UNTRODDEN LONDON TQ1575: Mogden Sewage Works(Hounslow) As with a lot of these untrodden grid squares, my unvisitedness comes down to not having gone on one particular walk. In the case of TQ1575 it's a walk along a river I've somehow skipped, mainly because the half mile in the middle goes through the middle of a sewage works and it didn't sound that attractive. Turns out it's a fascinating walk, and even I don't believe what I saw along it.
The Duke of Northumberland's River(East) Isleworth → Whitton(2½ miles)
The Duke of Northumberland's River is a manmade oddity, first dug in Tudor times to power mills in Isleworth and later used to feed ornamental lakes in the grounds of Syon Park. It flows out of the River Crane at Whitton and into the Thames at Isleworth, so is essentially a diversionary route, and was owned by the Duke of Northumberland until 1930 when Middlesex Council took control. If you want more than a two sentence potted history click here. And if you want a full colour leaflet guide to the walk that now follows the river, courtesy of the Friends of the River Crane Environment and the Crane Valley Partnership, click here.
I walked the river upstream, starting in Old Isleworth beside the deep basin where the flour mill used to be. Water gushes in via a choice of underground channels, then seeps out into the Thames behind Isleworth Ait. So far so familiar, thanks to Capital Ring section 7. An ancient lane called Mill Plat heads inland past a dozen Georgian almshouses you wouldn't rush to inhabit, and then you need to take the alleyway on the left leading into Silverhall Park. One side's a formal park with lawns and a whizzy playground and the other side's a quieter riverside nature area, including the opportunity to sit on a tree trunk carved into a birdlike bench. Five minutes in and there have already been four information boards to read because we're really packing the history in.
Beyond the shops things gets a lot more suburban, indeed culdesaccy, [TQ1575→] with the river confined to a low concrete channel with flaps in the wall for inward drainage. Here pigeons perch, lost balls float and plants attempt to grow in half a dumped bath [←TQ1575]. To continue requires a brief diversion round a trading estate where they offer belt-tightening and canine rehab, plus the sixth sense to realise you have to turn left before the vicarage because a fingerpost's gone missing. Rest assured the walk's otherwise impressively well signposted.
The river soon bends sharply to form one side of a street of semis, this marking the point where the original Hounslow Brook was joined by the Duke's artificial stream. [TQ1575→] It also signals an uptick in natural diversity, the water now running clear and shallow, and edged by carpets of something leafy and green. Another of the walk's multitude of information boards suggested this might be crackwillow or greater yellowcress, and also advised me to look out for dragonflies, herons and kingfishers. I did my own wildlife check and ticked off two mallards, two rats, several butterflies, a moorhen and a very white cat.
A little further down I passed a post with the walk's logo on.... ffs another kingfisher, why is it always a kingfisher, why can't it be something less intrinsically elusive? So you can imagine my utter surprise when less than a minute later I disturbed a bird lurking in the underhang of a tree and saw a flash of blue and gold as the... blimey, kingfisher!, flew off pretty sharpish. In 20 years of walking around London I have never before seen a kingfisher other than in and around the Olympic Park, so to stumble upon one up a residential street in Hounslow was amazing. Visiting an untrodden grid square had delivered big time, and was about to deliver again.
The Royal Oak is the only pub on this walk, and beyond that the stump of Oak Lane which was once a waterside stroll through acres of orchards. There's no immediate sign that you're about to enter the third largest sewage works in Britain, a 140 acre complex of interconnected sludge tanks known as the Mogden SewageTreatment Works. It opened in the mid-1930s and superseded 27 other smaller facilities, such was its size, with the Duke of Northumberland's River running down the centre to help provide coolant. They kept Oak Lane as a public right of way, and I was not prepared how engaging the walk would be. I also wasn't expecting the turtle on a shopping trolley.
You expect to see a shopping trolley in a river but not a flippered reptile sitting on top of it. I thought at first it might be plastic so I stopped on the footbridge and watched it for a minute - nothing - until eventually a scaly eyelid flickered. Well now, ecosystems, blimey. The path continued deeper into sewageworld with a few buildings on one side and a veritable canyon of tanks on the other representing more human effluent than anyone should comfortably comprehend. Two information boards attempted to explain what was going on, and also pointed out the eel pass I'd otherwise have mistaken for a shonky piece of pipework.
I hoped to spot an eel, because a grid square that delivered a kingfisher, a turtle and an eel would be something special, but no such luck. I did however spot hundreds of silver fish, from small fry up to meal-sized, swimming in the surprisingly clear water [←TQ1575]. At one point a set of automatic gates guards the sole crossing point which allows Thames Water employees to drive between the western and eastern halves of the site, and here I waited briefly for the lights to turn from red to green. And whereas I'd been concerned when looking on the map that this might be a remote unloved track, it was actually being well used by cyclists and pedestrians alike, so scratch that worry.
On finally escaping the brown zone a national landmark hove into view on the other side of an enormous car park. That'd be TwickenhamStadium, the home of rugby union, a compact steel and concrete fortress where all the good views must be on the inside. The river passes along the western perimeter of the site, and hence so does the footpath, securely screened behind a double fence and a chain of security cameras. You get to see some portakabins and the compound where they store the metal crowd barriers but nothing that'd cheer the soul of a prop forward. Thankfully the water in the river was still shallow and green-edged, with intermittent bursts of purple flowers, but there was no longer any sign of all those fish.
Ridiculously that's not the only major rugby stadium on this walk. On the far side of the dual carriageway we reach The Stoop, the slightly more dishevelled home to Premiership side Harlequins. This time the river gets a lot closer, hence so does the path, nudging you right up beside the club store, a sourdough pizza van and all the back-of-house. I was surprised to hear an announcement that "the event" was starting, given it was midweek and the stands were empty, but it turned out the club were launching a new kit the team intend to wear once on the Monday after Christmas and hope their fans will pay £70 for. I'm therefore pretty sure the lads I saw just the other side of the fence were members of the first team off for a meet and greet, and nothing like this ever happens in east London.
Before long the river ducks beneath the Hounslow Loop, and the path tunnels under the railway too, to enter Mereway Nature Park. I wasn't surprised to find two more information boards of a completely different type, because this had been a ridiculously well informed walk, nor did I scoff at the suggestion that I might perhaps see a kingfisher. The start of the river lay just ahead at a weir where the waters bear off from the River Crane, which you could follow from here all the way to Heathrow but that's a rather longer hike. The Duke of Northumberland's River is quite long enough for a decent stroll, and also has a mostly all-weather surface making it enjoyable all year round. Where else are you going to see a kingfisher, a turtle, a sewage works and half a top class rugby squad if not here?
