Edit No.34
West London, Worth Stopping For
The Hawthorn · The Brentford Project · Hanwell's Six Locks and Three Bridges · Other Fold Sauna Co. · Everyman Brentford
West London, Worth Stopping For begins on Uxbridge Road, where The Hawthorn has entered an established pub market and quickly become one of its busiest addresses. The building has been carefully refurbished, the kitchen has attracted national attention and the most compelling thing about it is how naturally it functions as a local.
Further west, The Brentford Project has reconnected a town centre with its waterfront through new streets, restaurants, public spaces and apartment buildings. Behind the residential entrances, The Wick adds a private club with a 25-metre outdoor pool, gym and spa facilities.
At Hanwell, six Georgian locks and Brunel's Three Bridges preserve an earlier chapter in the same landscape: the canal and railway infrastructure that connected London to the Midlands and the docks at Brentford.
At Boston Manor, Other Fold Sauna Co. brings a wood-fired communal sauna to the grounds of a restored Jacobean house, turning heat, cold water and the park lake into a neighbourhood ritual.
At The Brentford Project, Everyman has opened the town's only cinema. Its three small screening rooms, bar and lounge make the case for going out to see a film by treating hospitality as part of the experience.
Together, the five places ask what successful change looks like in West London: restoring a Victorian pub without turning it into a museum, rebuilding a substantial piece of a town without erasing its industrial landscape, conserving the engineering that made that landscape possible, giving an old public park a new social use, and making cinema-going feel like an occasion again.
In this edit
Experience
Everyman Brentford — When the Cinema Experience Is as Good as the Film
The best Everyman I have visited is in Brentford, where exceptional staff and a carefully considered setting make the experience of going to the cinema considerably better.
Wellness
Other Fold Sauna Co. — A New Kind of Neighbourhood Meeting Place
A wood-fired sauna in the grounds of a Jacobean manor house is bringing communal bathing to West London, with a welcome absence of the ceremony associated with conventional spas.
Place
Hanwell's Six Locks and Three Bridges — Where London's Industrial Past Survives
A short stretch of the Grand Union Canal in Hanwell contains two centuries of engineering history, from Georgian water-saving ingenuity to one of Brunel's final works.
Living
The Brentford Project — Can a Developer Rebuild a Town Centre?
Brentford has changed considerably in a remarkably short time, and the question is who the change is for.
Place
The Hawthorn — A Neighbourhood Pub That Needs No Reinvention
There is a particular pleasure in finding a pub so busy that you cannot get inside it. At The Hawthorn, on Uxbridge Road, we ended up standing outside with our drinks, the bar full and the pavement serving as an extension of it.
Questions
- What is in Edit No.34?
- The Hawthorn, a refurbished Victorian neighbourhood pub on Uxbridge Road; The Brentford Project, a major mixed-use regeneration reconnecting central Brentford with its waterfront; Hanwell's historic lock flight and Brunel's Three Bridges; Other Fold Sauna Co., a wood-fired communal sauna in Boston Manor Park; and Everyman Brentford, a three-screen boutique cinema.
- What is The Brentford Project?
- A mixed-use regeneration by Ballymore in central Brentford, combining new homes, restaurants, retail, a cinema, public waterfront spaces and private residential amenities.
- Where is The Hawthorn?
- 434 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, London W12 0NS, on the corner of Thorpebank Road and a few minutes from Loftus Road.
- Where are the Hanwell locks?
- On the Grand Union Canal near Green Lane, Hanwell, W7 2PJ, roughly fifteen minutes' walk from Hanwell railway station.
- Where is Other Fold Sauna Co.?
- In the grounds of Boston Manor House, Boston Manor Road, Brentford, TW8 9JX, beside the café and overlooking the lake.
- Where is Everyman Brentford?
- At 5 Bradbury Yard, Brentford, TW8 8GJ, within The Brentford Project.