B454 (Brentford - Southall)

This article is about the B454 in West London.
For the original B454 in Kingsbury, North West London, see B454 (Kingsbury).

Osterley

This version of the B454 is a short road in west London. It was originally unclassified but had gained its duplicate number by the 1950s.

The road starts at traffic lights on the A315 as the northern continuation of the A310 and indeed the southern end of the road was originally the northern end of the A310 - unfortunately when this section was downgraded it moved the B454 out of zone. The crossroads here is restrictive, with B454 traffic not able to access the A315, although eastbound traffic on that road may turn left into the B454.

We head north along the semi-rural Spur Road, with a school playing field to the left and trees to the right masking any houses. We soon go over the Hounslow Loop Line above Syon Lane station, after which the road widens out and becomes residential. We pass a retail park on the right and then reach the A4, the original southern end of the B454, which we cross at traffic lights.

The road remains semi-residential as we continue north, passing the landmark Gillette Building on the right, then cross a mini-roundabout and full-size one, which give access to a retail and business park. The road is lined with houses on both sides for a few hundred yards before we pass a golf course and then go over the Piccadilly Line to enter parkland.

On the far side of the railway we turn right at a mini-roundabout and then skirt the edge of Osterley Park, now owned by the National Trust. Presently we go under the M4 and then continue across what appears to be open countryside before the houses come back on the left just before the end of the road, at a roundabout on the A4127.

History

The DfT Card Index from c2002 lists the B454 as 'Heston - Guling Hospital.' Clearly Guling should be Ealing, and refers to St Bernard's Hospital in Ealing, but Heston differs from the current route. Further checking through old maps shows that the 1961 edition of the OS 1:25000 sheet shows the B454 running from Heston to the Hospital along what is now the A4127, while the current route is labelled as B358. Indeed, the Heston road was originally the B358, and the 1959 and 1961 OS One Inch map shows the B358 in its original place which further confuses the issue. It is not impossible that the 1:25000 sheet is erroneous, and features an error picked up by the DfT!