I Wanted To Ride My Bicycle To the Freddie Mercury Memorial
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert
September 26, 2025
On Friday I spent some time in the morning delivering invitations for my planned coffee morning in October and it was nice to walk the streets of my favourite town. Inevitably I see bits of trouble (litter, potholes, graffiti) and I usually report them but I notice some nice things too. This is on the wall of St Paul’s Church.
The Duchess of Teck looks a bit severe but she was a great philanthropist, giving away at least 20% of her annual allowance of £5000 from parliament. She supported Dr Barnardo's, the NSPCC and the RNLI, apparently!
I also noticed (it seems I am not usually very observant) how handsome the Free church is, at least the older bit. Well, really old, even by my standard because if you have younger eyes than mine you will see it was dedicated in 1782
I was planning to attend the opening of the Freddie Mercury Memorial Garden in Feltham but I made a complete Horlicks of my plans. Would normally have cycled but decided I would arrive dishevelled (even by my standards) cycling in smart clothes so decided to drive. That was a stupid mistake, as driving in London usually is! Traffic was dire, especially at the Feltham end; there was a massive crowd by the time I arrived much later than planned, so I simply gave up and came home. I was never much of a Queen fan but I remember going there a while ago to see a tree planted in Freddie's memory, mainly led by (if my memory serves me) Japanese Queen fans, who made a speech. It was touching and I'm sorry I missed this. Also a call out to the Friends of Feltham Green who have done so much to improve the town centre.
I had a friend coming to stay with me on Saturday, and we were going together to a birthday party. My friend and mentor Dina Glouberman was turning 80 (though she looks much younger). I have known her for more than 50 years and she has been an important person in my life. This event took place in the National Theatre and there were friends and family from across the world there. I have rarely been in the National Theatre and this was on the 'deck' up high. Stunning views.
I managed to avoid the marauding hordes of Muslims which according to London experts from Washington like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage infest the city. I was struck though by how lively it was on the South Bank and at Waterloo. The first train we wanted to catch was cancelled and only by looking on Google maps did I find that a Windsor train was diverting through our station. Nobody had told the computer on the train which insisted the next stop was Feltham but there was a human (!) who told us what was really going on.
On Monday I noticed that the vandalised pictures on Brentford bridge had not been fixed. I spotted this at the canal festival and raised it with ward councillors. Dan Bowring took it up but nothing has happened yet (there are more pictures vandalised). As these pictures are clearly prints I figure someone in the council must have the originals but I fear the bridge might fall down before this is resolved. It annoys me because local people - children I think - obviously put a lot of effort into improving our environment in a nicely Brentfordish way!
On Monday evening I attended an online presentation about school places. When I started as a councillor there was a great shortage of school places and we were busy expanding primary schools - especially Lionel and St Paul's schools. Then we had a several years of a fiasco of a Free School set up by David Cameron's SPAD who had been made a Lord. This caused hiatus in Brentford before failing and leaving the existing schools to pick up a lot of students at very short notice - which was resolved by our excellent primary schools with little fuss.
Meanwhile the council was resolving the secondary school problem and we had Green School for Boys, Bolder Academy and Nishkam School all opening over very few years.
Now the problem has reversed, and we have a surplus of places. It's not because there are too few students but because for reasons that baffle me people are sending a lot of children out of borough.
All this causes problems for schools, because they are funded 'per head' and a class with 25 children costs much the same as a class with 30. The council have no option but to consider how to manage this. There is a consultation meet on 7th October, 5.30 to 7pm at Brentford Family Hub in North Road TW8 0BJ. It's in my diary now and would be good to see locals there. Yes, for me it is cross border in Brentford East but the natives are friendly.
On Tuesday afternoon it was Paragon. Paragon is the rather romantically named estate tucked away between the University campus in Boston Manor Road and Reynard Way. In my early days as a councillor it was full of residents and students, but the building had problems which the landlord was making a poor job of fixing. 4 or 5 years ago there was a big shock. There was a change of management which became Notting Hill and Genesis Housing Association and they made a big decision: the whole estate was unsafe and everybody had to leave at short notice. Some moved to other Notting Hill Genesis sites, mainly a new development in Greenford. Others were put in hotels locally such as Novotel and the Premier Inn. That was a huge stress for residents, but my impression was that it was dealt with very well. There were a few dissatisfied but I only had a couple of cases arising and they were all resolved.
The landlords considered knocking the whole thing down but eventually decided to radically rebuild it within the existing structure. Last time I heard was early this year when they were expecting to start moving in about now. So I asked for an update and I and Ruth Cadbury went there to hear the latest news and have a tour. This is a big thing, and when it is reoccupied I think there will be around 11-1200 people living there.
Here's what it looks like
It amounts to 180 flats - studios to 2 bedrooms - for shared ownership and about (wait for it) nearly 900 bedrooms for students. Most of the student places are "cluster flats" ie they share kitchens and some other facilities, others are studios. My photos are completely inadequate but this is a bedroom in a cluster flat. They will all be fitted out with new kitchens and bathrooms (and furniture and electrical outlets etc) and are not like student accommodation as I knew it. Not a paraffin stove in sight, nor an Ascot water heater. Makes me (not very) nostalgic.
The programme has slipped a little but the plan is to complete between April and June next year and start sales of the shared owner places in January. Apparently they are genuinely a lot less than market price but in the current awful market you have to be practically Nigel Farage to afford one. Ruth observed you could not afford it on a (normal) MP Salary, though obviously Nigel could afford 10 of them with no trouble though I doubt he would pay the stamp duty.
That old tree in the middle I'm pleased to see has survived all the activity looking very healthy.
On Wednesday I had organised a visit to my neighbouring site, Printmakers Yard - what used to be Heidelberg - with Katherine and Dan, who after all are the very active ward councillors where I live and where the development is. We met with the site manager Sam and his colleague Colin. They explained where they are and what their plan is. They have finished the town houses on Pump Alley and one of the smaller block sort of in the middle. That is the one I surprisingly was able to go into without any locks a few weeks ago and was rather shocked when a woman came out of a lift. They have sold 31 of the flats in that block out of 36. That's the one we went up and found a very nice roof garden with views to the Thames etc over my roof.
They have more or less finished the big block facing the High Street where I think there are some affordable/Housing Association homes. Also there will be 4 commercial units though only 2 of them available soon because they also have a large marketing suite there. There will be 4 more commercial units facing the MSO workshop across what is really the weir stream. That block, plus the one facing the Brent proper, are slower because they had those noisy problems with the river wall. However, they have been moving fast and will finish the whole development soon (early 2026 I think) and music to my ears, the path along Timber Wharf Walk will open before Christmas. I actually like this development and the plans to open up access to green areas within their development, but mainly I am pleased that they have progressed so quickly. Only just 2 years since they started compared with Ballymore who started about the same tme as I was first elected and are still miles away from finishing. The market is 'slow' but they find it is getting better.
After that there was an online meeting with various planners. I was hoping also to see the head officer and lead member for regeneration but neither attended. Marina Sharma attended as did Emma Yates. This was mainly me moaning. We don't get enough information about large developments, far less than we used to. Sometimes I can get it off developers but actually a planner's insight would be valuable. And in the most important site locally - what is known officially as Albany Riverside but to normal Brentonians as the cop shop and Watermans - is one where we have heard nothing at all from anyone other than seeing the planning application being announced. Fortunately Jim from Brentford Voice is on the ball, but we really really need local councillors to be consulted, and also local residents because this is crucial to the future of our town. I am also up in arms about shops and other commercial buildings owned by the council (EG the old Housing office) but we didn't really learn anything because there was nobody from regeneration in attendance. I have at least been given a new name to annoy in regen and I will be doing that shortly!
In the evening it was Community Stars at the council. 3 of them were local: Janet McNamara, the legendary Brentford historian who has done so much for my town over so many years;
St Paul's Church, now lauded as an Eco-church (and for the lovely community Spire Cafe)
And Brentford Voice. They were recognised collectively but were represented by their secretary, Dr Bob Smith. I was too slow to get his picture.
That aside I came across the first brochure which caused me to be imposed (voluntarily by both sides) on an unsuspecting Brentford. I was Labour then!
I'm away next week so Brentford can sleep uninterrupted by drivel. I'll be back the week after with number 499. I'm thinking up what I might do to celebrate number 500 which will drop on 16th October, God willing.
Councillor Guy Lambert
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