Rory Walsh visits the curious last legacy of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Standing on Windmill Lane Bridge can be a feast for the senses. The air thrums with noise: rustling trees, honking geese, beeping horns, plus a subtle background roar recalling a distant sea – the M4 motorway. The sights, too, are diverse. Under the road bridge, a canal wafts, its towpath lined with vivid greenery. In the sun, speckles of light dance upon the water’s surface. Below it, in a deep cutting, lies a quiet single-track railway.
This spot, where a road, canal and railway all meet, is in Southall, west London. Also known as Three Bridges, the unique structure was the last project completed by noted engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Logic suggests that the three routes were built on top of each other. Instead, the opposite happened. The canal was cut underneath Windmill Lane, then the railway below the canal.
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In the 1800s, the area was rural. The road is named after a windmill that stood in nearby fields. Roads then were rutted cart tracks, often unreliable and unusable. As Britain industrialised in the 18th century, canals became a faster and safer way to move goods. Completed in 1794, the Grand Junction Canal passed under Windmill Lane on its course between Northamptonshire and the River Thames at Brentford. Typical loads included coal and iron from Birmingham or locally made bricks and margarine.
Canals were soon rendered obsolete by cheaper and faster railways. The track at Three Bridges is the Brentford Spur, laid in 1859 to link the Great Western Railway with Brentford’s new docks. One reason Brunel built his line under the canal was topography. Canals and railways work best following gentle curves and shallow gradients. The older canal gave Brunel a pragmatic precedent.
Brunel’s route also avoided the huge expense of moving the canal and road. There was another advantage. The deep cutting skirted Osterley Park and hid the line from its landowner, the Earl of Jersey. Pressures of time, cost, access and physical landscape still affect transport schemes today. At Three Bridges, however, much has changed.
Since Brentford Docks closed in 1964, the railway is hardly used. The working canal has become a leisure route enjoyed by walkers and cyclists. The road is busiest but has a width restriction and weight limit. Windmill Lane Bridge is now a scheduled monument, like Hadrian’s Wall and Stonehenge. Though short and narrow, it spans two centuries by providing a snapshot of Britain’s transport revolution.
