Brentford Dock in 1970

Photo: Robert Shopland

Back to the Inland Waterways Association's Bulletin and its March 1970 issue.

This photo is captioned 'A lost opportunity. Brentford Dock, empty and forlorn, awaits redevelopment.'

Brentford is where the Grand Union Canal meets the Thames in West London - its dock for the transhipment of goods had closed in 1964.

I was to visit Brentford on a canal holiday in the summer of 1970 during the brief middle-class period of my childhood.

Frustratingly, I have no clear memory of the derelict dock, though I do recall being interested in the way the River Brent joined and left the canal.

But then I visited Leicester by water in 1971 and do not remember the industrial desolation, though I do remember walking beneath the largely vanished viaduct that carried the Great Central across the city.