Golden Mile (Brentford)

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The Golden Mile is the name given to a stretch of the Great West Road north of Brentford running west from the western boundary of Chiswick in London, United Kingdom.

It was so called due to the concentration of industry along this short stretch of road. This section of the Great West Road was opened in 1925 to bypass the notoriously congested Brentford High Street and several factories of architectural merit were rapidly built along the road to take advantage of both the good communications it provided, and the easy availability of land for new buildings. Many examples of the Art Deco architecture remain.

These factories included:

Smith's Potato Crisps Ltd opened in 1927 (Brand now owned by Pepsico, acquired in 1989). Factory rebuilt and expanded in 1930 with colonnaded frontage.

The Firestone Tyre Company. Built 1928, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners. It was the first overseas factory built by the Firestone company of America. The building frontage was demolished during a public holiday in August 1980 shortly before a preservation order was due to be served on it to retain the Art Deco architecture. The Art Deco gatehouse was demolished in 2004 to make way for increased parking facilities. The remaining gates, railings, and piers are in a Jazz Modern style and are Grade II listed.

The Trico Products Windscreen Wiper factory, No. 980, opened in 1928.

(Business relocated to Pontypool, south Wales in 1992, building demolished, and the site together with the adjacent site to its east of the Maclean's factory (then owned by Rank Audi-Visual) was to be used for the UK headquarters of Samsung. The Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s prevented this, and the site now houses the headquarters building of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).)

Leonard Williams Ltd. No. 971, (Packard Cars Concessionaire) in 1929

Jantzen Knitting Mills factory opened in 1931

Sperry Gyroscope Company Limited factory opened in 1931

Coty Cosmetics factory, No. 941, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners opened in 1932

The Maclean's factory opened in 1932 (Brand now owned by GlaxoSmithKline, acquired in 1938). Macleans was founded in 1919 by Alex C Maclean to produce 'own-brand' products for chemists.

The Gillette factory, designed by Sir Banister Flight Fletcher in 1936-1937. Gillette plan to stop using this factory in late 2005, moving production to Poland. It is proposed to convert the building into a hotel.

The Pyrene fire extinguisher company, No. 981, built between 1929 and 1930, designed by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners.

Wallis House, built between 1936 and 1942 originally for Simmonds Aerocessories, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners. Named after the architect, Thomas Wallis. Latterly used by Beecham's Pharmaceuticals, currently 2005 empty awaiting redevelopment as residential flats.

The Currys factory and head office, No. 991, built in 1936, now Grade II listed, front office building now restored by Foster & Partners between 1997 and 2000 for JCDecaux

Henly's car showroom (Studebaker and Jaguar) with a distinctive tower - on the east side of the Smith's Crisps factory - opened in 1937 and later became a warehouse for Martini, and following redevelopment after a fire in 1989 retaining the tower, an office for Data General, then EMC Corporation

This stretch of road included an illuminated, animated, advertising sign known to many drivers coming into London on the M4 motorway. The sign, showing a bottle of Lucozade emptying into a glass, was on the wall of what was the Lucozade factory, which opened in 1953 and was demolished in late 2004. The sign was removed to Gunnersbury Park Museum in September 2004 after a brief campaign to preserve it in situ.

The original tag-line on the sign was "Lucozade - aids recovery", but the prevalence of AIDS/HIV fom the 1980s onwards meant that it was regarded that the sign could be misinterpreted, and the tag-line was changed to read "Lucozade - replaces lost energy". The story behind this change is documented in marketing textbooks as an unusual example of successful brand repositioning. Lucozade was originally targeted as a beverage for people recovering from illness, but had successfully repositioned itself as a 'sports rehydration' drink.

Sources

The Archive Photographs Series, Brentford, Tempus Publishing Ltd, ISBN 0752406272

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