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Postcard of Great West Road, Brentford, early 1930s?

Roger Williams provided this postcard showing the Great West Road: the first by-pass for Brentford High Street. The original image was sepia, it has been adjusted to improve contrast.

My husband Richard suggests the image dates from the early 1930s: the road has some patching but the cars/lorry are all from the 1920s.

The Pyrene factory (built in 1929/30, fire extinguisher manufacturers) is on the right, above the motorcyclist who may have broken down.

In November 2018 Peter Stuart came across the same image on a well-known auction site, this one has the message:
This was where a mine was dropped in the middle of the road affecting the factories on either side especially the one marked.
We felt the Bump at 1 Witham Rd. Isleworth.
The image includes biro crosses in the centre of the carriageway beside the parked-up motorcyclist (but I could not make out any factories with crosses). Peter adds it would be a parachute bomb and notes Witham Road is around two and a half miles away...

Links

The site now has a wealth of material about the Great West Road, from photos taken at its opening onwards - search for Great West Road - and try searching on the home page to find images.

The Great West Road was the focus of the 2013 Brentford Local History Day and one of the speakers, James Marshall, has written a book about the GWR: The History of the Great West Road: its social and economic influence on the surrounding area published by Hounslow Library Services in 1995.

Published July 2010; last updated April 2022