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From 364 to 369 High Street, Old Brentford

A short stretch on the Northern side of the High Street running between North Road and the Marquis of Granby at no. 369, including St George's church next door to the Marquis of Granby. This stretch overlooked the gas works.

Behind numbers 364 - 369 lay gardens with a fountain in 1865, with three gasometers just to the east. St George's Church was rebuilt in 1887 after the surrounding land was sold to the Brentford Gas Company (D24). The 1894 OS map shows the new church building and two of the gasometers rebuilt, one just behind the church.

The Kew Bridge Travelodge now occupies the site between North Road and St George's Church and during 2016 and 2017 the latter and Mrs Trimmer's School were being redeveloped.

Properties

Notes prepared for numbers 364-365, The Queens Arms (366), Gas Office (367), Brentford Lodge (probably 368), Mrs Trimmer's Sunday School, St George's Church and Marquis of Granby PH (369); also a list of photos, ephemera and maps

Numbers 364-5

Number 364 lay on the corner of North Road and in 1861 housed a pawnbrokers business run by John Burford. He was 73 and living him was his son, also named John, who is recorded as 'insane' and presumably could not take over the business. His grandson Thomas, aged 18, completed the immediate family.

Two members of the Burford family died within months of each other in 1868. First Thomas Burford, age 52 on the 4th August. He left a will appointing his son Thomas, also a pawnbroker and Henry Sharp, licensed victualler, as his executors. Both were of Old Brentford and the effects were valued at under £100.

His death was followed by that of John Burford senior on 13 October 1868 at the age of 79. He appointed his grandson Thomas Burford and John McNae, draper, as executors of his will. Probate was granted on the 26th October 1868 and a notice was placed by Woodbridge and Sons, Solicitors, in the London Gazette of 6 November 1868 advising any creditors of Burford to put in claims on his estate. The estate was valued at under £4,000.

In 1871 Thomas Cullum ran a pawnbrokers business near this location - apparently on the western corner of North Road whereas numbers 364 is on the eastern side. Lodging with him was John Burford junior. The grandson Thomas Burford had moved to Warwickshire, where he is recorded as a 'retired pawnbroker' aged 29. However by 1881 he had returned to Brentford and was running a pawnbrokers business at numbers 364 and 365. Relatives living with him had surnames Snow, Reason, Cullum and Nash. By 1891 Thomas had moved to 377 High Road Chiswick, where he was 'living on his own means' with his wife and son; living with him were two 'landscape artists' ('sculptor' has been added later') and relatives with surnames Nash and Reason.

In 1891 and 1901 just number 364 survived, occupied in both censuses by Thomas Haile(s), foreman at the gas works, and his sizeable family.

In the 1911 census Samuel Perry, general foreman for the Gas Works, 54 lived in this eight-roomed house with his wife Annie Maria and son Samuel T P Perry, 25, a draughtsman at the Gas Works. Samuel Perry is recorded at this address in a 1913 trade directory, later directories to 1940 list Gas Light & Coke Co. in this area.

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The Queens Arms (366)

I cannot find a reference to this before 1871. In the 1871 census John Bowler is recorded as publican at the Queens Arms. In 1881 Mrs Isabel Gelleff, beerhouse keeper and a widow, lived here. There is no record of a beerhouse here in 1891 or later.

The Gas Office (367)

This is marked on the 1865 OS map but there is no census record until 1871, when Job Batchelor, 'Carman in Charge of Gas Office' lived here with his wife - he was 68. In 1881 'Gas Offices' were noted at this address; they were uninhabited.

The 1911 census shows the Gas Offices occupying the area between no. 364 and the school next to the church.

Brentford Lodge (number 368?)

Frank Morris is recorded in the 1874 Post Office Directory 'engineer, Brentford Gas Co.', and was at no. 368 in 1881, 'civil engineer' with his wife Mary E and four children ages one to six. Frank was born in Kent, his wife in Cheshire and their children in Middlesex.

Frank Morris remained here in 1891, age 50 and born Deptford Kent; no house number was recorded but his home 'Brentford Lodge' was recorded between the Marquis of Granby at 369 and St George's church. This may be the building set well back from the High Street in a gardened area (1865) near the gasometers. Five children were at home, ages four to fourteen and the family had two live-in servants, Louise or Louisa Gilbert, born Hayle in Cornwall, and Elizabeth Rain?, 30, born Bethnal Green, 'Essex'.

By 1901 Frank senior had moved to Lyme Regis in Dorset, where he was still working as a civil engineer; with him were his wife and daughter Hilda G, 26. Back in Brentford, Frank Morris junior, 23, was a gas engineer living next to the Marquis of Granby, possibly in his father's home although he was a boarder. James Stout, 26, Lighterage Clerk, was also a boarder, born Gloucester, and they had a housekeeper, Elizabeth Terry, a widow age 41, born Pangbourne, Berkshire. Their address was 'Brentford Gas Co.' and above the enumerator had squeezed in 'Private Hs' (or similar).

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Mrs Trimmer's Sunday School / the Green School (1891, 1871) / Girls School (1881) / St George's Church Hall / Mrs Trimmer's Hall

These references from local histories and the census I believe all relate to the same building, still standing on the western side of the church. Mrs Trimmer started a Sunday School in Brentford in 1786 and was instrumental in the building of the Church School in 1806. Read accounts of Mrs Trimmer's work from the 1780s. The building was listed in 1973 (J).

In 1861 Miss Elizabeth Hannah, aged 34, born Tuxford Nottinghamshire was recorded in the census as a governess and presumably lived in the school building. She remained here in 1871 and I have not been able to find her in the 1881 census. However Stephen Lyne wrote to say 'After working in Brentford she moved up to Leeds living with her family in the 1881 and 1891 census. Her sister Mary Hannah married a J H Lyne in Leeds, 1853. National school teachers moved to Brentford in 1855 first to Half Acre then on to the Ham until their deaths. The whole family was teaching at the school. Their daughter Annie Lyne married Henry T Howard 298-300 High Street. There was still a son teaching there in 1899.'

Mike Horobin, who lived in the Kew Bridge area, remembered he used to walk from St George's School down to the St George's Church Hall, High Street, for school dinners each day in the 1950s. The Hall had a stage at the back and was also used by the 3rd Brentford Cubs.

The school and church were redeveloped during 2016 and 2017.

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St. George's Church

A chapel was founded here in 1762 (Q50) and built in 1766 (Q51) by the Trimmer family and other subscribers, consecrated as a church in 1828 (A28). (Prior to 1828 Old Brentford was a chapelry of Ealing parish).

The church was rebuilt on the same site in 1886-7 and a tower added in 1913 (Q51). It was used as a parish church until 1959 and from 1963 housed the British Musical Museum (C60).

The adjoining school and church were redeveloped during 2016 and 2017.

Marquis of Granby (369)

The Marquis of Granby was next door to St George's church. There is a lease dated 1809 and title deeds for the 'Marquis of Granby and cottages adjoining' recorded in a sale in 1822 at LMA (I). It was part of the Chiswick Brewery's estate.

Richard Smith was the publican here in 1839 (Pigots Directory), in 1841 (when he headed a household of 13 including 4 boarders or lodgers) and 1851. In 1861 Mrs Sarah Smith, aged 39, headed the household. In 1871 and 1881 Thomas Silver was running the pub.

Vicki Patching wrote my great, great, great grandad Thomas Silver, ran the Marquis of Granby at 369 High Street, Brentford till his death in 1880 when his son Thomas took over the reins.

Samuel Ferris had taken over by 1890 and remained here in 1901, when he was 73.

The building was closed in 1903, demolished later and the site taken over by the Gas Light & Coke Company (C61 & B87). A Samuel V. Ferris ran the Half Moon & Seven Stars in 1901.

A 1907 trade directory shows Arscott Murrin at this address. The 1911 census gives his occupation as 'horse keeper' and his birthplace: Iddesleigh, Devon; he was 47 and he and his wife and had 5 children, aged 6 to 19, at home. James Allen, a carman for the vegetable market, boarded with the family. Arscott initially recorded no. 369 as having 10 rooms, but this was later amended to 5.

In the 1909/10 Valuation (dated March 1915) no. 369 was described as 'Very old and dilapidated brick built house of 3 storeys, double-fronted, tiled roof' and 'could not inspect premises derelict'. The High Street frontage was 29' 6" and the building had been sold, freehold, in October 1904 for £644 14s 2d, owners were Messrs Joseph Dorey & Co Ltd, Brentford. There is no reference to no. 369 in a 1913 trade directory and later the Gas Light & Coke Co. built their showrooms in this area.

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Photos/Ephemera/Maps

Links are included below to some photos, ephemera or maps accessible on this site. There may be additional photos on the site - suggest you check the Properties - photos link (to the left).

References such as '1899 (X11)' indicate the date of a photo (1899) and where it is published (X11). Details of 'X' are available: see Mainly paper sources page; '11' refers to the page no, or photo no. in the publication.

Photos

364 1900 (B64); c1905 and (K123)

365 1900 (B64); c1905 and (K123)

366 1900 (B64); c1905 and (K123)

367 c1905 and (K123)

368 c1905 and (K123)

Mrs Trimmer's Sunday School 1900+ (C62); c1905 and (K123); 2000? (Q101); 2000 (J); 2002 (L); redevelopment during 2016 and 2017

St George's Church c 1880 (D24); pre 1887 (A28); interior c 1900 (C60); c1905 and (K123); 2002 (L); redevelopment, 2016

369 Early 1900s (B87); Pre 1903 (C61)

Gasometers: 1960s film: 'Where and what is paradise'; late 1960s, 1972

Maps

1839/41 Tithe Map modern numbers 364 - 369 have tithe property refs 221 - 208

1894 Ordnance Survey Map annotated with house numbers

Three maps of the area dated 1839, 1865, 1894 show changes over a 50 year period.

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Roads Off

Chapel Alley ran along the western edge of Mrs Trimmer's School

Published 2006; last updated August 2024