Somewhere famous: Slough Trading Estate
Until I properly visited, I'd had no idea how utterly enormous Slough's famous trading estate is. You'll know it from the opening titles to The Office, and as the home of Mars confectionery. But its two square kilometres contain far more than that, including over 500 businesses, several corporate HQs and some prefab-style units where some of my childhood favourite TV programmes were filmed. The estate originally grew out of a WW1 army transport repair depot, conveniently located on either side of the railway, but alas still under construction when the war was over. Surplus wasted vehicles were piled up here, earning the nickname 'The Dump', before the site was sold off to a group of investors who saw much greater potential. They established the Slough Trading Co. Ltd, later renamed Slough Estates Ltd, transforming army sheds into industrial units and adding more. Companies such as Citroën, Johnson & Johnson and Berlei moved in, and service industries such as shops and banks sprung up to serve the growing daytime community. Betjeman's elegy to Slough marks a phase where he thought the estate was growing too fast, but it remains Europe's largest business park in single ownership and drives Slough's powerhouse economy to this day.
I had two particular targets to visit, but to reach them had to stride through a considerable cross section of the 500 acre site. A large sign on the Bath Road announced the Trading Estate's presence with appropriate modern branding, although the units beyond were not always quite so smart. Several looked more like capacious huts, while the majority were gleaming glass temples, or under construction to become the latter. Some businesses on site are relatively unknown, working out of all or some of an anonymous box, but everywhere has a car park because there's always plenty of room. Every road is named after a British town or city, the main thoroughfare being Buckingham Avenue, while the estate also has its own central power station with enormous looming chimneys. Only two bridges link either side of the railway, one of which (from Brunel's era) is currently being replaced with a much wider lorry-friendly span. This has sadly required the demolition of CrossbowHouse, the fictional home of David Brent, whose Office workplace has been replaced by a junction on the new connecting road.
A tyre depot beside the other bridge over the railway, by B&Q, holds a very special place in the history of children's television. Gerry Anderson bought the unit on Ipswich Road in 1959 for the filming of his new series Four Feather Falls, and continued with the production of Supercar and Fireball XL5. Half the building became a studio where puppeteers teetered on a Dexion bridge high above the stage, but noise from the Bath Road and Great Western Railway proved problematic (so sound recording always happened on a Sunday). In 1962 Lew Grade was so impressed by the output from this primitive building that he bought the company, providing enough capital for Anderson to move out. This means it's now barely possible to imagine the building in its heyday, but that space where men in overalls jack up cars to check the tyres was once regularly broadcast on ITV. All production was promptly moved to Stirling Road. This dog-leg cul-de-sac round the back of the power station was lined by a series of semi-detached gabled units, and these could now be separately appropriated for Supermarionation, Art, Post-Production, etc. The last unit on the right-hand side was used for special effects, which were more much important in Stingray (Gerry's 1964 series), and grew to even more explosive proportions in Thunderbirds (1965) and Captain Scarlet (1967). [full history][7 photos]
I will therefore confess to being mildly thrilled as I turned up Stirling Road, even using my phone to play the Thunderbirdstheme tune, its bars first heard when the series launched 50 years ago this month. I knew I was in the right place when I spotted four other pilgrims wandering around with cameras, one of whom was pointing at buildings and doorways as if he knew what he was talking about. The original hut-like units still fill one side of the road, although they're now occupied by businesses that make plastics and industrial hose, and those on the opposite side have almost all been replaced. Nevertheless number 697 still has the word 'Reception' above its doorway, which I'd like to think is a survivor from the days of the Century 21 Organisation. Excitingly, one of these units (unidentified) has just been taken over by a Kickstarter project to film three episodes of "Thunderbirds 1965" using original techniques. But best of all, on my visit at least, the entire road smelt of chocolate! It was wafting across from the adjacent Mars factory - a low metal fortress expelling lorryloads of Maltesers - and making the air a delight to inhale. Two childhood pleasures in one street, fab. by train: Burnham
Somewhere random: Jubilee River
The Thames has long been a threat to the towns of Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton, increasingly so over the last century as its banks have been steadily urbanised. To alleviate the risk of inundation (and associated insurance costs) the Environment Agency dug a seven mile diversion as a flood protection bypass. Where possible they followed the path of minor waterways like the Roundmoor Ditch and the Chalvey Ditch, and completed this major project in 2002 which is why it's called the Jubilee River. Officially it's not a river, it's a 'hydraulic channel', but it acts and looks like one, if in a rather artificial way. Its deep lush banks reminded me of the northern half of the Olympic Park, which performs a similar preventative function, and probably cost almost as much. I was also struck by how wide it was, all the better to hold a once in a generation flood, although following 2014's extremely wet winter some have claimed it's simply pushed the problem further downstream.
I didn't have time to walk the full seven miles, so I targeted the stretch past Slough, accessed off the dual carriageway at the foot of the Windsor Road. It's certainly scenic where the river tumbles down a broad artificial weir, particularly if aheron's taken up fish-watching on top, although other stretches are more blandly reedy and straight. The M4 runs almost alongside, which isn't a coincidence because it too was driven through the marshy bit where residential development would be inadvisable. Planes from Heathrow follow almost overhead, at approximately "disappearing into the clouds" distance, in case you're a bit of a spotter. And I'm told the wetlands at Dorney are rather nice, although I split at the sewage works which aren't. I'd thought the path would be busier, but very few people passed me by - one with dogs, a couple out jogging and the rest on bikes. Indeed the entire route is ideal for cycling, being flat and wide and green, in case you're ever in need of a good ride from not-quite Maidenhead to almost Datchet. [4 photos]
I'm now halfway through my district-by-district journey round the outside of London, and oh joy, it's Slough. John Betjeman's least favourite suburb has a depressingly mundane reputation as a town neutered by progress, although dropping bombs on the place would be going too far. My mission to visit Slough and find it interesting was therefore a considerable challenge, there being not a single tourist attraction (and barely a scrap of countryside) within its diminuitive boundary. But I managed just fine, in part thanks to it being Heritage Open Days weekend, on a journey that took me from Mars to Uranus (insert joke here) [14 photos]
Somewhere to begin: Slough Museum
You may be wondering why Slough has a museum. It doesn't have much of one, tucked away in a single downstairs room at the concrete vault otherwise known as the town's main library. But Slough does have a history, as an assemblage of medieval villages and as a more modern industrial town, so there is a tale to tell. Two whole walls are given over to local exhibits, plus a special display case given over to the town's most world-famous resident (of whom more later). A lot of the references are to businesses that started out in Slough, such as Horlicks, Suttons Seeds and Ladybird children's clothing, or to stuff that was simply made here, such as Ex-Lax, the 1948 Olympic torch and chocolate (of which more later). Some of the exhibits are old in the wrong way, like the 'modern' mobile phone that's older than all the schoolchildren who must come visiting. But expect all that to be shaken up when the museum (and library, et al) moves into a stonkingly new cultural centre called TheCurve at the end of the year, one of many futuristicbuildings being dotted across the town centre as Slough forcibly regenerates. Betjeman's Slough is being replaced by something he might have hated even more, in which case the surfeit of shiny roofs will at least make the place easier to target. by train: Sloughby bus: 81
Somewhere historic: St Laurence, Upton-cum-Chalvey
The oldest building in Slough is the parish church of the former village of Upton, on the edge of the Thames marshes overlooking the fields of Eton. I hope I haven't made that sound too idyllic, because today the church sits by a roundabout near the M4, with aeroplane noise thrown in for good measure. But St Laurence's somehow survived the Reformation and centuries of neglect, helped in no small measure by its proximity to royal Windsor, and several Norman features remain. It's now Grade I listed, and was the only building in Slough to scrape onto the Heritage Open Days programme this weekend. Which is great, because I got to go inside and see the man buried under the carpet, and see his window, and meet the parishioners who keep the church ticking over. I think they were very pleased to see a visitor.
The man in question was Sir WilliamHerschel, Astronomer to the Court of George III, who made his name by being the first person in millennia to discover a planet. The planet in question was Uranus (originally known as 'Herschel', although William would have preferred to call it George's Star), identified in 1781 from a back garden in Bath. With new found fame came a move to Buckinghamshire to be closer to the King, first to Datchet and then to Observatory House in Slough, where William lived for almost 40 years until his death. With his cutting edge Forty Foot Telescope he went on to discover two moons of Saturn and over 2000 nebulae, deduced the existence of infra-red radiation and was the first person to coin the word 'asteroid'. Not surprisingly the town of Slough has been only too keen to commemorate his fame, naming a street and a park in his honour, and a shopping centre after his observatory. They also knocked down his house, this back in the 1960s, and when I went along to see what they'd replaced it with I discovered they've just knocked that down too.
Herschel is buried inside St Laurence's in a tomb beneath the tower. Normally it's covered by a carpet to protect the inscription, but on special days they roll it back to reveal the Planet Man's final resting place. Thankfully there's another more obvious memorial in the west wall, where a beautiful trio of stained glass windows was installed in 2001. They depict the planets of the solar system, along with Herschel and his telescope, with pride of place given to the gas giant Uranus at the centre of a misty blue roundel. But there's plenty more to see within the church, as my guide was only too pleased to explain. The chancel's old and gorgeous, the font's Norman, and half the building was added in the mid 19th century after Queen Victoria and others gave money to rescue the tumbledown masonry. A peculiar touch was added by having the theme from Riverdance and Sade's Smooth Operator playing out over the PA, I think on panpipes or something of that ilk, plus there was a vast table of homemade jams, jellies, chutneys and marmalades for sale "while stocks last", which looked like it might be several months. I bought two.
Nextdoor is Upton Court, a large 14th century timbered manor house, and across the road is the entrance to Herschel Park. This semi-formal Victorian creation was originally built for the sole use of those living in the fine villas around the perimeter, but now anyone can come, especially it seems small children on a duck feeding mission. A nature reserve fills the space between the park and the M4, with raised woodland paths looking out across the carriageways - I met nobody on my safari, it was great. Do grab the three trail leaflets from the Museum to help you enjoy this municipal space to best effect. And if anyone ever tries to convince you that Slough is all despond, Upton's elegant desirability should be enough to change your mind.
Slough came to the canal network late - only the Manchester Ship Canal is younger. The Slough Canal Arm was opened in 1882 to service a new brickworks to the north of the town, providing a direct link to the Grand Union five miles to the east. Initial success soon faded once supplies of clay and gravel started running out, and a long decline led to closure in 1960, after which the canal might have been filled in. But local campaigners fought back and persuaded the British Waterways Board otherwise, helped by there being no expensive-to-mantain locks along its length, and the Canal Arm reopened in 1975. As a navigable cul-de-sac that heads nowhere special the waterway's not busy, but the towpath provides a popular route to walk or cycle. [4 photos]
I started at Slough Wharf on the Stoke Poges Road, once I'd spotted that what looked like an overgrown supplies depot was in fact the canal basin. There were no welcoming facilities on the reedy banks, only a basin for turning round, so it seems nobody's promoting Slough as a narrowboat destination. But the towpath looked well maintained and appealing as the waterway headed off arrow straight through the trees. The other side of the canal adjoined back gardens, pylons and a mosque, while the nearside turned out rather more industrial, because the centre of Slough is like that. These backwaters were the preserve of ducks and fussing moorhens, plus a lone swan guzzling down water from the channel, and only the occasional plastic bag. A few bikes shot by, and the odd supermarket shopper, and then a narrowboat with a dozen sightseers on board... because once again I'd chosen the day of my visit with care.
This weekend sees the annualCanal Festival taking place in Bloom Park (a slightly awkward location because this is the point where the Canal Arm exits Slough and enters Bucks). A few dozen boats were moored up along the towpath, some with bright flowers and bunting on top, others more mundane, with the opportunity for a short ride if you'd booked ahead. But the main action was in the park where a large arena had been set out with doggy-jump hurdles, surrounded by a threadbare collection of stalls from local organisations. There were sheep and birds of prey to meet (not simultaneously), and ferrets to race, and a van or two selling burgers, plus a tent half-full of craftspeople (where the Friends of Slough Canal were holding forth). According to the earnest man on the public address the Dulux Dog is expected to visit today, which'll be an excellent photo opportunity for all the family, but I'll give that a miss. I also skipped walking the remaining four miles to Yiewsley, because it had been a long day, but I must return and do the whole lot one day. by train: Slough, Langley, (Iver, West Drayton)
Beyond London (9): Slough (part 1)
