Gillette Corner is a crossroads in west London. It is where a straightened medieval route Syon Lane (B454) crosses the triple carriageway of the Great West Road A4 and is the western end of the West Cross business district (which has an older, more ambiguous name, the Golden Mile). A disused name for the neighbourhood is Syon Hill.
It is very locally used as a placename (toponym)[lower-alpha 1] interchangeably with Syon Lane and formerly, for a time, Syon Hill.[1][lower-alpha 2] As with Osterley to the east and north these terms are the upper hinterland of the historic parish of Isleworth, centred to the south.[2] A projection of Brentford begins a short distance to the south-east. Osterley is increasingly seized upon (over a wider area), due to its associations with and origins in the elaborate, very verdant traditional home of the Earls of Jersey, Osterley Park.
Syon Lane
The lane in about 1880 lacking the Great West Road.[4]
Syon Lane was turnpiked in 1767 and straightened twelve years later.[1] A map seeking to show the early 19th century layout of Cranford, Heston and Isleworth moments before their large central and north-western open fields were, as documented, legally privatised (enclosed),[1] in the Victoria County History shows the various lanes and extent of settlement, which was focussed on the Roman London-westward road, kept up as a road locally today. The accompanying narrative states the lanes were all medieval linking the several hamlets.[1] Syon Lane ran past land featuring Wyke House then after a fork, stately Osterley Park on its east side to Southall, the parish to the north.[1] The fork to the north was for a winding lane west, via the depopulated hamlet of Scrattage (today residential Osterley) towards Heston. Syon Lane here had its own hamlet of a perhaps depleted estimate of eight buildings, Syon Hill, which lay just south of Gillette Corner.[1]
Land use and architecture
Gillette Corner marks the western end of the Great West Road's landmark manufacturing sites and office headquarters – dubbed the "Golden Mile" of the 1930s, with Art Deco and modernist design features. It was adapted for the dystopian Brave New World of that decade.[citation needed] Directly north east set behind the main road's characteristic sparse but long line of trees is the 'Gillette Building'. It is a grade II listedArt Deco style office with workshop floors and outbuildings, designed by Sir Banister Fletcher, incorporating a high brick tower surmounted by a four-faced neon-illuminated clock. As this tall structure sits on high ground it represents a prominent local landmark and can be seen from afar, day and night. From the early 1930s until the early 21st century it was the European headquarters of the Gillette Company, of Boston, Massachusetts. In 1958 the buildings employed over 1,000 people.[5] Beyond it is a Tescohypermarket, several buildings east is the headquarters of media company Sky.
On the Northwest corner of the junction, now a petrol station site, stood the Better 'Ole transport cafe from the 1920s to the 1950s. This was named after and contained a mural based on a World War 1 cartoon series by artist Bruce Bairnsfather. https://www.flickr.com/photos/finlandia_175/4863699681/in/photostream/lightbox/
The Bonnington Group was granted planning permission by the London Borough of Hounslow to develop the building into a hotel and small business park, which will add to the West Cross area, of which Gillette Corner forms the western end. Work has not yet started and the site was sold to a holding company, Gillette Corner Holdings, in 2013.[6]
Gallery
Image from the western approach, in 1958.
The renowned and illuminated clock tower set in the centre of the former Gillette building.
Hounslow is a large suburban district of West London, England, 10+3⁄4 miles west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 14 metropolitan centres in Greater London.
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, 8 miles (13 km) west of Charing Cross.
The London Borough of Hounslow is a London borough in west London, England, forming part of Outer London. It is governed by Hounslow London Borough Council.
Heston is a suburban area and part of the Hounslow district in the London Borough of Hounslow. The residential settlement covers a slightly smaller area than its predecessor farming village, 10.8 miles (17.4 km) west south-west of Charing Cross and adjoins the M4 motorway but has no junction with it; Heston also adjoins the Great West Road, a dual carriageway, mostly west of the "Golden Mile" headquarters section of it. Heston was, historically, in Middlesex.
Isleworth is a suburban town located within the London Borough of Hounslow in West London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane. Isleworth's original area of settlement, alongside the Thames, is known as 'Old Isleworth'. The north-west corner of the town, bordering on Osterley to the north and Lampton to the west, is known as 'Spring Grove'.
Osterley is an affluent district of the historic parish of Isleworth in west London approximately 8.7 miles (14.0 km) from Charing Cross and is part of the London Borough of Hounslow. Most of its land use is mixed agricultural and aesthetic parkland at Osterley House, charity-run, much of which is open to paying visitor access.
The Golden Mile is a stretch of the Great West Road north of Brentford running west from the western boundary of Chiswick in London, United Kingdom.
Syon Lane railway station in Travelcard Zone 4 is on the Hounslow Loop Line and borders the Spring Grove and New Brentford neighbourhoods of the London Borough of Hounslow in west London. The office and light industrial zone to the north-east, the West Cross Centre, has among other businesses the headquarters and studios of broadcaster and entertainment multinational company Sky. The station and all trains serving it are operated by South Western Railway.
Brentford and Isleworth is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It forms the eastern part of the London Borough of Hounslow. Since 2015, it has been represented by Ruth Cadbury of the Labour Party.
Norwood Green is a place in the London Borough of Ealing in London, England, that forms the southern part of Southall. It is a suburban development centred 10.7 miles (17.2 km) west of Charing Cross and 4 miles (6.4 km) ENE of Heathrow Airport.
Elthorne was a hundred of the historic county of Middlesex, England.
Ossulstone is an obsolete subdivision (hundred) covering 26.4% of – and the most metropolitan part – of the historic county of Middlesex, England. It surrounded but did not include the City of London and the area has been entirely absorbed by the growth of London. It now corresponds to the seven London Boroughs of Inner London north of the Thames and, from Outer London, in decreasing order, certain historic parishes of the London boroughs of Ealing, Brent, Barnet, and Haringey.
Heston and Isleworth was a local government district of Middlesex, England from 1875 to 1965.
The Duke of Northumberland's River or D. O. N. River consists of separate upper and lower artificial watercourses in west London, United Kingdom. The older name Isleworth Mill Stream/River more accurately describes the economic motivation behind its construction. The first section draws water via a sluice from the Colne — a source river which has seven distributaries, many of which are man-made — today an extended distance of about 5 miles (8 km) into the Crane; its lower section of about 1.8 miles (2.9 km) draws water from that small river in Whitton, Twickenham and discharges it via neighbouring Isleworth, passing Mill Plat into the tidal Thames. A sluice underneath Mill Plat feeds the main lake in Syon Park.
Heston and Isleworth was a constituency between 1945 and 1974 for the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It contained Heston, Hounslow, Isleworth and Osterley in Middlesex which became parts of outer west London in 1965.
Isleworth Hundred was a subdivision of the historic county of Middlesex, England. In Domesday Book (1086) it was recorded as Hundeslaw Hundred.
St Thomas the Apostle is a Church of England church, which is situated along Boston Road in Hanwell, in the London Borough of Ealing. Designed by Sir Edward Maufe, It forms part of the Diocese of London and can hold 428 people. English Heritage has listed it as a Grade II* building.
Syon Lane refers to:
Brentford End is a small area located in the borough of Hounslow, London to the west of Brentford and east of Isleworth. It is a little-used name for that section of Brentford situated to the west of the river Brent.
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