptions - the US embassy is in Battersea - but Gunnersbury is as far out as you can get. Eritrea's apparently can be found in Angel, and that's considered odd; that should put how odd this is into context.

The Piccadilly line is kinda cool

I've been to Gloucester Road station way too often over the past few months. If you're catching the Circle and District lines, you're greeted to a pretty art display on the other side of one of the platforms. It's quite cool, it's like getting to see a nice art exhibition for a small fee.

The current art in Gloucester Road

The Piccadilly, on the other hand, is hidden another staircase away below ground, and is what you'd expect from a tube station - almost no light, old-looking tiles, impatience from your train not arriving on time. And this makes sense - it came after the other two lines were built, and built in a different way to the old cut-and-cover construction. But it does make switching between the Piccadilly and the District a bit of a pain.

Okay so this isn't Gloucester Road but it looks the exact same

I only bring this up because I've been taking the Piccadilly more often than usual, and for some reason, I kinda...like it? I know, horrifying. But the part out west, once you've passed Earl's Court and get a semi-express train experience out to Acton Town, is weirdly satisfying. You can get off a District line train, wait a few minutes for a Piccadilly, then watch yourself zoom past the District because yours doesn't stop at lowly Ravenscourt Park. As a south Londoner, I don't often get to experience the tube being even vaguely exciting, so let me be.

Acton Town station

Whilst I will admit Acton Town isn't anything special - I mean, come on, were you expecting it to be? - and I only came there just to get to Gunnersbury Park, it was still nice to visit a part of London I'd never been in before. That doesn't mean I'm going up to Uxbridge anytime soon, of course. But I'll take some novelty whenever I can.

(No I don't care about the trains, have you seen the Central line?)