Located just 30 minutes from central London, between Isleworth and Cranford, this multicultural pocket of west London has been singled out as a growth area, which is encouraging house building and regeneration projects. It is close to Heathrow Airport, which keeps house prices affordable, especially for somewhere so conveniently accessible by the Piccadilly line. Its two Underground stations of Hounslow East and Hounslow Central keep the locality popular, with commuters looking to escape the inner city. While the majority of the housing is rather uninspiring post-war flats, there is plenty of green space at Inwood Park to get outside. And despite the area’s drab reputation, the numerous Indian and Pakistani restaurants that line Hanworth Road and London Road reflect the neighbourhood’s celebrated, vibrant multiculturalism.

Hounslow’s name derives from the Old English words, meaning ‘hound’s mound’, which may refer to a burial tumulus owned by a man whose nickname was hound. A Trinitarian friary was established around 1200 on what is now Montague Road, and at the time the monasteries were dissolved it was the richest Trinitarian house in the country. The area had developed into a popular coaching stop by the mid-17th century and it quickly became the first stop outside of London for all westbound coaches; in 1833 more than 200 coaches passed through per day. 1850 brought the railways and the area’s subsequent suburbanisation, accelerating into the 1880s. The neighbourhood grew rapidly following the First World War and again following the Second to accommodate those displaced by the Blitz. In the 60s many south Asian families moved to the area as it was close to their arrival point of Heathrow Airport, and the community has thrived ever since.

The nearby green space of Hounslow Heath has been of major historical importance over the centuries. Oliver Cromwell stationed an army there in 1647, and James II conducted mock battles to intimidate the London population. The area was notorious for highwaymen in the 17th and 18th centuries as it was crossed by the Great West Road and Bath Road.

Hounslow has a reputation for being a bit rough around the edges and has relatively high rates of violent crime. It is also right beneath the flight path of Heathrow Airport, which can create a degree of noise pollution that some may find a nuisance. Residents around and near Heathrow has also shared their concerns about plans to develop a third runway for Heathrow Airport, which would increase noise pollution and congestion. That said, the Heathrow expansion initiative has been a controversial and unpredictably changing project: new emissions targets make the expansion difficult to achieve, the 2020-2021 pandemic has led to new projections that push the need for expansion 5 years to the future.

In 2018, the Local Plan for Hounslow was released, indicating the changes that it would like to see implemented by 2035. The council will work predominantly on regenerating brownfield sites, with massive public and private investment to transform the high streets into prosperous 24-hour communities. The crowning jewel of this regeneration initiative is a large-scale development project by the name of High Street Quarter. The development offers apartments consisting of 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms, creating a total of 528 new homes. These units are built around a public square with shops, restaurants, cafes and a Cineworld, giving residents a wealth of amenities on the doorstep to their property. It will also invest heavily in the implementation of cycling and pedestrian routes to reduce car traffic and build a significant amount of new affordable housing to accommodate the growing population.