IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
The Butts, BRENTFORD, TW8 8BQ

At the front-garden gate of a Victorian house in the Butts. Structures somewhat like this were not uncommon in Georgian days, but I don't remember ever having seen a Victorian example. The gate-posts themselves appear to be of similar date, though cast iron. I know that a lot of iron railings were sacrificed during World War 2 in the name of the war effort, so I wonder whether this is a rare surviving example of something which was once more common.

I probably wouldn't have noticed this front door if a light hadn't been on in the hallway. The handsome old front-door - with its stained glass and fan-light - must have survived for well over a century. But I have to say those masonry columns are grotesque - a reminder of just how coarse Victorian taste could sometimes be.

This is the entrance to the Butts Estate, Brentford's most upmarket street, from Boston Manor Lane.

The view is roughly north-east, towards the main road known as Half Acre. To me this seems a most unusual urban space - a residential side-street as wide as some squares in London's old inner boroughs. At its western end there are a number of Georgian houses. Much of the south side (on the right in this picture) is occupied by a convent - which incorporates a Georgian property. On the north side most of the development looks Victorian, perhaps 1870's. Behind the camera the Butts ends in a wider open space - again surrounded by houses, but too irregular and informal to be called a square. A passageway gives access to the Market Place.